Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mad Lust Envy 
2enty3, please do us a favor and swap the pads, to see if the K701 sounds like the Annie, and vice versa. Need to know if the pads are what changes the sound completely, or if they retuned the drivers as they stated. Also, I know you're not happy with the headband's size, but I find the smaller contact area much more appreciable, and the headband is infinitely more conforming to one's head shape, not forgeting to mention the huge comfort boost of not having bumps.
So it seems that the bass is the main difference. Not surprising. However the addition of bass does tend to make things smoother overall. Like the D7000, the bass tends to linger a little, warming up the sound to my ears. Something that definitely doesn't happen with the older models. As is the rule of audio, when you emphasize something, something else will be lessened.
As is typical with bass boosts, either mids or treble will be lessened. Wouldn't surprise me if it's the uppermid/treble range that is audibly lessened, as that is how I hear it. That's why the upper mids don't seem fatiguing to me now.
I wish I had the newer K701, which seems to be quite improved over the old 7 bump version I owned. That one was...ugh. The Q701 was quite a leap in enjoyment over that old K701.
Right, I did this but forgot to mention it. To re-fresh my memory, I tested it again just now, and the results are... odd.
First I did one headphone with different pads, then same pad, different headphones, in that order.
65th+Angled vs 65th+Memory:
The angled pads give it less bass, but not by much, but end up increasing the high frequencies quite a bit as well. During A-B, hi-hats with some songs were many times louder, enough so to stand out from the rest of the songs. It felt like the hi-hat was supposed to be the main focus of the songs. Otherwise, the clarity and soundstage remained unchanged.
K701+Memory vs. K701+Angled:
The memory generally made things louder, most likely because of the closer distance, however the bass was indeed increased. That gain was at the cost of quality though, because the mids in general sounded very muddy.
Angled+65th vs. Angled+K701:
The heightened treble previously mentioned makes its appearance once again, and it surprisingly is more prominent than with the K701. The K701's treble is "tamed" I should say, where as the 65+angled it's just super emphasized. My hypothesis is that in order to have the 65th have more bass and retain it's clarity they upped both ends of the spectrum.
Memory+65th vs Memory+K701:
Here the K701 does develop a slight bass boost, making it a little closer to the 65th, but at the cost of a significant reduction in soundstage and clarity. It sounds like a defective 65th. In fact it now seems to be closer to the K240 in terms of quality, but the sound signature is still treble favored.
I don't know what kind of voodoo the people at AKG pulled, but there's most definitely something different going on inside those ear cups.
EDIT: Oh, and I got # 738
