AKG K1000 has two different drivers

[thrice]

Interesting news from AKG.

So I recently recabled my K1000 (did a damn fine job at it if I do say so myself). I was comparing them to Hirsch's Stefan Art hardwire K1000 and we noticed a decided shift in tonal balance. His had significantly more treble emphasis than mine (a little more detail and impact as well).

So I thought 2 things...cable and age? I tried re-recabling them and got a little more treble but not like Hirsch's. So off to AKG they go because I thought maybe I fucked something up in the recable (unlikely as I was very careful, but possible).

Well, the AKG rep told me that I did a fine job.....so good, he was very impressed, especially since he's received a rash of K1000 driver repairs due to botched cable replacement recently......Hmmm, I wonder why?

He was a bit interested in my issue of less pronounced treble and more bass as well so he contacted the Tech Support folks. He found out that AKG changed the voicing of the headphone drivers at one point. My headphones are early (Serial number 2,XXX) and have less emphasis on treble and leaned more toward bass. The newer AKG K1000 has a slightly different driver that is pushed up to the treble a bit more (Hirsch's K1000 in in the 10,XXX-11,XXX range).

So there are two different drivers for the K1000. He offered to let me buy a pair of the new drivers, but he didn't know the price, so I have an e-mail in to the right person regarding that...but I'm not sure I want to change the drivers.....Couldn't hurt to have a spare pair lying around...or even rewired and ready to place on the headband!

Anyway, I thought you folks would find that interesting....I was going to post it on Head-FI, but I fear doing that.....especially with all the K1000 threads up right now. God only knows how they all will react.

So I think some silver wire and a Pass amp will help flesh out some of that treble and detail....the repair guy said to turn up the treble on my power amp....EQ!!!!! MY GOOD MAN, I AM NO ANIMAL!

[tkam]

Thats really pretty interesing and FYI a pair of the drivers is very expensive these days. I'd guess probably in the $600-$700 range.

[thrice]

It was $600-700 to have AKG replace the drivers....he didn't have a price so I'm trying to find that out now....I imagine there won't be much of a discount. It's not something I can swing now, but it's nice to make the contact now in case I need/want them in the future.

[Post]

How cool is that, AKG didn't mind looking at stuff under warranty even tho recabling would usually void warranty, right? Class act.

[thrice]

no you can send non-warranty items to them regardless....they're just goning to charge you....I had to pay a bench fee and shipping (small amount, less than $30) so it was worth it.

[aerius]

The K340, the K501, and now the K1000, I'm beginning to think that AKG made at least 2 versions of all their higher end headphones.

This would make sense though, I heard a K1000 a year or 2 back in a stereo shop and it had the brighter treble emphasis which many have talked about, I didn't like that one too much. Then I heard another K1000 at the Hamilton meet this past week which was a lot warmer sounding with the nice AKG midrange I'm used to from my K340's. Much nicer, wasn't bright or sibilant at all.

[Dusty Chalk]

Very interesting.

I definitely need to know what you find out. Please.

Do the drivers come in the cages? I presume you already know the answer to this question, but that's like 90% of the headphone/earspeaker right there...

[ayt999]

I believe when they say driver... they only mean the driver. make the most use of your used parts sales by selling everything separately as much as possible.

my K1000 has a serial number slightly past the 11000 mark. guess that's good.

[tkam]

Do the drivers come in the cages? I presume you already know the answer to this question, but that's like 90% of the headphone/earspeaker right there...

Nope they don't you get just the drivers.

[thrice]

Very interesting.

I definitely need to know what you find out. Please.

Do the drivers come in the cages? I presume you already know the answer to this question, but that's like 90% of the headphone/earspeaker right there...

No, just the drivers.....the grills, the metal band that holds the grill on, the bottom plastic piece where the cables enter and even the circuit board are not included with a new pair of drivers....The rest I can unserstand, but the circuit board was a bit of a surprise.

[fierce_freak]

*drudges up old thread

Did he say around what serial number the change was made? I just picked up a pair of K1000, and the serial number on them is 4617.

[thrice]

don't know for sure....but that's around the cusp there....I think the guy said the 2,000-4,000 range or so, but it was awhile ago and he only told me over the phone and he wasn't entirely sure what the range was. Nor was he willing to get something concrete to me.

[fierce_freak]

I'm thinkin' I have the second driver. Thanks, thrice.

[humanflyz]

I guess I have an old pair, since mine is in the 1xxx range, and I wonder what it would sound like with an Equinox hard-wire

[mypasswordis]

I've been trying to figure out if mine is bass heavy or bass light and I just can't without comparing to another K1000. A lot has to do with positioning the drivers correctly, of course, but it pretty much just sounds like the frequency graph in the manual. Flat down to 50 and ~4dB down at 40Hz. I don't know how much different amps can improve this, I just have this plugged into the speaker outs of my receiver. Maybe I should try making a 1/4" adapter and plugging it into the headphone out, which is just the speaker outs with a resistor in series.

Edit: Forgot to say serial number is 7k+.

[wrecked_porsche]

I've had two K1000 before, one in the 11xxx range (brown box) and the other in the 7xxx range (black box).

The 11xxx one had more treble (I loved the sweet treble extension) while the 7xxx one had a more "evenly" spread out frequency range/more balanced presentation. The sound felt more weighty. If the 7xxx unit had the treble of the 11xxx unit, while maintaining its "weightiness" it would have been great. The treble happy version was a little more picky with quality of the recording, if there was harshness/grittiness in the highs, you're gonna hear it. When the treble in the recording was smooth, extended and well behaved... woah... the O2mk1 (driven by 717) can't come near it. No wai!

However, I think its gonna be impossible for you to figure it out without comparing side by side. The differences I mention above are really very minuscule and I'm nitpicking. We're talking about the same headphones here. Both K1000 still sounded like a K1000 to me and not like a... um... Deno... never mind.

Don't split hairs over it, just enjoy your K1k.

[mypasswordis]

Alright, thanks. Current popular trends suggest I find a K1000 that matches my sonic tastes first, then build a system around it. I personally also think that's taking it a bit too far, but I don't doubt the possibility of AKG making drastically different sounding versions of a headphone since I experienced it firsthand with the Sextetts, and there's plenty of evidence for the K501, K340, etc. I do notice a slow roll-off in the HF, past 18.5-19kHz. I probably won't be able to hear that far up in a few years so it's all good.

My box is ... wood colored. Not black.

[wrecked_porsche]

Well, yeah, they do sound different to me, its just that in the grand scheme of things, they are not thaaaat different. They both sound like uh... a K1000. Changing a DAC or Amp will bring about a much bigger change. If I were forced to choose between the two (just for the sake of it), I'd probably pick the treble happy version. I could live with either version though.

If you do come across another K1000 with say 4k difference (up or down) in serial number from yours, its probably best if you try to audition it or if its for sale just buy it and listen to both and see which you like best, then sell the other one. Its what I did. Its what Fitz did.

The brown box version is wood colored... light brown/maple~ish wood color.

FWIW, one the inside, one had "AKG K1000" written in there and the other was just blank with a small silver AKG tag at the bottom right side. Definitely two different versions.

[mypasswordis]

Yes, I'll definitely be interested in listening to the really early and really late production versions, just to satiate my curiosity. Very improbable I'm going to buy another pair to compare and sell the not as preferable one, though. I think I'm done with headphones, once I assemble the holy troika (see Stax thread). I have the version of box that says AKG K1000.

[wrecked_porsche]

Ah yes, the "holy troika", I saw that post. Would be awesome to have all those 3 Lambdas together.

The (original) Lambda Signature probably ranks up there with my top 5 most favorite headphones.

When driven properly (717/T1 with Toshibas), the "etch" is nearly gone or is negligible.

I even ditched the O2mk1 in favor of the Lambda Signature. Lambdas FTW.

[wrecked_porsche]

To add to that:

Hmmm... Interesting, you say yours is the light brown box and has "AKG K1000" on it eh? Well, my black box version had "AKG K1000" written on it. My bass light version had a light brown box that had the silver AKG logo at the bottom right side.

Sometimes I see on HF that the color of the box is used to distinguish between bass light and bass heavy versions. I've seen it mentioned a couple of times now in the FS forums that the black box version is the bass heavy and the light brown box is the bass light version.

Maybe the writing on the inside is the one that determines which version it is and not the box color? I'm assuming that they first produced the bass heavy version (box color irrelevant, writing shows "AKG K1000") and somewhere after the 8~10k mark started producing the bass light version(box color irrelevant, no writing, just silver AKG logo).

I would love to know what version is yours, when you do get a chance to compare, do post your findings back in this thread. If yours is bass heavy and you find that the bass light version has the silver AKG logo, then yeah, I guess the writing differentiates the versions and not the box color/serial numbers.

If the bass light version also has "AKG K1000" written in the box, then just throw the whole theory out the window.

Does that make sense? 3am now, I'm off to bed.

[mypasswordis]

Yup that makes a lot of sense, and I'll definitely be sure to post my findings when I am able to compare to either a really low or really high serial number K1000. I'll try to take a pic of the light-colored box that has "AKG K1000" written in it for posterity, or just try to find the pics from the auction to post here. I've tried to search for any references to people mentioning a treble roll-off and pretty much everyone just says the treble is the best part of the K1000 and it has great extension. Weird. I don't notice roll-off with most of my other headphones so it's not my setup. They also say the K1000 is extremely resolving, detailed, transparent, fast, etc but mine is pretty average in those respects compared to my other headphones and in fact I feel like it smooths some of the details over to make sure nothing sounds harsh, so kind of Senn-like in that respect. It sounds like I'm beating it down but it's still the best headphone I own since it does everything very close to right and has no real flaws, and should improve greatly with better upstream components. Oh, and the soundstage/imaging is nice, too.

[Fitz]

Mine are the older style, however the box says "AKG Acoustics" on the foam, not "AKG K1000", and uses a softer foam with a larger space for the cable and connector to go. Things like this can be useful as guides to determine the approximate point of other changes, but it rarely can be relied as an absolute rule because of how much AKG likes to mess with us. Unlike many of their other headphones, there isn't an obvious visual difference in the driver to identify the change (and the difference is NOT due to the PCB), so with the K1000 you can only really rely on listening to them.

[deepak]

Just my 2c I wouldn't use the wood box as any gauge to the age or the driver version. I've owned two K1000 with natural wood box that were different inside (top lid), but they were both in the same serial number range. Using the box to determine the sound of the headphones is like using an LP jacket to determine which pressing it is (ie record companies some times just put the record in whatever jacket they had on hand at the time).

[swt61]

Mine are Black box, #06713, however mine had both drivers replaced just before I bought them, so they have the more tilted treble. That would be my preference anyway. And as I have now heard the other version I can agree that the differences are noticeable, yet far from drastic. And I also agree that both sound like a K1000.

I also agree that amp/DAC changes will play a larger role in tuning to your taste. I think you may have taken my recent reply to HPA too seriously Justin.

Edited January 28, 2010 by swt61