AKG K702 65th Anniversary Edition - Page 67

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salvatore 

 

Yeah I've had the most rewarding conversations via PMs. Probably your comment was aimed at general, but you posted it here in annie thread where I have been the person to give the most positive (and possibly the most hyperbolic) impressions. Can't really remember you posting here anything useful. Hence the rant. Blaming people for hyperbole discourages new members to write their honest impressions. Like I said, it seems to be more rewarding to lurk and ask via PM.

 

For people who say there to be only subtle differences between K701 vs 65 I have only one thing to say. You haven't tested them sufficiently. With more bass heavy music like hip hop etc the annies sound noticeably different (bass wise). Anyone who has auditioned them properly can tell this and it's no exaggeration. If you listen some acoustic light pop then the differences are indeed subtle. What makes these cans versatile is that with light music they sound almost equally good as the other models (I say almost because some people might feel that they lose some of the sparkle) but with hip hop etc annies sound superior. I guess it makes me a fanboy to enjoy annies more than any other AKG product I've heard. Trust me I had the opportunity to get K701s, K702s or Q701s and save hundred + euros, but for me the annies are just so much better headphones and worth the extra. Comfortability and sound wise that is. I'm no rich man but I still felt that 395 euros for these was a good investment. I've been also saying that the retail price is ridiculously high.

The Q701 to me is very accurate. I bet the 65th is too, but maybe a tiny bit less so due to it's extra warmth. Sometimes I think the Q701 is slightly warmer/bassier than dead neutral (other than low-bass). Crazy I know. This is also with the ODAC+Magni or Micro Amp. I bet with some songs I could hear zero difference between the Q701 and K702. Mostly in garbage recordings that are very thin and trebly to begin with. On some of these recordings, the Q701 is so accurate that it almost make it sounds as if I have an AD700 on my head. I mean like zero bass or any warmth at all. Some Jpop falls into this category. I think it's just being accurate. For reference I can switch to my KRKs and K601 and hear them in a similar way. I find the K601 a bit more neutral in the bass. It's also less warm and more accurate I think (in the bass). Just slightly.

I could then switch tracks on my Q701 to say a very warm recording and it feels almost like the Q701 has transformed into like an HD-650 with a huge soundstage! I was listening to my free Tony Bennett CD yesterday and I swear I could believe how warm and full sounding my Q701 was. When switching to the HD-650 the difference was very tiny. If you take the HD-650 and switch back to the garbage recordings it magically sounds so much better and not so thin/trebly. I find the HD-650 much more colored, but not too badly. I do love that headphone.

With my setup and ODAC (the most important part IMO!) there's some major variations in how recordings sound with the Q701. If I didn't know any better i'd be complaining it was all my headphones fault.

I'd love to have the 65th, but I can't afford $400 headphones. Stupid economy is killing my business and things are tougher. Hopefully when I move and things turn around I can buy one. I might sell off some of my headphones to get one.

I'm perfectly happy with my Q701, so interest is low. I am curious though. I've been loving my Q701 more lately after changing some things in my setup.

My Q701 was only $235, so $400 kind of hurts... I imagine those pads add to the price too. I do remember that the Q701 was also much more expensive the first year and of course the 65th is a LE so it's always going to be more expensive.

BTW I'm betting money that the 65th measures the same as the Q701, but still sounds different!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdockweiler 

I'd love to have the 65th, but I can't afford $400 headphones.  I might sell off some of my headphones to get one.

 

My Q701 was only $235, so $400 kind of hurts... I imagine those pads add to the price too. I do remember that the Q701 was also much more expensive the first year and of course the 65th is a LE so it's always going to be more expensive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

^I agree with you on almost everything you just said. I too feel the Q701 is slightly on the warm side, but it's an incredibly accurate headphone, with just a bit of bass shyness. The Annie is just as accurate with the exception of being even warmer in tonality, and the bass being just north of neutral, in that bass will be strong is the song calls for it, and natural when it doesn't.

You would love the Annie, I'm 100% sure of it. Of course, it's a harder sell for those with Q701s to begin with, and especially so for those who don't listen to bass heavy genres as much as other genres, and are fine with the bumps on the non-Annies.

Both of these posts are pretty much my current line of thought. 

I wish I knew whether AKG was going to keep the headband and pads around after the anniversary edition runs out.  I would be fine waiting a while for them to creep into the other x70x line if it saved $170 dollars.

Maybe after I hear the Q701 and K702 65 back-to-back I will have a better idea of whether I want to go ahead and make the "swap."

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicolom 

 

Maybe after I hear the Q701 and K702 65 back-to-back I will have a better idea of whether I want to go ahead and make the "swap."

This sounds weird, but if I ever get my 65th and love it, i'll still keep my Q701. Is that weird?

I think I have some sort of weird attachment to it

My like of it went up a lot when I got my ODAC and then further when I upgraded my amp (same one).

The other graph is set up incorrectly for our purposes. If we really want to compare the frequency responses in any detail, we need the two lines to be stacked on each other at the same ranges.

As for an "identical" frequency response, there are lots of audible differences between the two. Keep in mind that a clearly audible difference is around 2dB in volume;

• 4dB variance from 15Hz to 600Hz, and declining variance all the way to 1kHz
• 4dB variance from 3kHz to 4kHz, and increasing/declining variance from 2.5kHz to 3kHz, and 4kHz to 5kHz, respectively

That's quite a large chunk of the frequency response that differs by a clearly audible amount. It may not be enough to create wildly drastic changes, but it is more than enough to noticeably alter the tone of the Q701.

As an aside, any arrogance perceived is on your end only, my friend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdockweiler 

 

This sounds weird, but if I ever get my 65th and love it, i'll still keep my Q701. Is that weird?

I think I have some sort of weird attachment to it

I know exactly how you feel.

I dunno, we'll see...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

Chico, give me some time, fool! I think this time around, you'll be the first get the Annies.

Of course, you could send the Q701 with the HE400s, so I can compare first...

If I sent the Q701s back with your "care package", they would still have to go through two more people/weeks before they got to you.  I think I would start going through withdrawal being without Q701 for 3+ weeks.

My plan was to wait and hear the anniversaries and compare, and then, if I likey, I would send you the Q701s for a week then sell them.

Why do ear pads have to be so freakin' expensive?  I would just get the K702 65 and then buy some spare K702 foam pads if I wanted the Q701 sound again.  $40 per pad?!  I can buy two sets of KSC35s for that!  ARgh!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

Just that the one guy who did swap pads still said the Annie was still warmer than the Q701. So not sure how accurate pad swapping would be to get the Q701 sounding like the Annie and vice versa.

If when I do yet to compare I would definitely swap and make sure its just the pads making the sonic change or if the drivers were tuned for more warmth in addition to the pads.

It's possible the anniversary is still a little warmer. 

Maybe if you "measure" the anniversary as being 100% warm, the Q701 might be 80% of that with it's own pads, the anniversary might be 85% of it with the Q701 pads, the Q701 might be 95% of it with the anniversary pads, etc.

Or it could just be placebo...

I think I've only seen 1 guy say the anniversary was still warmer, and I thought I saw two guys say if you rule out pads they're basically the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicolom 

 

Why do ear pads have to be so freakin' expensive?  I would just get the K702 65 and then buy some spare K702 foam pads if I wanted the Q701 sound again.  $40 per pad?!  I can buy two sets of KSC35s for that!  ARgh!

I remember calling them and the guy told me they're "very expensive" due to being limited edition (not my words).

$33.57 or something each side. I ordered them last week and it'll take another 2 weeks for them to ship. When I called they were not yet inside the USA.

This isn't bad compared to HD-650 pads.

I'll let everyone know if they'll sound similar. I think the trick will be to use them with the 601 grills. The Q701 actually sounds a tad warmer (barely detectable) with the grills off.

Who knows..I could have been hearing things. The Q701 sounded much worse with stock pads and K601 grills. Lost a bit of it's warmth, but was clearer. And no it didn't sound like the K701/K702. Still warm/full sounding.

Don't ask me how 601 grills make it sound less warm than with the grills off.

I mentioned this in another post, but the Q701 pads actually ADD bass/warmth to the K601. Weird huh? The K601 pads do feel a bit softer.

I wonder what K701 pads sound like on the Q701? Don't remember anyone trying that. You'd think they were 100% identical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tus-Chan 

The other graph is set up incorrectly for our purposes. If we really want to compare the frequency responses in any detail, we need the two lines to be stacked on each other at the same ranges.
 

OK. Let's do that. Here are the two graphs from InnerFidelity stacked on each other.

Don't care about the bottom (grayed) curves (those are the raw data)

The audible differences (over 4dB) occur at around 1 kHz and between 2,5 and 5 kHz. A little lower energy on Q701 above 10 kHz. No difference between 15 Hz and 600 Hz.

I am not really sure if this is really enough to perceive one of them as more bassy or different in some other way.. Maybe it is.

What I believe is that there are two versions of K701. One older and one that is more similar to Q701.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xy3T6FrDP0&list=PL7B271D4B511CFD37

The bass on this track is very impressive on the Annie. I highly doubt the non-Annies can produce it as faithfully.

Whoa - this an intense track for bass!