AKG K701 Review Thread - Page 26

Good Evening to All

First I have to say is that I am still content with my AKG K701.  I have the stock cable so I haven't resorted to replacing the cable as of yet.  I may not go that route since the headphone is quite excellent sounding.  The initial impressions leading to the 500-hour mark have been a great listening experience.  I made some minor modifications to the foam rings replacing them with the drying cloths from Deutschland cut to the same exact shape of the original foam dampening rings.  The mod has soften the overall brightness that the AKG K701 has to something that is a go between the Beyer and Sennheiser.  The same airy feeling with the expansive sound-stage is present but without the overly harsh and sibilant overtones that plague this particular headphone. 

I have posted some pics of the mod in a previous post that I have started when I joined Head-Fi.  All I can say is that I have a very unbiased ear when it comes to reviewing headphones.  The mod was a tried and true method of figuring out a way to soften the very clean and clear highs without creating too much of a laid back experience.  Since that post, I have made additional changes to original mod to the point where the sound-stage is slightly wider, more perception of depth, and very smooth transitions from high-mid-low.  Low frequency response is deeper without sacrificing control.  Mid-punch is the same while the treble transition is much more subtle rather than piercing.  This is when comparing with the ATH-W5000 and Beyerdynamic DT990/600-ohm Reference Audiophile Class.  I can't really use the Sennheiser Orpheus since this would be an unfair comparison. 

Please look up my mod for the AKG K701 and feel free to ask questions as to the material used and where to obtain it.  I was very specific to the type of mod and since the last post.  I will probably add one more addition to my original post to show the final mods leading to the point of this review.

Until Then, have a great week everybody.

YKL

I have the K702 and since they are exactly the same I figured I'd post here. The K702s sounded horrible when being amped by The Apogee One. The sound was totally skeletal as if I had equalized it to "trebal booster" in itunes. No body what so ever. I thought about selling them. I'm glad I didn't though. I thought I'd wait until I got my Schiit Lyr to judge them. I got it yesterday, and the 702s are amazing!!! I was a major HD650 fan until now. The HD650s sound totally muddy and lack highs. My ears are very sensitive to highs, which is why I loved the HD650s so much. The highs from the K702 are just perfect. They glitter like stars. They don't fatigue  AT ALL. The mids are not recessed at all. The Lyr makes the bass come out of these things. Not too much, not too little. Well balanced spectrum! I never thought an amp could make or break a headphone. I never thought an amp could make this sort of a difference. Oh man was I wrong. The Lyr has made these K702s freakin AMAZING! I'm not even using expensive tubes yet; just RCA ones.

They K701's can be a weird headphone sometimes. I really liked them though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KB24 

I have the K702 and since they are exactly the same I figured I'd post here. The K702s sounded horrible when being amped by The Apogee One. The sound was totally skeletal as if I had equalized it to "trebal booster" in itunes. No body what so ever. I thought about selling them. I'm glad I didn't though. I thought I'd wait until I got my Schiit Lyr to judge them. I got it yesterday, and the 702s are amazing!!! I was a major HD650 fan until now. The HD650s sound totally muddy and lack highs. My ears are very sensitive to highs, which is why I loved the HD650s so much. The highs from the K702 are just perfect. They glitter like stars. They don't fatigue  AT ALL. The mids are not recessed at all. The Lyr makes the bass come out of these things. Not too much, not too little. Well balanced spectrum! I never thought an amp could make or break a headphone. I never thought an amp could make this sort of a difference. Oh man was I wrong. The Lyr has made these K702s freakin AMAZING! I'm not even using expensive tubes yet; just RCA ones.

Comepletely agree!

I bought a Matrix M-Stage (with class A mod) for my K-701 and I didn't like it at all with my CD player. 

The K-701 sounded thin in the bass and sharp in the treble, so I returned it.

Two weeks ago I bought a Audio-gd Master-6 to drive my HiFiMan HE-6 (that combo sounds terrific by the way, but is much, much more expensive). Still having the K-701 around I plugged it into the single ended hp output of the Master-6 and wow! Now the treble was tamed and the bass was there - not overly so, but much more. The K-701 is a completely different animal - and yes, I was using the same CD player and interconnect cables.

In other words: the K-701 not only benefits, but in my experience needs much more power, than one should think when looking at the sensitivity and impedance. If I should recommend anything, I would say look for headphone amps that has at least four times the output of the M-Stage, read: 1,5 watts in 62 Ohms. I haven't heard the Schiit Lyr, but it is only $ 445,- and outputs much more than that.

Having owned the K701 since they were released, I'm still not sure if I like them. On my admittedly meager setup, vocals are what I believe some call "clinical", lacking smoothness. If my mind serves proper, the K701 reminds me of the Alessandro MS-1, and how it it distinctly disavowed the pleasant coloration of the normal Grado line. There's pros to this of course, vocals sound more realistic, intimate, raw. You can hear the raspiness, sibilance, and all other manner and emotion right from the vocalist lips. Is that neutrality or just another form of coloration, I can't say. I can't even say if I enjoy this over the warmth in other headphones/speakers.  My brain and ears have to focus greatly in order to get the best of the vocals, which is both fatiguing, and causes me to pull attention away from the instruments.