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Drivers for K701

post #1 of 18
12/30/11 at 11:40am
Thread Starter 

T'sup guys.

 

 

I'm puzzles.

 

 

I got thees cool headphones "AKG Reference headphones K701" and mind me saying, they sound like ass.

 

It must be because there is something wrong with drivers or w/e.

 

My question is what drivers or perhaps something Else I need for this handsom looking headset to work great?

 

I tried Realtek R267 but it still sounds very bad. Infact, my 30$ headphones far surpasses the AKG's when listening to random music right now.

 

 

I'm new to this stuff and obviously am missing something.

 

 

Thank you in advance.


Edited by SkyPc - 12/30/11 at 11:41am
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post #2 of 18
12/30/11 at 12:42pm
Thread Starter 

Still a problem.

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post #3 of 18
12/30/11 at 1:11pm

Perhaps you could explain better what "sounds like ass" means.  Is there distortion, or clipping?

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post #4 of 18
12/30/11 at 1:16pm

Since you're using onboard soundcard you should've expected bad sound. AKG K701s are fairly hard to drive, they start to shine with a dedicated sound card or an amplifier.

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post #5 of 18
12/30/11 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 

Yes, I'm sorry for my sillines.

 

By "sound like ass" i mean something that doesnt sound like music, something that does reflect some sounds and totaly depleet others.

 

For example, when i see a video tutorial on youtube, it barely picked the mans woice on highest volume....Barely but played the background music in a decent volume just in very distorted quality.

 

 

And this is acuring and  reacuring. I unpluged it many times and tried other plug holes mic/rear/input etc and now it works good. But still the problem is unstable. I remember having the same problem with my last pc with same headset.

 

 

Now that it works good, (as good as it can be w/o a dedicated sound card.)

 

Could you still recomend me 2 good things such as :

 

1. Good soundcard for this headset( im on budget)

2. Good audio drivers to get the best out of this headset.

 

 

Also, even on max these headphones are a bit quiet, how can i boost the overall volume?

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post #6 of 18
12/30/11 at 1:41pm

To get them loud you are going to need an amp, but I think first it's important to rule out the headphones being damaged.  Are their any other sources that you could test them with, maybe a home stereo, or surround receiver?   Using on board sound they aren't going to sound great, but they should still be clear, just not loud at all.

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post #7 of 18
12/30/11 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 

I tried them on my Ipod.

 

Sounds wonderfull.

 

 

 

And now that they work rather good on my PC still sound terrible. Meaning that the songs that Felt inspiring for me beffor now sounds boring and flat. No base etc.

 

 

Tried my old Senheisers and they seem to do better on my pc now.

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post #8 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:02pm

Ok, so they probably aren't damaged, just under amped.  You can start researching headphone amps now.  I haven't tried one but I've heard people like the Asus Zonar ST sound card, this is another option that I haven't tried http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-Desktop-Portable-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B005C5IN98/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325282373&sr=1-2

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post #9 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 

Hmm, that's a 150$ solution and im kinda broke.

 

Thanks tho. I know amps will help, just that I'm dazzled by the fact that these headphones give a tad bit worse or same kick I get from my old pair. ( I know they are amazing headphones, people i trust recomended them to me)

 

 

 

p.s.

 

Could you throw in a link to good audio drivers please. I know many, but I'd like to hear a recomendation this time.

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post #10 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:12pm

Try ASIO4ALL for drivers.

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post #11 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:26pm

I can't help you on drivers as I use an ASIO driver which gives direct control of my DAC to the DAW software I use for the lowest possible latency.  That is not what you need, and your realtek chip can't do that.  I think I maybe can help with the amp though.  I'm in the same boat, being short on funds and am using an old stereo amp that I had collecting dust, it's big but gets the job done nicely.  You may be able to find one if you check goodwill or the salvation army stores, and craigslist/ other classifieds.  Try to find one from the 70's to early eighties, you might get lucky and snag something for around $25 and it would make a huge improvement even while still using the onboard DAC.

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post #12 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:34pm

Are they brand new?

 

I'm not a proponent of the 'burn-in' debate but these are one of the headphones that are supposed to have a ridiculously long BIP to sound better.

 

Your issue just seems to be they are underamped currently. When amped properly K701 are some of the best sounding headphones I've heard.

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post #13 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyPc View Post
And now that they work rather good on my PC still sound terrible. Meaning that the songs that Felt inspiring for me beffor now sounds boring and flat. No base etc.

The AKG K701 are notorious for needing hundreds of hours of burn in to make them sound their best. And if songs sound flat, boring, and no (bass?), you needed to do research before buying the headphones. That's kind of what the AKG K70x series is, not boring but flat relatively to most other headphones and no bass or rather very controlled bass. Also they also need at least a decent amp to drive them FiiO E9 maybe and a fairly clean source (NOT onboard sound), they're very revealing headphones and if you listen to them on a bad DAC, it reveals all the flaws of the DAC.

 

Also try WASAPI, ASIO4ALL is a little more complicated to set up compared to WASAPI (for me at least) and if you're going to go bit-perfect, both of them are. One is just easier to set up.

 

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post #14 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:41pm
Thread Starter 

They are fairly new. I dont think they are damaged.

 

I downloaded the asio4all. Cant really controll anything there, as i see there is nothing to open. Did it help? I'm not sure.

 

 

Sexiewasd, I Live in Latvia and In my opinion it would take a long time for me to find something like that with knowledge of mine.

 

I guess i have to start looking for a good sound card for these headphones.

 

 

mtkversion, what does BIP mean? Bipolar? I didnt understand that sentence.

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post #15 of 18
12/30/11 at 2:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyPc View Post

mtkversion, what does BIP mean? Bipolar? I didnt understand that sentence.



"Burn in period"  But I don't think that is really your issue, I've used mine (fully burned in) with on board realtek, and I more or less agree with the "sounds like ass" statement.

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