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Q701 distortion?

post #1 of 8
12/13/11 at 9:13pm
Thread Starter 

I picked up a pair of Q701'a and get pretty bad distortion, especially on the low end.  Now I know they are not bass monster, but if I turn them up loud, I get popping and cracking in bass, even in some lower heavy guitar, is that normal?

 

I'm driving them with a M^3 which should put out plenty of current for them, my Denon's sound amazing compared, just less soundstage.

 

Any phone that has great 701 soundstage but bass for the same price range?

 

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post #2 of 8
12/14/11 at 12:52am

Not normal.  Either somethings wrong in your setup or they're defective...

 

Dt990 have more bass/smaller soundstage.

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post #3 of 8
12/14/11 at 2:22am

Perhaps distortion is normal. Bass has increasing THD as it gets louder. But popping and cracking? Probably not.

 

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AKGQuincyJonesQ701.pdf


Edited by kingpage - 12/14/11 at 2:23am
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post #4 of 8
12/14/11 at 3:11am

The Q701 might be like the K701 if you are feeding a heavily eq'd bass signal they will not handle it, otherwise I believe hair in the drivers are something that can do what you describe.  Its very difficult for most headphones to match the K701 soundstage without spending a lot more I think.

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post #5 of 8
12/14/11 at 3:24am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starfire View Post

I picked up a pair of Q701'a and get pretty bad distortion, especially on the low end.  Now I know they are not bass monster, but if I turn them up loud, I get popping and cracking in bass, even in some lower heavy guitar, is that normal?

 

I'm driving them with a M^3 which should put out plenty of current for them, my Denon's sound amazing compared, just less soundstage.

 

Any phone that has great 701 soundstage but bass for the same price range?

Source? (CD/FLAC/lossy codec?)

 

The production of the music? (Did the producer of the music intend to give you bloated bass?)

 

A hair in the headphone driver or something else?

 

I can tell you from experience that the low end of the K701 already sounded distorted with some Pearl Jam while my 10R had a blast presenting me the bass lines. I do hope it is not an AKG thing.

 


 

 

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post #6 of 8
12/14/11 at 11:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deep Funk View Post

 

 

Quote:
Source? (CD/FLAC/lossy codec?)

>  CD and ACC from Macbook, pretty much any source I've tried

 

 

 

Quote:
The production of the music? (Did the producer of the music intend to give you bloated bass?)

 

 

Nope, happens on any music

 

 

 

 

Quote:
A hair in the headphone driver or something else?

Could be, they are brand new though.

 

Maybe this is a artifact of needing to break in?

 

 

My Denon D5000's sound perfect on the same music, source, amp, etc.  I'm almost afraid to try another pair if this is just how they respond to bass, but I do love the soundstage.

 

 


Edited by Starfire - 12/14/11 at 11:25am
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post #7 of 8
12/14/11 at 2:23pm
Thread Starter 

Well tested it with a tone generator and took off the pad and you can see what is actaully causing the noise.  The driver it's self distorts under low fequences, you can see it start to 'pinch' into corners and those pop when the driver moves back and forward.  I took a video, this is at 8hz so you can see what happens, when I turn the volume up ever slightly it reaches a point where the 'pinch' starts to occur, and this is with in listening volume, the higher end, but none the less.

 

Under 50hz I can see this occur, I might send them back to Amazon, the have DT990-600ohm for $221 under the warehouse deals for 'Used - Like New' condition

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D5gCZO4dAA&feature=youtu.be


Edited by Starfire - 12/14/11 at 7:29pm
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post #8 of 8
12/17/11 at 6:11pm
Thread Starter 

Well returned them for a set of refurbished HD650.   Wow what a set of phones, only imagine they will get better with burn in!

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