[size=small]So, the battle, to unravel the enigma that the K701 is, rages!
Well, I did another round of A-B-X-ING this evening, till my ears hurt!
I have written a lot about the K701 before and I would prefer not to repeat the old stuff. What I will explore instead, is the effect, that burn in had on these cans.
A few noteworthy points:
1.Very boring and sterile, if not amped well. (High Gain on my Ultra Micro mandatory)
2.Thoroughly useless for low volume listening. (The theory of Equal loudness Contours applies to the K701, so listen in a quiet room at concert levels. Note that concert level could be pretty loud as orchestral peaks reach 100+ dB. If the room is quiet, then you can keep the average loudness in the 70-80dB range and listen safely, without fearing hearing damage. Just ensure that the peaks don’t go beyond 100-110 dB and DON’T listen AT A STRECH AT THAT VOLUME, short peaks at that level won’t hurt your ears)
Prior to burn-in, fresh out of the box:
1.Vertical soundstage, not much width.
2.Highest highs NON EXISTENT, highs a bit rolled off, harsh texture, lacking sparkle
3.Lean and recessed midrange, bleached, smaller than life instruments.
4.Violin sound lacks BODY, as a head-fier put it, body is DUCT TAPED. LOL!
5. A hint of hollowness, a bit of the hollow tube to your ear effect, as noted by MARKL.
6.Subdued bass.
7.Tipped towards upper midrange, sounds like cheap earbuds at times! (Much higher resolution and transparency, though)
Post burn-in:
1.Wide, wide soundstage.
2.Highest highs still non-existent, however that harsh texture is gone, lots of sparkle!
3.Leanness of tone is almost gone; however, the violin is marginally recessed in some vocal-instrumental tracks, perfect in others.
4.Amazing piano with great attack and decay, start and stop of notes is spot on.
5.Great cymbals, GREAT TIMPANI-WHO SAID THESE CANS HAVE NO BASS? THEIR WEAKNESSES LIE ELSEWHERE.
6.Tube to your ear effect has vanished!
7.Sounds fairly balanced across the entire frequency spectrum, probably with a marginal upper midrange boost, not a deal breaker this! Sound is MUCH MORE BALANCED after burn-in, fairly neutral!
8.Great resolution, superb timing, imaging and sound-staging.
9.Violins have body, at last! But still, rendition of strings is an area of weakness with some tracks, NOT ALL!
WEAKNESS:
Presentation of violins is kind of a HIT OR MISS affair. Contrary to general opinion, the body resonance of the violin is no longer missing, especially after burn-in. What it misses, while rendering violins, are a few overtones and harmonics in the upper midrange and high treble. The violin, especially when it is an accompaniment to vocals, is presented in a recessed and SUBTRACTIVE WAY, missing the said upper midrange and high treble harmonics.
This is much less of an issue with orchestral tracks, being more noticeable in random vocal recordings.
On my Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 violins jump out of the track calling attention… this is sometimes not the case with the AKG.
Although I didn’t do critical listening, the QUAD 11L2 seems to sound a bit like the K701 overall! (Just an initial impression, I never heard the QUAD 11L2 for a long enough time, I might be wrong)
However, I never heard all the essentials of violin sound on my PX100 and SHURE E4C… so the K701 does not have a huge void in this area, when compared with other cans, which I have heard.
Overall, the K701 is a very nice can when burned in and amped properly. IT DOES HAVE WEAKNESSESS, BUT TELL ME, WHAT DOESN’T?
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