I
believe sorry
I believe this earphone is mostly
titanium and plastic now I’ve actually
owned this earphone for quite some time
as well because I’ve been watching the
street price for this earphone drop from
the original you know five hundred and
ninety nine dollar recommended retail
price it dropped all the way down to
about something like two hundred and
fifty dollars on Amazon Japan and I was
really curious about this earphone
because as I mentioned before there’s
virtually no reviews about this e phone
on the Internet
now as a flagship earphone this earphone
has quite a number of things going for
it so it’s got that titanium housing
it’s also got the perman dual magnets in
it so what it has instead of the kind of
usual cobalt materials they use as the
magnetic element in the driver it uses a
stronger magnetic element called perm
Indu up which I haven’t actually heard
of until now
now it’s debatable whether that makes a
difference or not but a perm into a
magnet should technically allow for a
higher magnetic flux capacity on on the
earphone you know Tesla’s and everything
like that I don’t even know anybody any
good stuff but anyway um I was really
curious because there’s virtually no
reviews about this product and since its
released it’s basically been quietly I
believe replaced with the CK r10 but I
figure now is as good a time
I need to make a review about them now
let’s start with the e pieces of the ckm
1000 because they’re probably the nicest
part of the whole earphone now the e
pieces are made of titanium as I
mentioned before and titanium is a metal
with a very high strength-to-weight
ratio which is one of the reasons why
they use in bone implants and
audio-technica likes to use it in a lot
of their fancier our headphones now the
ckn 1000 has a titanium body and then
this part is made of plastic and this
part is also made of plastic I believe
that the ckw 1000 is pretty much the
same it has black titanium housing but
the back part of it is wood instead of
this plastic part but I believe the
front part is still plastic now the
titanium as you can see it gives the
earphone this are really interesting
feel to it they’re very very lightweight
they’re oddly lightweight in a way given
they’re quite large size they make an
interesting noise when they clink
together it’s a really interesting
material and the shape of the earphone
as you can see is this kind of half
earbud up in ear design it’s a very
complex shape I think it’s actually
quite beautiful but it is a bit of a
strange looking earphone as we go down
the actual cable on the earphone we go
up to the Y split and then this is
another thing that’s very it speaks to
audio Technica’s kind of audiophile
Heritage they’ve chosen to use a dual
stranded cable along the entire length
and the reasoning behind that of how to
explain to me is that by you know kind
of keeping the cables separate the whole
length of the cable they’re trying to
improve audio quality it’s kind of
debatable whether that makes difference
or not but you know that’s one of those
things that people will pay for now
Audio tender kind of ruins things in a
way because once you get far enough down
the cable you get to this adapter here
and I got to say I really do not like
this because it is both really chunky
the adapter actually doesn’t sit flush
with the jack as you can see so I just
think it looks really clumsy it looks
like an aftermarket adapter rather than
something that came with the product
it’s very strange
again this speaks to something of the
Japanese domestic market because a lot
of their audio players have the inline
remotes that you might plug this into
though I would have thought that if you
were a kind of discerning audiophile you
wouldn’t use those kind of remotes but
Who am I to judge anyway we get with a
dual standard cable all the way down
this is actually quite a long cable
which is another kind of unique feature
of this earphone we get to this 90
degree angle plug and I got to say even
though this is a chunky plug this is one
of the nicest plugs that I’ve ever
encountered on an earphone it’s just a
you know nicely made absolutely
brilliant strain relief this is also one
of my favorite parts of this earphone
now in terms of comfort the ckm 1000 is
a half in ear half earbud design so it
must be worn with the cable hanging down
and because the cable is so long and
it’s not particularly supple and you
have this big chunky adapter it tends to
move around a lot while you’re using it
and it produces a lot of cable noise
it’s actually very very distracting so
this is one of those earphones that you
have to just kind of sit down and and
use instead of moving around with it in
terms of actual comfort because the e
pieces are quite light and it’s got a
conventional design it’s actually quite
comfortable it’s got that going for it
but again this is kind of more from
audio Technica’s old school book of
making cables which are slightly
impractical on their earphones and now
we get to the sound of the CK and 1000
now before I bought the ckm 1000 I asked
a friend of mine who owns the CK and
1000 what it sounded like and she
described it to me as the sound of
screaming into a metal bucket and now
that I own the CK and 1000 and I’ve
heard it I have been putting off this
review and I almost didn’t do this
review because of how accurate that
description is now let me start by
saying this I really love audio technica
are as an audio company I believe they
have a really kind of almost artisanal
approach to how they tune their
headphones so instead of going for
absolute neutrality
they tend to tune things more in this
old-school philosophy of of trying to
capture an impression of sound so audio
Technica’s how sound very frequently
kind of emphasizes the vocal range are
particularly female vocals in a way
that’s very vivid and very lively and
this is true of most of their high-end
headphones whether it’s like portable
headphones like the es10
or their entry-level full-size
headphones like the ad700x or their
flagship woody headphones each of those
headphones sounds different but they
have each a kind of unique rendition of
vocals now the ckm 1000 also has a very
unique rendition of vocals but
unfortunately the unique rendition is
like screaming into a metal bucket that
the earphone has extremely forward
aggressive vocals they sound splashy and
aggressive on some instruments at low
volumes acoustic tracks that kind of
thing it sounds really nice like with
string instruments with female vocals
that emphasis is is really kind of
breathtaking and and vivid but on a lot
of other tracks most other tracks it
actually sounds really harsh
this is especially even compared with
the sony ex1000 which is kind of the ckm
1000s dynamic driver counterpart because
Sony and Audio Technica
are big rivals at least in the Japanese
domestic market the ckm 1000 is harsher
than the ex1000 which is telling you a
lot because that’s one of the main
complaints about the ex1000 the ckm 1000
is so harsh that even a well mastered
album like the Daft Punk’s random access
memories which everyone agreed was a
really well mastered album ends up
sounding a bit tinny and a bit sibilant
on the ckm 1000 so that gives you an
idea of the kind of signature we’re
talking about now I don’t think that the
tuning of the ckm 1000 was a mistake
it’s definitely got a sound which is
kind of take no prisoners approach to
audio Technica’s house
so it’s in terms of everything else in
terms of the signature it’s a lovely
earphone the base is very very
controlled it’s very well extended it’s
really quite beautiful
there’s a scoop in the the mid-range so
particularly with male vocals so so that
you end up getting that emphasis on the
female vocals but even if everything
else about this earphone has really
lovely texture and it’s got a nice sense
of pacing and soundstage and everything
like that the treble absolutely
dominates the signature and this is one
of the few earphones along with audio
technica CK and 70 where I couldn’t
actually stand listening to this
earphone for longer than a few minutes
um it’s just that kind of extreme
signature now in some of the comments
I’ve read about the CK m-1000 apparently
it sounds quite similar to the ckm 99
and the ckm 500 and that’s what made me
kind of curious about the ckm 1000
because those other two II phones have a
bit of a cult following on head Phi but
now that I’ve given this a listen uh I
have to say I’ve never been kind of more
put off by an audio technica earphone
product now maybe you might like it uh
some people kind of really like this
lively signature maybe if all you
listened was a sari or you listened to
was acoustic music at low volumes the CK
m-1000 would sound kind of beautiful to
you maybe you have high-frequency
hearing damage so that the CK m-1000
would sound more like a kind of take out
courier as opposed to a say tree hotpot
you know it’s maybe less spicy depending
on how sensitive you are to various
frequencies I don’t know all I can say
is that I find the CK m-1000 nearly
unbearable now that said uh the CM 1000
has a street price of about 180 dollars
now on Amazon Japan so it’s kind of an
interesting option if you’re looking to
buy something flagship and exotic
without breaking the bank
and if you really are still curious
about this earphone even after watching
this review head on over to my facebook
page because I will be putting up
headphones are for sale after I finish
this review and I’ll put that money
towards getting the new audio technica
CK are 10 which is I think the earphone
that’s meant to replace the CK are sorry
the CK m-1000 I’ve heard it briefly and
I quite enjoyed the sound so I’m looking
forward to trying that as far as the CK
m-1000 goes as a flagship earphone I
think this is a flagship that’s probably
best left under the sea.