Funny you should post about this disturbing trend, as I was recently considering starting a thread on the disturbing trend of people saying that HD 650s will not sound good unless you have an expensive home amp. I recently bought 650s, and I'm amping with my Hornet, and I was worried that they might sound slow and muddy and boring, as lots of people have claimed, but they sound amazing to me. I also tried them straight out of my iPod Nano, and they still sounded pretty good.
Now, is this to say that they won't sound increasingly better with increasingly better equipment? Of course not. Of course I eventually want to get a great home amp. But to claim that they sound bad with something like the Hornet, to me, is misleading.
I have a theory. I've heard it said that the HD650s, perhaps more than any other dynamic headphone, can change their sound signature based on the equipment driving them. And I think that the people who claim that 650s only sound good with specific amps are people who don't like the sound signature they provide with different amps. Many people prefer a sound with some treble sparkle. They think this is more exciting. I, personally, do not. So perhaps someone listening to my 650s with a Hornet would call them boring or dark. To me, they are luscious.
So I wish people would stop claiming that 650s sound boring, bloated, or slow without a stellar amp to drive them. What they should say is that if you prefer a brighter, more exciting sound, you might have to get one of several specific amps for the 650s. But if you prefer a darker sound, you have different choices, including IMO the Hornet.
(Sorry I only addressed half of your argument. I have not heard K701s.)
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