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| Its been a while since I bought my pair of Sennheiser HD595 headphones and somehow I caught the upgrade bug and decided that it was time to upgrade, this time I want to get as close to Hi-Fi nirvana as I could practically afford without having to live on plain rice and soy sauce for the rest of the year. I finally took the plunge to purchase a pair of headphones that I had my eyes on for a long, lonely time. The AKG K702.
AKG Acoustics Gmbh is an Austrian Audio Equipment company that has has brought considerable audio engineering skills on their flagship high-end dynamic headphones and have produced an astonishingly superb-sounding pair of cans in their flagship K702 reference headphone models.
These headphones deliver a truly dynamic and texturally punchy sound, articulate and clear over the full audio spectrum. Compared to my old pair of Sennheisers the dynamics really stand out, the clash of drumsticks on the cymbals while listening to rock music is clear and accurate, you could almost feel the sound waves as it travels into your ears. The impact of snare drums had sharpness and a simultaneous focused bass decay unlike anything I've ever heard on a sound system. Precise musical detail connoisseurs would appreciate the clean punch and tightly focused bottom-end bass control of these headphones - deep, focused and clean, its like a gush of warm air.
Its very well suited for classical and acoustic music and I love the fact that the dynamic control moves right on up the frequency range to distinctly articulate every finger pluck and rosin-on-gut string texture present in the violins and the soft warble in the voice of the french girl in the Cirque de Soleil Quidam soundtrack, its presented with such musical poignancy that fills you with longing. I'm constantly discovering new details in the CD's I've owned for over decade and it seems like a completely new mix each time.
These are certainly highly refined audiophile-oriented headphones that deliver a deeply expansive soundstage image, and I mean this soundstage is absolutely HUGE! When I put these on I could literally pick out the dimensions of the stage or recording studio the CD was recorded in. The placement of the individual instruments was clearly defined withing a space of about (what sounds like) 15 meters, Celion Dion's voice in the center 3 meters to the front, a choir of distinct male and female voices is the background behind, with the air of the orchestra gliding around a medium sized concert hall. The ambience and acoustics of the setting has been recreated in stunning detail right inside my head, it brings a smile to my face.
However this uncanny analytical detail and a liquid immediacy demands your full attention, I absolutely CAN NOT multitask when listening to these cans! I was trying them out at work they the first arrived, attempting to perform my daily duties whilst having instuments whiz-banging inside my head with such realism is truly distracting and I'd find myself being pulled back into the alternate reality that has materialised between my ears. You really cant have them for "background music" because the music comes to the foreground of your perceptions!
About the only bad thing that I can possibly say about these headphones is that is quite laid-back, meaning that is puts you in the 3rd row seat of the presentation. Whist this is great for classical and any acoustic music where the spaciousness, placement of instruments and ambience is of importance, its not really well suited for electronic music which demand an up-front and in-your-face presentation that give you a phat kick. Good thing I have the HD 595's as backup as this is very upfront and will become my trance/hardstyle headphones.
I think I'd have to whole heartedly agree with the widely held assumption that the headphones require a REALLY extensive chunk of burn-in or play-time to fully 'relax' sonically and sound its very best. In the past 2-3 weeks I've been tuning the burn-in period with a combination of frequency loops, white noise and pink noise. Without going too deeply into the mathematics, white noise sound like radio static and pink noise sounds like a waterfall and consists of all the audible frequencies played together at the same amplitude. This sound generator allows me to tune the headphones for the desired effect, and now after about 100 hours of burning in I find that the midrange has come forward, the highs have become much smoother and less harsh than it was back in the office when I first put them on. The general professional audiophile editorials community have a sort of unanimous agreement that the sonic qualities will continually improve and become its best at 200-300 hrs of playback. This plans out perfectly as I have already started a new piggy bank for a tube amplifier and Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) to complement this set and complete the entire audio chain. You see, the quality of the whole system is as good as its weakest component, so eventually my sound system would be:
Computer CD -> Foobar2000 with ASIO output -> Creative X-Fi Platinum Sound Card -> Digital Coaxial SPDIF output -> Canare coax cable -> Audio-GD DAC -> SharkCable RCA Interconnects -> DarkVoice 336 Tube Amp with European valves -> AKG K702.
Oops, at the time of writing I've already ordered the tube amp... another review in the coming weeks after I've spent some time with it!
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| Having just come back to Sydney after a holiday in Melbourne seems to have hit me with the post holiday blues. Coming back from a city of freedom and expression to the mundane routine of human life is almost too much to bear on the first day back home. I'm using this perplexed and depressing time to reflect upon the state in which things were in, how meaningful and joyous the experiences were, and what I'd sacrifice to be there just - one more time. But the reality is, its become just a fragment of my past.
As for the future, the words of Barack Obama resonates through my mind, and let them be the vessel of hope that will allow us to change our world.
The trip taught me something about family, a lesson I will take with me for the rest of my life.
At PHD, another era begins.
I love Melbourne, its such a beautiful city.
Lets go for a holiday, to a place that is my personal retreat and spirtual sactuary that no-one may intrude, with heartfelt emotions that only I could understand.
-Release Me- | | |
| Dear Carol,
Does your cup overlfow?
My cup is empty. I think it was half full, or maybe it was half empty. Half full would imply that I had a full cup and i drank from it, but I think I started with an empty cup and someone filled it halfway for me. I appreciate that.
But I poured it out.
And it stained my hands.
In loving memory.
(I'm sorry, it's late at night.) | | |
| Society needs to wake up.
I was dumbfounded in disbelief when I heard that Bill Henson, an internationally acclaimed artist had his exhibition raided by police. Henson's work is art in its finest grade, not child pornography. People should really know the difference between nudity and pornography. Nudity has been a subject of art for centuries and the context of the images were not perverted in any way. Those morons out there need to take a look at some real porn and get educated on the difference between art and porn.
The people who scrutinise his work and criticise the images must be so ignorant and have no sense of appreciation of art. The recent raid and the subsequent closing of the gallery has dealt a heavy blow on the development of creativity, it is a big loss. I am so dissappointed at the lack of knowledge and understand society has towards art, child protection agencies must be sitting around with nothing better to do but twiddle their fingers and find the pettiest things to persecute. I grieve for the injustice of having an artist labelled as a criminal.
History tends to repeat itself. For centuries genius's have been wrongly persecuted and even been put to death because they put forth ideas mainstream society with their dimunitive minds have not been able to accept, and this is one example.
People of Australia, get civilised and look past the nudity and look the the messages behind the art that is most spectacular. Its year 2008, and its supposed to be an era of sexual liberation. People take pictures of their naked children in the bathtub with a rubber ducky all the time, thats not labelled as porn. Nude pictures for public viewing makes no difference, child protection agencies get over yourselves and go catch some real criminals. I suggest you look at some real porn so you know what it really is and please stop, for god's sake, damaging the art scene.
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