I posted comments about a week ago in the huge Zhaolu thread about a mini meet I was at where I finally got to try other cans with the Zhaolu discrete amp other than my HF-1's. The K701 was one can I got to try with the amp but unfortunately I have to admit I wasn't grooving on the 701's very much and so I wasn't paying enough attention to really get a good feel on how the amp did with them. I think I would need to spend more time with the 701's to really get to know them but to me regardless of what amp I used that night they seemed light in the bass and kind of brighter on top and somewhat bland overall to me. I know I would be in the minority saying that but again I think I would have to spend more time with them. All that said, the Zhaolu definitely drove them, I never got any sense that the discrete amp wasn't able to drive them. I just didn't have the 701's on my head enough that night to really make a good judgement call for you guys. As I said in that other post it was able to drive the HD650's fairly well but it seemed that with my HF-1's it was right at home. I'm not saying that just because they are main cans, everyone agreed the HF-1/Zhaolu amp pairing was excellent. The HD650's have such a high impedance and create such voltage swings that they are a tough one to drive optimally and my feeling is the Zhaolu amp, in some ways like the Gilmore's, puts out major current (what Grado's like) but aren't aimed at driving the likes of Senn's as well as other amps that are clearly designed to drive the likes of an HD650. The Corda Aria was a great pairing with the 650, I know Jan Meier designs his amps to deal with the HD650's. On the other hand I felt the Aria was only very good but not excellent with my HF-1. If I cranked on the Zhaolu driving the HD650's they didn't seem to miss much in driving them, the bass was all there and it sounded nice. At lower volumes it seemed that you could tell the Zhaolu amp maybe lacked just a bit in totally controlling the bass of the HD650 but wasn't anything that would make you scowl by any means of course.
Many say the 701's are tough to drive being way inefficient and lower impedance. I do remember feeling that an amp that tended to color things toward the bass and warmth worked best with the 701 (Corda Aria/Mapletree Purist tube amp). The Zhaolu discrete is much more like a Gilmore in my view, neutral tones, powerful, dynamic and very clear (yet full).
Anyways, hope this might help.
