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Every time I read about the K701 it makes me want to try them out, sigh. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, they're pretty insightful-- I'd like to see what you think of the K240 models in comparison.
__________________ “I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
-Oscar Wilde
Equipment:
Home: Arcam CD73, Audio-Technica AT-PL50, NAD C740, AR 308HO, Sennheiser HD595, Grado SR80
Portable: 60GB Apple iPod "video," 2GB Apple iPod nano, lots of MD players, Ultimate Ears super.fi 5EB earphones, Koss KSC 75 Old stuff: Cambridge D500SE, AKG 240s
Tomorrow I think im going to demo the K240 again.
Donunus, I think it all has to do with the effect of a closed can. The bass will probably be much more present in the K701, but the K271 would have the effect of a closed can on the bass making it seem like more?
That graph is definitely not what I heard between the two. Thats QUITE a rolloff
Still though, the K701 reminded me a bit like a hospital. High precision, very clean, but not as engaging as the K271s.
More thoughts on the styles of music i listened to prompted me to evaluate my need in a headphone as well. I think that the K701s excel at high quality organic recordings, IE live instruments and singers. I listen to a lot of electronic music, and I am feeling that the ability of the K701 might be overkill for electronica. As much as I'd like to have a pair for when I DO listen to stuff that would shine on the K701s, they are pretty darned expensive for just that.
I am very eager to see how the HD850s compare as well
Tomorrow I think im going to demo the K240 again.
Donunus, I think it all has to do with the effect of a closed can. The bass will probably be much more present in the K701, but the K271 would have the effect of a closed can on the bass making it seem like more?
That graph is definitely not what I heard between the two. Thats QUITE a rolloff
Still though, the K701 reminded me a bit like a hospital. High precision, very clean, but not as engaging as the K271s.
More thoughts on the styles of music i listened to prompted me to evaluate my need in a headphone as well. I think that the K701s excel at high quality organic recordings, IE live instruments and singers. I listen to a lot of electronic music, and I am feeling that the ability of the K701 might be overkill for electronica. As much as I'd like to have a pair for when I DO listen to stuff that would shine on the K701s, they are pretty darned expensive for just that.
I am very eager to see how the HD850s compare as well
K701 needs a lot of hours to mature. The pair I broke in showed significant improvement around 350 hours. (I wasn't logging hours accurately.) Some claim much longer play times to optimize.
They are also very demanding and require high quality system components that have particular synergy with the 701. You'll have to search the forums to find possible choices.
One amp that I've found that gets a bit, lush, very engaging sound from the 701 is the Audiovalve RKV MkII with OPA627 upgrade (not without it) + Eddie Current EC/DC impedance matcher, which (via X-Ray CD transport > Muse DAC in my example system) presents deep well-articulated bass, warm/rich mids, the usual width with great depth, very dimensional/rock solid layered imaging, sweet highs with great/subtle inner detail, gorgeous voices, excellent timbral representation, great PRAT, etc.
Some portables can drive them well, but it can tend to have that analytical, though spacious, sound with many. The RSA Hornet adds nice warm and bass punch and drives them very well, IMO. The Portaphile Maxxed gets the most dimensional and layered imaging out of the 701, and has deep/well-defined bass, and though the mids could use a bit more warmth -- that might limit the transparency, air, and layering and I like the sound it creates with the 701.
The 701 definitely likes good tubed amps, and there are a variety to choose from. Finding a match in a modest budget is tougher. I just offered a few as an appetizer. Some solid state amps get a big sound out of them, but the better ones are in the upper price ranges (RSA Apache comes to mind).
Since you like good bass energy, the K501 is probably not for you. It has sweet, "natural" mids and upper mids, very wide sound stage, tight bass, but the 701 is superior in many ways, if mature and driven properly.
I personally find the 271 rather dry, airless and somewhat lifeless for my tastes.
Good luck.
__________________ る [ ... looks arcane, huh? ... well, maybe or maybe not ... ]
chocolate gelato Av is on holiday -- Life Is A Cabernet -- or maybe a Fuller's Vintage Ale!
true but an anomaly that big is usually detected by the ears easily. the headphones that i have heard correspond perfectly with headrooms graphs. hd555, hd595, some grados, and the dt990s especially. The spike in the treble in the graph really drove me nuts!
Were you listening to Sony MDR-7509 or 7509HD? I've thoroughly auditioned the latter together with broke-in AKG K701's and HD595's, and in regards of overall "listenability" those Sony's kick AKG's ass. The only better was AKG's sweet and lush midrange while Sony's play everything so honest and true, with no coloration. The only drawback is their plastic housing giving sometines slight echos on higher midrange. Bass, soundstage, and overall truthfullness is exceptional.
I hate that treble spike in the 701's, too. I'm relatively young and my ears don't need such a compensation of age or work related hearing loss. The trebles in the 701's sound artificial and overemphasized for me. I'm also a guy who wouldn't swap HD595's for HD580's.
__________________ Cans: recabled Creative Aurvana Live! , Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro, Grado RS2 , Sennheiser PX100 Plugs: CrossRoads Mylarone X3 Portable sources: iRiver E10 , iRiver ifp-799 Home source: modded Technics SL-PS840 Headphone drive: DIY amp named Moonlight :) Gone 'phones: AKG K324P , Grado SR325i, Senneheiser HD25-1 II , Sennheiser HD595 , Sennheiser CX300 , Koss KSC35 , Sony MDR-40T , other tiny stuff mp3 players from the past: Teclast T39 , Cowon D2 , iRiver clix2 , Meizu M6 , RAmos RM850 , iRiver T10 2GB, many other tried
that k701 spike annoys too??? even after burn in??? I was talking about the 990 but good lord that would not be good if that spike in the highs of the k701 does not agree with my ears hrtf. Its hard for me to interpret it well because there are no k701s to audition in our country. Interpreting the hd595s graph and listening to them make me feel that those frequencies around 6-10khz that the k701 peaks at are just what I need to make my 595s perfect in tonal balance and I am hoping that the k701s are what my ears need... look at the graphs. My god, the 701s look just like a deveiled 595 and if only graphs told the whole story, these look very similar
While adding the dt990s that I thought were sibilant looks the part
Well I did notice that the K701s at the higher treble frequencies were quite forceful. Maybe thats why I prefered the K271, since it was a rolled.
And now that I think about it, even though they were the demo model I doubt those K701s got 300hrs of burn in.
Linear Mode
