AKG K701 life span

I've owned two pairs of K701's and one of them was five years old. Held up perfectly. The elastic strings were a bit worn out but fully functional. I used that pair for another six months no problem before I sold it to a fellow Head-fier.

I seriously think with good care they'll easily last 10 years. I know the elastic strings will start to go out earlier than that, but they are replaceable. You can even DIY it with one of those bungie hairties.

Oops mistook 'quote' as 'edit.'

Build quality is good on the K701 and they do feel like they could put up with some abuse. Mine were a few years old when I got them and they still were holding up well. I do hope you are getting some K701 + ____ in the trade though cause the D2000 are running nearly 2X as much $ as the K701 now. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheReem 

I have decided to do a trade my denon d2000 for someone's k701. There 2 years old I'm wondering if this is near there life span or is buying older gear more reliable with some miles under it showing its working? I have never kept headphones for a long period as I trade a lot l.

I have some headphones that are over 10 years old.

Sometimes you might have to replace a cable or some pads, but otherwise, they will last as long as you take relatively good care of them (you don't even have to baby them).

Very best,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xcalibur255 

The only thing that tends to fail are the clear plastic guides that are part of the headband adjustment mechanism, and if they do break it doesn't really affect anything. I put thousands of hours on mine over a period of four years until a tube malfunction in my amp blew them up. I'll likely own another pair, their resolution is unbeatable at the price they sell for.

Wow.. can this actually happen?? I am driving them (K701) with a Lyr (tubes), so should I be worried that a dying tube can cause this?

Besides, can a pre-amp tube cause such a voltage surge (or whatever) to kill them? I gonna address this in the Lyr tuberolling thread as well. Sounds pretty interesting .

Why I don't like using my planars with a speaker amp

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikiphile 

 

Wow.. can this actually happen?? I am driving them (K701) with a Lyr (tubes), so should I be worried that a dying tube can cause this?

Besides, can a pre-amp tube cause such a voltage surge (or whatever) to kill them? I gonna address this in the Lyr tuberolling thread as well. Sounds pretty interesting .

I'm not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge the answer is no.  The small signal tubes in the Lyr aren't nearly as dangerous if they malfunction, and even if they did depending upon the design it may never even reach the headpohnes. 

A power output tube pulsed in my amp due to what I believe was an intermittent cathode short.  Worst case scenario that is a full on 3 watt transient into the headphones, something only an ortho like the LCD-2 can survive.  The K701 can only handle a sustained 200mW.  It certainly wasn't the K701s fault that they died.  My amp is OTL the only thing between the output tube itself and the headphones is a simple coupling capacitor and even this can technically be omitted in some designs.  OTL amps sound amazing, they are very pure and lifelike but if you happen to get a bad tube this can be the result unfortunately.

I just got unlucky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheReem 

Just did the trade there actually really comfy. My E7 amp broke so using my e5 and it actually powers them ok. They sound nice and distant will have a better listen when I'm at home as I'm on the train

You definitely need to upgrade your portable amp soon.