[TheSloth]

My K1K will be arriving in NY from the UK in the next few days, ostensively to sell. But I want to give it one more chance, considering it has been underdriven in all the cases I've heard it, sounding harsh up top and lacking in the midrange, though surprisingly bass was quite impressive. This was with a somewhat warm source.

So, if I were going to spend somewhere around $500 (I know, not a great deal for the K1K, but what can I do...), is there anything that I really should try before I let these go?

 

[jp11801]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSloth My K1K will be arriving in NY from the UK in the next few days, ostensively to sell. But I want to give it one more chance, considering it has been underdriven in all the cases I've heard it, sounding harsh up top and lacking in the midrange, though surprisingly bass was quite impressive. This was with a somewhat warm source. So, if I were going to spend somewhere around $500 (I know, not a great deal for the K1K, but what can I do...), is there anything that I really should try before I let these go?

I think you are talking about the AKG K1000

if so in that budget try either a hh scott 222 intergrated amp or a fisher kx100 intergrated either one should work great. Either one should run well under your budget but I would only buy one that had recently been serviced as a 40 year old amp can hhave issues that could lead to a cookout. After they are serviced they should be worry free for many years to come.
The Scott would be the warmer of the two with the fisher being faster.

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 I think you are talking about the AKG K1000 if so in that budget try either a hh scott 222 intergrated amp or a fisher kx100 intergrated either one should work great. Either one should run well under your budget but I would only buy one that had recently been serviced as a 40 year old amp can hhave issues that could lead to a cookout. After they are serviced they should be worry free for many years to come. The Scott would be the warmer of the two with the fisher being faster.

I suppose I should have said it should be as compact as possible, and resellable...!

I know, I'm making it tough, but there must be something that will do a good job.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSloth My K1K will be arriving in NY from the UK in the next few days, ostensively to sell. But I want to give it one more chance, considering it has been underdriven in all the cases I've heard it, sounding harsh up top and lacking in the midrange, though surprisingly bass was quite impressive. This was with a somewhat warm source. So, if I were going to spend somewhere around $500 (I know, not a great deal for the K1K, but what can I do...), is there anything that I really should try before I let these go?

You should really try a Class A amp before you completely give up on the K1000s. In my experience they have worked the best and I have tried them with many, many different types of amp. You might look for a Monarchy SM-70 as it has been great with the K1000 in my usage. It is not as good as the Pass Labs but is less expensive and much easier to accomodate as it is pretty small. I paid less than 500 for mine. I am thinking of trying a pair of these as monoblocks as that is possible with balanaced inputs on the amp. If you are in the city you might be able to borrow one of my Pass Labs amps for a short term loan as I am moving in two weeks and have everything packed up at the moment.

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vpivinylspinner You should really try a Class A amp before you completely give up on the K1000s. In my experience they have worked the best and I have tried them with many, many different types of amp. You might look for a Monarchy SM-70 as it has been great with the K1000 in my usage. It is not as good as the Pass Labs but is less expensive and much easier to accomodate as it is pretty small. I paid less than 500 for mine. I am thinking of trying a pair of these as monoblocks as that is possible with balanaced inputs on the amp. If you are in the city you might be able to borrow one of my Pass Labs amps for a short term loan as I am moving in two weeks and have everything packed up at the moment.

Monarchy are actually selling a pair of 70 Pro's for just under $1k. Here's a stupid question - can a pair of speakers with a passive crossover be plugged into a balanced amp. I never though of how standard crossovers interact with the signal.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

Speaker outputs are not affected for a balanced amp, just the line level inputs. All the balanced amps I have mentioned have regular five way binding posts. Unless I am missing something, it shouldn't make any difference.

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vpivinylspinner Speaker outputs are not affected for a balanced amp, just the line level inputs. All the balanced amps I have mentioned have regular five way binding posts. Unless I am missing something, it shouldn't make any difference.

5 way binding posts? Not sure what that refers to. Never seen anything with more than 4...

I was assuming that if you plugged a balanced output into the SM70, it would send the positive signal to one side of the electronics and the inverted on to the other side, and output a fully differential signal to the binding posts.

Edit: I wasn't clear with my original question. What I meant was that if the amplifier is outputting a balanced signal, can that signal be connected in the regular way to a transducer that has a passive crossover before it?

 

[vpivinylspinner]

5 way binding post is the normal speaker post that can accept spades, banana, bare wire and evidently two other forms of speaker wire connection. The balanced is merely how the signal gets to the amp, there is nothing balanced coming out of the speaker jack into the K1000s. If you run them out of a balanced headphone amp or volume controlled source then what you are stating would be true. With these amps the K1000s are run from their speaker jack connections (5 way binding posts).

 

[tom hankins]

Try the Norh SE9... www.norh.com It is supposed to have wonderful synergy with the K1Ks. Best of all, 450.00 BRAND SPANKING NEW!
Here is a link to a review of the pairing.
http://6moons.com/audioreviews/akg/follow-up.html

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins Try the Norh SE9... www.norh.com It is supposed to have wonderful synergy with the K1Ks. Best of all, 450.00 BRAND SPANKING NEW! Here is a link to a review of the pairing. http://6moons.com/audioreviews/akg/follow-up.html

Ooh, now there's a great suggestion. I'm glad I asked you guys. My preference is for the SE-70 is that I could add one to make a pair I can set up for a balanced system, both for the K1K's, and for just about any speakers one could throw at them. The SE9 would be a specific K1K-only amp. I wonder which would sound better, in pure sonic terms?

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSloth Ooh, now there's a great suggestion. I'm glad I asked you guys. My preference is for the SE-70 is that I could add one to make a pair I can set up for a balanced system, both for the K1K's, and for just about any speakers one could throw at them. The SE9 would be a specific K1K-only amp. I wonder which would sound better, in pure sonic terms?

The se9 is a Ok amp but you need to tube roll it with tubes that cost as much as the amp,I had one I would lean towards the SE-70 instead.
If you could find a Forte 4a 50 watt class A amp designed by Pass/threshold
that would be a good match for the K1ks.

 

[TheSloth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bozebuttons The se9 is a Ok amp but you need to tube roll it with tubes that cost as much as the amp,I had one I would lean towards the SE-70 instead. If you could find a Forte 4a 50 watt class A amp designed by Pass/threshold that would be a good match for the K1ks.

What didn't you like about the SE9? I rather like the idea of a tube amp for the K1K, partly as I've never owned a decent one that wasn't a hybrid of some sort. The review mentioned it wasn't that high on power, and was just enough for the K1K. It has a big brother, the SE18 which I rather liked the look of due to the phono stage input as well.

I would also prefer an integrated design, so that I do not need to use a source with variable outputs, but it's not essential. I'm not looking for great volume output or 'slam', just something with good clean power, possibly with a bit of warmth to get the best out of it within my budget (which as always with head-fi, can be stretched a bit...)

 

[bozebuttons]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSloth What didn't you like about the SE9? I rather like the idea of a tube amp for the K1K, partly as I've never owned a decent one that wasn't a hybrid of some sort. The review mentioned it wasn't that high on power, and was just enough for the K1K. It has a big brother, the SE18 which I rather liked the look of due to the phono stage input as well. I would also prefer an integrated design, so that I do not need to use a source with variable outputs, but it's not essential. I'm not looking for great volume output or 'slam', just something with good clean power, possibly with a bit of warmth to get the best out of it within my budget (which as always with head-fi, can be stretched a bit...)

jpelg owned theSE18,If you check the se9has been discussed on the forum before,also pics & impressions from the Grado meets in 2002-3.
The RkV is a better amp for the K1Ks.
I wouldn't consider the SE9 warm sounding.

 

[Jon L]

Almarro A205a MkII goes for $450-500 on Audiogon. Sounds GREAT with K1000 even with the stock tubes. Now... If I could just get my hands on some REALLY good NOS tubes for cheap (I'm looking, looking).

 

[TheSloth]

I had a good look through the impressions on the Norh from the last 3 years, and it seems the the general impression is that: 1. It was reasonable neutral. 2. It did not have a problem driving the K1K. 3. The K1K sounded somewhat bright out of it, with both the stock and Equinox cables.

Which brings back that perennial question, is the K1K just fundamentally bright? If so, I'll probably never get on with it.