Q701 appreciation thread - Page 152

Thanks derbigpr! Do I have to worry about watts per channel or ohms / impedence on receivers with these headphones?

Appreciate you helping a noob out :)

Thanks derbigpr! Do I have to worry about watts per channel or ohms / impedence on receivers with these headphones?

Appreciate you helping a noob out :)

+1   I can hear things I can't hear on some other headphones, like reverb decaying in a room or sympathetic resonance on a piano. But it isn't a detail monster in the say way something like a DT990 is, where it etches out every breath to the point it's annoying.  (BTW, to me DT990 is much closer to what I would consider "treble region screaming in your face."  No offense DT990)

What impressed me about the Q701's treble was that it maintained a touch of warmth while still sounding detailed, which is balance that is rare from my experience.  It's dialed back just past the part where you hear excessive air/breathiness, sibilance, graininess, etc (more than you would in real life).  I don't want to hear that stuff, and I don't with the Q701 - which is why it sounds natural to me.

Amen.

These are two of my favorite attributes of the Q and why they are the accidental champions of value.

I also thought the soundstage seemed perhaps too big until I heard a few higher end phones, including the HD800.  Now I know that this is just a general trait of most "Hi-Fi" circumaural headphones and have learned to very much enjoy it after brain burn in.

Nah, don't worry about specs at all until you hear the device. Plug in the headphones and listen to them, if you like how they sound, specs are irrelevant. I went on a little quest earlier this years trying out as many amps and receivers as I could to test out their headphone outputs, since almost everyone was claiming their headphone outputs are bad and are only an afterthought. Well, WRONG.

I ended up listening to about 20 of them in the <500$ range, from Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, HK, Nad, Pioneer, etc. ALL had excellent headphone outputs that sounded great with high and low impedance headphones. Amps sounded slightly better than receivers (Onkyo, Denon and Marantz had the best sounding headphone outputs), and they pretty much all sounded as good or better than the dedicated DAC/head amps that I had tested at the time as well, Asus Essence One, Teac UD-H01 and CA Dacmagic+.

At the end I ended up buying an Onkyo A-5VL amp with an integrated DAC without knowing a single piece of spec about it. I bought the thing purely on listening experience, haven't heard of it before I entered the store, never read a single review on it. And that's how everyone should buy their gear, don't read reviews, try it, compare it in the store, don't believe anyone on the internet, especially not official magazines, you never know how much they get paid when they get a review unit. Don't even believe me now, go into a store and try it for yourself.

All receivers / amps I tested had plenty of power for any headphones I tried them with (DT880 600 ohm, Q701 and HD650, so all impedances covered).  What all receivers and amps had in common in terms of sound was musicality, punch and size. I don't know how to explain it, but all headphones sounded "bigger", I guess the soundstage was bigger, bass was punchier and more voluminous (probably due to lower damping factor) and music just sounded nicer, somehow more coherent and just more involving. I guess that's what you get when you buy a real properly engineered audio component, instead of paying 500$ for a small aluminum case the size of your palm with less than 100$ worth of components inside, which lets face it, is what you get with most dedicated head amps these days.  After getting this 22 pound heavy amp which has so many inputs, sounds excellent with speakers and headphones, is built like a tank, looks and feels expensive, has a top of the line Burr Brown 24/192 DAC inside, bi-wiring possibility, etc. and all that for 400$, I just cant justify buying a head amp or dedicated DAC.  I look at my Little Dot MkV and Onkyo A-5VL, and I think to myself, how is it legal that these two things cost the same?

My favorite receivers were:

Onkyo NR509

Marantz NR1602

And integrated amps:

Onkyo A-5VL (which I ended up buying as I felt it was best overall in terms of sound/cost/features)

Marantz PM5004

Denon PMA720AE

Nah, don't worry about specs at all until you hear the device. Plug in the headphones and listen to them, if you like how they sound, specs are irrelevant. I went on a little quest earlier this years trying out as many amps and receivers as I could to test out their headphone outputs, since almost everyone was claiming their headphone outputs are bad and are only an afterthought. Well, WRONG.

I ended up listening to about 20 of them in the <500$ range, from Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, HK, Nad, Pioneer, etc. ALL had excellent headphone outputs that sounded great with high and low impedance headphones. Amps sounded slightly better than receivers (Onkyo, Denon and Marantz had the best sounding headphone outputs), and they pretty much all sounded as good or better than the dedicated DAC/head amps that I had tested at the time as well, Asus Essence One, Teac UD-H01 and CA Dacmagic+.

At the end I ended up buying an Onkyo A-5VL amp with an integrated DAC without knowing a single piece of spec about it. I bought the thing purely on listening experience, haven't heard of it before I entered the store, never read a single review on it. And that's how everyone should buy their gear, don't read reviews, try it, compare it in the store, don't believe anyone on the internet, especially not official magazines, you never know how much they get paid when they get a review unit. Don't even believe me now, go into a store and try it for yourself.

All receivers / amps I tested had plenty of power for any headphones I tried them with (DT880 600 ohm, Q701 and HD650, so all impedances covered).  What all receivers and amps had in common in terms of sound was musicality, punch and size. I don't know how to explain it, but all headphones sounded "bigger", I guess the soundstage was bigger, bass was punchier and more voluminous (probably due to lower damping factor) and music just sounded nicer, somehow more coherent and just more involving. I guess that's what you get when you buy a real properly engineered audio component, instead of paying 500$ for a small aluminum case the size of your palm with less than 100$ worth of components inside, which lets face it, is what you get with most dedicated head amps these days.  After getting this 22 pound heavy amp which has so many inputs, sounds excellent with speakers and headphones, is built like a tank, looks and feels expensive, has a top of the line Burr Brown 24/192 DAC inside, bi-wiring possibility, etc. and all that for 400$, I just cant justify buying a head amp or dedicated DAC.  I look at my Little Dot MkV and Onkyo A-5VL, and I think to myself, how is it legal that these two things cost the same?

Nah, don't worry about specs at all until you hear the device. Plug in the headphones and listen to them, if you like how they sound, specs are irrelevant. I went on a little quest earlier this years trying out as many amps and receivers as I could to test out their headphone outputs, since almost everyone was claiming their headphone outputs are bad and are only an afterthought. Well, WRONG.

I ended up listening to about 20 of them in the <500$ range, from Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, HK, Nad, Pioneer, etc. ALL had excellent headphone outputs that sounded great with high and low impedance headphones. Amps sounded slightly better than receivers (Onkyo, Denon and Marantz had the best sounding headphone outputs), and they pretty much all sounded as good or better than the dedicated DAC/head amps that I had tested at the time as well, Asus Essence One, Teac UD-H01 and CA Dacmagic+.

Re: 330 ohm output impedance, Q701 impedance is pretty constant up to 10KHz, the little boost you get after that might even be a plus.
 

What does this even mean? If the impedance is constant, than output impedance does not matter?

Buying these from Ebay means I'll have no warranty right?