[zdkaiser]

EQ: Up the bass a smidge, lower the treble a smidge, and you have an extremely accurate and excellent sounding set of cans. I cannot get over how wide this soundstage is.
 
Kudos AKG.

 

[Kevin Brown]

 That's funny.  When I mention in other threads that I think the K701/702 are too bright and don't have enough bass, people slam me for my amp not having the juice to drive them properly.
 
Well, maybe they just are too bright and don't have enough bass, period!
 

 
For my tastes anyway.
 
 
 
But to be fair, I do have a Sparrow coming that is more or less guarenteed to have enough juice for them. 

 

[Zombie_X]

The K702 are pretty bright headphones and their bass is less of other headphones, but in no way do they not have bass. I like their bass quite a bit and prefer it to the HD600's bass. They have more than enough bass IMO.

 

[Kevin Brown]

 Got the Sparrow today.  I *still* prefer the Sextetts to all of the K501, K601, K701/K702.  A more balanced headphone IMO. 
 
For how bright the K701's are, they just do not have enough bass for me.  And I am not a basshead.  For one reference, I think Grado's SR80i/SR125i/SR225i/MS2i bass is darn near perfect.
 

 
I also much prefer the DT880/250's to the K701's too.

 

[electropop]

The problem with all those other headphones compared to the 701s is that they're not more accurate in anyway.
 
I think the 701/2s are perfect bass-wise. I prefer their bass even to the Audeze LCD-2, which I sold a good while ago. I'm planning a good system for the 701/2s now. (Don't own them yet)
 
And I don't think they're bright, just accurate. This certain accuracy I'm talking about insures that I can hear what pitch each note represents. Music comes along effortlessly; woodwinds, brass, everything just flows. But an amp with juice isn't everything; Heed canamp is regarded a good amp for these, but I think it just boosts some parts of the frequency range and makes them a bit sloppy, rounds transients etc.. Naim Headline is excellent: every note comes out as it should without any haze.
 
95% of the music is in the "mid-range", so you can pretty much ditch beyerdynamics right away. AKG's are still the only phones that I think are truly musical and by that I don't mean coloration. Timing, subtle pitch variations, details, dynamics they're all there. Anyone who says they don't have enough bass IS a bass-head, simply because they're listening to sounds, not music. Grado's are not bad either, but their bass fails me for being monotonic.
 
Their bass simply seems to be weak because people have bad reference and are usually used to bass-heavy presentation. I mean, WOW do the 701s have bass! And I'm not talking about that part of the frequency spectrum, but the instrument itself. I can hear it plays a story. Music is about the language. With Beyers for example it's as if you have dyslexia since you can't make anything of the music. Notes equal words and sentences equal melodies. The T1s were even bad in this regard, HE-5s don't come even close, LCD-2 fails... They are truly giant killers. A good source and amp is required though... I tried them in my setup and weren't anything fancy.
 
Edit. I own the K272HDs and haven't come across a better closed headphone yet. I've sold my HD25s and SRH840s because they fail being accurate and musical. Nothing I hate more than monotonic bass that smears everything else and it's quite usual from a design

 

[EddieE]

Is it possible that there is a variance in bass quantity between different K70*?
 
The comment above about the SR80 having enough bass but the K70* not does not tally with my experience as someone who has owned both and found the K702 to have a lot more real sub bass than the SR80.
 
The K70* does lack midbass a bit. It's amazing how knocking the EQ up in the midbass area makes the K702 sound so much more life like and natural. A non-EQ solution I found on headfi recently (can't remember the name of the poster sorry) is to add a ring with a section cut out of fake chamois under the pads. Nice effect. I find having in under the stock foam ring rather than instead of gives good results to just making the K70* sound a bit more real for me.

 

[Kevin Brown]

Quote:

The problem with all those other headphones compared to the 701s is that they're not more accurate in anyway.
 
...
 
Their bass simply seems to be weak because people have bad reference and are usually used to bass-heavy presentation.

I know how much slam, impact, and punch I'm supposed to get with John Bonhams drums and John Paul Jones bass guitar, for example. and the AKG's just don't get it right.  And I'm not just talking about comparing vs other headphones either.  I have my home theater set up with ETF5, and I've also checked the low end response (and standing waves) with discrete test tones.  I have +/3 dB reponse down to 11 Hz believe it or not.  (SVS PB12-Ultra/2.)
 
My favorite AKG headphone so far is the K240 Sextett.  More accurate across the board than the K701/702 IMO.  More bass but still well controlled, and a tamer high end.

 

[electropop]

Yes, that's all plausible. But you misunderstood the whole point of my post

 
Slam, impact, punch... Those are just aspects of sound and have nothing to do with the musical message of a song. I'm talking about pitch-accuracy. I want to be able to hear what pitch each note represents. If you like that thump phenomenon that's fine, but it's not "accurate", it's usually coloration. And I'm not even saying that a flat frequency response promises good musicality, though it does help.
 
We have to draw a line between sounds (or personal priorities in what kind of a phenomenon the music is to you) and the actual content of the music (as accurate as possible reproduction of the pitches of notes that hold the key to the saying of the song).
 
I don't think the K240 sextett is as accurate in this regard. I would never want to tame the high end of the 701s: I really think the way they portray woodwinds and brass and their harmonics in the upper register (notes coming through very accurately!) is one of their greatest strengths. Same with drums: a good example is when I was listening to a drum solo by Billy Cobham (I think from Spectrum) and the neat thing was that the phones weren't only fast enough to cover each hit but also distinguish each tom with its correct pitch so that it wasn't just monotonic bashing I was used to hearing with many other setups.. This I believe is true accuracy.

 

[Trysaeder]

Yes people do hear very differently, this is just another strong example.
 
It's the first time I've seen the K70X called neutral, and the DT880 having recessed mids (perhaps 2-3 others). Some people need a larger treble peak for perceived neutrality. Some can't stand the ER-4s.
 
One thing that doesn't rely on the frequency response is the plastic '95% of all music' mids.

 

[carloslees]

lower the 30hz mids and you'll get wider soundstage, that's my experience

 

[pocketrocket]

I never understood what's wrong with equalizing, I don't feel the slightest of guilt using the bass boost of FiiO E7 at level 2 (on the range 0-3) on my AKG K 272 HD, because it completely changes the way some songs sound and I don't see any significant quality decrease. Audio and more importantly music should be about subjective enjoyment, nobody argues about their music taste being superior to someone elses, so why would you have to denounce another persons taste in audio? There's no accuracy in subjectiveness.

 

[p a t r i c k]

Quote:

Yes, that's all plausible. But you misunderstood the whole point of my post

 
Slam, impact, punch... Those are just aspects of sound and have nothing to do with the musical message of a song. I'm talking about pitch-accuracy. I want to be able to hear what pitch each note represents. If you like that thump phenomenon that's fine, but it's not "accurate", it's usually coloration. And I'm not even saying that a flat frequency response promises good musicality, though it does help.

Yes, I do agree

 
People who want headphones to turn the marvellous and diverse sounds that can happen in bass into a sonic battering ram will not be rewarded with the AKG K701/2s.

 

[pocketrocket]

And this bothers you, how?  
 
Quote:

 
People who want headphones to turn the marvellous and diverse sounds that can happen in bass into a sonic battering ram will not be rewarded with the AKG K701/2s.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Quote:

95% of the music is in the "mid-range", so you can pretty much ditch beyerdynamics right away.

The most ridiculous statement on this thread.

 

 

[Trysaeder]

Yes, I do agree

 
People who want headphones to turn the marvellous and diverse sounds that can happen in bass into a sonic battering ram will not be rewarded with the AKG K701/2s.

K702+m3 bass boost is probably the best combo for trance in my opinion.