Bowled over by AKG K1000!

I never really liked listening thru headphones. I always got sweaty ears with those cupped types. And the force they exerted on the sides just made my jaw line sore. With open type, it’s so easy to get thin sound as the tiny diaphragms would need to move more air to ooze out that wee bit more of lower registers. With closed type, I always got the bloaty sound with much of the higher registers rounded off inherent to common design for not hurting the ears.

Disregard of designs, it was quite uneasy for me to swallow the fact that the soundstage would get trapped within that small area between my ears. Where’s the space and freedom of movement so paramount in making music enjoyable? Where’s the correct ingredient in making the sound full, tonally rich and balanced across the frequency response?

It happened so many times when my cousin would go overly excited to share his discoveries on the AKG K1000 while I just kept on mumbling about the importance of cables. But if he could keep on doing that for that many times we met, I am sure this was something worth checking out. I was lucky this time as he was back home during CNY and was able to show this baby to me!

Prior to this, I never even bothered checking the cans out in the web due to my resistance towards them. What I saw was beyond me as I never really expected it to look and function as intended by its designers. The diaphragms were housed in two huge metal meshed square-ish boxes which got me into thinking that they were electrostatics. Nope, they looked exactly like conventional speaker drivers on close scrutiny.

With the headband bearing the head, the earpieces were held in position by just a pair of leather-looking sponge-y bars on each side. They stayed above the ears on the temples and kept a clear 2 cm air space between the earpieces and the ears. That was the first shock!

The earpieces were actually attached to the unit by a vertical pivot which enabled them to be rotated to desired angles. Didn’t that sound like having a pair of dedicated speakers hanging by the side of your ears with the correct toe-in all the time disregard of your whereabouts?! Second shock!

The demo were done using modded Marantz CD67SE and TS Lim custom made headphone amp, linked by what I presumed to be cables from TS Lim as well. Upon firing up, I was shocked at its cohesive presentation and balanced frequency response. Can you believe such performance with such huge gaps between the earpieces and the ears? The extensions were wide, smooth and evenly distributed.

I tried some old Bob Dylan and was shocked at how it could render the drums to lifelike veracity. It told you what’s going on in the highs yet without sounding gritty, dry nor glassy. The highs were extended, airy and smooth, yet retaining the correct weight.

Although I perceived a certain dryness in the lower registers and mids, even with tube headphone amp, it was not to the extend of robbing that tonal richness from the lower registers. Kick drums were fast, lively and tangible.

The mids, though not as moist and blossom as desired, still shined thru with its honesty in delineating the lines. It has got vivid presence which carved out the vocal from being masked by complex musical passages. It was as much alike as a properly positioned setup with well projected center imaging.

Since the unit was relatively new, I dared not angle it any farther than 10 degrees away as it was still tight like a virgin. However, that was enough to enable me a glimpse of air, space and freedom of sound being projected behind my head. Weird it was, but nonetheless miles ahead of what I have heard. The details even thrashed most of the home setups I heard, but that is just being unfair!

I was sure that I placed the earpieces to their intended side and the pivots were in front, enabling the earpieces to be fired exactly like speakers towards the ears from front. Maybe further angling and orientation might get the soundstage to my liking. But long dinner prevented me from getting too indulged and opened opportunities for longer future sessions.

I am a believer now.