[Redcarmoose]

Quote:

  I hope to get Q701 next week and it takes about two weeks to review.
 
 

Interesting to hear your views on the enigma of k701s for metal. They did play some Opeth albums well. They are really not a metal headphone in anyway but can reproduce some carefully chosen albums. 
 
I may be getting an amp tonight to give them another chance at metal in regards to solid state. Still I don't have my hopes up. They are super detailed and you can hear every little thing.
 
I always thought maybe they could be worked out to play thin old Black Metal like the album Frost by Enslaved. The theater quality and sound-stage seemed like it may work. In the end though they seem to only work with stuff like Bathory Nordland series,( his last two  records ) 
 
 
 
 
 
In ending I guess they would work with something like this even though your not adding any of the needed sub-base this album always lacked. It is the sound-stage and mood that the k701s added.
 
 
 
 
Having lived with a pair for years I still think I would look elsewhere for metal headphones. Still there were fun times with them.
 
 
 
 

 

[levap]

  I wonder if I'm the only guy who doesn't consider a wide soundstage to be an automatic positive. 

Positively no )
   - soundstage should fit record’s soundstage, so vast scene by default could be unnatural and inappropriate for chamber genres
   - usually wider soundstage leads to less punch, there are lots of records, where I prefer powerful punch to fancy soundstage (i.e., thrash, grindcore)

 

[levap]

  Interesting to hear your views on the enigma of k701s for metal. They did play some Opeth albums well. They are really not a metal headphone in anyway but can reproduce some carefully chosen albums. 
 
I may be getting an amp tonight to give them another chance at metal in regards to solid state. Still I don't have my hopes up. They are super detailed and you can hear every little thing.

To discover point of perffection of non-metal headpones on metal - posslibly the most exciting part of my enterprise ) So, please, share your experience.

 

[Redcarmoose]

  To discover point of perffection of non-metal headpones on metal - posslibly the most exciting part of my enterprise ) So, please, share your experience.

Well, I don't advise any Metalhead to get the k701s for metal. That said, the whole thing is getting over the two main issues with them.
 
1) The k701s are almost impossible to drive correctly. But, you can drive them to a listenable level, but they only shine with very few amps in my experience.
2) They can have an energy in the treble region that we want to run as far and as fast away from with metal. 
 
 
 
If you somehow find an amp for them then spend time to get used to the sound there can be interesting experiences to be found. Don't laugh but they were my main headphones for metal from 2008 to 2009. Don't ask why. I should not have done it to myself. I did have some Sony headphones too that I used that year.
 
 
The only amp that I have found that powers them is the Woo 5 LE or Woo 5. The tube sound helps smooth out the upper treable spike. I just purchased an Asgard One from Schiit with the 10 second power on relay. No hum and nice but even that powerful amp does not slay the dragon that is the k701. I actually own two pairs of them but still look at them as entertainment headphones and not something for really serious metal listening. I use the Denon AH-D 7000s for that.
 
 
 
I probably used em as my main headphones for a year because I don't buy a lot of equipment. I can tell you that after a year you are used to their sound. They are good for electronic music, totally great with Opeth records (vinyl) for some reason. The best band I used them for was Dead Can Dance. lol
 
Don't think the Asgard One can power up k701s that well for what Metal really requires of an amp.
 
 
 

 

[swspiers]

The 400's are totally outclassed by the audeze, and in some ways by the 500's ....but the bass is outstanding with way more punch than the 500's (they punch well above their price class). To my ears anyways.

The LCD is amazing, and amazingly expensive lol. Maybe one day I'll justify a pair. Honestly I'd choose the 400 over the 500 all day every day, just goes to show how preference factors in I guess. It's the same reason I love my rs1 so much for metal yet the grados are continually rated low by the masses. They just make me happy

What I do need is some nice, highly insulating closed cans to replace my m50...

Alpha Dogs. Amazing for all genres, the bass is controlled and deep. Mids are almost in the same league as Grado.

 

[marts30]

Loving my Shure 1540 with metal at the moment. Nice size soundstage for a closed, crisp highs which give a nice crunch to the guitars, and nice deep bass. Also the most comfortable/best fitting headphones I've owned.
 
Making my Alessandro MS2 sound a bit dry and boring! lol

 

[markm1]

Exactly my thoughts too... Based on my experience, the HE-400 sounds a touch unrefined and is a class below compared to both the HE-500 and the LCD-2 (both of these sound quite close to me BTW).

I listen to Symphony X, Dream Theater and Testament exclusively on my LCD-2 Fazor, and they sound amazing... Ultra transparent, tight bass, detailed midrange that lets you hear all the grits and edginess in guitar riffs and the gruffness in the vocals (especially Russel Allen's). Treble can sometimes be a bit too hot in the louder parts, but never sibilant or grainy, just smoothness all around

What can you tell me about the amp requirements? I've got an Asgard-2 and  Little Dot 1+. If I got an LCD-2-I was thinking a used Lyr might be good. To maximize that kind of investment, just wondering how much $ I'd end up dropping for an amp.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  Loving my Shure 1540 with metal at the moment. Nice size soundstage for a closed, crisp highs which give a nice crunch to the guitars, and nice deep bass. Also the most comfortable/best fitting headphones I've owned.
 
Making my Alessandro MS2 sound a bit dry and boring! lol

 
The 1540 is, IMO, the best over-ear Shure has made. I was severely unimpressed with everything else of theirs. 

 

[sludgeogre]

 
What can you tell me about the amp requirements? I've got an Asgard-2 and  Little Dot 1+. If I got an LCD-2-I was thinking a used Lyr might be good. To maximize that kind of investment, just wondering how much $ I'd end up dropping for an amp.

I run my LCD-2 Fazor with an Asgard 2 all day long and I absolutely love it. It has plenty of power for the LCD-2 Fazor with room to go, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

[marts30]

   
The 1540 is, IMO, the best over-ear Shure has made. I was severely unimpressed with everything else of theirs. 

 
I liked the 940 personally, the 1540 does feel like an overall upgrade of it to me, but it had poor build quality and I hated the headband. Also lacked a bit of bass and was a bit bright sometimes, 1540 fixes that.

 

[markm1]

 
What can you tell me about the amp requirements? I've got an Asgard-2 and  Little Dot 1+. If I got an LCD-2-I was thinking a used Lyr might be good. To maximize that kind of investment, just wondering how much $ I'd end up dropping for an amp.

That would be brilliant if I didn't have to go out and buy another amp. You just gave me a reason to hang onto my A-2. My Grados sound good w/ my A-2, but ATC, I prefer the tube qualities by of the LD by a small margin. Think I'll hang onto this sucker for a while.

 

[levap]

  Loving my Shure 1540 with metal at the moment. Nice size soundstage for a closed, crisp highs which give a nice crunch to the guitars, and nice deep bass. Also the most comfortable/best fitting headphones I've owned.
 
Making my Alessandro MS2 sound a bit dry and boring! lol

I had a lot of expectations of 1540, but alas, 1540 are not for me…
 
Headpnones left a mixed impression. On the one hand it is very flat, accurate cans with a good bass and large soundstage (for closed cans), pleasant mids and rather comfortable highs (sounds delicious, does not it?). 1540 received were highly rated on innerfidelity. Retail price on 1540 is rock solid and does not drop down day by day. But… Cans (for me personally) do not have the "highlight" that could make them a champion and this is the main complaint.
For example, what do we have on Doom. I expected 1540 are the good old 840, but better in every way possible. Technically that’s very close to the truth. But it turns out that in his weight class 840 - prominent ears, and 1540 - just good ... It's easy unbalance (compared with 1540), that adds 840 some pepper. And we don’t have “spice” in 1540. All good, but there is no spark in them. OK, but no more.
 
Where headphones did show their best:
Progressive: This is where the combination of the formally high performance with mild highs rise, appropriate soundstage and prominent bass is more than welcome. Their finest hour.
Alternative: Modesty and precision give 200% hit.
 
Smooth, balanced, accurate and calm headphones. No obvious problems. Do not jump through the head.

 

[ferday]

Alpha Dogs. Amazing for all genres, the bass is controlled and deep. Mids are almost in the same league as Grado.

Enough people have said that to raise my interest high....but I'm really hard on my closed cans (travel a lot) and I'm not sure they'll hold up...

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Enough people have said that to raise my interest high....but I'm really hard on my closed cans (travel a lot) and I'm not sure they'll hold up...

 
Well damn, that precludes the Final Audio, haha. I adore them, but I've never felt so nervous about wearing a headphone before.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I just have to say, I"m a little... not on board with the manner in which these tests are run. You can't separate them into genres without being very clear about what albums are being used. You might say you're listening to black metal, but the difference between Passage D'Hyver or Ulver and, say, Dodecahedron or Lunar Aurora in terms of production is monumental. Not all metal albums are produced equally or even optimally, and rating a headphone's quality in a subgenre is impossible unless it's laid out what albums were used.
 
For a doom album, what kind of doom do we mean? Candlemass doom or Electric Wizard doom? Does sludge mean old Crowbar or atmospheric sludge a la Neurosis? And which albums therein? Headphones that take gigantic albums like Maudlin of the Well's "Bath" tend to expose the weakness of older recordings, but headphones that impart coloration to old recordings leave more epic albums sounding muddy and flabby. You gotta tell us what works on a given recording because it's entirely possible that you're listening to an inaccurate representation of an album which makes it sound better, but that very inaccuracy is a problem rather than a benefit on more robust productions.
 
Metal is a unique genre in that an album sounding good doesn't necessarily mean the speakers are good simply by virtue of the WIDE variance in production from genre to genre, band to band within that genre, and album to album from that band.