[cuiter23]

I'm glad to be of service. The Vali is a very dynamic sounding headphone amp that will do well with the K7XX. Since you aren't going to be using more sensitive headphones with it or any pre-outs then the Vali should be right. The Magni will drive the K7XX but it won't give it that extra bit of dynamicness that the Vali will. Solid state amps in that price range tend to sound dull compared to tubes. The Vali will give the K7XX that extra bit of treble extension to open it up, and will bring out that mid bass impact. The K7XX will improve with better sounding equipment you plug it into. You should be set with it for a while, even if you decide to upgrade systems.

As a general rule, AKGs sound better with punchy sounding entry level hybrid solid state/tube amps like the Vali or Hifiman EF2A (not as good sounding as the Vali but has swappable tubes), than with similarly priced all-solid state amps like the Objective 2 and Magni. I don't like Fiio amps as they tend to sound dull and soft. The Vali and Modi are a great little entry level dual unit headphone system to have, especially for the price of 230 dollars or so. And they have a tiny footprint on the desk. They are also cheaper than buying an Objective 2 and ODAC, which will run you around 300 dollars for the two. As sound goes I think they're as good as a desktop system is going to get before you start spending over 500 dollars for an amp and over 300 dollars for a higher level DAC. They will also make a great workplace office desktop combination. The K7XX, Vali and Modi are likely as good a desktop open back headphone, amp and DAC system as it's going to get for under 500 dollars, especially as you don't like IEMs. 

As a general rule, I prefer to pair cold or neutral headphones with warmer tubes. But for already warm and lush sounding headphones I will prefer solid state to punch through the warmness with added detail and clarity.

So yes, I would pair the K7XX with a tube. I cant say much about the vali though.

 

[bpandbass]

As a general rule, I prefer to pair cold or neutral headphones with warmer tubes. But for already warm and lush sounding headphones I will prefer solid state to punch through the warmness with added detail and clarity.

So yes, I would pair the K7XX with a tube. I cant say much about the vali though.

We have our own modus operandi when it comes to how we synergize. I tend to pick punchy and warm sounding equipment as it tends to do well with a wide variety of headphone for my ears, and since I prefer a warmer or slightly mid-bassy sound. In general, yes AKGs definitely do better with warmish amps, but they also like some energy as well. 

 

[shineonyou]

I have almost exactly the same experience from my K612 Pro vs HD600, well driven they sound very similar with K612 winning in larger soundstage, better layering and lower distorsion in the bass but HD600 winning in texturing, coherence and how to sound lifelike. Not so well driven HD600 wins by a large margin everytime, as it keeps the same sound signature just with lower resolution and sound volume, but K612 Pro can sound absolutely terrible if the amp is too weak. No bass, instead a tocking/tapping sound replacing bass and treble that sounds like someone crushing lots of glass.

In example, the popular Topping NX-1 makes K612 sound absolutely awful, while the same NX-1 drives lots of other cans exemplary and with very low distorsion.

Asus Xonar Essence ST has no problems driving K612, but one needs to use the middle gains setting of 64-300 Ohms, it sounds slightly dry though, but with very low distorsion levels in all registers.

Lucky enough for me so does my integrated stereo amp drive K612 Pro even better than Essence ST, making it almost gain the same warmth as HD600, very clean sounding and with great punch even at high volumes. I use the last integrated stereo amp that Sony produced 14 years ago(until the recently released Sony TA-A1ES), the TA-FB940R. It has a really amazing headphone out, without that HP-out I may have dissed the K612. As it is, I know K612 can and do sound great. But, with my current knowledge  I would hesitate choosing AKG if I had to shop for a new amp. It could be pretty hard to find the right synergy. HD600 is MUCH easier in that respect.

yeah, my words. A solid integreated stereo amp plus k 612 that is love at first sight. I drive them with pioneer a 30 and also eith an old marrantz. Sound quality is just great. But if someone wants a bit of bluetooth with cable possibility, i am just burning in the akg k845bt. No need for an amp. Any smartpjone csn drive them. It is not k612 with an amp, but i like it. Right now i am looking at hd659 and akg 7xx. What shall I take, if I already hsve akg 612?

 

[Headmusic]

My Massdrop K7XX's arrived last week via a reshipper, they ended up costing me about $320AUS, more than the Q701's I bought locally and sold to pay for these..Hmmmm, I can't
really say they jumped out and blew my ears away, and I can't really noticed the 'better bass' to the Q701's I had...Are they really better than the HD650s?..
 
I have powered them via my Fiio E12, and also used my RPi2 IQaudio DAC using Volumio and also my PONO and can't really hear much of a difference..do they need to be 'burned in'????
 
I see Oppo have a new cheaper line PM-3 I will give them a listen, if they impress me as much as the PM-1 and PM-2 then I will sell these and go those...

 

[bpandbass]

Give them time to burn in and let your ears adjust. The K7XX doesn't start to shine until you have AT LEAST 100 hours of burn in. In my opinion , the K7XX is more resolving and cleaner sounding than the HD650. Better? Not necessarily. It's personal choice. But the HD600 and HD650 are easier to amplify since they work with tube and solid state amps alike, and keep their sound. The K7XX tends to change its sound wildly from different sources, which can make it frustrating to system match with. 

 

[alpha80]

  I"m still waiting for my K7XX's to arrive. I recently bought a pair of Q701's that I recently sold in favour of the K7XX's based on the online response, maybe I'm an idiot?
The thing I didn't like with the Q701's was their high-ends became way too trebly, even screechy for my liking

If you  find HD650's and HD600's too dim/veiled, and the Q701 too sibilant, K7XX will be a great happy medium for you.

 

[Headmusic]

Well I don't think I have even used them for more than an hour since I opened them, I guess I have a year of listening before they 'sing'?? Or do I just let them play music on full-volume to 'burn in'??

 

[bpandbass]

I concur. The K7XX is a nice balance between the bright and lean Q701, and the warm HD650 and HD600. I didn't like the shouty treble on the Q701 at all. 

 

[alpha80]

Confirmed that the K7XX has noticeably more bass than the bass-port-modded Q701.
It has more bass than the HD600, and about even or slightly more than the HD650, despite that K7XX having a much better sonic balance than the dim HD650.
 
I'm starting to believe the K712 comparisons.

 

[Headmusic]

Can anyone compare these to the Oppo P3's?

 

[cuiter23]

  Can anyone compare these to the Oppo P3's?

 
The 2 are not really comparable...

 

[Earbones]

Great review!
 
Although I disagree with the "value" portion... While I agree that the K7XX cannot perform at it's best on as many varied amp setups as the HD650, it does perform at it's best on clean SS rigs... Budget options of which happen to comprise an enormous margin of the market. It's a simple thing to pick up a cheap clean SS amp these days. In fact, if the "value" portion is in part about assessing the added cost of whatever amping is optimal for each of these cans, than it makes sense to do that math for the HD650 with OTL rigs, as that is the widely accepted best option for the HD650... And a good budget OTL base rig costs more than a good budget SS rig. And even more once you factor in the rolling. If this is considered, the K7XX has to take the value prize. Nearly half the price, and cheaper to amp... Again, that's assuming we're amping them for optimal performance, not just to see how many random rigs they can work with.
 
That all said, when both are amped optimally, I prefer the HD650's overall tone... I'm a sucker for that signature liquid-sweetness...

 

[dharma]

Hi!
I had Sennheiser HD650 (so called old type, darker sounding?) for many years and i learned to somehow love them - very quick and inner-ear physically 'touching' 'explosive' sounding sub-woofer style deepest-bass which is somehow 'hidden' behind too strong mid-bass (no, AKG K701 doesn't have so deep 'explosive' bass), at least for my ears. Yes, there is slight sibilance (or highly 'resolving' component) in HD650. Yes, they are sounding 'fun' and 'forgiving'. Would i buy it again? No.
I have K701 for many years, for my ears: K701 has quite good 'neutral' midrange presentation (nice string instruments representation), bass part is lacking (just try to listen for piano 'body' resonations in recordings) and top part is overly 'bright' and constantly 'slamming' (no, these are not cans for 'musical meditation'). If i could know all this about K701, already before buying them, would i buy them? No.
 
(both were used with original can cables and Lake People (pro) headphone amplifier and Denon SACD player and Panasonic DMP-BDT500 BR with built-in DAC section [4 burr-brown 32-bit/192kHz] chips)
 
Now other thoughts.
Are they useful? Both cans could be somehow used for 'aural fixing' of mildly bad recordings/mixings (cans flaws against recording flaws).
 
Professional use: HD650 is never(?!) used by sound-studios or recording-engineers, but K701 is (and in discussion mentioned HD600 also, which sound is somehow similar to 'big floorstanding loudspeakers).

 

[Jube]

  Confirmed that the K7XX has noticeably more bass than the bass-port-modded Q701.
It has more bass than the HD600, and about even or slightly more than the HD650, despite that K7XX having a much better sonic balance than the dim HD650.
 
I'm starting to believe the K712 comparisons.

I am going to listen closely to my K7xx and HD600 again, as my initial thoughts on bass were different. I felt like they had similar amounts of bass, just in different areas (sub vs mid)

 

[dharma]

There is also a discussion which hp has more bass...
 
we can look on this subject in different ways:
bass balance compared to different frequency areas on same hp;
bass balance compared to "full sound signature" on other hp.
 
or 
 
we can compare: 
"musically usable" bass on same hp using normal listening levels;
"musically usable" bass, compared to other hp using normal listening levels.
 
or
 
we can try to compare different hp-s: 
for "ability to reproduce really deepest bass (not "clicking sounds" of clipping bass)" using sound frequency generator or special test-recording/cd (10-25 Hz), forcing sound volume to unnaturally high to hear hp-s (weakened) deep bass reproduction.
 
analyzing with test-CD AKG K7xxx:
at least AKG K701 deepest real sound of bass is not really going deeper than 20Hz (on 15 Hz it is producing just "clicking sounds" of clipping bass)...
everybody can compare HD650 versus K7xxx (not using just "favorite" music)
 
maybe out of topic: HD800 deepest bass "sound"-wave is at least 10Hz (without "clicking sounds" of clipping)