[hifiact]

Think outside of the box.
 
If you have a good quality source then buy an Azuntech Forte 7.1 soundcard for its headphone amp only. Use it with the external source in line-in mode and it will drive your K701 effortlessly and the sound quality will largely depend on your source.
 
for $50, the best headphone amp out there, even better than Xonar STX headphone amp, but Xonar has a better DAC.

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

Think outside of the box.
 
If you have a good quality source then buy an Azuntech Forte 7.1 soundcard for its headphone amp only. Use it with the external source in line-in mode and it will drive your K701 effortlessly and the sound quality will largely depend on your source.
 
for $50, the best headphone amp out there, even better than Xonar STX headphone amp, but Xonar has a better DAC.

 
The Xonar STX's headphone out can drive 80 mW into 600 Ohm headphones with 2 V peak-to-peak.
 
The Auzentech can supply "up to"  100 mW with max 3 V peak-to-peak. This is probably at 32 Ohms, so it should be a fraction of that at 600 Ohms.
 
They are essentially the same thing. One isn't really an upgrade over the other. Consider that the Audio-gd NFb-12 at just over a hundred dollars can push 150 mW into 600 ohms and 3500 mW into 32 Ohms with 10 V RMS. That's around 15 V peak-to-peak. This is more like what I'd call "driving the Q701 effortlessly".
 
If you're gonna need an amp because the one in your sound card isn't powerful enough, then buy a real amp, not another sound card with similar specs.

 

[wwmhf]

I recently obtained a pair of Q701. I did some extensive listening last weekend. I tried them on 4 amps, 2 solid states, 2 tube amps. My phones played satisfactorily on all of them, but I found that these phones perform better on more powerful amps. On the solid state amps, the Little Dot V sounded better than the Audio GD 11.32. For tube amps, the Bottle Head Sex sounded better than the HLLY amp, both were heavily modified/upgraded. The difference was obvious and I could decide immediately which amp I would like to use with these phones. 
 
Finally, I knew that the Bottle Head Sex among these amps sounded the best for these Q701. It is a surprise to me because this amp is not the best for my other phones: HD650, Beyer 880, 990 (both 600 ohms) and AKG 501. 

 

[buson160man]

 I have owned a set of akg 701s for several years now and over that time I have found that they are difficult beasts to drive.Their sound signature is pretty neutral in general but they are probably not a favorite for bass heads.Of my amps though I ownly have had about four of them.I find that my burson ha-160 seems to mate pretty well with them.The burson has a slightly warm balance that seems to mate pretty well with the akgs neutral balance.But I have tweaked the burson with a hifi tuning supreme fuse which I find to be a worthwhile step in ringing the best from the amp.Upgrading the power cable is also beneficial.I have tried a few and I really liked the emotiva power cable from the emotiva.com website.For the money it seems to offer a good performance cost for a reasonable price in relationship to the ha-160s cost.I have used more expensive cables that do work better but they are much more costly and not practical to use on a amp that only cost me 700 usd when i bought mine.
 The 701s like power and you need a good amp to get the best out of them.I like the 701s soundstaging even better than my lcd2 v2s at least with the amps I have.I have had  the ray samuels otl raptor amp for several years as well and over most of that time it seemed challenged by the 701.I had replaced the fuse in the raptor as well with a hifi tuning supreme fuse to good effect.This lowered the noise floor even further on the amp which was pretty quiet already.I now hear a fair amount more low level information and got a pretty good bump in dynamics as well.But it still seemed challenged by the 701s.But earlier this year I purchased a harmonic tech ac-11 power cord after hearing one in my set up I found this is the first power cord that I have used on the raptor that seems to make it sound noticeably more powerful.I find now that it seems to handle the 701s much more aptly.I still like my burson but I really like the raptors dimensionality a lot more than the burson when  I use my 701s thes days. It would seem that it takes a long time to realize the potential of a piece of equipment.So please be patient and be willing to tweak a piece of equipment with ancillaries like fuses and power cords.You may be surprised at the improvement you can get if you are willing to experiment.
  These days I actually prefer my raptor for its dimensionality and that tube magic that only a tube amp can deliver.It just is more involving to listen to.

 

[buson160man]

oops sorry

 

[liamstrain]

Quote:

Finally, I knew that the Bottle Head Sex among these amps sounded the best for these Q701. It is a surprise to me because this amp is not the best for my other phones: HD650, Beyer 880, 990 (both 600 ohms) and AKG 501. 

 
The SEX is transformer coupled, so does play nicely with lower impedance phones like the 701. The 600 ohm cans are happy to get more voltage from a different architecture - the Crack, for instance (not that the SEX would be totally unsuited, but not what I'd characterize as a match made in heaven from an electrical standpoint). 

 

[mild555]

I just get my Q701.
 
Had my eyes on Graham Slee Solo SRG II, but not sure how it works with Q701. Any idea? 

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

I just get my Q701.
 
Had my eyes on Graham Slee Solo SRG II, but not sure how it works with Q701. Any idea? 

 
Not nearly powerful enough. To drive your Q701 to their full potential, you need something like this:
 

 

[mild555]

Quote:

 
Not nearly powerful enough. To drive your Q701 to their full potential, you need something like this:
 

 
Hi dude.. Sorry, although I think you are funny, but I am not sure what are you trying to say by your answer. 

 

[liamstrain]

hyperbole fail. 

 

[viralcow]

Sarcasm, anyone?

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

 
Not nearly powerful enough. To drive your Q701 to their full potential, you need something like this:
 

 
That's about accurate, but these days you can get that amount of power from just the Magni.
I think a 5-10% volume level is the requirement for the Q701 to sound good with it.

 

[mild555]

Hyperbole and sarcasm? Lol 
 
I am the new kid looking for the truth, if I can say.  

 
 
tdockweiler,  I am very glad had your response. 
 
 
I am very new to these headphone things, don't really know where to go and how they work better. 
 
Searching around I have this Q701 I believe is the one I need, but also heard that they are extremely hard to drive (not the power way), they sound will change extremely, depends on an Amp. 
Not sure if it's true, you guys tell me.  

 
And for SRGii, its becoz I can find it on my local 2nd market with very good offering, and I know it's very capable Amp, but not sure the synergy with Q701, are they going to pair up nicely or wrongly? 
In this case if only becoz the statement "they sound will change extremely, depends on an Amp" is true. 

 

[liamstrain]

they sound will change extremely, depends on an Amp. 
 

 
I've not found this to be true (at least did not with my K702). As long as the amp has enough power (and most do), they sound great. 
 
Synergy, by and large, is an unverifiable, untestable, and unreliable way to discuss audio equipment. 

 

[bowlernona]

Im a long time lurker here. Finally made an account.
I wad wondering how would the Q701 run on the bravo audio amps? I really like the size and design. I saw a headphone stand built by a member and he included the amp on the base. It looked very clean and contemporary. I was looking for a similar set-up, but wanted to make sure that the amp is sufficient.