[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asr /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm certainly not going to dissent with you that the K501 sounds closer to the "real thing" than the K601 and K701, as I wasn't listening for that in this review. I was only trying to do a comparative assessment between the three here, nothing more. However, of all the headphones I've heard so far, the one that gets closest to the real thing for me has been the HD600. Not in terms of bass, but overall sound. Maybe I did give the K501 the shaft in terms of my CD selection (I also added on a classical CD I forgot - thanks for a reminder), but I tried to give it as fair a chance as possible with the music that I found it did excel with. As I mentioned it did the best with orchestral and jazz, but I didn't mention it also sounded good with my Eva Cassidy, Azure Ray, and Alison Krauss CDs. I think this may be a case of the variations in K501 units, because mine is clearly mids deficient. Eva Cassidy's Songbird is one of my reference points and I've been used to hearing it with the K701 and AD2000, which my K501 just doesn't compare to. Not that I'm taking offense to this, but my CD selection isn't varied enough? I've got bluegrass, folk, rock, prog rock, trip-hop, breakbeat electronic, abstract electronic, film soundtracks, classical, acoustic piano, new age/orchestral, industrial, pseudo-metal, and ensemble acoustic. There's nothing there you don't listen to? As I mentioned IRT Elephas' post, the specific K501 that I have may be to blame. I'm very sensitive to mid-range responses and I would've noticed. I really wanted to hear a solid mid-range from my K501 but couldn't detect one. Clearly my CD selection isn't enough for you guys. Guess it's time to load up on some more diverse genres.

Maybe country?

 

[bonethugz]

WOW! ASR, thank you. this time i didn't even need to ask and you answered me a long time question. i own a pair of k601. starting to think they're not that much of a "reference" headphones. and now with this review i really don't think k701 is for me. maybe someday, not now. i ain't no audiophile. i don't think i need this as much. maybe i'll get a er4 first. plus the k701 color... nah.


do you have a headfive ASR? i have the amp and when amping the k601 with h5, i don't really think they're, the best, or they just not the greatest couple. what do you think?

 

[Asr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonethugz /img/forum/go_quote.gif do you have a headfive ASR? i have the amp and when amping the k601 with h5, i don't really think they're, the best, or they just not the greatest couple. what do you think?

Nope - all the equipment I own is listed in my profile. I haven't had an opportunity to listen to a HeadFive, but I'm sure my GS-1 is somewhat comparable.

It works great with all 3 headphones.

 

[Skylab]

ASR, nice review. I essentially agree with your comments on the K601 and K701 (never heard the 501). I actually want to like the K601 enough to sell my K701, esp. since the 601 is so much nicer looking (I hate the white). But the K701 is just a better headphone IMO than the K601. So it's hard to justify keeping just the 601. The 601 is a quite decent can, but not in the same league as the 701 IMO.

 

[spike33]

Wow, lotsa AKGs for sale. Look what you started Asr!

 

[Electro Point]

Great review, Though even if the K701 technically is "better" over the K601 I still like the K601 over the using the K701.

Its just a matter of what you think how the music suppost to be heard.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electro Point /img/forum/go_quote.gif Its just a matter of what you think how the music suppost to be heard.

I think this may be the largest factor of all in any of this.
We can compare two headphones and probably agree on which has more bass/extension/etc, until it gets subjective.

 

[macm75]

Another thanks here for the review. I just auditioned the 501, 701, and a pair of Grado SR-225 at my local hi-fi shop between 11am to 1pm today so this was very timely.
I had a rock (sonic youth-murray street), jazz (joe lovano-from the soul), classical (mozart violin concerto), and electro/acoustic free improv (MIMEO-The Hands Of Caravaggio) CD with me. Also brought by Pimeta and cardas cables.
Wish I had a lot of time to write but I much agree with your assessment of the HF character of the 501's. I still thought the mids were very wonderful and easy but maybe with the lack of bass I thought the highs were accentuated. If I did not have such a hard time listening to (searching for) bass and drums with the rock album and wishing for a more balanced range when listening to the more electronic music, I would love the 501's. If I only listened to acoustic jazz and classical, for the price, the 501's, to my ears, are a no brainer.
The refinement and wide response, that you mentioned with the 701's, are very real. HF's became more defined, the mids were a little more bolder and energetic, and the LF's made the biggest difference to me too. The quality and cohesiveness was more present from top to bottom. I listened to all the music I brought with equal enjoyment and although I did realize there was more to be had with the music, I felt I would be scraping the bottom to find it.
Anyway, I came with the possibility of purchasing the 501's and left with nothing. I still don't like anything I can afford

 

[Asr]

SeagramSeven -

I wanted to look into your statement that the K501 provides the most realistic sound of the three, so I've been listening for that for a few hours now, but I can't very well hear it, at least as much as you describe. I'm not quite sure we're on the same wavelength on this though, as I think this might devolve into an argument on what's real-sounding. Or maybe we're just not communicating clearly.

Still, I hold to my opinions of my K501 - the sound it gives matches up with what I wrote about it, to my ears. I think what I'd like is to be able to hear other K501s to see if there really is truth to this banter about multiple variations that have differing mid-range and bass responses. A lot of us in the thread here have well-trained ears and I doubt our collective hearing can be that different.

 

[VR6ofpain]

I have to say I am surprised by this review, though we obviously have DIFFERENT K501's. The pair I have is bassier than my K601, as well as being less bright than my K601. It is always possible that our K601's are different, but I find that highly improbable. Our K601's are both burned in quite a bit, so that also is not a factor (I have had mine going for almost a year, you said you had over 600hrs on yours).

Could you take the pads off your K501 (if you haven't already) and tell me which of the three variations of front baffle you have? The newest looks like a K601 (identical), the middle one had the same white colored material in the 'ports', with lots of ports in the outer 'rings', while the supposed oldest (the one I have) baffle has less ports than the middle model and black material in them.

 

[alpha80]

Kept it thorough.

 

[tuhnu]

A great review, thanks!

I visited a local retailer today. They had 701 and 601 for listening but unfortunately the last 501 they had was sold just last month. I found 601 and 701 to sound very similar. From thomann.de the price difference for would be around 100 EUR (anyone know any better place to shop in Europe?). The 701 didn't sound that much better. Of course the listening enviroment wasn't that good: a bit of background noise, dvd player as a source, some receiver's headphone jack, cans probably not burned in too much. Only about 10 minutes listening with each. The record was Sting's "Nothing Like the Sun". I didn't bring my own material because I didn't intend to visit the store today.

For 40$ more I would choose the 701 based on my short and noobish listening experience. To my ears both instantly sounded better than my current boomy mids-lacking DT990 Pro's.

I'm thinking of getting K601's later but currently I'm still moderately happy with DT990 Pro's.

I'm suprised there isn't more talk about 601's. They sounded very good. Maybe because the price difference isn't that substantial in the States?

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuhnu /img/forum/go_quote.gif A great review, thanks! I visited a local retailer today. They had 701 and 601 for listening but unfortunately the last 501 they had was sold just last month. I found 601 and 701 to sound very similar. From thomann.de the price difference for would be around 100 EUR (anyone know any better place to shop in Europe?). The 701 didn't sound that much better. Of course the listening enviroment wasn't that good: a bit of background noise, dvd player as a source, some receiver's headphone jack, cans probably not burned in too much. Only about 10 minutes listening with each. The record was Sting's "Nothing Like the Sun". I didn't bring my own material because I didn't intend to visit the store today. For 40$ more I would choose the 701 based on my short and noobish listening experience. To my ears both instantly sounded better than my current boomy mids-lacking DT990 Pro's. I'm thinking of getting K601's later but currently I'm still moderately happy with DT990 Pro's. I'm suprised there isn't more talk about 601's. They sounded very good. Maybe because the price difference isn't that substantial in the States?

I recently got a pair of 601's, and hoped that they'd be close enough to the 701's that I could sell the 701's. But this wasn't the case. For me, the K701's simply sound much better. Richer, better defined bass, smoother and more detailed treble. Both have good midrange, but I want more than just that.

 

[Asr]

My separate review of the K601 is now up over at StereoMojo: http://www.stereomojo.com/HeadphoneA...#AKGk601Review

 

[vvanrij]

Great reviews. I picked the 601's over the 701's, listened to classical and acapella music, and preferred the 601's. So I can't really agree on the K701>K601 statements. Maybe its because I prefer the 'smaller' soundstage of the 601 (which is still very big compared to sennheisers for instance), and I have always preferred warm sounding speakers/headphones/sound.