Quote: If you find the price difference negligible, I would get the HD 600 because they are more of a vintage item. In addition, many recordings have been audio engineered using HD 600.    But if you consider the price difference, the HD 598 is by far the superior purchase. The HD600...

Quote: Couple things I want to address here: 1) Irrelevancy of price: in the headphone world, higher price does not necessarily mean superior quality. Price is determined for various numbers of reasons (materials, production, audience, etc.). Forget about the price.    2) Q701 and...

Quote: I am running them with the E17 currently. Subtle difference whether you amp it or not (but I feel the same way with practically all headphones below 300 ohms). That said, yes they are great even without an amp. Some argue that an amp with more current input would make a difference...

Quote: Oh yeah definitely. The way I got this name in the first place was because the Nwavguy had a reputation for this name. I thought it'd be fun to take it and heck, it was available. I'm a big Harry Potter fan as well. And I did start this thread about a year ago and it's interesting...

Ugh a few weeks after I purchased the Mad Dog w/ dog pads the alpha pads come out :( But whatever. I'm still quite excited about this.   The Mad Dogs do need a slight raise in (some) parts of the midrange area so the alpha pads would make a good upgrade. But $60... 

^ LOL 

Haven't been on head-fi for a while... 960 posts since I left this thread. Time to get out my reading glasses.  

Pads --> pads to make a noticeable difference to the sound. Probably more noticeable than upgrading your amps... The question is whether it is worth the money.    EQ --> I've had the opportunity to borrow a Q701 twice and they both had to be severely EQ'd for me to enjoy them. I'm not sure...

Best advice: get a different headphone.    K701 is notorious for listening fatigue. An amp/ dac upgrade isn't going to miraculously tame those peaks in the treble region. 

Quote: I would have to disagree with you on the imaging. But I'd agree with you on the upper mids. They are smooth but I can see how people may find the upper mid of the HD598 to be a bit too forward. Of course this isn't always a bad thing, the same way a boosted bass isn't always...

HD-598 is a bit lacking in the area below 70 hertz (subbass). However, it has plenty of midbass and upperbass, clearly obvious from the piano tracks I listen to.    The HD-598 has noticeably more clarity in the midrange than the HD-595. Clearly, people who have found only subtle differences...

Quote: Yes. The placement of your headphones as well as how used the earpads are affect how you perceive the sound significantly. It could be for good or for bad.    The HD598 is largely neutral, and I find that neutral headphones tend to need greater volume to sound great. I find the...

Quote: The HD598 lacks subbass but has quite a bit of mid-upper bass.    I think the problem here is that you are too used to the sound of earbuds, which emphasize a certain part of the frequency response. Meaning, even if you listened to a pair of $1000+ headphones, there's always this...

It's a myth that the HD6xx series are better than the HD5xx series. In terms of minor technicalities like distortion and slightly wider frequency range, yes the HD6xx are designed to be better. But me and many other audiophiles can testify to you that the HD5xx series have a superior soundstage...

Quote: I've listened to the Q701 and the K701 separately, so I never made a direct comparison between the two. But despite everyone saying the Q701 is improved over the K701 (which could be true), it still maintains its biggest flaws (treble peaks, imaging, tonality, etc.). It's not even...