[Nak Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boodi sorry but no , definitely

Well, since this has been discussed many many times, all I can say that majority of listeners found that 501 bass is 'a bit' weak despite what headroom graph shows. Hence the continuing pursuit for better bass tweak, since mids quality and overall 'airiness' of 501 is somewhat spectacular for its price. =)

Bubbagump, using one amp that Mike say can drive 501 bass better than GSS, its bass still fell short compared to other good quality phones on same amp. And too much bass on 501 is a bit too much for me.

Edit: I did try the 20-60hz tones and THX track for a long time and maybe, maybe, burnin and squished pads helped a little. However, 501 bass sound distant, relative to almost other phones.

 

[Sinbios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WmAx BTW, I don't know if I ever posted this for you.... here is a measurement of your tape mod, on a measurement jig that I use for measurements. The jig measures only transducer behaviour, rear cavity behavior and the seal of the earpads effects. Reflections in the cavity of the earpads or against the baffle of the jig are not an issue of significance, due to an acoustic foam used to fill this space/dampen the reflections. [image] -Chris

Would you mind doing a measurement of the blue tak mod too?

 

[Little J040]

The 501s are a sweet pair, I need to get my hands on some

 

[WmAx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinbios Would you mind doing a measurement of the blue tak mod too?

Sorry, I no longer have access[I sold it] to an AKG K501[I now use K340 in it's place].

-Chris

 

[wualta]

Sorry to bring up old business, but I felt obligated to update the personal K501 saga, at least a little.

I haven't had the K501 in the rotation for quite awhile, but I was using them last night to test a new amp arrival, an old Sony VFET integrated amp, and I must say I was very impressed. With the aqua-tack mod there was bass to burn, and the mids and high end, which I've never had a complaint about, were smooth-sounding and sweet. The socalled headstage wasn't quite as open-feeling and spacey as, say, the Sennheiser HD 600, but I'm not complaining about that either.

It's interesting to see just how similar-looking the 701 is.

 

[VR6ofpain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by flecom im not understanding why you would think that turning up the bass going into the 501's would magically make them open up? if they dont reproduce bass its because their design is as such... i have K1000's and i can turn up the bass all i want on my EQ and all im going to get is distortion, no more bass... its a universal knowledge (and you even said it yourself that you knew) that the 501's are not for bass, they are for excellent mid and high details so im not really understanding the point of this thread... cliffsnotes if you dont want to read the whole thread 1) bought 501's even tho warnings of lack of bass 2) turned up bass on amp, nothing happened 3) unhappy becuase of lack of bass

Weird, people are saying the K501 have bass now? What gives?

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VR6ofpain Weird, people are saying the K501 have bass now? What gives?

The K501s have plenty of bass, which is obvious by plugging them into my PC and playing some low-frequency sine waves... in fact, the bass goes lower than most other headphones on the market. What they don't have is the usual bumped-up midbass, which most people seem to crave.

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch The K501s have plenty of bass, which is obvious by plugging them into my PC and playing some low-frequency sine waves... in fact, the bass goes lower than most other headphones on the market. What they don't have is the usual bumped-up midbass, which most people seem to crave.

I guess you can say K501 lacks bass impact, which is a severe problem for rock music.

 

[spike33]

I have the opposite finding, they have plenty of impact but not enough quantity of deep bass. Bass extension is good, turn up the bass boost slightly and now I can rock out

These are more upfront and impactful than my previous pairs which I found unlistenable with heavy rock.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spike33 ...Bass extension is good, turn up the bass boost slightly and now I can rock out...

This and other statements make me think that AKG changed the setup of the 501 somewhere in the production run, because this is precisely what I was unable to do with my 501s until I did the aqua-tack mod, and the low bass is still not as strong as, say, the HD 600's. Before the mod, I could crank in all the bass boost in the world and the change was zero to minimal. This told me that the chances were good that cancellation was happening, that the backwave was mixing with the frontwave.

With the mod, boost now has an audible effect, and I can enjoy the smooth midrange and treble these phones offer. Despite the weakish bottom end and the lower sensitivity, I prefer the 501s to the HD 600s; they're flatter and smoother.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch The K501s have plenty of bass, which is obvious by plugging them into my PC and playing some low-frequency sine waves... in fact, the bass goes lower than most other headphones on the market. What they don't have is the usual bumped-up midbass, which most people seem to crave.

I used to defend the 501. I thought the bass was just right, light on its feet, not bogging down the music with bloat. But I realized that there is no real deep bass on offer, no foundation underpinning the music. My impression was that the 501 sounded like a big acoustic space, concert-like, but it did lack the bottom end one normally hears live. So yeah, it's a big headphone but sounds like a minimonitor. Having said that, minimonitors can sound really swell.

 

[amartignano]

Aaahhh... K501 bass battle, not again

I'm joking... anyway, old story. The bass of the K501: is there, alive and kicking, but it's "distant". It's a strange sensation, as the bass doesn't come from the earcups. And it's amazing. Sure they lack impact on the deepest bass. Sure you can't A/B with an HD650 and judge the K501. Sure you have to sit down, and listen to the K501 for a long time, in order to get used to their particular presentation. And they like tubes, they like them very much.
And AKG was aware of the "problem", so now we have K601 and K701, more bass. Same magic? (I hope so, my K701 is in order)

bye
Andrew

 

[wang228]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amartignano Aaahhh... K501 bass battle, not again I'm joking... anyway, old story. The bass of the K501: is there, alive and kicking, but it's "distant". It's a strange sensation, as the bass doesn't come from the earcups. And it's amazing. Sure they lack impact on the deepest bass. Sure you can't A/B with an HD650 and judge the K501. Sure you have to sit down, and listen to the K501 for a long time, in order to get used to their particular presentation. And they like tubes, they like them very much. And AKG was aware of the "problem", so now we have K601 and K701, more bass. Same magic? (I hope so, my K701 is in order) bye Andrew

LOL... best description of K501 thus far.

 

[BluesDaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch The K501s have plenty of bass, which is obvious by plugging them into my PC and playing some low-frequency sine waves... in fact, the bass goes lower than most other headphones on the market. What they don't have is the usual bumped-up midbass, which most people seem to crave.

Well, we shall see. I just pulled the trigger on a pair at Headroom. Money I don't really need to spend right now, but I couldn't resist!!

Anyway, I listen to enough accoustic music (pre-war and "country" or Delta blues, just a tad of jazz and classical) to justify an "accoustic only" set of cans. Hopefully I will get a set with the "brown" ring pads. If not, I'll try some of the mods suggested (maybe using black gaffer's tape which doesn't leave an adhesive residue) and see how that works if the bass isn't sufficient. My speaker set-up is 8" monitors with a 15" subwoofer with the levels equalized using a SPL meter from the listening position, so I've got a pretty good sense of how much bass is "right". We'll just have to see.

Now, I just wonder what I'm going to tell my wife when the box arrives. I just got my Grados a couple weeks ago.

 

[amartignano]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wang228 LOL... best description of K501 thus far.

Andrew

Ps. I loved the K501... but ah, that "strange" bass!