AKG K701 Studio Headphones

Lets start with:

Design, build quality & comfort:

They are white - thats what people notice on the first look. I must say I really like the design and the "feel" - The leather headband is a nice addition to the white and gray colors.

Build quality is very very good - they are very sturdy and don't feel like breaking apart after a month. I dropped them incidentally few times, rolled with my chair over the cable and they are still in prefect condition. 4 Stars

*Comfort - before I bought them I read alot about the comfort (haedband) issue and when I put them first time on my head I was sure that the rumors were true - the bumps were digging a hole in my skull.

BUT: I got them about 2-3 months now and the comfort is no longer a problem for me. About a month ago I tried to soften the bumps by squeezing and pressing them. I'm not sure if it helped, but now I think that they are one of the most comfy headphones I tried! The best are the pads - very thick and deep:) 4 Stars

The K701 leaks alot to the outside - they could be very annoying to other people. They also don't block much of the outside noises.

Audio quality:

When I put them first time on my head I was simply out of my breath - the amount of details I've never heard was amazing! Vocals also sounds great.

They shows their best when listening jazz, ambient, chillout and classical. Sadly they DO NOT rock. They sound very thin when listening SOAD, Korn or Sepultura:/

The BASS issue: the bass is tight, controlled, very deep, the only thing lacking in K701 is bass IMPACT in bass-heavy music and rock/metal.

They've got huuuge soundspace (some say: too big). This is a feature, which makes them great for movies (at least for me).

Amping - is another big thema with K701, but DON'T EXPECT NIGHT/DAY DIFFRENCE! - if You don't like them unamped, you'll probably won't like them with powerful amp. When properly amped their sound becomes more smooth and less fatiguing - the bass is also a bit better in all aspects.

Burning in - beat me, I'm not noticing any spectacular diffrence over the time.

Overall: 4 and half Stars

Conclusion:

If youre looking for high details, great with jazz, classical (!) and vocals headphones you can't do better at 250$!

This is the only pair of headphones I bought that I was never able to warm up to.  The reason for this is that the mids - especially vocals - take on an unnatural, artificial and plasticky sound.  They never sounded true to life and began to grate on me after short listening periods.  They were OK for instrumental music, but even then, the tonality was off in the mids.

What's disappointing is that AKG dropped the K-501 and K-1000, and gave us this.  The K-701/2 is nothing like AKG's previous efforts.  I have the K-1000, K-340 and K-240DF, and used to have the K-501.  All of those got the midrange right.  I was expecting to love the K-701 as well, but like I said, the artificial tonality in the mids completely ruined them for me.

Strangely, the K-601 sounds halfway decent the times I've listened to it and I remain hopeful that AKG will introduce a model that gets the mids right.  They used to have some of the best mids of any manufacturer.

Favorite headphone for soundstage and detailed highs

I am not a sound expert when it comes to anything hi-fi, but I bought these headphones secondhand 9 months ago just because I wanted a great pair of phones, for once.  I'm also a self(ish) taught bass player and I had gotten through a number of cheaper ear and head phones with my bass played through a Korg Pandora practice unit. My only problem at the time of purchase was the fact that I'd not done enough homework to realise that, first off, they work best with an amp - that's how much I know.  However, as they don't sound half-bad on their own, I kept them. Now nearly a year later I'm pissed that what I think is a straight forward design flaw has lead to a broken pair of expensive cans rendered practically useless.  One of the two thin plastic mechanisms which help to pull the phones tight over the head has broken. I can't believe it. So, beware y'all!! These may look gorgeous, but unless they sit on a shelf, or in a frame, without use, you may end up pissed like me.