[ZaWorld]

Lately been considering an upgrade to my Grado sr60s, and it seems the AKG Q701s fit my taste of music. I keep hearing about the lack of bass in the Q701s and I want to know if anyone can give me some perspective on this issue. Is it safe to say the Q701s will have less bass than say a TF10, PK1, or Grado SR60?

 

[KG Jag]

Quote:

Lately been considering an upgrade to my Grado sr60s, and it seems the AKG Q701s fit my taste of music. I keep hearing about the lack of bass in the Q701s and I want to know if anyone can give me some perspective on this issue. Is it safe to say the Q701s will have less bass than say a TF10, PK1, or Grado SR60?

The Q701 has more and deeper bass than the SR80i.

 

[biggbenn74]

The Q701 has more and deeper bass than the SR80i.

This is true, indeed. And the bass these people claim is "lacking", is quantity bass. They don't rumble when the bassline drops. The bass the Q701's produce is quality bass. The kind of bass that makes music just stand out. Heck, I prefer listening to dubstep with my Q701's over my XB500 any day. True story.

 

[talisman42]

Quote:

This is true, indeed. And the bass these people claim is "lacking", is quantity bass. They don't rumble when the bassline drops. The bass the Q701's produce is quality bass. The kind of bass that makes music just stand out. Heck, I prefer listening to dubstep with my Q701's over my XB500 any day. True story.

Hmm. I think I saw this on Ripley's Believe It..... or Not.

 

[formula1]

Quote:

Heck, I prefer listening to dubstep with my Q701's over my XB500 any day. True story.

 
Are you using some Equalizer or a headamp with bass boost? 

 

[Chris J]

Much as I like Grados, the Q701s are a big step up from SR-60s.
Smoother, more detail, more fidelity.
You can't lose.
 
You really need to compare Q701 to Grado SR-225s for a fair comparison.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Lately been considering an upgrade to my Grado sr60s, and it seems the AKG Q701s fit my taste of music. I keep hearing about the lack of bass in the Q701s and I want to know if anyone can give me some perspective on this issue. Is it safe to say the Q701s will have less bass than say a TF10, PK1, or Grado SR60?

 
Heya,
 
Depends. The SR60i with L-cush pads can throw down some good bass. The Q701 sounds thinner in general. It has deeper sub-bass extension that the SR60i cannot do, but the SR60i seems to sound like it has a bit more mid-bass presence, so it has more of a "full" sound that is more warm.
 
Sounds to me like you'd probably like the Beyer DT880 or Hifiman HE-300 better.
 
Very best,

 

[ZaWorld]

I had the impression that the Q701 barely had any bass like my re0s. I consider the grado sr60 to have decent bass though not overwhelming bass. That being said, it appears I can look forward to listening to Hans Zimmer on the Q701s.

 

[iim7V7IM7]

I own the K702s (similar to K701s).

4 octaves of bass:

- the deepest audible bass from 20-40 Hz is rolled off (30 Hz is modestly attenuated)
- from 40-80 Hz, bass volume somewhat increases (noticable)
- from 80-160 Hz it's flat and emphasized
- from 160-320 Hz it is still emphasized but begins to roll off a bit

So the very bottom notes of some instruments (very few) are there with good fidelity and texture are down a few dB. What is missing are the deepest most fundamental room resonances.

Great headphones...Flat from 100 - 10,000 Hz...

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

Are you using some Equalizer or a headamp with bass boost? 

 
I am. What I have started with is an EQ curve that is a mirror reflection of the frequency response graph, and after a few minor tweaks the Q701s sound superb. The bass is clean and well defined - all it needed was some boost. The trickier part was to tame down the hissing sounds in vocals, but that also worked out quite well.
Some people shy away from using equalizers, but honestly the phase shifts that they cause are undetectable to me, while the tonal improvement is really significant. If not for the equalizer, I'd probably go for different headphones and spend 3-4 times as much to get similar sound quality.

 

[ytisawfulnow]

The Q701's are great headphones... which i sold :/
 
Although i haven't listened to the grados i can imagine the AKGs would be a worthwhile upgrade, big soundstage, very flat sounding, regarding bass the bass is there but you can't really feel it, meaning there is a severe lack of bass impact although they do rumble quite a bit when you push them to their full potential with one of those bass test tracks.
 
Just make sure you get them from Amazon (shipped and sold by amazon) and have the right source to drive them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004444O46/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004444OFK/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004444O3W/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'd like to avoid multiple threads and since this is relevant to the discussion thus far, I'll just post here.

Does the Q701's bass improve (in quality) with more break in? (of the driver suspension/surrounds) I passed by a Harman showroom last weekend and I happened to have my Cantate.2 and laptop with me, saw they had the Q701 demo units so I went back to my car to get my gear.
 
I was happy to see they had a demo unit since the only K701 I heard on it so far had worn pads on them, and I was hoping the Q-version might sate my curiosity as to how good these cans can get with new pads (on worn pads, they were tonally good enough but virtually no 3D stage). However I was disappointed - it had a lot of bass in quantity, not quality.There wasn't much 'eye-popping' impact (as on Dynaudio, Focal, Grado), ie, the notes' "attack" weren't emphasized (not a bad thing, since some Grados tend to do too much of it) but the decay was a bit too prolonged that the double pedals and the bass guitar seemed to not know what the heck they were doing vis a vis what song the rest of the band was playing. I have to admit I just found it horrible enough I never finished a single song - I just jumped from one track to the next trying to find one that didn't sound like that, and those that didn't sounded a little too slow and laid back.
 
Or was it my amp on low gain? I didn't have a screwdriver with me so I couldn't pop out the jumpers that sets it to -10db, although it was too loud already by the max setting on the volume knob. However this amp was clean, controlled yet authoritative driving everything I threw at it so far on that setting (HD600, HD650, HD800, SR80i, RS1, K701 on old pads, LCD-2, LCD-3, Westone2). Or was the USB DAC in the amp so colored that the enhanced-bass K701 the Q701 is just had too much bassboost EQ already?

 

[biggbenn74]

Are you using some Equalizer or a headamp with bass boost? 

I use EQu and usually my FiiO E11. High gain and bass on 1.

 

[gogojojo]

don't know if you upgraded already, but i was in your position about a half year ago
i had the sr80i's and contemplated getting the q701s after auditioning my friend's
 
i have to say, both headphones are great and good for the money. however, q701s definitely are more premium headphones
cleaner, higher fidelity, neutral, closer to transparent
..not as "crunchy" (i dont know how to use "proper" audiophile terms but thats what it seems like to me) as the grados
that includes bass, which iim7v7im7's post explains in detail, which is nothing like the head-pounding bass of denons,
but i really enjoy the q701's reproduction of bass. the lower notes from a cello really come to life.. one of my favorite things about these headphones
also, i feel like the grados "resonate" a whole lot more, leaking sound like mad but creating a really "visceral" experience (there go those terms again... haha ) 
 
so i definitely miss the grados from time to time. but in the end, the q701s bring the same experience in a cleaner, fuller sound 
i've been really happy with them and have since handed down the grados to my little bro
 
one last thing, you really need to have a good setup to enjoy the q701s. low impedance amp, a good dac, and quality music make all the difference.
that said, i dont have the best setup, but i enjoy listening to my mix of flac and 320 kbps mp3s through my Yulong DAH1 DAC and Schiit Magni 
 
Hope that was helpful, for you or for anyone in the future who are considering the q701s
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. best of luck