Drosera
1000+ Head-Fier
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As some of you will know, the AKG K500s are available in (at least) two slightly different versions. They are most easily differentiated by the plugs, one of them is the heavy solid metal plug, the other is partly plastic and of the same type also used for the K501.
I just bought a second pair of K500 and now own the two different types. I made some pictures to illustrate several differences between the two 'phones and hope that some of the AKG experts amongst you can tell me whether these differences are regular or that I may have bought an irregular (perhaps even pieced together) specimen.
First the 'phones, they look pretty similar on first sight, apart from the plugs.
Now a close-up of the plugs. I'll use these to differentiate between the 'phones, the ones with the metal plug will be 'phone A, the ones with the plastic plug 'phone B. The plastic plug (B) is associated with an even thinner wire than is used for the metal plug (A). High time for some recabling methinks.
A view from the left side. You can see that the strain-reliefs are slightly different. Also, the lettering differs in size and 'phone B has a relief imprint on the headband which reads "Echt Leder" (German for "Real leather". Surprising, because it always looked rather fake to me.)
A view of the baffles. Not much difference between the two here, apart from the fact that 'phone B has some kind of extra protection on top of the diaphragm. It's plastic with a round piece of grey foam (rapidly disintegrating) in the middle. It can be removed and when it is, the two baffles look identical. I really don't know if this particular 'extra' was also part of the other pair of 'phones originally. It's absent from AKG's diagram of the K500.
Finally, and perhaps most interesting, a close-up of the diaphragm. The diaphragm of 'phone A is quite opaque. I don't if this was the case originally, or if it's something that occurred with age. Most intriguingly, beneath the diaphragm we see a sort of 'black spoked wheel' (part of the voice-coil?). In 'phone A this wheel has 12 spokes (hard to see, I know), in 'phone B it has only 6 spokes. So this suggests that the drivers are actually slightly different.
Finally, is there also a difference in the way they sound? Well, I only had a very quick listen up till now, but I could hardly tell the difference between the two. And the differences that I could hear, could easily be explained by a difference in wear of the pads between the two 'phones.
I know, it's a bit of an anti-climax.
(Sincere apologies for possible wrong use of several terms by the way, I haven't got the headphone-jargon down yet.)
I just bought a second pair of K500 and now own the two different types. I made some pictures to illustrate several differences between the two 'phones and hope that some of the AKG experts amongst you can tell me whether these differences are regular or that I may have bought an irregular (perhaps even pieced together) specimen.
First the 'phones, they look pretty similar on first sight, apart from the plugs.
Now a close-up of the plugs. I'll use these to differentiate between the 'phones, the ones with the metal plug will be 'phone A, the ones with the plastic plug 'phone B. The plastic plug (B) is associated with an even thinner wire than is used for the metal plug (A). High time for some recabling methinks.
A view from the left side. You can see that the strain-reliefs are slightly different. Also, the lettering differs in size and 'phone B has a relief imprint on the headband which reads "Echt Leder" (German for "Real leather". Surprising, because it always looked rather fake to me.)
A view of the baffles. Not much difference between the two here, apart from the fact that 'phone B has some kind of extra protection on top of the diaphragm. It's plastic with a round piece of grey foam (rapidly disintegrating) in the middle. It can be removed and when it is, the two baffles look identical. I really don't know if this particular 'extra' was also part of the other pair of 'phones originally. It's absent from AKG's diagram of the K500.
Finally, and perhaps most interesting, a close-up of the diaphragm. The diaphragm of 'phone A is quite opaque. I don't if this was the case originally, or if it's something that occurred with age. Most intriguingly, beneath the diaphragm we see a sort of 'black spoked wheel' (part of the voice-coil?). In 'phone A this wheel has 12 spokes (hard to see, I know), in 'phone B it has only 6 spokes. So this suggests that the drivers are actually slightly different.
Finally, is there also a difference in the way they sound? Well, I only had a very quick listen up till now, but I could hardly tell the difference between the two. And the differences that I could hear, could easily be explained by a difference in wear of the pads between the two 'phones.
I know, it's a bit of an anti-climax.
(Sincere apologies for possible wrong use of several terms by the way, I haven't got the headphone-jargon down yet.)
