HD 598 or AKG q701?

What kind of music do you listen to?  What are your goals?  What kind of presentation to you prefer?

the original price for the hd598 around 173$

you should wait until the price decrease .. or find another web site

The AKG's may be cheaper (and they're better headphones imo), but you're going to want a decent headphone amp to drive them properly. That's going to add to the cost if you don't already have a decent amp.

The HD598 is like a baby K701, that doesn't need as much juice as the K701. However, the K701 properly amped will sound more refined overall. They are quite similar in terms of overall sound though, with the K701 being just ever so slightly brighter while the HD598 is close to what I consider neutral, but still tipping towards slightly bright.

hd598 is a better choice for you. warmer and bassier than k701 and an amp is not needed, unlike k701.

 

I disagree. There are worlds between the two.

 

The Sennheiser fits perfectly into the category "easy listening", whereas the K701 resembles a tool. For pure musical enjoyment, I'd pick the technically inferior HD 598. It's warm, slightly bassy and overall enjoyable. It's a good first headphone.

 

Strengths of the AKG are linearity and high resolution. Both which can be impressive but also slightly distract from the overall musicality. This is my personal observation and opinion.

Nothing about the HD598 resembled anything remotely close to warm, and this is off various sources, and a neutral amp. It is close to neutral, so if you pair it up with a warm amp, I can see it change to a warm headphone, but its inherent sound signature is lean on bass, very rich in mids, and treble emphasized slightly. Its the most un-Sennheiser can out of the typical Senns outside of the HD800.

The K701 is also inherently lean on bass, mid rich, and treble emphasized slightly.

The headroom graphs also show just how close they are to one another. Not that graphs mean anything, but it is worth noting how similar they are. I'd post it, but I'm on a phone.

I do agree that the K701 is definitely analytical, while the HD598 is less so, but I put them both on the analytical side. A K701 with warm flavoring would sound like the HD598 off a neutral flavor of amp/source.
Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 1/8/12 at 5:50am

Funny, I found the HD 598 to be warm when I auditioned them yesterday. They were very similar to the HD 650.

The graph also looks warm:

 

I also think the HD 598 is much more personal and forward sounding. The AKG is distanced and kinda pulls you away from the music.

 

All in all, I do think the AKG can impress, but for pure simple enjoyment, it's a wrong pick.

That graph looks very different from headroom's. I am not a fan of warm headphones, and nothing about the HD598 said warmth to me.

 

Nothing conclusive, but as you say, graphs can only tell you so much. I have the HD595 and assuming the HD598 is similar, I wouldn't describe them as warm either. 

I have the PC360 (modeled after the 595 with a mic, more or less), and the HD598 is brighter... so yes, you would be correct in thinking this.

It definitely sounded much warmer than what I am used to and voices appeared also dark to me. And even with the headphone.com graph you can easily see that there is obviously more emphasis on bass than on highs, with mids being fairly neutral (however you have an emphasis on fundamental tone so they appear also dark).

 

This tilt is still relatively minor (within the Sennheiser lineup) and more in a pleasing way than a striking feature like with the HD 650. However, the HD 598 is warm and that's a fact. If you did actually compare it to the K701, I have no idea how you could miss that.

I compared them DIRECTLY as they were both my go to headphones for hardcore ANALYTICAL gaming, and they were both on the bright side, no question. The PC360 is known to be a neutral gaming headphone, and the HD598 is DEFINITELY brighter. The HD598 at release was known to sound nothing like prior Sennheisers, and with good reason. It has a treble peak that is unlike typical Senns.

I don't know what you're going for, but there's nothing warm about the HD598. The graphs show a bass hump, yet all I heard is lean bass off everything I plugged it into. Again, graphs don't prove anything. The only thing I agree with is how the HD598 and K701 look similar for a large portion of the graph, which mirrored my own thoughts on them before I even looked at the graph.



The graphs would lead you to believe the HD598 is on par with the D7000 in terms of bass.... which is quite utterly ridiculous. The D7000 has some massive amount of sub bass, which the graphs don't show AT ALL. Not to mention some definite treble emphasis which some consider too sharp. I found the HD598 to have sharper treble.
Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 1/8/12 at 7:45am

I think you need to revise on how to read the graphs: the D2000 has a PEAK at 30 - 40 Hz and that is much more subbass than almost any CD has recorded! How much more subbass do you hear that is not shown in the graph???

 

The AKG has 5dB more upper mids and highs compared to the Sennheiser. That's 5 dB colder! You can't tell me you don't hear that?!

 

And sorry, but which treble peak do you mean? There is no treble peak! The highest point measured is at 0 (Zero!) dbr past 10kHz. Ok, compared to the tiny normalization at the very top, highs are recessed by up to 4 dB, whereas bass is where? Elevated by 4db. What does that tell us? The disbalance of fundamental and overtone is relatively at 8 dB. That is quite a warm tilt.

 

I don't care if your wobbly bass booster PC360 is considered neutral, because it definitely isn't. Every untrained normal ear will tell you the HD 598 is warm - compared to reality and not to PC gaming.