AKG K1000s... what are they running for now?

[aerius]

aerius which Cardinals did you hear? The Anniversary wired with the silver transformers or the regular blocks which are $7500 for a pair?

Regulars. I still can't afford them though, but there's probably enough clues lying around on various places for someone to make a reasonably close copy.

[Icarium]

I suppose that's true. There isn't one perfect headphone or set up. Metal is filthy though thankfully so its low on my priorities ;p

[deepak]

Regulars. I still can't afford them though, but there's probably enough clues lying around on various places for someone to make a reasonably close copy.

Right. The other pain in the ass is they're power amps, fooling with preamps is not something I want to do (again) unless my next source has a nice pre built in. I'm sure the one in the DCC2 is very good.

I suppose that's true. There isn't one perfect headphone or set up. Metal is filthy though thankfully so its low on my priorities ;p

Boris!! (though it's not really metal)

[Icarium]

Yeah what the fuck is Boris? I kinda described it as Psychadelic Hard Rock. I bought 3 tickets to the SF show though. You going to see them ? ;p

[deepak]

Yeah what the fuck is Boris? I kinda described it as Psychadelic Hard Rock. I bought 3 tickets to the SF show though. You going to see them ? ;p

Dude they don't visit the east coast

I have friends that have went to a few of their San Fran shows and said they rock. Wata = dreamy.

I can't even place a genre tag on them with how much they change their sound album to album. Drone/sludge is pretty consistent description of their older albums...or any of their Merzbow colabs

[Icarium]

I wonder if they will have any of their albums for sale there. I don't evenl ike them thattt much they are just on the edge of yeah I listen to them from time to time. But their low pressing #'s makes me want to buy some when I get the chance.

[909]

But do I think if I spent 5x as much with Singlepower I will get something that is at least 5 percent better? I think so and I believe I've hard so, but yeah I could be wrong. I'd like to see some decently run multiple person comparisons disproving me though

if done blind among trusted ears without external influencers and all things equal as possible using a plethora of headphones to get the best synergy and listener preference and numerous high-end amps were on hand even sub $5K SP amps i'd be surprised if a clear majority flavored the $10K, $15K, or even $20K SP amps overall. it's not like the higher priced SP designs are drastically radical to his other stuff and the mark-up on most, if not all of his amps, seems exceedingly substantially compared to cost of parts excluding overhead and man-hours. though, you never know and as long as the one buying it likes it and believes it's worth it that in the end is all that really matters.

[deepak]

I wonder if they will have any of their albums for sale there. I don't evenl ike them thattt much they are just on the edge of yeah I listen to them from time to time. But their low pressing #'s makes me want to buy some when I get the chance.

They often do have limited edition CDs or LPs for sale on their tours. I've had friends mail me a few CDs. Though music wise they're not that great.

[Icarium]

You are absolutely right. Maybe the time frame I listed is kinda off. When one head-fier first heard my amp he thought it didn't sound thattt much better than an extreme. But the second time he heard it the difference between a lot more clear, but probably still not enough in his mind to justify the price ;p

I think the main issue with double blind testing is that its very very difficult to conduct one in the time frames one needs to fully grasp and digest an amp.

Yeah I question his markup sometimes too. But shrug I like the guy ;p

Man, I just went into slight debt buying a source. Life sucks, but my rig is essentially complete.

[909]

i like Mikhail too. And yes, blind tests are problematic notably the usual time restrains since most listeners aren't given the time they need to fully digest and appreciate what they're hearing, but even if that could be remedy to a greater degree i believe the results wouldn't be clear in flavor of those mega buck SP amps. Also, you'd think at those $10K plus price points it should conceivably be readily more apparent to most listeners with educated and trusted ears.

[909]

Man, I just went into slight debt buying a source. Life sucks, but my rig is essentially complete.

i relate and believe getting an excellent source you truly like is money well spent. i just think an amp can only do so much in a system as long as it's relatively decent whereas a high-end source and headphones have a much greater impact.

[Icarium]

Yeah. I agree. Sometimes I definitely wonder if its all just some hardcore rationalization on my part. But eh. it does sound good ;p And if someone will pay me 80-100 percent of what I paid for it. Then I'm cool.

[909]

what source did you get? i would guess emm labs...

if you mean it should hopefully retain 80 to 100% of what you paid, assuming you got a good deal that isn't undoable, but the future down the road is probably something like the memory player or vrs II and i wonder when companies like meridian, rega, wadia and others will start releasing hd sources.

[fierce_freak]

I primarily listen to metal and hardcore and the K1K is my only headphone...didn't know they weren't considered so great for the genre, but I'm fine with it

[Icarium]

I got an esoteric player. I actually don't like the EMM labs stack that much at all. I liked an Esoteric dv50s more than it... though it wasnt a side by side.

That VRS player is mad pricey. Was it the best possible source you've ever heard? That's what Mikhail said but I don't know what he's heard.

I'd like to hear it and see if its really the best.

[PFKMan23]

Did you get the Esoteric Stack? Did you get Sleestack's Esoteric Stack?

[Icarium]

I wish I did. He let it go at a really good price, but no I got the UX-1 since the end goal is probably Alex Peychev's APL modded NWO 3.0 GO. Which I may take a few head-fiers to go audition this coming weekend.

[909]

I got an esoteric player. I actually don't like the EMM labs stack that much at all. I liked an Esoteric dv50s more than it... though it wasnt a side by side.

That VRS player is mad pricey. Was it the best possible source you've ever heard? That's what Mikhail said but I don't know what he's heard.

I'd like to hear it and see if its really the best.

yes the vrs is ridiculously expensive. imo the user interface needs serious work and until that time i doubt it will achieve its potential mass market appeal or something i would even consider. i found it laborsome to walk up to the 15" lcd, grab the wireless keyboard, scroll and select the track or album. in that time, i believe i could have just as easily pull the actual cd off my rack, popped it in and pressed play. as to its sonic ability, i'll say it's the first computer based source that WOW me. however, Jay Fisher's (robb report reviewer) rig is completely over-the-top. i assume you saw his speakers, amps, power conditioner, cables, rack, etc... i found myself in a very foreign listening environment since i primarily listen to headphones. and i felt my source was basically there to say "see it sounds better than the reimyo..." basically it got plugged into a cheap extension cord without power conditioning, warmed up for less than ten minutes and virtually sat on a wobbly wooden plank a foot off the floor--i kid you not. i am a bit bitter because i really desired to do some, imo, meaningful comparison or at least that what i thought we were going to do, but i bit my lip and acted the cordial guest and understood this was about selling a vrs and high-end SP amp. when we went to headphones for the last 20 mins of listening and re-plugged my then cold cdp-777 in, i thought both sounded very natural, though, in that timeframe i couldn't say the vrs truly out-classed the reimyo even given all the proper set-up advantages. i asked Vincent (VRS) if i burned a store bought cd would it sound better than the original and he said unbashfully, yes. if any audible gains are derived from playing tracks off the hd beside removing jitter and what-not i would at least liked to have listened to a few burned cds for the comparison so such factors were mitigated as well as others in my mind. i will say it is an excellent source and ranks among the best i've heard.

[Icarium]

Yeah i still doubt that it beats out the best possible cd player but who knows

[909]

thanks, Reks.

Icarium, in your opinion, what's the best possible cd player or is it just something fictional you're alluding to... though, i completely agree either way. imo, vrs has too many unknowns, lack of trustworthy professional reviews, not been adequately compared or tested against other great sources with competent ears in attendance, coupled with the high price i wouldn't feel comfortable buying it unless i had money to burn and a dying curiousity.

[deepak]

thanks, Reks.

Icarium, in your opinion, what's the best possible cd player or is it just something fictional you're alluding to... though, i completely agree either way. imo, vrs has too many unknowns, lack of trustworthy professional reviews, not been adequately compared or tested against other great sources with competent ears in attendance, coupled with the high price i wouldn't feel comfortable buying it unless i had money to burn and a dying curiousity.

The guy you met up with bought one didn't he (L3000, SDS-XLR Hfi'er)? It's listed in his signature.

[909]

he had the l3000s and the r10s and last we spoke he seemed intent on getting the vrs ii and the sds-xlr. though i don't know 100% if he followed through, but if so it seems he's still wanting on both...

[Icarium]

Well I mean its all up to tastes. I bet that MBL player sounds great with mbl stuff. I really like the Esoteric stuff I've heard but I haven't heard that much and I can recognize the sound might not be for all people. I liked the P03/D03 that I heard that's the most expensive player I've heard though MSRP is about on par with EMM labs. I bet the P01/D01 (Dual Mono Dacs) is even better.

I've heard the top dCs stacks are quite good.

Supposedly the hands down best in cd is APL hifi's modded UX-1 which well they just released the 3.0 though its not in official production yet there are a few units (Neilvg is getting one at some point he's been waiting 6 months for the 2.5t which is what he ordered already). Whether this is true or not. I am not sure, I might hear it this weekend or when Neil gets it. Even when I do hear it... there isn't much to compare it to.

Supposedly Alex Peychev of APL might do a mod on the P01/D01s which already retail for something like 50k+ and sell it for 100k but that is pretty nuts.

As for digital versus vinyl? Well I hear how vinyl works is on a disc they strip out a lot of the highs/lows and it gets re-added in at some level was it by the cartridge or the phonostage? I have no idea (Don't know shit about vinyl). That really clinched it for me. Sure vinyl has more info but if only in the mid range... that doesnt seem good enough to justify it for me. Not to mention taking care of and dealing with vinyl. Sure there is a lot of great vinyl out there and the selection owns sacd/dvd-a in the face... but meh.

The one impression I do have from a guy who has heard an APL product (The modded Denon 3910 which maxed out was ~9-10k Alex Peychev is selling a new one for 5.5k though now and it routinely shows up on audiogon for ~4k. I would have gotten one since it has a digital input and all the other feature I'd like except that though it has XLR outs its not truely balanced output grrr) said basically that it sounds really good with decent tone/large soundstage but the resolution was so much that the music almost felt grainy to him. He hasn't heard the top of the line though. I have no idea what grainy really means, but apparently he associated with it being TOO resolving which seems to fit my tastes ;p

[humanflyz]

It's almost impossible to say what the best amp is for K1000s, because they can theoretically work with everything. There is still a huge percentage of speaker amps that people haven't tried with K1000s yet.

[tkam]

I'm pretty happy with The Dragon driving the K1000 but I think you can get a great sounding K1000 rig for a relatively small investment. Something like a used Pass Labs Aleph3 or Prima Luna Prologue One can be had for about $1k and will sound damn nice.