Official Denon AH-C700 Comparisons/Impressions - Page 23

more from the link, in context

"Sound Signature

The sound signature on the LiveWires is very surprising, given their price. In fact, I found the sound signature to be nearly identical to the Sensaphonics 2X-S earphones, at less than half their price! Highs are silky and sparkle with extension out to 16kHz; mid-range is thick and accurate, but a little on the slow-response side. The low end is impressive, with great impact and quality extending to 20hz."

So, "thick and accurate" means full, and not thin or hollow or distant, etc...

"Recorded music stands out with vocals and warm instruments (acoustic guitars, for example) up front, framed by powerful bass. As I said earlier, the mid-range is a little slower in response; this takes away some of the accuracy, but definitely allows the LiveWires to have a "fun" factor; these 'phones are hardly analytical."

I am not sure how you hear the micro/millisecond delay in mids, except maybe by signs or phase distortion, which I think is not present because of the nice soundstage.

That review confirmed several points I made in my review.

The high end extension and brillance (i.e. sparkle)
The low end extension
The bass close to the E500 (they heard more than me, maybe my source?)
The sound stage
The fun factor
The efficiency
etc...

Now you know you want them, but you just can't say it ina Denon appreciation thread...

Changed my source from 3G iPod nano to iRiver H140 via headphone jack. I'm working my way up to then adding the iBasso D1 DAC/AMP via optical out, then going to lossless optical out via my Sony pcdp.

WOW!

The Livewires are impressive to say the least. I knew the iRiver was a better source via headphone jack from previous tests I've done - but I wanted to see how my "Most Portable" setup would work first. I should have just skipped right to the iRiver.

In regards to the source, with the LW's I can clearly hear the LACK OF HISS in the iRiver. The nano does have some hiss at first, which does quiet down when the program material begins. Also, if I play anything under 256kbps VBR I can tell more easily with the LW, just by listening to the imperfections in 192, 160 and easpecially in 128kbps. The 3G nano hides those, covers them up.

With the proper source the bass is now BASS and improved noticably, in volume level, impact and bass texture and not just amplitude.

Sound stage is improved noticably as well. Pianos are not a question mark anymore, they are clean and detailed and blend right in with the rest of the instruments. The nano just couldn't do them justice. I've documented this in iRiver vs the 5.5G ipod video on other threads before.

Going back to try the Denons, the LW do everything the Denon do, just better. Same with the SE500's, the E500's just hid the imperfections in the source, and the LW are now my favorite IEM's

Next up, I will do optical out into iBasso D1 (source iRiver or Sony pcd). But, I am off to bed now. You'll just have to wait

I bought the PK1's after reading Kramer's reviews. They're honestly the best earbuds I've ever heard. And am I crazy thinking that they sound even better than my SR60's?? Of course, the only bad thing about them is the fact that an amp is needed and that there's no isolation, so commuting with them just isn't efficient. I think I read that Yuin is working on an isolating version. I hope they lower the impendance, as well!

I'd like to thank everyone who chimed in on the bass. I now have all the information I need about the Denons but, of course, I won't REALLY know until I listen to them. Soozie, I'm in North London. I'll take you up on your offer to listen to your Denons if it's still up.

They (LW vs E500) sound completely differen't, as I said above. It takes a person with wide tastes in sound signature to like both. Not everyone appreciates the wide variety of sound signatures, whereas I like many. I like my Senn HD600's and Ultrasone HFI700's both, and they sound totally different, etc.

I'm like the guy who likes cashews and peanuts, but another person wont eat anything but cashews (and they have to be whole, not pieces, etc) and rants and raves about the flaws of peanuts (allergies, peanut skin, shell or no shell, too little or too much salt, ball park vs circus peanuts, blah blah blah).

So, there will be people who don't like the Livewires, but I'd guess that they will typically be the people who ONLY like the SE500's (or Atrios or Bose) - But, for the most part, I think the LW sound signature is what most people at head-fi are looking for and haven't found yet. They have definitely curbed my interest in hearing the triple.fi 10 pro and ER4p (I know how the UE fit my ears, and I know I like's me bass). The crazy thing is, I want a second pair of LW's in clear now.

(PS: I also have in my music library some country, jazz, new age, trance, hip hop, pop, classical, rock, acoustic and folk, dianna krall and nora jones, ani di franco and jack johnson, plus metalica and beatles, rolling stones and kelly clarkson, and all the other opposites you can think of)

In regards to the "thick, slow and flat" comment:

I don't recall him using "thick and slow" together in that review, which together can carry an entirely different meaning.

I think we can agree that he was meaning full and rich in one part, and the comment about slow mids just doesn't strike me as being accurate like the rest of his interview. I have listened to "fast" instruments with mids, including piano/bells/xylophone/vibraphone, and certain types of drums, and I don't hear slow - if anything, the LW are faster than the C700's.

The C700 have a more relaxed sound signature, smooth without grating details, but inserting the highs that the E500's are missing. With the C700 the sound stage is more up front than as wide like the E500's, while the LW manage to achieve more forward mids and wide sound stage at the same time.

THEY ARE ALSO MORE SENSITIVE TO THE SOURCE THAN C700 or E500's too. A poor source or recording will be revealed more easily. I still haven't gotten around to amping them with the D1, as my out of town guests only just left, and I am relaxing and listening to the LW with the iRiver headphone out right now and loving them. Before it was the C700 I was reaching for first.

-------

PS: First I want to re-rip all my music as 320kbps VBR. If I want lossless I'll use my Sony CD player optical out into D1. Besides, for me 320kbps is MUCH much harder to tell from the original than some of my older and lower fixed rate (128-192kbps).

Right now I have about 2-3gb of music as 320kbps VBR, another 8gb as 256kbps fixed rate iTunes plus, and about 12gb as 160-224 kbps VBR from eMusic. Anything at or below 192 fixed bit rate isn't pleasing me when listening with the LW's (like my kids 128kbps music).

I still have another 200 CD's that aren't even ripped into my DAP library yet, and only 50gb of free space left on my iTunes external hard drive (298 formatted). That includes 31gb music, 163gb of movies and TV shows, 40gb of video podcasts, and 4gb music videos. I do plan to move everything over to the new 500gb drive I got last month, but I just can't spare the disc space to go lossless while I still have the CD's in a large CD changer player.

You guys are making me interested in the Livewires.

That sounds like me.

You should consider consolidating all your impressions into one thread.

I like making you follow me around head-fi more.

Actually, by having this in "the" Denon thread, a Shure is yucky Thread and a Livewires review thread (that were already there and popular), then people can ask questions particular to their phone of interest vs Livewires.

I always post a new thread and it is great and all, then dies after a few days, and I update it and have no idea if anyone is still following it.

Would you guys say the c700's pair up well with alternative/indie music?

indie is not a genre. it specifies whether the band is under an independant label.