AKG K701 Studio Headphones

Honestly, I probably can't say a whole lot of these that hasn't already been said before. Still, I figure it's worth putting my two cents out there, so here goes!
 
The Great:
 
-While the looks are certainly not to everyone's taste, I think they look fantastic. Easily one of the most attention-grabbing pair of headphones I've ever seen--even people who scoff at you when they hear you remark upon the sexiness of this or that pair of headphones can be stopped short in their tracks by the K701.
 
-The sound. It's not perfect--indeed, I do have a couple of moderate-to-severe nagging issues with it. But, on the whole, I find that these cans play extremely well with most of the music I throw at them. I especially find that jazz and chamber music that has been recorded live suits the K701 marvelously--the amount of detail that these headphones present to you is superb, especially considering that they manage to somehow not detract from the music itself. I also really enjoy them with thickly-layered pop albums where the K701's excellent instrument separation can work its magic, albums like Sufjan Stevens's Age of Adz and Talk Talk's The Colour of Spring. And if you're looking for a quasi-religious experience, give these cans William Basinski's Disintegration Loops to chew on. The sound of decay has never been more beautiful.
 
The Good:
 
-The packaging. Sure, you don't get a sturdy and pretty box to store them away with, but un-boxing these is a superior treat--and the cheapie little stand they come with is actually pretty handy.
 
-Boy, I love how easy the velour ear pads are to remove and clean. After hearing horror stories about trying to put Hifiman cans back together without breaking something, or feeling like I'm destroying the DT 1350s when trying to peel the pads off, I'm afraid to try and remove the pads on any cans period... except for the 701s. They come off easy, they go on easy, and they stay secure. Everyone should ape AKG's design here.
 
-Good value for the money, in my opinion. I'm eager to try out phones that are a bit pricier just to see how they compare. (Comparing this with the HD 650 as I type this now.)
 
The Nitpicks:
 
-The bass. Now, I think the bass is suitable for most of what I listen to, and it's present enough and extended enough for you to not miss anything... but those who like their bass to have a visceral presence should really look elsewhere. That said, some amping and equalization can really bring the K701's bass to life, but it's still not going to touch that of other quality full-sized cans.
 
-The sound stage is another possible hiccup with regards to the K701's sound--it may be, of all things, just a little too wide. It can make some music feel a tad artificial or tinny, and genres that depend upon aural blunt force trauma, like lots of metal, really suffer on these. The K701s will spread whatever you're listening to out by a pretty fair amount, and while doing so can yield great results, spreading out anything that's loud and heavy, or immediate and intimate, can really hurt the overall effect.
 
-Some people report that they find the K701s to be very comfortable--while I can tolerate them longer than, say, my DT 1350s, they don't at all approach the weightless sensation of something like the Denon AHD2000s. The bumps along the bottom of the headband which help to give the headphones some of their aesthetic appeal really have a way of drilling into your skull after a long listening period. And while the clamping force is pretty moderate, I find that the pads really push on my glasses.
 
-Speaking of glasses, just moving my head around while listening results in my frames and the velour ear pads squeaking up against one another rather loudly. (Despite the fact that they grip tighter and have similar pads, I don't have this problem on the HD650s.)
 
-While the headphones look fantastic, once you get them in your hands they feel pretty cheap and flimsy, and aesthetic flaws are easy to find, whether they came with the phones or rather you put them there. Which is all too easy to do, given just how white these things are, and how easily the silver can and will attract fingerprints. Also, all of that white can chip very easily. Be careful when putting these things down on a hard surface.
 
-I have concerns about how long the elastic strings which allow the headphones to self-adjust on your head can last, especially on a big head like mine.
 
-No detachable cables, no way to fold these things up, no way to wear them around your neck without looking like a dope. The K701s are big and bulky, and they are going to stay big and bulky.
 
The Bad:
 
-The K701s are hard to drive. They need an amp, and a fairly good one, to be worth listening to. Plugging them into an iPod won't get you much in the way of volume, and will make the K701s sound paper-thin and wispy. Plugging them into the headphone jack on your computer will result in slightly better sound, but still nothing to write home about. In fact, your cheapie headphones plugged into your computer will probably sound better. Don't even consider these without having an amp that can power them, or if you don't have room in your budget for an amp.
 
Conclusion:
 
So, there you have it. I really like these headphones. I'm not great at describing sound, so if you found those portions of my review a bit lacking, you'll find plenty of better listeners and writers describing the sound of these on the forums if you do a quick search. Thanks for reading!

I thought they sounded good out of the box, but I'll wait some hundred hours for burn in to see for sure. They look expensive but I can't help thinking I will break them because there's so much plastic on them. I would never wear them around anyone, but they're prettier IMO than the Sennheiser HD800 anyhow. They are very uncomfortable and squeeze my head "very" hard. Make sure to shower every time before using them so you can resale them easier. They are the ones you wish you had until you have them, then you'll wish you had tested them on your head before you ordered them. I give overall 4 stars because they can't help that my head is big.  

 
First impressions - Upon first opening the box of these (lightly used) cans, the very first thing I noticed how light they were! In all honesty I was freaking out for about an hour, then went to a local used electronics shop where they had the same model a couple weeks back. Apparently they are SUPPOSED TO BE that light, so the relief swept over me. 
 
Sound - I do not have an amp yet, so talking like I know anything would be out of line. Straight lined to a computer the bass is just enough for classical piano. Listening to the album the is in the picture, the experience is amazing. If you close your eyes, you feel like you are sitting in an amphitheater as each composition is being executed. Unfortunately there is fatigue to be dealt with but it isn't so much that it cannot be handled. As others have stated the mids aren't very good, but hopefully that will be fixed with an amp. The word you might have noticed was "executed." A friend told me the K701's suck the life and soul from music. From what I can sense he means, there is a certain coldness to the sound being created. Music isn't as much played as is projected from an instrument
 
Final thoughts - Written reviews are not a strong suit of mine, so hopefully you at least know what I'm trying to say.
 
EDIT - While listening to pre-viking Bathory there is the PERFECT amount of bass! While listening to the Mountain Goats last night I noticed it made John sound even BETTER than normal. I'm still not too hot on these headphones but they are definitely growing on me!
 

Out of contrarian rage, I ended up getting another  pair of 701s just to see why everyone is so intent on bashing these cans.  All my silver-haired classical mastering guys love these cans and go on about their ability to open the soundstage and layer it with subtle and rich detail .  Indeed, Vocal, jazz groups , piano solo, acoustic jazz, Guitar and plucked instruments, and ethnic music sounds exemplary through these cans.  They are noticeably cleaner and better defined when generously amped.
 
The build quality is above average for this pricepoint.  The design feels solid, well balanced and well thought-out. It's a relatively "big" assembly but never gets gets in the way once they're on your head.
The velour earcups are comfortable and fun to wear and the leather band an excellent stabilizer.  It  clamps less noticeably than the Sennies.  The Wires  connecting the headband and cups  give it a distinctive AKG design feel.
 
Sonically, These phones are "airy".  They provide details about the recording space and the high spectrum sonic tail coming from vocals, breathing, diction and vowels.  I hear  instrumental details concerning the string bindings, bowed strings and and tone color of upper partials of the trebles in certain recordings that are unusually revealing.  Instrumental placement and movement is as accurate as a Senn HD600, but perhaps lacks the "speed" and presence in some imaging mixes.
 
They don't work well with maisntream electric Rock n' Roll, metallica, or Pink Floyd. The richness in the middle is missing as is bass depth and speed  The only time I changed my mind about this is when I ran the 701 through a Audio Gd Fun, or C1 SE amp/NFB7.  Even so, I would probably reach for a different headphone if was going to head-bang through Primus' Sailing the Sea of Cheese.
 
This is a beautiful headphone at its current price. 
 
 

The AKG K701s are very good headphones. The information retrieval these headphones show up is very, very good! Vocals are also very good with the K701s in my opinion, and you can hear how good and badly recorded the songs are with the K701s. These AKGs really do show up on things in the music and your set up.

In my opinion, these headphones don't do euphony. They are neutral and revealing!! If you play a song that is badly recorded, these headphones will sound shockingly bad. So be warned!
 

Modified these to balance with silver/gold wiring and Furatec XLR plugs.
After a fairly long burn-in (>100hr) of the cabling and used on the Rudistor RPX-100 dual mono balanced solid state amp these sound very musical and dynamic. Much micro detail comes out and there is a good 3d stage imaging. The sound is very involving and intimate, providing foot-tapping and sometimes goose-bumps. Eargasm?
 
Definitely a step forward compared to the standard non-balanced version which did not impress me much.

I have had this set of cans around two years and it is already failing.  I delicately tried to take the unit apart to repair it (I am very handy with a soldering iron) and I failed to get the unit disassembled.  Fortunately for me, the act of trying to disassemble the unit fixed the problem.  This leads me to believe it was a bad solder joint.  Others have complained about this problem.  For ~$500 I expect the cans to last at least 10 years, like my much cheaper Sennheisers.  Also, the plastic parts of the headband broke within a year although this had no significant effect.
Update: After finally getting them apart, and having to cosmetically damage them to do it, it turns out to be a bad driver.  The solder connections were good.  This is completely unacceptable for a pair of headphones that is only 2 years old.  I will NEVER BUY AKG again!

I purchased these secondhand for $80 so they were already broken in and the sweetest deal ever, I always wanted to try them out because I read that they were more detailed than the HD650. 

Audio Quality: 
The AKG K701 has the most detailed highs I have ever heard, I am a fan of treble and prefer crisp detailed highs with a bit of sparkle.  They sound very similar to the Ultimate Ears Triple Fi.10's, especially in it's clarity and seperation.  Of course the K701's have a much bigger headstage and soundstage and also not as sparkly as the TF10's. 

The mids sound exactly as they were recorded, the vocals are presented a bit further back, not as forward as the HD650 and not as warm either, I would say the vocals are a bit dry and airy (analytical). 

The lows caught me offguard coming from the HD650, they sounded a bit thin and lacking punch but after several hours of getting my ears adjusted to the K701 sound sig, I tried on the HD650 and felt the bass was too heavy and muddy.  This could very well be because I don't have the BEST amp to work with the HD650 but the HD701 are definately much clearer and detailed in my setup.  Also the K701 sound quicker than the HD650 for some reason, less bloated.

Comfort and Design
I find the them a little less comfortable than the HD650, I can wear them for about an hour before the leather band on top gives me some discomfort.  I have been stretching and pinching the leather band and they seem to be getting more and more comfortable.  The cups on the other hand are perfect, just enough pressure and just enought softness from the velour pads.
The design is a bit intimidating when you first look at them, they look heavy, big, and they have so many pieces and string everywhere, they look like a spaceship.  Once you touch them, you realize they are very light but yet well made.  I was surprised how much they don't weigh, they look very heavy.  I love the stormtrooper white color with the gray and chrome around it, as well as the red/brown leather headband.  It is a love or hate design I feel.   

Value
As I said I purchased them for $80 so I could never complain, I would not pay more than $300 for these headphones though.  I think price of $150-250 is fair for a used pair and $250-300 for a new one if you can find it.

One of the best headphone values out there.

I am new to this forum and to the high-end headphone arena. This is my first ever review and based only on my first afternoon of playing and listening. OK, these are brand new, and maybe they will break in, but will they break in that much? They appear to be beautifully made, almost jewel-like out of the box. If they hold up and retain this apparent quality with long use, I would have to judge them finely made. So far, I have only used them with my Yamaha P150 Electronic Piano, as I have no headphone amp yet. I don't know how fair a test this is--more or less valid than hi-fi music listening? 
 
My comparison 'phones: 

• Sennheiser Precision HD580: Clean, full sound with good ambience, bass, tidy treble and overall neutral balance.  As of this moment, better overall sound vs. AKG 701, but they have been used and broken in for years.
• Grado SR80: In my humble opinion, Grado products are vastly overrated for both sound and construction quality. Mine came with the left and right ears reversed (or at least mislabeled, but you can't wear them as labeled and get the right stereo balance). They were grotesquely uncomfortable until I put another company's ear pads on them. Overall sound is warm but muffled. Not a true high fidelity product.

 
I bought these because of rave reviews in Stereophile (I should know better by now--all these years). I sure hope the 701s gradually fill out and sound fuller, 'cause this is not my favorite kind of sound, as-is: thin and lean. I cannot afford $250 mistakes, if thats how they turn out. I'm hoping for the best! 

I had one in 2008 and subsequently sold it because of comfort issues.


Personally, I didn't like the design/thought it looked cheap (the blue plastic)The ones I had were difficult to drive (not for Musiland 02 US type HP amps or un-amped portable )

Recently had a chance to listen to a re-cabled one from joe007 .He attached some soft pleather to the headband and put an expensive looking custom cable on them (my custom cable was about $35). The headband 'mod' fixed the comfort issue. Maybe added some bass. (I remember my custom cable seems to have calmed down the highs a bit when I had my pair)

The strange tonality and fake sound-stage feel were still there though. Give them a go at meet, when you have other headphones around. Chances are after that you wouldn't want to buy them.

The K701 is not the most perfect headphone, but at this price range it can surely compete with headphones double the price. They certainly need a powerful amplifier to drive them properly. I never appreciated them truly till I used them with the Beta 22 amp and then I found out what I was missing on the lesser amps I used. The best K701 I heard where used around 1000 hours. They sounded very smooth, relaxed and a joy to listen to. They can pick up any weakness in your rig: Source, Cables, Amps. They need careful matching to sound correct. Compared to the K400 which I also own. The K501 has a beautiful midrange which gives a very intimate and special experience, its more enjoyable and more musical, but the K701/2 is more accurate, more detailed with more extension in the highs and lows but sometimes can sound sterile and boring. The K501 lacks the detail and extension of the analytical K701/2 (although they are not lacking in either) but listening to the K501 brings the music to life with a rich tonality which is missing from the K701 with some tracks.  

Definitely not a fun headphone compared to AT W1000x or Denon D-series.Sounded completely cold and analytical fresh out of the box. Bass was almost non-existant. Burn in using pink noise seemed more effective compared to normal music playback. More instrument seperation after reaching 400 hours pink noise burning. Any hours beyond 600 will not benefit as I did not feel any improvement starting hour 601.
 
 

Akg K701 was the best headphones that I have own until I listen Sennheiser HD650. K701 impressed me with superb presentation of vocals and mids and a very good soundstage. These headphones have analytical sound -maybe to analytical for some taste- and also they deserve a very good headphones with a lot of power to drive them.

K701 has good performance on sound music, vocal, light music, slow rhythm,  sound track for example. And at the same time, it's easy to broadcast good sound but harder to drive it very well(needs proper equipment--front/AMP/...). But overall, K701 is an excellent Hi-Fi headphone.
 
Good equipment, good pay back

 
I own the AKG K240 DF Studio monitor headphones, and I have been using them for more than 10 years. 
Assuming that, after so long period of time, the headphones sound quality should have improved, I decided to make a research on the market in order to find a substitute of my old headphones. 
I took into account technical specifications, reviews and prices, as well as the availability of some brands in the city where I live. 
Discarding other brands, I considered choosing between Sennheiser and AKG. Sennheiser was generally more available than AKG in all the shops I visited. But I have always used the AKG and I have been very happy with them, so, eventually I decided to keep on buying AKG headphones. 
The present AKG top model is K701 one, but the average price I found in the shops was about 350 €, which was too expensive for my budget. 
Fortunately I found a person who was selling his second hand headphones of this type at an affordable price for me. 
 
I was impressed by the incredible sound quality of the K701. The music is so detailed, so clear, so balanced and the frequency response is so extended that I doubt anybody can find anything better, at least in this price range. I have heard that there are headphones that cost even five times the price of AKG’s, but this is another world and, anyway, I have neither the chance to listen to them nor I could afford them by no means. 
I have never heard the instruments so separated and exactly situated in the sound space as I have heard with this headphones. I realised that it was time to move away my old headphones. Moreover, I have read that the sound quality of the headphones improves after 300 hours of working, so I expect a better performance after some months, if possible. 
 
If I had to change something of the headphones, I would come back to the leather pads of my old K240 DF, instead of the velour ones. But this is due to a personal problem that I suffer, being allergic to some kind of fabric. This is not AKG’s fault. 
 
I use a Cambridge Audio 340 SE amplifier to drive them. The CD player is a Sony CDP-X8920 Q series. Although I am aware that this is not the best equipment that an audiophile would desire, I think it is enough to appreciate the great sound delivered by the headphones. 
I have clearly noticed the great differences of record quality among the CD’s I own. 

This really is a personal, subjective review, but hopefully you can learn something from it.
 
I really shouldn't have bought these headphones, as it is well publicised that these are analytical, and possibly dry; however the problem is to understand how you will subjectively respond to something dry and analytical (or what to expect musically.)
 
What do these headphones do for music?  They bring out subtle details in the texture of the sound (as opposed to the tonality) as well as highlighting the timing/rhythmic variations with great detail.  
 
Now this may sound good, but what does it do subjectively?  At times it makes music sound "awkward" by exposing small timing flaws which human musicians make. 
 
At the same time the tonality of the music is dealt with in a rather critical/objective fashion, no romance at all, making things sound dry at times compared with other headphones.
 
Thirdly, the detail of these headphones reveals some lovely aspects of the musicianship, how the musicians hands move over the strings etc.  
 
However, it also reveals flaws in the recording/production, such as musicians moving around on their seats, changing pages, people in the audience coughing etc.
 
Ask yourself are these the aspects of your music you want to hear, along with tonal indifference?  I will let you answer that question.
 
I found these headphones to be suited more to classical music, but then people coughing or moving around gets annoying.  well produced rock music also occasionally sounds good.
 
Lastly these are definitely a headphone that is best to find second hand, as their sound is very divisive, a love/hate affair
 
NOTE: I didn't try these with a tube amp - I used a Burson HA 160

Nice so far.

Although I also own a HD800, I'm keeping my AKG K701 for its combination of comfort and performance with classical music - in which it excels. Aside from the Beyer DT-880, the most comfortable headphone currently made, the K701 has plush velour pads (though users with bigger heads may prefer a larger phone). And the illusion of head space is equal to that of the DT880 and Senn HD800, making this phone easy to wear for extended periods of time. 
 
The bass (or rather, the relative absence) is the sticking point for many. I believe that the sound is nicely balanced, but there's no question that it struggles to manage music with a more assertive bass presence. The phones have a ribbed top, and automatically adjusts to one's head size; however, many users will need to change their orientation so the phones fit perfectly all the time. Not a problem for me, but others have even tried to fix matter themselves.
 
However, I believe that this has been my best stereo investment. And if you look at the sell lists, you'll always find discounted phones for as little as $210 - a steal, in my opinion - and sometimes even less.

My conclusion for this K701 is: If you want to search the sound that natural, clean, spacious with great imaging, then you will not wrong to go with K701, just make sure you have decent amp to powering K701.