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$!

Out of contrarian rage, I ended up getting another  pair of 701s just to see why everyone is so intent on bashing these cans.  All my silver-haired classical mastering guys love these cans and go on about their ability to open the soundstage and layer it with subtle and rich detail .  Indeed, Vocal, jazz groups , piano solo, acoustic jazz, Guitar and plucked instruments, and ethnic music sounds exemplary through these cans.  They are noticeably cleaner and better defined when generously amped.

The build quality is above average for this pricepoint.  The design feels solid, well balanced and well thought-out. It's a relatively "big" assembly but never gets gets in the way once they're on your head.

The velour earcups are comfortable and fun to wear and the leather band an excellent stabilizer.  It  clamps less noticeably than the Sennies.  The Wires  connecting the headband and cups  give it a distinctive AKG design feel.

Sonically, These phones are "airy".  They provide details about the recording space and the high spectrum sonic tail coming from vocals, breathing, diction and vowels.  I hear  instrumental details concerning the string bindings, bowed strings and and tone color of upper partials of the trebles in certain recordings that are unusually revealing.  Instrumental placement and movement is as accurate as a Senn HD600, but perhaps lacks the "speed" and presence in some imaging mixes.

They don't work well with maisntream electric Rock n' Roll, metallica, or Pink Floyd. The richness in the middle is missing as is bass depth and speed  The only time I changed my mind about this is when I ran the 701 through a Audio Gd Fun, or C1 SE amp/NFB7.  Even so, I would probably reach for a different headphone if was going to head-bang through Primus' Sailing the Sea of Cheese.

This is a beautiful headphone at its current price. 

When I first got the K701, I had been using the Ety 4s so the bass was actually better on the 701s. They did sound tinny and shallow. I read that they needed about 400 hours of play to settle into the final character they will provide so I left them on along with a new tube amp for three weeks non stop. If they were going to fail, I wanted them to do it early in the warranty.

They did indeed respond both to moderate volume material and a more powerful amp. As I became more knowledgeable of the nuances of the sound, I started tweaking the cables, tubes and power cords.

I can say that while other headphones in the $250 range may have looks or a "wow"sound initially, I have always come back to the 701 for most of my listening. At this price range, I don't think you can find a better potential headphone to build a system around.

The audio quality of the headphone is based on balance. No one area of the sound is dominant. Some prefer a strong bass presentation and others prefer more highs be dominant. This headphone will earsmack you if the material presents it and your amp can deliver it. Otherwise the sound is distilled and smoothed. For acoustic and vocals, they do an admirable job. I enjoy early era progressive rock and acoustic rock with them. Anything more energetic and I have to change to the RS-1.

I am not a bass head but the 701s are bass lite. While the note is presented down to 35-40~, there is little weight unless the material highlights it. So listening to a bass groove will not stand out with the other music unless they are solo. But when listening solo, you can hear the pluck of the string by the finger, the leading edge of the note is solid and decay believable. The highs are a bit prominent. If your ears are young and treble sensitive, these could get fatiguing.

In deciding the value of these, keep in mind that you will need quality source material and amp to hear them at their best. Poor gear/material will be exposed. A solid state or hybrid amp is best suited for these because of their balanced presentation. I like tubes better but will cost more to get the same performance. AKG recommends 200 mv max. I'd recommend an amp with at least 500mw.

I'll first say that when I initially got these headphones and plugged them in, I was pretty disappointed.  The sound was thin, plasticy and terribly rough on my ears.  BUT I had read enough about the K701's to know that people recommend an extended break-in period of at least 100-200 hours.

I made a temporary setup in the laundry room: old iPod plugged into old Onkyo receiver, K701's plugged into receiver's headphone output.  I put a varied playlist on repeat, and kept the volume quite low at first.  I let it run 24/7, each day raising the volume some until it was at a decently loud listening level.  After about 11-12 days I had a listen - WONDERFUL!  There was now a deep liquid bass where there was almost nothing before; tons of detail, crystalline highs, thick timbral textures on acoustic instruments, excellent vocals (especially female).

Be prepared to do something similar if you get these.  If you're not willing to delay gratification by a week or two, you might want to get something else, but stick with it and you'll be glad you did.  I suspect the people who hate K701/702 just didn't do their research.  It takes a few hundred hours to hear the baseline potential of these headphones - it's a night and day difference - but after that they seemed to gradually improve in more subtle ways, at least for a few months.

I would describe the sound of the K701 as very neutral - they really reflect what you put into them.  If you want heavy bass, you need to play music with heavy bass, etc.  They are revealing enough to reveal poor recordings, but make good recordings sound wondrous.  For this reason some people describe their sound as 'clinical' - I see why they say this, but these are also quite musical headphones in my opinion.  As I mentioned above, acoustic instruments sound very lifelike.  John Coltrane's saxophone is palpable.  I'm quite able to lose myself in my favorite recordings, which says to me the headphones are not overly 'clinical.'  I only deduct half a star from the Audio Quality rating because they are probably not quite as mind-blowing as something like the HD800 or other exotic boutique headphones.

Only big con to me is the headband.  The middle pad, after more than half an hour or so, sometimes begins to feel like a half-inch-thick bolt being slowly threaded through your skull.  I'm not sure why; it's thick and feels pretty soft to the fingers.  It must just hit some kind of pressure point on some people.  It doesn't always hurt but when it does I just stuff a wad of gauze under that spot - a minor nuisance that I accept.  Otherwise, the comfort is great - lightweight, and the earpads are luxurious, though after a few years mine have lost their velour-like feel and are kind of faded in spots.  Not everyone likes what could be described as the 'trendy ipod white' looks, but I think they're tasteful and pleasantly high-tech looking.

For a long time I listened with Emu 1212m -> Millett Hybrid Max.  Recently I replaced the Emu with the Gamma2, which is even better.