[Kukuk]

Quote:

Hi,
 
I tried them from my Zune and the treble never dropped off, just sounded more edgy. Bass was also slightly bloated when under powered. The K601 isn't that hard to power, at least from my experience. They do benefit from an amp but can get by without one. I don't think they sound all that bad when not amped.
 
They do improve nicely with an amp. I feel they are OK from something modest, even an E9 drives them nicely.
 

 
Weird. Don't think it could be difference in models, since I bought mine from you.

 
Even compared to a headphone like my CD900ST's (which has a somewhat warm treble), I felt the the K601's were a little light up top. Compared to my K271's, they were miles behind.
 
Maybe one day I'll own them again, and see if I feel the same way.

 

[Zombie_X]

Hi,
 
It could have been differences with amping and sources that made them sound different to you. I use the Zune HD for portable use and it's warm with slightly rolled treble, so maybe that's why I never heard it? The normal Zune, which I ahd then, has the same tone as the current Zune HD. At that time I had only one amp I believe and it was a tube amp, so that means treble does get rolled off. That's probably why I never heard the treble roll off.
 
Quote:

 
Weird. Don't think it could be difference in models, since I bought mine from you.

 
Even compared to a headphone like my CD900ST's (which has a somewhat warm treble), I felt the the K601's were a little light up top. Compared to my K271's, they were miles behind.
 
Maybe one day I'll own them again, and see if I feel the same way.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Hi Travis,
 
Always with the long winded responses eh?
 
I didn't say it would be good without an amp but you can get by without one. Of course it needs an amp, I mainly said they aren't incredibly hard to power and sound ok without one. I had the K601 and K701 at the same time a few years back and I used my X-CANV8P to drive them. The K601 on the X-CANV8P got louder much faster than the K701, and sounded better at lower volumes. Oh and at that time I had the regular Zune, which to my understanding is weaker than the Zune HD.
 
I think the K601 is the more natural, smoother headphone of the current AKG line-up. To me it is much more enjoyable and engaging. The K701 is fun and all but I like the timbre and tonality of the K601 much more. 
 
I think the K701 is harder to drive than the K601. Much harder in fact, but not nearly as hard as any of the 600Ohm DT models from beyerdynamic. Those things needs gobs of power and a powerful amp is required. Heck even the HD600 is easier to amp than the K701 to my ears, that is on my gear it is.
 
I know we don't agree much on many things but I hope you know I don't want to be enemies or argue, Travis. We all hear/perceive things differently, and that is what is fun about Head-Fi. I hope you never thought I purposely disagreed with you. I like stating my opinion when I hear differently than someone else. 
 

 
Yeah, you know me..I can never seem to make short replies about my favorite headphones. Luckily i'm not as much of a fanboy of the K601 as I am with the DJ100. The HD-580 might even possibly surpass my K601 sometime. Yet I barely even like the HD-600..makes no sense!
 
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you said the K701. People will think i'm nuts, but my Q701 seems to get much louder than my old K701 did at the same volume levels. Impossible right? It could be due to some internal changes. When modding, it was easy to make a headphone need more or less volume despite the same ohm rating.
 
At least we finally agree with something. I agree with this bold part mostly. Somehow I still use my Q701 more than my K601 though. Lately I've only used my Q701 about 25% of the time. The rest of it goes to the DJ100 and HD-580. There are some genres I absolutely must listen to on only the Q701. It's ambient electronica! The KRKs get the job done for that though, but they're in storage. I prefer to use my Q701 for gaming though. Actually now the HD-580 is getting more and more time on my head for gaming despite it's small soundstage.
 
I also agree that the HD-600 seems easier to drive than the K701. I don't like the HD-600 with portable amps though unless I use the headphone out jack though from my portable player. The HD-580/600 needs all the extra power it can get. If I use a LOD cable it sounds much worse. Same with the Q701.
 
Nope, I love it when we disagree on almost everything. I don't think theres been a person on here i've ever disagreed with so much, so it's kind of amusing. I don't reply to try and start an argument or say you're wrong and I'm right, but just give my opinion. I'm glad you don't take my crazy posts too seriously and hopefully I don't come across as being rude. Sometimes I get a little too excited when I talk about my favorite headphones or when giving my opinions. I know I've annoyed more than enough people on here. Luckily only one on my block list so far

 
BTW I heard this plasticy sound on the old K701 I had when I was comparing it to my HD-600 using a receiver. I never heard it ever on my Q701 or K702. I guess that's a good thing.
 
I had the old Zune and hated it. I could never get enough volume with ANY of my headphones. It's almost like they had some volume limiter in it's software. The portable source that gets the loudest for me is my Iaudio 7 and this generic portable CD player. Both drive my DJ100 to levels that could damage my hearing. Pretty impressive. I wonder what officially has the most power output of any portable player. Think it was the Cowon D2 or something?
 
 
Also...in an unrelated note..I never really found the K601 close to being dark until I tried it with gaming. No joke. Not quite as bad as the HD-650, but you could definitely tell it had some slightly rolled off treble. Yet a weird peak in there somewhere. Have you all seen the goldenears K601 graph? It's quite interesting.
 
http://en.goldenears.net/GR_Headphones/8449
 
If you're bored, one for K501:
http://en.goldenears.net/6927

 

[tdockweiler]

Have any of you had the experience of having their K601 sound really bad and too fatiguing on the wrong amp/dac?
I've now tested the K601 with many different sources and DACs and it seems to sound best on any amp or DAC that's as neutral as possible.
I thought the old Asgard was pretty neutral, but I guess not. Sounded horrible with it, but maybe it was just under-powered? Highly unlikely. It's sound didn't change much with different sources. Weird.
 
What stinks is that my HRT MSII seems to hate the K601. Often it sounds amazing, but it feels like the mids are being shoved in my face and it's often very fatiguing. I've tested a soundcard and a stupid cheap X-Fi Go Pro DAC and it actually sounds much more neutral. Even the soundstage is better. Makes me sick. My harsh and fatiguing (Bad) tracks are made a little more bearable.
 
I'm so glad to know that my amp is not adding any coloration (maybe a tad) but it definitely isn't making the mids any more forward. The X-Fi Go Pro seems about as flat as my Sansa Clip+. It's almost as if I can hear the signature of every DAC/player I connect to the Micro Amp. I bought a $25 soundcard today to get me by until I can get a new DAC, but that thing was so bad I returned it within an hour. Even my onboard Realtek "HD" was better!
 
Anyone tried the ODAC with the K601? It'll be interesting to compare the ODAC to all my other sources i'm pretty sure are neutral. My Oppo DV-971H seems pretty neutral, but maybe not after all.
 
Loving this Headroom Micro Amp with all my AKG stuff. If it ever sounds bad it's usually due to a problem with the source. Strangely with the X-Fi Go Pro (temporary) as a source my Micro Amp only needs to be at 30% volume on high gain.

 

[Zombie_X]

Yo Travis,
 
I have not ever had the K601 sound bad or fatiguing from my amps/DAC's. I've heard the K601 on four DAC's ( Musical Fidelity M1DAC, Violectric V800, Benchmark DAC1, Music Hall DAC25.2) and it never sounded bad from any of them. None of my amps have ever made it sound bad nor have any of the other amps I've tried it on. In fact I've not heard a headphone that sounds bad on anything I've paired up or gear that anyone has paired. Headphones will sound better on different gear but I've never heard anything that was plain bad, then again I am not too picky.
 
I briefly had the MusicStreamer and thought it sounded great with anything. It sounded neutral to my ears but it's been a few years since I've heard it. It lacked dynamics but was not warm. Is the MSII that much different? 
 
 
Quote:

Have any of you had the experience of having their K601 sound really bad and too fatiguing on the wrong amp/dac?
I've now tested the K601 with many different sources and DACs and it seems to sound best on any amp or DAC that's as neutral as possible.
I thought the old Asgard was pretty neutral, but I guess not. Sounded horrible with it, but maybe it was just under-powered? Highly unlikely. It's sound didn't change much with different sources. Weird.
 
What stinks is that my HRT MSII seems to hate the K601. Often it sounds amazing, but it feels like the mids are being shoved in my face and it's often very fatiguing. I've tested a soundcard and a stupid cheap X-Fi Go Pro DAC and it actually sounds much more neutral. Even the soundstage is better. Makes me sick. My harsh and fatiguing (Bad) tracks are made a little more bearable.
 
I'm so glad to know that my amp is not adding any coloration (maybe a tad) but it definitely isn't making the mids any more forward. The X-Fi Go Pro seems about as flat as my Sansa Clip+. It's almost as if I can hear the signature of every DAC/player I connect to it. I bought a $25 soundcard today to get me by until I can get a new DAC, but that thing was so bad I returned it within an hour. Even my onboard Realtek "HD" was better!
 
Anyone tried the ODAC with the K601? It'll be interesting to compare the ODAC to all my other sources i'm pretty sure are neutral. My Oppo DV-971H seems pretty neutral, but maybe not after all.
 
Loving this Headroom Micro Amp with all my AKG stuff. If it ever sounds bad it's usually due to a problem with the source. Strangely with the X-Fi Go Pro (temporary) as a source my Micro Amp only needs to be at 30% volume on high gain.

 

[staticfi]

I've only tried the K601 on the E17 and on my receiver with an ipod usb port. It always sounds smooth and slightly warm to me, never fatiguing

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Yo Travis,
 
I have not ever had the K601 sound bad or fatiguing from my amps/DAC's. I've heard the K601 on four DAC's ( Musical Fidelity M1DAC, Violectric V800, Benchmark DAC1, Music Hall DAC25.2) and it never sounded bad from any of them. None of my amps have ever made it sound bad nor have any of the other amps I've tried it on. In fact I've not heard a headphone that sounds bad on anything I've paired up or gear that anyone has paired. Headphones will sound better on different gear but I've never heard anything that was plain bad, then again I am not too picky.
 
I briefly had the MusicStreamer and thought it sounded great with anything. It sounded neutral to my ears but it's been a few years since I've heard it. It lacked dynamics but was not warm. Is the MSII that much different? 
 
 

 
I think soo..but maybe not..
Lately i've been having issues with the HRT MSII making the Q701 sound more fatiguing than it should be. Mostly the mids seem too forward. I never realized this in the past. They're not THAT forward, but more so than this neutral full sized CD player and my onboard sound. I guess that's why people call it "musical". I've noticed it makes some part of the treble on my K601 more ear piercing. I believe it's the lower treble. I think the K601 has a lower treble peak, so maybe that's why the HRT makes it worse. It's 100% NOT my amp. Triple checked this.
 
I don't know why, but the MSII has a small soundstage for me. It's still bigger than portable players and some cheap computer DACs. At first I blamed my amp, but it turns out it wasn't that. It's huge with my old JVC cd player. My $30 DAC I bought for my own amusement has a larger soundstage

 
I also hate the MSII with the HD-598. I guess the MSII is supposed to be neutral, but after comparing it to other neutral sources it sure doesn't seem like it.
 
I've found the MSII to be very, very detailed. I think it's slightly warm. I still don't know why it makes the 598 sound even more muffled.
 
Overall it's still good with the Q701 and K601, but just makes them a tad more fatiguing than they should be. Most probably won't notice or care. I don't think it's a case of garbage tracks or anything.
 
I'll have to try another cable and maybe try another powered USB hub. I know the MSII is VERY picky with usb ports. It hates my laptop, so I don't use that.
 
Worst setup I ever had was the Asgard with the K601. Still gives me nightmares. Loved it with the D2000 and HD-600 though. I'm really not a fan of the Asgard and prefer even the E9. Maybe not for the HD-600.
 
Right now i'm using a $30 DAC to my Micro Amp and it's the best i've ever heard the K601..what the heck?! The X-Fi seems to measure fairly well too. Sounds amazing with the HD-598 and no amp.

 

[Gwarmi]

 Awhile back when I was still using a combination source of either the Asus STX and Auzentech Bravura PCI cards coupled with a few
 DIY amps - I came very close to selling the ol' K601. I could not put my finger on it but the lack of control beyond the upper
 mids just did not seem right. At the time I still had not been exposed to heap of higher end offerings and yet this niggle
 remained. Bass was quite two dimensional a little light.
 
 Picked up the V200 and everything changed - not night and day (cliche alert) but I would easily say that it improved
 by a theoretical 20-25% (whatever that means)

 

[tdockweiler]

I just finally tested the ODAC with the K601. PERFECT combination! I also found out that the K601 requires slightly less voltage than the Q701. Yet I swear I need to crank my K601 up higher than the Q701.
 
I've had so many experiences with amps and DACs with the K601, where they'd just ruin the sound or make them sound too fatiguing in the mids somewhere. The HRT MSII was nice, but it made the K601 too fatiguing in the upper mids or lower treble.
 
With the ODAC it really does feel like super flat. No joke. Even more so than the Q701. Nothing sticks out at all for. Only when i'm listening to really really bad recordings.
 
The K601 definitely is no detail monster like the Q701. Seems a little more forgiving and a little for fun for certain genres. One example is Primus.
 
Only advantage the K601 might have is comfort, soundstage and it's imaging. I guess it does feel a tad warmer.
 
With the ODAC I'm not hearing any weird peaks with the K601 at all. So I guess for the K601 to sound the absolute best, get the most neutral gear as possible. Too bad this isn't as easy as you'd think.
 
I guess the K601 would be nice for those that have issues with the Q701's treble (which I never ever do).
 
BTW I just removed the foam for testing. Seems there's a tad more treble, but it doesn't ruin anything. The Q701 is too harsh without the foam.
 
I just posted that the K601 is now $199 on several sites. Makes me sick that it was often selling for $300-$350. Yuck.

 

[preproman]

.Are these still worth getting new at $199

 

[vid]

I thought they sounded ambiguous for 135 € a year and a half ago. Would not pay $199 (150 €) today. $100 might be cool.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

.Are these still worth getting new at $199

 
Of course, but if you can get the Q701 for only $35 more, that may be the better deal.
I imagine there will be a few who prefer the K601 over the Q701.
 
The K601 does seem to have a little less treble and is a little warmer.
 
Some also can't deal with the bumps on the Q701..for them there is always the K601.
 
Obviously don't buy the K601 without a desktop amp!

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
Of course, but if you can get the Q701 for only $35 more, that may be the better deal.
I imagine there will be a few who prefer the K601 over the Q701.
 
The K601 does seem to have a little less treble and is a little warmer.
 
Some also can't deal with the bumps on the Q701..for them there is always the K601.
 
Obviously don't buy the K601 without a desktop amp!

 
 
I have the Qs already.  I wanted to make sure if I get these they wont be the same as the Q701.  I'm looking for a different AKG experience.

 

[roBernd]

Quote:

 
 
I have the Qs already.  I wanted to make sure if I get these they wont be the same as the Q701.  I'm looking for a different AKG experience.

Why not get a "real" AKG instead of those Harman headphones you call AKG
 
Try sniping a K240 Sextett or K501/K500 on ebay or in this Forum. You'll be surprised how good (better in terms of ringing and FR compared to newer headphones) they sound.

 

[vid]

Quote:

Try sniping a K240 Sextett or K501/K500 on ebay or in this Forum. You'll be surprised how good (better in terms of ringing and FR compared to newer headphones) they sound.

 
Sure you've seen the Sextett CSD? But the K 240 DF, when modded, does a very good job in not ringing at all. Though maybe you meant ringing by ear and not by graphs.
 
My beef with the K 601 (compared to the K 501) was that with the increased bass extension vs the 501, the 601 sounded both warm/intimate and airy/wide = ambiguous sound. Not worth paying as much as the K 501 for