[Androb]

  An amp is definitely going to be my next purchase.  I'm strongly leaning toward picking up my friends's Matrix M-Stage, which supposedly pairs really well with the Q701.  It's in the next sort of price bracket up from the O2 and Vali/Magni, and supposedly it's a clone of a $1500 amp.  I hear it's VERY good for the price.
 
Now if I can just get rid of these X1's...

Go for it! It's an awesome amplifier I got another clone of it here ^^

 

[Solrighal]

I'm afraid the O2 marks the end of the road for me. I can't see me getting a similar increase in sound quality again without spending a ridiculous sum of money that I frankly haven't got.

I've been listening to the Q's all afternoon. One of my favourite bands is Rammstein but to be honest they sounded terrible on the Q's, even when powered by my E18 (which does have bass boost but that brings it's own problems) and so I would always use my V-Moda M-100's for them. I thought I'd give them a go again but with the ODAC & O2 and the result was, er, interesting. I've listened to Rammstein on everything, including my car which is equipped with pretty good Alpine kit throughout, and I know how they sound. Anyway, on their first album the first track has fairly lightweight guitars at the start. No it bloody doesn't! It has a sound like a lift, or some kind of electrical hum and it's damn loud. Very, very clear through the Q's with the ODAC & O2 but totally inaudible (to my ears) on absolutely everything else. That alone makes the ODAC & O2 worth the entry fee. I'm not even going to mention how powerful the previously anaemic drums become.

My Q's are now night & day better than before. It's that clear. YMMV (but not by much).

 

[ThurstonX]

  Last night I reversed the bass mod for testing. Just watched one movie and listened to music today for a few hours.
I almost immediately missed the modded version within the first hour.
 
My main reaction was like "Hey, where did my soundstage depth go?" It's like there was SLIGHTLY more width, but everything seemed more shoved in my face and more in my head/close up. It was almost annoying. Of course this depends on the tracks. Even the "Buena Vista Social Club" cd (which is good for testing) sounded a bit "off". The modded version just seems more accurate to the recording. Maybe the stock version seems a bit more colored. You could either prefer stock or modded. Some might even find a way to get the sound halfway between the two. I think for that you could try replacing the outer grill foam with another material. I used a thin piece of gauze type material and it sounded really good. Could be hearing things though!
 
With the outer grill foam removed the sound is too harsh for my ears, especially with some ear piercing female vocals (in Jpop)
 
One idea is to take measurements with first the grill installed, but without foam and then with the grill completely off.
 
I once tried the modded version with no outer grill and it was pretty awful...
 
BTW when you compare the HD-650 (which is actually fairly neutral to me..my pair anyway) to the modded Q701, the Q701 gets the soundstage depth right. It sounds almost exactly how it does on the HD-650. On the stock Q701 it's a bit different..
 
Of course you need really specific tracks, because some of them have almost no sense of depth IN the recording.
 
Recording depth seems so hard to judge on some headphones. Especially with no good DAC or weak amping. I remember when I had my first headphone and CD player, it just didn't exist and everything came from one same spot it seemed like.
 
That's one difference I hear between the ODAC and Modi. The Modi seemed to have better depth. How the heck is that even possible?!
 
EDIT: Going to force myself to use the Q701 stock for testing for a week or two.I don't use my headphones as much now though and right now it's split between the HD-650 and Q701. I still think my DJ100 with M50 pads sounds just a good though

 
Good luck 

 
Like you, I recently reversed the mod.  Like you, it felt like something was missing.  I thought I'd try it for a few days, but went back to modding almost immediately.  One thing I've done is replace the thin foam rings that sit on top of the drivers with wool felt (compressed in a vice, since it's quite thick).  I did that to cut down on some harshness (to my ears) with certain songs.  I was looking for some balance without sacrificing detail.  Wool felt FTW.
 
On the bass port, I tried it fully open, but as before, it was just a little too loose for me.  Stuck all kinds of materials over the ports (foams, felts, whatever), but ended up with painter's tape over the ports, then took a pin and poked a hole where the port is.  I'm not sure how different that is from fully open, but I've been enjoying them in this configuration for a couple weeks now.  I still get plenty of rumble in things like Amon Tobin's Bricolage, soundstage and imaging remain excellent (there are some tom-tom hits in a couple passages of Steely Dan's "The Caves of Altamira" that bounce around the "stage" in quick succession, and the Qs crush my other cans in that department).  They're not as meaty as my HE-500s, but that's a given.  It's fun to switch between cans using albums with which both excel.  MAN I'd love to marry those two cans into my personal Uber Cans.  Maybe the HE-560s will get closer.
 
Happy modding, happy listening 

 

[CloudMoose]

I'm afraid the O2 marks the end of the road for me. I can't see me getting a similar increase in sound quality again without spending a ridiculous sum of money that I frankly haven't got.

I've been listening to the Q's all afternoon. One of my favourite bands is Rammstein but to be honest they sounded terrible on the Q's, even when powered by my E18 (which does have bass boost but that brings it's own problems) and so I would always use my V-Moda M-100's for them. I thought I'd give them a go again but with the ODAC & O2 and the result was, er, interesting. I've listened to Rammstein on everything, including my car which is equipped with pretty good Alpine kit throughout, and I know how they sound. Anyway, on their first album the first track has fairly lightweight guitars at the start. No it bloody doesn't! It has a sound like a lift, or some kind of electrical hum and it's damn loud. Very, very clear through the Q's with the ODAC & O2 but totally inaudible (to my ears) on absolutely everything else. That alone makes the ODAC & O2 worth the entry fee. I'm not even going to mention how powerful the previously anaemic drums become.

My Q's are now night & day better than before. It's that clear. YMMV (but not by much).

 
Maybe it's the O2/ODAC? What's the bitrate on your tracks?
 
Rammstein is pretty orgasmic on the Q701 even before I modified mine it never fails to get me head-banging. (Mein Teil, Links, Ich Tu Dir Weh, Mein Land some of my favorites)
 
Metal in general is pretty awesome on the Qs.

 

[Solrighal]

Maybe it's the O2/ODAC? What's the bitrate on your tracks?

Rammstein is pretty orgasmic on the Q701 even before I modified mine it never fails to get me head-banging. (Mein Teil, Links, Ich Tu Dir Weh, Mein Land some of my favorites)

Metal in general is pretty awesome on the Qs.

All my music is in flac format. The track in question is track one on Herzeleid. I used to listen to heavy metal a lot when I was young but these days I only seem to listen to German bands. Rammstein are my favourite but Megaherz and Oomph are not bad. I actually bought Monster by Oomph based purely on Amazon reviews and, whilst the music is excellent, I've no idea what went wrong in production. Mind you, I haven't tried that album since getting the ODAC & O2.I shall see to that later.

 

[troymadison]

Going back from different AKG headphones, the Q701 seems so distant sounding. Not that it is a bad thing but they are definitively not forward sounding.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

I'm listening to the Q701 with the Vali and boy does it sound great. The chain is Dell Laptop - Audio-GD NFB-10SE (as DAC only) - Schiit Vali - Qs. My nice interconnect comes in tomorrow, in the mean time I'm using bottom drawer stuff.

First, the volume pot movement is the best match out of all my HPs. For the softer classical musics I can go to 1-2 o'clock. For the louder recordings I'm at 10-12 o'clock.

It is indeed a very transparent amp this Vali. It adds enough subtle tube sound to make the music a little more musical..feet tapping stuff really. Female vocals has that hint of sweetness. Pluck of strings has a nice ring to it and violins that already sound sweet with the Q just got an extra dash of sweetness. Not overly to where it sounds sloppy or slow but just the right amount of tube sound. (Is decay the right term to use for that tube sound? Mayne not) Try Amber Rubart's "Novocaine" on the binaural album Sessions from the 17th Ward. I'll edit with the Spotify link tomorrow. If you haven't experienced a binaural album with your Qs yet...YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT!

Speaking of binaural albums, that brings me to soundstage. The Vali leaves soundstage something to be desired on most phones (the He-4 with the Vali can be compared to IEM soundstage, I kid you not). On the Qs (and esw9) the soundstage doesn't seem to be as closed in. The Vali and Qs pairing actually creates a more desirable soundstage to me. Whereas before some recordings can get too far out there (Ottmar Liebert's - Up Close binaural CD for example), the Vali brings it in nicely for some intimacy but still out of your head sound. I'll get the Spotify link on that as well tomorrow.

So what's the catch? Well to be honest this is a matching made in heaven so not much to complain about but maybe 30-45min wait to get optimal sound out of the Vali, 10m minimum in my book to prolong those tube life. That's another thing, you can't swap or tube roll. Schiit offers $20 plus shipping for post warranty tube replacements so that's not a big worry. The amp also gets warm to the touch, nothing too crazy but i wouldnt go stuffing it into a tight space. This is my first Schiit product so maybe it's raised my expectations for future pairings now... if your Qs are your main rig and ponder whats the best way to get more out of em (that is if you have transparency via DAC already), I'll have to say a tube amp is one thing to look at with the Vali as one of the top contenders. I think its a lot to be gained sound-wise for the price. Ever hear of diminishing returns? This is the opposite for me right now going from the built-in of the Audio-GD to the Vali. The Audio-GD's built in amp is no slouch either. Increasing returns, something you'll never hear around here lol

As promised, here are those binaural albums to try on your Qs. You don't have to have Spotify but you'll definitely get better quality with a premium account (160kbps vs 320kbps).
Ottmar Liebert — Up Close
Amber Rubarth — Sessions from the 17th Ward
And a bonus:
Dr. Chesky — Dr. Chesky's Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show

 

 

[Solrighal]

Any other binaural albums you'd recommend?

 

[Chris J]

Any other binaural albums you'd recommend?

 
First track of Chris Rea's "Auberge" has some great ambient sounds in the first minute or two.
Not too sure if it's actually a binaural recording but you get a real sense of 3 dimensional space.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Any other binaural albums you'd recommend?

Pearl Jam — Binaural
Can — Flow Motion
Pasadena Symphony — Le Sacre du Printemps
Zenph Studios — Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff - Zenph Re-performance
Art Tatum — Piano Starts Here: Live at The Shrine Zenph Re-performance

 

[Solrighal]

First track of Chris Rea's "Auberge" has some great ambient sounds in the first minute or two.
Not too sure if it's actually a binaural recording but you get a real sense of 3 dimensional space.

I don't have that but I'll add it to the list. I do have Binaural by Pearl Jam but I'm not sure it actually is binaural. I don't particularly like Pearl Jam anyway. I've also got a Chesky Ultimate Demonstration Disk from 1995 that's pretty impressive but musically it's a bit yeuch.

 

[Stillhart]

So, not wanting to mess with Spotify, I went to Youtube.  Looked up Dr. Chesky and found this thing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsyCqE8kb_I
 
The chimes at 1:50(ish) are just... wow!
 
So I followed the link to HDtsrcks.com and had this sinking realization that I'm going to need to rebuy a lot of my music at higher quality and these albums are really a lot more expensive than I'm used to.  My poor wallet....

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  So, not wanting to mess with Spotify, I went to Youtube.  Looked up Dr. Chesky and found this thing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsyCqE8kb_I
 
The chimes at 1:50(ish) are just... wow!
 
So I followed the link to HDtsrcks.com and had this sinking realization that I'm going to need to rebuy a lot of my music at higher quality and these albums are really a lot more expensive than I'm used to.  My poor wallet....

I would just buy the CD. They're much cheaper and depending on gear probably sound as good.

 

[Solrighal]

So, not wanting to mess with Spotify, I went to Youtube.  Looked up Dr. Chesky and found this thing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsyCqE8kb_I

The chimes at 1:50(ish) are just... wow!

So I followed the link to HDtsrcks.com and had this sinking realization that I'm going to need to rebuy a lot of my music at higher quality and these albums are really a lot more expensive than I'm used to.  My poor wallet....

I would just buy the CD. They're much cheaper and depending on gear probably sound as good.

Agreed. CD is more than good enough. I have a few 24-bit versions of CD's and I can't hear a difference.

 

[Solrighal]

I'm listening to an album I downloaded many moons ago that I've never actually listened to before and it's quite wonderful. It's called "December - 20th Anniversary Edition" by George Winston. I've never been much of a fan of solo piano but this is something else. Who knew?