[Nemesis186]

Hi everyone this is my first post. I have been crawling this forum looking for a good pair of cans that's within my price range and I have decided to go with the AKG 702's. They cost around $260 over here in Canada so first off what are all your opinions on these and would you have other recommendations that fall within that price range?
My 2nd question is I've heard that an amp is strongly recommended for these so if I do go with the 702's would the digidesign Mbox 1 suffice or can I even plug them into my sound blaster drive which has a separate 1/4” output with volume control.
I'm looking into using these cans with my desktop. I've been using the Shure SE530's but I managed to spill some water on them and are now out of warranty. However their offering me a replacement pair for pretty much the same price as the 702's so my next question is am I better off sticking with those. My main reason for switching over to cans is simply the comfort issue for long use.
So that's my dilemma right now and I look forward to hearing everyone's input.

Cheers!

 

[freakydrew]

welcome and sorry about your wallet.
I use the K702's out of my PC and recently bought a Darkvoice 336i on the forums here. I was running th 702 straight out of the pod with the logitech z5500 sound system, which worked, but when I added a Zero DAC and the Darkvoice it was like I was using an entirely different headphone. Amazing! There are a lot of lovers and haters of the K70x series on this forum, but I would highly recommend them. I owned (briefly) the ATH AD 700 and Senn HD555 prior to moving up and glad I went with the K702.

best of luck. scour this forum there are seven million threads about "what amp should I get for my K70x) and you will probably be ovewhelmed with the choices. I went the tube route because the idea of tube rolling intrigued me, many will recommend Solid State amps...there are also hybrid amps as well. Just make sure the amp matches the impedance of the headphones.

 

[bhanja_trinanjan]

The SPL Auditor/X-CAN V8P/Heed CanAmp/Headroom Ultra Micro/Ultra Desktop....

The K701 has a low impedance of 62 Ohms and prefers a amp that delivers high current @ low impedance.

Expert opinions invited...

 

[Ra97oR]

Specs wise Lake People G100 is a good choice and known to work well with K701.

 

[Frank I]

I use the Ltille Dot MK11 with my 701 and they sound great, They aslo sound good on my Outlaw 21500rr receiver. Tubes is best way to go IMO

 

[Nemesis186]

To be honest I'm on a really tight budget and trying to see if i can get away with what I already have (the sound blaster drive bay and the Digidesign Mbox 1) for now at-least.

 

[MomijiTMO]

The fact is they sound pretty bad without adequate amping. If you haven't heard any other [more efficient] headphones then don't worry and stick with what ever you have for now. When you can afford to dish out ~300USD, head to the headphone amps for sale sub-forum.

 

[V-DiV]

K701/K702 require a good amp to sound good (not simply to make volume). The output from your computer almost certainly won't cut it. You'd be better off staying with the Shure IEM if you can't afford a good used or new amp. Heed Canamp is a solid state amp that is often cited as a great pairing. Many believe that tube amps are the only way to go with these headphones.

Also, the K701/K702 are great, if properly driven, for classical, jazz, acoustic music in general. They are not very good for bass-heavy music and they are bad for guitar-based rock (too bright).

Good luck!

 

[Frank I]

The Little dot mk11 is 145.00 plus 42.00 shipping and comes with tubes and power cord. It will do the cans justice.

 

[dcpoor]

It has been mentioned many times on these forums that the k701/702 doesn't pair well with otl tube amps like the little dot's. I agree and would look at a comparably priced solid state or hybrid amp.

 

[MacedonianHero]

From a former K701 owner, my advice with these cans would be to use a solid state amp. I have a pretty good tube amp (it can power my 600 ohm T1s quite well at only half volume setting), but the K701s never sounded as good as with my portable RSA Hornet amp (on high gain).

The other piece of advice would be to really take about 300 hours to burn them in. I found they they really changed with time and really settled in at the 300 hour mark.

Enjoy...they really are great cans!

Oh...and sorry to your wallet!

 

[Nemesis186]

Thanks for all you replies guys. So I guess I'm going to have to get an amp for these. I'll be honest I have absolutely no clue about amps for headphones so I'll try and do some research and shop around. Again if any of you have a good deal for me feel free to let me know. I don't mind going used.

 

[nders]

for my case, I use my 702 with Travagans White and they seems to be able to drive them pretty well, albeit a bit too bright on a few tracks.

please note i have not auditioned them on a different setup tho, but I am loving it as it is comparing to my old setup (DT440 with a homemade amp)

 

[djimi]

Hello there. I've been lurking for awhile as a guest. Nice forum!
 
I have AKG-702s and I'm on the fence between the audio-gd FUN and Dr. DAC2 DX (or Dr. DAC Prime - I don't understand why those are two different companies or are they?)
The reason I've come down to these is the price (and good reviews) and because of their apparent versatility. I will mainly use for the AKG-702s but I may use it for as a DAC to some other component in the future. I like the options.
 
The Dr. DAC2 DX's pdf manual was available and I downloaded it and like what I read. I was recommended to 'check out' the audio-gd FUN from another forum, and so I've read all that I could find about it, their site has information but it doesn't have specs per se, although the parts are listed. I suppose I don't know enough about all the components it has to judge it. It seems any of the three I mentioned would be a good choice, but I'm going to have to just go for one sight (sound) unseen, and so it's an important purchase for me.
 
Thanks for any perspective you may have. And if I am missing another product/company that does analog and/or dac + headphone amp in the same dollar range, that would be very welcome.

 

[Acix]

 
Quote:

Hello there. I've been lurking for awhile as a guest. Nice forum!
 
I have AKG-702s and I'm on the fence between the audio-gd FUN and Dr. DAC2 DX (or Dr. DAC Prime - I don't understand why those are two different companies or are they?)
The reason I've come down to these is the price (and good reviews) and because of their apparent versatility. I will mainly use for the AKG-702s but I may use it for as a DAC to some other component in the future. I like the options.
 
The Dr. DAC2 DX's pdf manual was available and I downloaded it and like what I read. I was recommended to 'check out' the audio-gd FUN from another forum, and so I've read all that I could find about it, their site has information but it doesn't have specs per se, although the parts are listed. I suppose I don't know enough about all the components it has to judge it. It seems any of the three I mentioned would be a good choice, but I'm going to have to just go for one sight (sound) unseen, and so it's an important purchase for me.
 
Thanks for any perspective you may have. And if I am missing another product/company that does analog and/or dac + headphone amp in the same dollar range, that would be very welcome.

 
I can recommend the Apogee Duet as a sound card/DAC.amp. For cheap and good amp you can try on the Meier headfive around $180 on the FS forum.