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Given I am cleaning up my headphone collection the recable is postponed. If no one shows interest in the K400/K500-set I will definetily have them recabled.
Tdogzthmn, the vintage gems are usually underestimated on this site. Do you know why? Most consumers of this age and generation have been brainwashed not to ask too many questions, not to dig into what came before and not to try anything else than what is new.
The HD800 is still an overpriced joke in my opinion. The K701 is even worse, especially if you have gotten a taste of what came before (K240 DF, K400, K500) and good companies like Pioneer, Philips and Behringer are often ignored.
Enough for now...
I need to try the K240 DF sometime. Sometimes my sextett sounds good and other times it sounds awful. I think I have a pair that must be bass heavy or something and have chopped off treble. I think it's probably my most hated headphone, but it mids are quite good. Hopefully the DF is way different than the Sextett.
If I connect my Sextett to a really warm amp, it's sound seems to degrade majorly. Don't ask me how or why, but on the E9 it actually sounds quite good. It makes no sense!
I know by now you think AKG is just all marketing, but you should really demo the Q701 if you can. I had the stupid K702 so many times and I kept coming back to it but could never deal with it's treble and goofy soundstage. Once I got the Q701 I got rid of my K501 (kept the K601 for gaming). I imagine there's some here that probably think I'm drinking the AKG marketing Kool-Aid, but they really do sound much better and a little different. Could be something so tiny that changes the sound a bit, even perhaps a cable. Wish I knew. I just know I can't listen to the K702, but with the Q701 it's totally non-fatiguing in every way. Maybe AKG burns it in for 1000 hours at the factory
None of my gear has changed either. Maybe there could be some massive variation between pairs, but not likely.
At $230 the Q701 was a steal for me. I've found it much warmer and fuller sounding than the K501, but it's soundstage is way smaller.
I like my K400 a lot, but for some reason I keep going back to my Q701 since it's so much clearer and detailed. Mids are a little better on the K400 (and more engaging), but not by much. Now with the K702..I'd take the K501 or even K601 over it any day. Despite owning the K702 maybe 4 times I kind of have a love/hate thing with it. This Q701 seems to get the soundstage right. No idea how.
People can say The Q701 and the K701 are the same over and over, but I'm just not hearing it when I listen to them
One thing I noticed in the last year is so many companies selling $300 headphones that sound like $150 worth of sound quality. The K550 and SRH-940 was like this for me. Very rarely do I ever hear a headphone that's say $150 and sounds like something much more expensive. Maybe the KRKs and some old AKG headphones.
I just scored a Koss A/250 for $100 a few days ago and I just can't believe how good it sounds for a $100 headphone. Impressed me even more than the K550. Has some similarities to the K400 I think, but much brighter and more detailed. Mids might be just as good believe it or not! I don't know the history of the A/250, but I imagine it's a Koss headphone that never caught on. It's kind of fatiguing though, but might set the record for the most detail I've heard in a headphone yet. No joke!
Always felt the best headphones are ones that are just not popular or ignored. It's sad how a $20 bass heavy headphone gets 50 pages for it's thread, but a studio monitor that's probably the best headphone in years to come around is virtually ignored.
