[dennisback]

  I think HD700 is a truly great piece of work, it however needs to be used cautiously. HD700 excel so very well in certain type of music, such as jazz and classical, but can be very unpleasant in others, such as modern pop music. The way I see it is that, Sennheiser specifically designed this headphone to be excellent in some types of music at the expense of being able to do well for everything. In my particular case, I find that I always need to keep two set of headphones around me, HD700 and something that is "fun" to listen to, something that gives a very punchy bass and can drive any type of music just fine(key word is "just fine").
PS: I have been listening to HD700 with my Modi+Bottlehead Crack set-up. If anyone has suggestions for upgrade tubes(prefer warm, recessed treble ones) or DAC, please let me know

Yes i think i agree with this. I never hear to any jazz or classical music or acoustic, just modern pop music and some r&b. To me it's not worth the retail price tag. I paid just 299€ for it so I'll keep it because it still beats other phones around 300€.

 

[Rob80b]

Quote:Rob80b

 *(disclaimer I'm also a AKGer and Grado user and do not have bleeding ears, nor can I hear any sound above 2KHz)

 
Quote:

  FTFY

 

What was that?

 

[Rob80b]

  Yes i think i agree with this. I never hear to any jazz or classical music or acoustic, just modern pop music and some r&b. To me it's not worth the retail price tag. I paid just 299€ for it so I'll keep it because it still beats other phones around 300€.

I can only surmise that for those that who find the HD700s unforgiving is that I would place the blame on the recording engineers, the overuse of compression, poor digital playback and amplification.
There is a lot of hard-edged jazz and modern classical music that would drive the average hardcore pop listener out the door so to label reproduced music by genre in regards to which headphone would be best for pop, jazz or classical is just silly and a false premise.
The playback system nor the phones can make the distinction of what type of music is being played, it’s all just electrical impulses pushing drivers to reproduce sound waves.
 
Although once I get my HD700s back from Sennheiser I’ll give my son’s Selena Gomez and Nicki Minaj a spin.

 

[Greggo]

Well, I don't think the genre thing holds up in general, it really is based on particular recordings that you listen to versus others.  For me, Steely Dan Aja album is absolutely fantastic.  Duran Duran - Rio is the best I have ever heard, on any type of system.  Lady Gaga - Applause, Lorde - Royals, Boston - all of it, Aerosmith - all of it....sounds great to me.  Alicia Keys, Sade, Basia all sound absolutely gorgeous on the HD-700.  Some rap music can get harsh, Duran Duran - Girls on Film...the camera clicking intro is harsh, Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous has some rough treble sounds, and if you like the Ting Tings, the HD-700 is definitely not the best match for most of their recordings.  All the above with a Dragonfly 1.2, and for the most part 95% of what I like, across 5 decades of rock and pop, sound really really good on the HD-700.
 
Another caveat here is that in my 30 years of listening to as many high end stereo systems as possible, there are very few speakers that don't exhibit the same vulnerabilities to all the variables in recording quality and music character.  So even though I have come out and stated that I think the HD-700 has some flaws, I will also offer that they need make no apologies to anyone, on any genre of music.  Subjective opinions of course simply being what they are.

 

[Rob80b]

Although the HD800s offer to some the bleeding edge (no pun intended) in headphone technology, IMHO the HD700, although less detailed, are just as satisfying to the discriminating audiophile and in many ways more gratifying.
 
(Thought I might as well keep the accolades coming as this is HD700 Appreciation Thread).

 

[Rob80b]

And just to keep my unbiased opinions on the HD700s in perspective.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod

Originally Posted by Rob80b /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Fans of Steve Tibbetts may want to pull out his “ Northern Song” album, quiet an aural delight and takes full advantage of the K701s sound staging abilities, super wide with great layering but the mod puts the icing on the cake with his accompanying foot stomping and added body to the bass and percussion which was previously unfelt prior to the port mod.
What’s great is the whole things come across without sounding artificial even with the exaggerated depth and width, one of those serendipitous moments that just work!

 

[SNSDluv]

Yes, I agree that the modern pop music's recording is not refine, and due to the unforgivingly revealing nature of HD700, it makes a unpleasant listening experience. But it is what it is, I am not saying HD700 is bad for ALL pop music, it is just not good a lot of it. For example, if you had to listen to TOP40s with HD700, you will find HD700 will sound terrible for half of it.

Again, since I mostly listen to classical, I LOVE MY HD700

Also, anyone know a software that can manipulate the EQ frequency? Since I am away from home for a few months, all I have is the HD700 for over-the-ear and when I feel like listening to pop music it dreads me... ><

 

[streetdragon]

  Yes, I agree that the modern pop music's recording is not refine, and due to the unforgivingly revealing nature of HD700, it makes a unpleasant listening experience. But it is what it is, I am not saying HD700 is bad for ALL pop music, it is just not good a lot of it. For example, if you had to listen to TOP40s with HD700, you will find HD700 will sound terrible for half of it.

Again, since I mostly listen to classical, I LOVE MY HD700

Also, anyone know a software that can manipulate the EQ frequency? Since I am away from home for a few months, all I have is the HD700 for over-the-ear and when I feel like listening to pop music it dreads me... ><

Which platform? ios, android mac or pc?

 

[SNSDluv]

  Which platform? ios, android mac or pc?

PC!

 

[dennisback]

u mean a normal equalizer?? try winamp or foobar2000.

 

[SNSDluv]

  u mean a normal equalizer?? try winamp or foobar2000.

Mhm, not quite? I want something that will just change the EQ without a specific music player? So everything playing out of the PC will have this EQ.

 

[Jon-LF]

If that was the case there would be lot AKG and Grado users  * needing ear plugs to stop the flow, seriously though I'm perplexed how such a statement could ever be applied to the HD700s.
But ...obviously if the statement is given from someone who has seriously listened to the HD700s I guess it must be true!!!

*(disclaimer I'm also a AKGer and Grado user and do not have bleeding ears)

The 700s are definitely prone to simbilance to my ears, a good amp pairing does help tame it though. The upside is it's "exciting", in fact it's more exciting on both the upper and lower spectrum than any other phone I've yet heard (that being said sometimes u want a more laid back sound). When I switch the the 800s the simbilance vanishes, but so does the bass, and top end excitement. Not quite a fan of the supra aural Grados after spending some time with them yesterday...

 

[truelies]

What cause a headphone has sibilance? Anything wrong on one frequency point? Except this, the HD700's treble is very good for me. I don't think it's recorder engineer's problem, I played same some on ipod with Shure E4c earphone. No sibilance.

 

[Jon-LF]

What cause a headphone has sibilance? Anything wrong on one frequency point? Except this, the HD700's treble is very good for me. I don't think it's recorder engineer's problem, I played same some on ipod with Shure E4c earphone. No sibilance.

This isn't the most scientific answer, but essentially there is a frequency range where simbilance occurs (I'm going to let someone else chime in here).

Every pair of headphones and source will apply it's own sound signature, and theirein lies the fun of this hobby.

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

I'm in the UK where the 700s still sell for 1k. How long had sennheiser usa been selling them for 650 Bucks? Anyone reckin if sennheiser feel their rep is back on track the price will go back to 1k?

I've decided to pop for a pair of ocharaku kuro iems now but really love the 700s