AKG K 601

Summary: Auditioned AKG's K601 together with beyerdynamic's DT880 in an audio shop, searching for a replacement to my old, disintegrating Koss phones. Played 3 CDs of mine: Tom Waits' Blood Money, Einstuerzende Neubauten's Strategies Against Architecture II, and Queen's Day in Races; phones were plugged directly to the shop's demo Maranz CD player.

The general impression is that of a high quality product. Noteworthy is the impeccable craftsmanship of the phones. On the other hand, K601 feel a little fragile when compared to a more rugged DT 880. Also, unlike the flagship K701, K601 come in a standard, cheap plastic packaging, which, sadly, detracts from the fine build quality.

The reproduction quality was overall good with all three CDs, best with the Day in Races and worst on the Strategies Against Architecture. The phones have an impressive midrange, making May's lush guitar sound majestically full. Yet, I noticed that the phones somewhat lacked life with all the rumbling, clashing, and screeching of Einstuerzende Neubauten. These were reproduced in a slightly dull, lifeless fashion, as if the sound was coming through a veil. The effect may be attributable to me not using an amp, though --- 120 Ohms can be hard to drive.

Summing up: K601 are solid quality full size phones; I think these phones are especially well suited for listening to 'non-aggressive' material, like light rock, acoustic guitar, and some classical recordings. At the same time, I hold some reservation as to their potential performance when used with home theater systems, especially if your favorite are action, SFX-packed movies.

Summary: Argh... I'm horrible at giving impressions. I'm better at listening only though. Pardon me for my limited headphone-description vocabulary.

My first impression of the K601 is that it is rather musical. I have done some brief listening to both the K501 and K701 (both of which I found great).

It's something like

K501 -> Lean, tight bass. Great, wide soundstage

K701 -> Nice across the board. Really black between the notes

The K601 is somewhere in between. There's still a nice soundstage, though, based on my failing memory, it's slightly smaller than that of the K501. Bass is definitely more present than in the K501.

If

K501 -> Thud
then
K601 -> THUD

But of course, if

k601 -> THUD,
then
Creative HQ1700 / Audio Technica FC7 -> TTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUDDDDDDDDD

It's "greyer" between notes than the K701, but still rather nice. Details are great. I can hear some stuff that I didn't hear before, on the UM1, etc. However, it's not as good as that of the K701 (I guess you get what you pay for) Overall though, the K601 is rather quick, but with decent decay, especially if the track was recorded "live" in a big concert hall. Cymbals sound great for some apparent reason.

I'm currently pairing it off with the Marantz CD5001, ampless (which is a pity, since the K601 is a 120 ohms headphone) so my impressions may differ from others. Anyone wants to offer an amp or DAC?

I believe the K601 has not really taken off in headfi, but it does sound good to me. I tried the DT880, which is supposed to be in the same price range as the K601, and found it a tad bit clinical and dry compared to the K601, though it may have been due to the fact that I was using the DT880 with a PCDP. The K601 sounds much better on the CDP than the PCDP though. Anyone for a K601 smilie?
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v507/gohaaron/K601smilie.gif">

PS: The K601 has had around 50 hours of burn-in already.