Which 3 Headphones To Keep? (Decision Made!)
Jun 14, 2008 at 5:08 AM Post #91 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz /img/forum/go_quote.gif
With all the flip-flopping on trying to decide between the K401 and K501, I decided to renege on my original decision to let other people have my K400s and K500s. I had to find one to buy since I'd already sold them, but that proved easier than I expected.

With that done, I'm now able to present the final three AKGs that are going to stay: K240 Sextett, K1000, and K400.



Well done!
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Some of us are envious, as you obviously have what's needed to do a major scale-down of your system. In number of units that is, not quality.
 
Jun 14, 2008 at 1:29 PM Post #93 of 116
Hmmm so what do you use your K400 for?
 
Jun 14, 2008 at 1:44 PM Post #94 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by vvanrij /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hmmm so what do you use your K400 for?


LOL. He wrote this in the For Sale forum, when asking for a K400:

"I think I might want to make this easy and go back on my previous decisions and go with a K400 instead, for a very, very stupid reason: it's all black, so it'll look better with the K240 and K1000 on my new stand (K1000 is middle, with the other two flanking it)."
 
Jun 14, 2008 at 2:13 PM Post #96 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by user18 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Fitz, which version of the Sextett did you keep?


Middle production, which has always been my preferred version.



Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Well done!
smily_headphones1.gif

Some of us are envious, as you obviously have what's needed to do a major scale-down of your system. In number of units that is, not quality.



Well it wasn't just my doing; I had pretty well intended to keep the AKG collection for a number of years.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by vvanrij /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hmmm so what do you use your K400 for?


I use the K400 for when I want a big and airy sound, since it has more soundstage and treble to it. The K240 is the general purpose headphone for most stuff, but sometimes I want something a little different which is when the K400 will come in. The K1000 is my portable headphone so it does not really factor into the decision of the other two.



Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiemen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
LOL. He wrote this in the For Sale forum, when asking for a K400:

"I think I might want to make this easy and go back on my previous decisions and go with a K400 instead, for a very, very stupid reason: it's all black, so it'll look better with the K240 and K1000 on my new stand (K1000 is middle, with the other two flanking it)."



Hahaha yeah, that was the tie-breaker that helped me decided which one to choose. For the life of me I just couldn't decide between the K401 and K501 that I still had, but if I had a K400 that is equally matched for sonics but superior on aesthetics, then it was an obvious choice.
 
Jun 14, 2008 at 11:30 PM Post #97 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz /img/forum/go_quote.gif
...The K1000 is my portable headphone so it does not really factor into the decision of the other two...


Oh My
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Aug 11, 2008 at 8:42 PM Post #100 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by GuyMe /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The K1K doesn't make it redundant for that purpose? Interesting...

What "portable" amp are you using for the K1K?



has to be a rwa sig30.2 doesn't it
for the ultimate in portability
 
Aug 14, 2008 at 10:02 AM Post #101 of 116
[size=small]Thought this thread was most appropriate to put this.[/size]

[size=small]I decided to test K 290 a second time in Surround mode.[/size]
[size=small]I own a nice Yamaha DVD Player and AV receiver. But I didn’t want to change all settings again concerning volume, equalization and delay per channel that are meticulously measured and stored in memory. After changing those, I would have to change everything back as soon as I wanted to listen through the speakers again.[/size]
[size=small][/size]

[size=small]I decided to buy a Panasonic Home Cinema System second hand for 30 euro (approx. $ 45) especially for the purpose of testing/using the K 290 in Surround mode. Because of this cheap choice I only have Dolby Digital Surround to my disposal, so no DTS nor SACD multichannel.[/size]
[size=small]The only issue I had to solve was the Subwoofer channel. Because a system like this usually doesn’t have any bass management (you normally hook up the speakers provided and that’s it), I had to mix the low frequencies to the two front drivers in the headphones. The switch box that is custom made for K 290 does the very same thing with the centre channel.[/size]
[size=small]I loaded ‘Indiana Jones, the last crusade´ and sat back.[/size]

[size=small]I am still not very impressed. We head-fiers are used to a wide soundstage. There is no real surrounding sound field. Depending on the effects used in a particular movie scene I estimate the maximum width is 270 degrees. There is no sound coming from behind. Of course, the sound is very nice. These are without doubt top cans with a genuine AKG signature.[/size]
[size=small]I then asked my wife to have a listen. She’s very much into music and movies, but not at all interested in headphones. A fairly honest outsider therefore.[/size]
[size=small]To my surprise, she was rather enthusiastic. She liked the moving effects and crisp dialogs. After several scenes she suggested to install the setup in the bedroom so she could have a late night private cinema experience if she felt like it without disturbing the neighbours.[/size]

[size=small]There are a few binaural demos on the Web that produce a very convincing back to front and even up and down soundstage (the shaking of a matchbox comes to mind). This K 290 setup doesn´t come near that experience. I think the techniques that are developed based on virtual surround are the future. [/size]
 
Aug 14, 2008 at 3:32 PM Post #102 of 116
Quote:

Originally Posted by NoPants /img/forum/go_quote.gif
has to be a rwa sig30.2 doesn't it
for the ultimate in portability



You asked for it.
biggrin.gif

iPod nano -> Signature 30.2 -> K1000. Completely off-grid....

 
Apr 17, 2009 at 5:53 AM Post #105 of 116
A year later and I'm still happily using the same phones I decided to keep out of the AKG collection. Today I finally repaired the set of K401 drivers I had sitting around for a couple years and swapped the drivers and baffles into my K400... I think I prefer the sound this way (not as good as regular K400 for certain music, but less sensitive to bad recordings so I can use it more often). This means I technically have a K401 now, putting me back at my initial choices before I started second-guessing myself.
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I still miss the other AKGs sometimes, but it seems I made the right choices for which ones to keep.
biggrin.gif


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