[discord]

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Originally Posted by devwild My SA5K smilie didn't seem to take off, but hey, I'll give this one a shot too. This one based on the recently added 340 smile so it matches. Those cans look better on smilie man's head than they do on mine!

Need a little burgundy on top.

 

[JaZZ]

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Originally Posted by KZEE Actually just the opposite may be the case - in relation to most other cans the 701's certainly aren't all that inefficient or hard to drive, which would indicate that they're not all that current hungry. My 701's sound absolutely gorgeous and play with no distortion through the headphone jack of my little Sony home CD player/receiver - it's when I play them through my main rig that I have distortion problems. My input tube paralleled WA3 is not current shy - it rocks my recabled 580's, and it drove a borrowed pair of Beyer 990's to ear bleed levels if I wanted it to. The amp hits hard and is very dynamic, and it's possible that the 701's may not be up to handling that type of power.

Honestly, from your description I rather suspect that your tube amp may have problems with this kind of load impedance. Combined with the K 701's relatively low efficiency, it may not be able to supply enough current. In contrast to the Senns with their >300 ohm and high efficiency the K 701 with its 62 ohm requires lots of current. That's not what typical tube amps like.


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Originally Posted by devwild

Great Smilie! I'm probably gonna use it too in 2 or 3 weeks -- with your authorization.

 

[rpdugan]

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Originally Posted by rpdugan I currently have the K280 and K270 cans. Is the K701 a different world from what I currently have???

Anyone have any comments on my questions???

 

[devwild]

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Originally Posted by JaZZ Great Smilie! I'm probably gonna use it too in 2 or 3 weeks -- with your authorization.

Certainly. As you can see in my boredom I decided to take it a step further and replace my avatar finally.

 

[3lusiv3]

After reading all of these posts about the k701 I get the impression that I would prefer the HD650.

 

[mysticaldodo]

For me, it will be a choice between the Zu Mobius cable and the AKG 701. If my Xcan can drive the AKG 701 well (it completely fails with the 501) I'll be a

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ Honestly, from your description I rather suspect that your tube amp may have problems with this kind of load impedance. Combined with the K 701's relatively low efficiency, it may not be able to supply enough current. In contrast to the Senns with their >300 ohm and high efficiency the K 701 with its 62 ohm requires lots of current. That's not what typical tube amps like.

exactly what i was thinking - i remember the wa3, while certainly a more than capable amp for high-Z phones, was not exactly universally acclaimed for driving grados.

 

[Andrea]

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Originally Posted by 3lusiv3 After reading all of these posts about the k701 I get the impression that I would prefer the HD650.

You, too?

 

[mrarroyo]

My Mapletree Ear Purist + HD100 or the Jasmine T-200 have no problems driving my Grados or my K701.

 

[KZEE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ Honestly, from your description I rather suspect that your tube amp may have problems with this kind of load impedance. Combined with the K 701's relatively low efficiency, it may not be able to supply enough current. In contrast to the Senns with their >300 ohm and high efficiency the K 701 with its 62 ohm requires lots of current. That's not what typical tube amps like.

I was informed by an amp designer that 35 ohms is the practical lower impedence limit for a typical tube amp, so the 701's 62 ohm impedence load should be plenty high enough for just about any tube amp to easily drive. I also highly doubt that an input tube paralleled WA3 lacks the current to drive just about any headphone out there.
There's also the false impression being passed around that the 701's are inefficient and hard to drive, and that's simply not the case. The majority of those that have been saying the 701's are hard to drive have been basing their conclusions on hearing their 701's new out of the box with very few hours on them. When burned in the 701's get louder and open up nicely, and satisfying sound quality and volume levels are easily obtainable when paired with portable and low powered devices - it's when high power is applied to the 701's that there seems to be a problem.
But whatever... in the end the 701's still sound fabulous, and if you're getting satisfying volume levels out of your 701's then I say turn off your computer, turn up the music, and enjoy.

 

[blessingx]

The K701s are harder to drive than just their impedance indicates.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KZEE I was informed by an amp designer that 35 ohms is the practical lower impedence limit for a typical tube amp, so the 701's 62 ohm impedence load should be plenty high enough for just about any tube amp to easily drive.

In fact 35 ohm is too low for many tube amps (from what I know), and even 62 ohm may be critical for some of them.

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I also highly doubt that an input tube paralleled WA3 lacks the current to drive just about any headphone out there.

The input stage doesn't care about the load impedance seen by the output stage.

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There's also the false impression being passed around that the 701's are inefficient and hard to drive, and that's simply not the case. The majority of those that have been saying the 701's are hard to drive have been basing their conclusions on hearing their 701's new out of the box with very few hours on them. When burned in the 701's get louder and open up nicely, and satisfying sound quality and volume levels are easily obtainable when paired with portable and low powered devices - it's when high power is applied to the 701's that there seems to be a problem.

After all the K 701 isn't (clearly) more sensitive than the HD 650, is it? So considering the five times lower impedance it draws the five-fold of the current for the same volume level. That's a quite critical load if you ask me.

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But whatever... in the end the 701's still sound fabulous, and if you're getting satisfying volume levels out of your 701's then I say turn off your computer, turn up the music, and enjoy.

Too early for me... my pair is still on order.

.

 

[Bostonears]

According to AKG's press release on the K701 and K601, "The ultimate reference K 701 is in a class by itself among open-back dynamic headphones, comparable to AKG’s legendary K 1000."

Has anyone directly compared the K701 to the K1000? Clearly, such a comparison would be affected by the different amplifiers required, but I'm looking for overall impressions. Is the K701 even close? Is it even better?

 

[Yikes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bostonears According to AKG's press release on the K701 and K601, "The ultimate reference K 701 is in a class by itself among open-back dynamic headphones, comparable to AKG’s legendary K 1000." Has anyone directly compared the K701 to the K1000? Clearly, such a comparison would be affected by the different amplifiers required, but I'm looking for overall impressions. Is the K701 even close? Is it even better?

I did this comparison. It's in another thread. Ultimately they are very different. I won't be getting rid of my K1000's when I get the 701's, but I'll use the 701's probably 90% of the time. On the vast majority of recordings the 701’s absolutely trounce the 1000’s. It is only on the select few exceptional recordings that happen to play into the 1000’s strengths where the 1000’s better the 701’s. IMHO YMMV

 

[Kraegorn]

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Originally Posted by KZEE I've been doing some extensive listening to my 701's tonight and after 72 hours of burn in they really do sound gorgeous. There's a harmonic rightness and richness to the sound that really hits the spot, and in my rig the 701's sound more like live music than anything else I've heard up to this point. But I am getting some bass distortion at anything above about half of my normal listening volume, which is frustrating because the 701's sound so good that I want to crank 'em up and boogy. I'm hoping that more burn in will fix the problem, and if doesn't then I'm going to be very sad because I love the sound of these cans.

About the distortion, I'm getting it too with my Supra tube amp on higher volume settings. But as I get more burn-in time, about 200 hours worth so far, I can heighten the volume settings 25% higher without the bass breaking up.

This problem didn't exist when I plugged it into my Grace 901 at any volume level, which could mean some type of sensitivity towards certain power signatures?? Tube amps do tend to juice cans with more bass, maybe the k701 is a bit bass shy at first.

Kzee, what amp are you using?