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Hello everybody,

It's been a long time... anyhow.

Several moths ago, I bought a new pair of K-702s (current made in China version Ser # 176xxx). I read several older reports on these being harsh, sterile and with unnaturally wide soundstage. Anyhow, the price was quite good, so I decided to take the plunge. After burning them in for something like 30 hours, I started listening through my Denon DCD-500 AE and Pro-Ject Headbox S. I didn't notice any of the negatives usually described to them. Yes, the treble was sparkly, but not at all harsh. Yes, the stage is larger than say Sennheiser, but not at all unnatural. After that, I've listen to them for something like 100+ hours and I like them very much,
However, the other day I got to listen to a much older version of the 702s (Austrian made with bumps on the headband and serial starting with 0) and they sounded much more like they were described in older reviews. They just sounded bright, light on the bass and somewhat distant. The pair, I was told, is well broken in, bought sometime in 2009 or 2010.
Now, this got me thinking, is it possible that somewhere along the road AKG altered the sound of K-702, "shrinking" the soundstage and giving them somewhat bassier, warmer sound? I didn't have my AKG's for direct comparison, but I could listen to songs that I have in my collection and as soon as I got home, I listened to the same songs on my system. There is no doubt in my mind that my cans sounded different/better.

Anybody else has similar experience?

 

[xeizo]

Could be your headphone amp is much better than the other you where listening to, these cans sounds trash with improper amping but fantastic with good amps.

It's mostly the bass that disappears with a too weak amp.

But of course they could have changed the driver.

 

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I've listened to the old K702s via some AV receiver. Mine plugged to my receiver do sound a bit worse than through the amp, but not that much. Anyhow, I'll have to organize a direct comparison to verify this. Other than that, the pads appeared identical to mine, just the angled ones and they had no signs of wear/compression. Been thinking of drivers fatigue/ageing too. The owner said that he is not using them often. He could estimate something like an average use of an hour per week (an album every now and then). Could a driver age for 10 years of light use?

 

[metal571]

IIRC from some old AKG threads on this forum, the older Austrian ones, especially early units, were indeed bass light compared to the modern Chinese units. I owned an Austrian K701 and a Chinese Q701 at the same time and the Q had noticeably more bass, something like at least 3 dB. So this doesn't sound surprising.