K701 and Sextett first impressions - Page 3

I plugged my 701s into my computers headphone jack, with on board sound.. They sounded very good, but doesn't mean they were being driven well. Hell, the 340s sounded good out of my DAC1, but was still clearly under powered.

Nope that's not what I tried to say. They didn't sound _that_ good out of the onboard-soundcard. They lacked soundstage, some smoothness and details in comparison to my real setup. But that seems to be mainly because of the internal DAC being crap compared to the Havana. They didn't sound that inferior as I thought they would. There was the same amount of bass and mids - it was just more "digital" sounding, with less resolution. I didn't have the feeling that they were too underpowered but that the DAC made the real difference.

It's much more evident with the GS-1000 though. Not that they sound bad either out of the onboard thing but it really lacks some bass (extension) and the mids fall way back. Probably the onboard card is capable of providing a relatively high voltage but not of much current, which is needed by the low-impedance GS-1000.


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Anyway I found something about the Sextett's. You probably know this grille that's protecting the passive drivers. I took that one off because in my opinion it must destroy sound quite a lot... hell it cuts off about 50% of the area. Not mentioning reflections and all the other stuff that this thing must be inducing.

So yes, it changes the sound massively. Bigger soundstage, (even) more bass, warmer mids... yeah it makes them _really_ warm. Even some cold and harsh Black Metal sounds warmish with them . Anyway - some bluesy, jazzy rock like Bourbon Princess' "Dark of Days" sounds extremely well that way. The bass and the drums sound incredible... not to mention her voice, that can light a flame inside you.

The only problem is that the membranes are to exposed that way. There is also some space between the inner side of the pads and the membranes but I can imagine that because of the clamping force they can touch the membranes a bit once the cans are on the head. That may hinder them from moving correctly.
So if you like their sound that way, the next step would be to cut a big hole into the grille and put it back so that the pads rest on the grille but the rest is free from it. Putting some thin cloth on the grilles (or what's left of 'em) to protect the drivers wouldn't hurt either .

Had the 702 recabled with Sweetcome Divas. Overall sq prefferred the LP sextett. As to overall detail the 702 got the nod, but sextett warmth won me over in the end.

Agreed. There's just something about the warmth, weightiness and liquidity of the sextetts that makes them very special. I would have to give the sextetts the nod over my RAL-recabled K701.

That's exactly what I do when I've modded the screens on them. Cut out the mesh part of it, leaving just the outer ring with some fabric stretched across it.