I was very hesitant, but I just bought an O2 amp for my Q701s based on suggestions from reading this thread. Can someone explain why an amp would improve the sound quality of these headphones? What do amps do besides just allowing the headphones to run at adequate volumes? I really hope this was worth it as it cost me almost as much my Q701s (which I got at a very good deal of $155).
The logic behind it is that ordinary sources have less quality behind them, think of a better amp or dac as getting you closer to being as transparent as possible to the source, especially at higher spl. Don't think of it as computer to q701 being 100% and computer to amp to q701 being 110%. Think of it as computer to q701 being 70% and computer to amp to q701 being 90%... etc.
I was very hesitant, but I just bought an O2 amp for my Q701s based on suggestions from reading this thread. Can someone explain why an amp would improve the sound quality of these headphones? What do amps do besides just allowing the headphones to run at adequate volumes? I really hope this was worth it as it cost me almost as much my Q701s (which I got at a very good deal of $155).
Bass performance will suffer if your headphone is underpowered because there simply is not enough power to move the driver against the force of the magnet to push enough air to create lower frequencies. Also, while the coil assembly and cone is moving in one direction and the speaker is trying to accelerate it in the opposite direction, if it is underpowered it won't have enough force to overcome the kinetic energy of the coil moving in the other direction. This will make your headphone sound loose or slow.
Generally when you have adequate power you will see improvements to bass response and soundstage imaging/separation. Also, different amps will have slightly different characteristics that will affect the sound (i.e. solid state vs tubes).
Bass performance will suffer if your headphone is underpowered because there simply is not enough power to move the driver against the force of the magnet to push enough air to create lower frequencies. Also, while the coil assembly and cone is moving in one direction and the speaker is trying to accelerate it in the opposite direction, if it is underpowered it won't have enough force to overcome the kinetic energy of the coil moving in the other direction. This will make your headphone sound loose or slow.
Generally when you have adequate power you will see improvements to bass response and soundstage imaging/separation. Also, different amps will have slightly different characteristics that will affect the sound (i.e. solid state vs tubes).
Furthermore, the 701s pull quite a bit of current, as they are low impedance and low sensitivity. They higher the current, the more amps can struggle to provide it and can even start clipping. This depends on the design of the amp and its power supply.
Bass performance will suffer if your headphone is underpowered because there simply is not enough power to move the driver against the force of the magnet to push enough air to create lower frequencies. Also, while the coil assembly and cone is moving in one direction and the speaker is trying to accelerate it in the opposite direction, if it is underpowered it won't have enough force to overcome the kinetic energy of the coil moving in the other direction. This will make your headphone sound loose or slow.
Generally when you have adequate power you will see improvements to bass response and soundstage imaging/separation. Also, different amps will have slightly different characteristics that will affect the sound (i.e. solid state vs tubes).
I've received mine today, and really like them. The headband does not bother me at all (infact these are more comfortable than my 558s by a lot) and they have a very noticeable difference in sound. The only problem is that the treble is really harsh (for a lot of my music, which is really quite annoying).
Any recommendations on how to balance out the treble to make it smoother/less screeching to listen to? I have a Xonar STX as a DAC running to a (~10 year old) Onkyo receiver.
Give it about a week. 2 things will happen in the mean time:
1. Your ears will adjust a bit to the HP
2. HP will burn in? (not sure if this true)
But I had the same impression as you the first 2 days of owning the Q701. Starting the 3rd day, I began loving it. If after a week of listening on the HP maybe a few hrs/day and you still don't like the sound you are getting. Maybe, the Q701 sound signature is not for you.
Thx to jasonb's personal recommendation of the E17 to drive the Q701, I am enjoying the pair very much.
I have yet to get a good amp for my Q701's but currently use a Bravo 12AU7 amp I got from eBay. Have not heard how they sound on a more powerful amp but to be honest I'm happy how they sound from this one.
I was wondering, I love my cd player so to make up for the lack of bass, could I buy a used eq and use it to bump up the low frequencies? wold it really effect the sound quality? I currently love the sound I am getting except for the light bass....detailed as it is.
Hooray for new gear! Traded my Magni for this HTA-2. I really am curious as to how it sounds when compared directly with the magni, but now i may never know lol. It seems just as powerful, maybe even more-so. I was looking for a better pairing because it was getting harder and harder to ignore how harsh i found the magni/q701 combo. We'll see how this works out.
In an odd discovery i had some weird noises with the amp. My old chain was the Soundcard > Exo2 Hub > Magni. When i plugged in the HTA-2 in place of the Magni i had a really bad hiss and what sounded like radio interference. I had to change my chain to Soundcard > HTA-2 > Exo2 hub to alleviate that. I can still pick up some interference, but only when the volume knob is higher than i'd ever listen at.
Luckily changing my signal chain works out great because the IEM jack has a attenuator built in, so i have way more control over the volume knob of my speakers. Also once i plug into the main headphone jack the IEM jack is disabled. Change is good!
I have a question, and maybe this has been discussed, I'm not sure, but I couldn't find anything on this...
The Q701's have an impedance of 62 ohms. I am looking to get a Woo WA2 (good for can's > 100 ohms) but I also want a pair of Q701's.
So, here is my theory. The Etymotic ER4s' (high resistance) are the same driver as the ER4p's (lower resistance) except they have a resistor in the cable (you can even buy a small cable with a resistor in it to convert your ER4p into ER4s). Could you make a small cable with a few resistors in to make Q701's higher resistance HP's. Would this work at all or am I missing something?
the Impedance is the driver impedance alone, cable isn't really taken into account IIRC,
the Q701's will still work well with the woo, but if it bothers you either get a different set of cans, or match your amplifier better to the Q's
I have a pair of Q701, I also have a La Figaro 336C, which was not really designed to drive 62 Ohm cans, but this system sounds fine to my ears.
OTOH, I normally use the Qs with a Matriix M Stage which was designed to drive low and high impedance 'phones.
Just got mine and they are fantastic. Quite a different sound and the clarity is crazy over the stock cables. Most other silver-copper cables I looked at cost about 3-4 times as much. As I haven't heard any cables other than the stock ones, I can't give much of an opinion on sound, but I wanted a cheap cable to test to see if cables really make the difference before I go spending 3-500 for higher quality/longer cables. At around $55, I'm not sure it could squeeze out much more clarity and sound even with more expensive silver-copper cables.
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