Wednesday, November 7, 2007

JVC Victor HP-AL1000


I recently traded for a JVC / Victor HP-AL1000 clip on headphone. When they arrived I was extremely disappointed at the lack of bass or really any sort of aural presence other than piercing highs. I actually had them up for sale last night on head-fi for about twenty minutes.

And then... I tried them with my iBasso T2 amp. I've always kind of liked the T2 but I did not feel that it added much to my Etymotic ER4-P or Audio Technica ATH-CK7. However, with the AL1000 it is a completely different story. Suffice it to say: I now love these headphones. They just have a pure and beautiful sound that is now much more well rounded than it was before. The instrument separation is great, the soundstage is surprisingly wide, the bass has depth and impact, the highs are more restrained, etc. I have never used the T2's "bass mode" before but it fits the AL1000 perfectly .

I also like that these beautiful headphones are made in Taiwan.

All in all, they are prohibitively expensive for clip-ons at $79 from AC but if you like clip on headphones, use an amp, and want a definite step up from the Koss KSC75 these are a great option. If you do not have an amp I would suggest holding off on these since they did not sound very good out of my iRiver H120 or Meizu M6. However, if you do have a headphone amp, consider these highly recommended.

The housing is a fantastic brushed aluminum that looks really nifty. I'll get some of my own pictures up soon. These deserve better pics online than the bland results from google image search.

No comments: