lmilhan
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2004
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Got my 701s today, some comments (IMO as a very novice reviewer):
Fit and finish - Appearance wise, the white parts aren't my cup of tea - who knows perhaps in time it will grow on me. I would much rather have prefered a shade of grey, black or charcoal in place of the white components. The rest of the headphone is quite pleasing to the eye (the greys, silvers, and burgundys). Although I am not crazy about the white color, I will say that they certainly do stand out as very unique looking in a sea of other more 'common colored' headphones. Perhaps this was AKGs intent...
The leather headband is nice, and not nearly as 'red' as it has appeared in some pictures I have seen. It is more of a dark burgundy color - it seems to be a pretty nice piece of leather. The underside of the headband has nice firm cushion-type bubbles. Although the band is a bit firm new, I suspect it will break in nicely over time once the natural oils from the hair intermingle with it.
The headphones are self-adjusting, and the mechanism seems to work quite well, although I question the longevity of the little black bungee cords that are part of the mechanism. I personally really like self-adjusting phones (one less thing to fiddle with), so this scores big in my book.
Out of the box, I would say they have a medium level of clamping force (similar to the DT 990 Pros). Again, with use I would suspect the clamping force will relax a bit.
The Velour pads are large, but very firm. Not nearly as 'soft and cushiony' as Beyer pads. Again (no surprise here) I would imagine they will get nice and soft in time with use.
The cord is by far the cheapest looking component on the phones. It is not microphonic, and is nice and soft/supple pleasing to the touch. It appears that the cord has 'memory' similar to the HD595s. Perhaps the cord memory will relax with use. Time will tell.
On to sound.
I must say that although I am a believer in break-in, I am too impatient to wait. So the way I do it is listen to new headphones each day as they break in. So I listen to them right out of the box, go to bead and leave them breaking in. Next day I listen to them, go to bed and leave them breaking in - rinse and repeat. That way I get to hear how the phones 'evolve' during the break-in period.
With that said, here are some quick (very early) non broken-in impressions:
Soundstage is very nice/wide. I can easily pick out each instrument very clearly out of a dense passage of music with many instruments playing simultaneously. These phones are quite detailed indeed. I threw some fast prog metal at them with a lot of tight double-bass action, and they keep up without breaking a sweat - they are very fast.
There seem to be two camps here at head-fi, those who prefer a Grado-like sound signature, and those who prefer a Sennheiser-like sound signature. If I were to describe which sound signature they lean more toward, I would say they are similar to the most forward of the Sennheisers (HD 595). Main difference being that the 701s are faster, less veiled, more detailed, and have a touch more bass. By the way - for those of you worrying about bass on these phones, I can safely say they have plenty of it. It goes deep, it is fast and controlled with no bloating/coloring, and overall doesn't feel light at all in the bass department.
The mids are very sweet and plentiful (AKG tradition continues). The highs are a bit unrefined at this point, and they kind of get stepped on a bit by the mids, but I of corse suspect this will change with burn-in.
Of the headphones I have owned, they sound like a cross between the Senn HD595s and the Sony MDR SA5000s. If those two phones were to have a baby together, the K701 would be the result.
Although I am not a Sennheiser fan (and I make a comparison of them versus Sennheisers) I do like what I hear so far with the 701s, because they take all of the things I didn't like about the Sennheiser sound, and fixed it/got it right.
I have a feeling this phone will end up winning the approval of many a hardcore Sennheiser fan, and it offers an aweful lot that the Grado side of the fence will appreciate as well.
Oh and for those interested, here is the setup I am listening to the 701s on:
PC->Foobar2k->EMU 0404->Digital Optical Out->Entech Number Cruncher DAC->GS-1->K701s.
Of corse this is only after about 4 hours of listening. So since they aren't broken-in, I fully expect that things will change with time/use. Also, since these are all my opinions, please feel free to take all that I say with a grain of salt!
Fit and finish - Appearance wise, the white parts aren't my cup of tea - who knows perhaps in time it will grow on me. I would much rather have prefered a shade of grey, black or charcoal in place of the white components. The rest of the headphone is quite pleasing to the eye (the greys, silvers, and burgundys). Although I am not crazy about the white color, I will say that they certainly do stand out as very unique looking in a sea of other more 'common colored' headphones. Perhaps this was AKGs intent...
The leather headband is nice, and not nearly as 'red' as it has appeared in some pictures I have seen. It is more of a dark burgundy color - it seems to be a pretty nice piece of leather. The underside of the headband has nice firm cushion-type bubbles. Although the band is a bit firm new, I suspect it will break in nicely over time once the natural oils from the hair intermingle with it.
The headphones are self-adjusting, and the mechanism seems to work quite well, although I question the longevity of the little black bungee cords that are part of the mechanism. I personally really like self-adjusting phones (one less thing to fiddle with), so this scores big in my book.
Out of the box, I would say they have a medium level of clamping force (similar to the DT 990 Pros). Again, with use I would suspect the clamping force will relax a bit.
The Velour pads are large, but very firm. Not nearly as 'soft and cushiony' as Beyer pads. Again (no surprise here) I would imagine they will get nice and soft in time with use.
The cord is by far the cheapest looking component on the phones. It is not microphonic, and is nice and soft/supple pleasing to the touch. It appears that the cord has 'memory' similar to the HD595s. Perhaps the cord memory will relax with use. Time will tell.
On to sound.
I must say that although I am a believer in break-in, I am too impatient to wait. So the way I do it is listen to new headphones each day as they break in. So I listen to them right out of the box, go to bead and leave them breaking in. Next day I listen to them, go to bed and leave them breaking in - rinse and repeat. That way I get to hear how the phones 'evolve' during the break-in period.
With that said, here are some quick (very early) non broken-in impressions:
Soundstage is very nice/wide. I can easily pick out each instrument very clearly out of a dense passage of music with many instruments playing simultaneously. These phones are quite detailed indeed. I threw some fast prog metal at them with a lot of tight double-bass action, and they keep up without breaking a sweat - they are very fast.
There seem to be two camps here at head-fi, those who prefer a Grado-like sound signature, and those who prefer a Sennheiser-like sound signature. If I were to describe which sound signature they lean more toward, I would say they are similar to the most forward of the Sennheisers (HD 595). Main difference being that the 701s are faster, less veiled, more detailed, and have a touch more bass. By the way - for those of you worrying about bass on these phones, I can safely say they have plenty of it. It goes deep, it is fast and controlled with no bloating/coloring, and overall doesn't feel light at all in the bass department.
The mids are very sweet and plentiful (AKG tradition continues). The highs are a bit unrefined at this point, and they kind of get stepped on a bit by the mids, but I of corse suspect this will change with burn-in.
Of the headphones I have owned, they sound like a cross between the Senn HD595s and the Sony MDR SA5000s. If those two phones were to have a baby together, the K701 would be the result.
Although I am not a Sennheiser fan (and I make a comparison of them versus Sennheisers) I do like what I hear so far with the 701s, because they take all of the things I didn't like about the Sennheiser sound, and fixed it/got it right.
I have a feeling this phone will end up winning the approval of many a hardcore Sennheiser fan, and it offers an aweful lot that the Grado side of the fence will appreciate as well.
Oh and for those interested, here is the setup I am listening to the 701s on:
PC->Foobar2k->EMU 0404->Digital Optical Out->Entech Number Cruncher DAC->GS-1->K701s.
Of corse this is only after about 4 hours of listening. So since they aren't broken-in, I fully expect that things will change with time/use. Also, since these are all my opinions, please feel free to take all that I say with a grain of salt!
