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rawrster said:

I had them both for a while and umm..no,no,no,no and no lol 

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Pretty sure he's being sarcastic and illustrating a point.
 
But the owners with little-to-no other mid-fi/high-end experience need to chill out.

No, the HD 800 is better, but I can't justify spending that much money on headphones.  If the sound improvement scaled along with the price, then maybe.  However, they really aren't that much better.  I paid $375 for the Annie and I think they sound very good for that price range.  Obviously, if money is not a factor for you, you will just buy the best.  I would rather own the HD 800 as well, but I certainly would not pay that much for them.
 

Not a joke... It was a serious question. I would gladly sell HD800 in order to get a similar headphone for a lot cheaper!!!
 
The problem is that the ability of HD800 to render space and put every sound there with precision and accuracy is most probably hard to mimic... And it's too addictive to give up =/ I always keep saying that it's just not an ordinary audiophile headphone... I've never heard a headphone similar to it in this regard.

Ive never heard the 75th or the HD800, but for the $240 i paid for my Q701 i doubt the HD800 is worth 4-5 times the price. Plus on top of the headphones themselves id also have to invest several hundred more on a proper amp/dac for the HD800. If the Q701 or 75th is even 75% as good as the HD800 then id say its a great bargain. If you prefer the 75th over the Q701, the 75th is also a good bargain.

Guys, it's the extremely popular K701/K702/Q701 with a warmth increase over all frequencies. How can people not know exactly what to expect? It's a damn good can, but there's a real good chance that if you don't like those previous iterations, you aren't going to be too excited about the Annie. If you think there's hype, it's because you have extremely unrealistic expectations.
 
Seeing this blow back here makes me almost certain there will be exactly the same thing when people start getting the K712 into their hands. Everyone just needs to be reasonable and realistic.

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roguegeek said:

If you think there's hype, it's because you have extremely unrealistic expectations.

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That's not worded correctly.
 
There's a difference between hype existing and believing the hype, and I think you mean to advocate avoiding the latter.
 
We have 162 pages demonstrating the former.

Quote:

roguegeek said:

Guys, it's the extremely popular K701/K702/Q701 with a warmth increase over all frequencies. How can people not know exactly what to expect? It's a damn good can, but there's a real good chance that if you don't like those previous iterations, you aren't going to be too excited about the Annie. If you think there's hype, it's because you have extremely unrealistic expectations.
 
Seeing this blow back here makes me almost certain there will be exactly the same thing when people start getting the K712 into their hands. Everyone just needs to be reasonable and realistic.

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I think that would be the case but certain posts have implied these are a much better headphone than the older iterations. 

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3x0 said:

That's not worded correctly.
 
There's a difference between hype existing and believing the hype, and I think you mean to advocate avoiding the latter.
 
We have 162 pages demonstrating the former.

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I must say that this is a VERY good point.
 
Those 162 pages are definitely not filled with posts talking about "just an ordinary K701 phone with changed pads"... Not at all.

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elwappo99 said:

 
I think that would be the case but certain posts have implied these are a much better headphone than the older iterations. 

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Yeah but as I mentioned before here - people who hyped and talked the most about these already sold them... That also says something.

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rusta said:

 
Yeah but as I mentioned before here - people who hyped and talked the most about these already sold them... That also says something.

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SSHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
 
They don't like you bringing that up. 

Better is subjective. From what I have been reading I would not prefer the 75th over my Q701. I don't want more warmth, or a sound that is less airy, or non angled pads.. 
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elwappo99 said:

 
I think that would be the case but certain posts have implied these are a much better headphone than the older iterations. 

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Quote:

jasonb said:

Better is subjective. From what I have been reading I would not prefer the 75th over my Q701. I don't want more warmth, or a sound that is less airy, or non angled pads.. 

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Which x701 pads are angled? Those that come with Q701?

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rusta said:

 
I must say that this is a VERY good point.
 
Those 162 pages are definitely not filled with posts talking about "just an ordinary K701 phone with changed pads"... Not at all.

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That's a little unfair and I think you know it. First off, all opinions are subjective. Second, anyone who has been a part of this hobby for some time understands this is a game of millimeters, not kilometers. Slight differences are mocked or praised to the umpteenth degree and they should be because we're passionate and genuinely interested in those changes. It's why this hobby is fun.

Yea, the Q701 pads are slightly angled. I have a fetish for angled pads. I mod pretty much every headphone I've ever bought that didn't come with angled pads to have slightly angled pads. 
Quote:

rusta said:

 
Which x701 pads are angled? Those that come with Q701?

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I should add to my previous post that I think the Annie is a decent headphone at its price, not great - but not terrible. It's more that some of the posts in this thread comparing to the HE-400 and LCD-2 had me expecting something better than what I actually received. I will admit that maybe I should've been more realistic on my expectations from an obvious K70x driver-based headphone though.
 
At this point though, I've come to the realization that AKG's K70x driver just isn't for me anymore. Heck, I was a fan of the original K701 and owned it for almost 5 years. But by the end of that time my opinion of it had become increasingly negative, as I'd had more experience by then with a variety of other headphones. I'd still be able to recommend the Annie at its price, it's more that if we take price out of the equation and assess its sound quality alone, there are other more expensive headphones that I would much rather have, like the Fostex TH900 for example.
 
Quote:

preproman said:

What are the sonic complaints?

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Lack of clarity, lack of bass quantity, and slow impulse response, primarily. Though I can't say for certain without a direct comparison of course, but that's the impression that I've been getting from the Annie so far. Especially on the claimed bass increase - if there's a bass increase over the K701 or K702, it's something that I haven't really noticed.