tangelo
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Posts
- 46
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- 10
I'm looking for some new headphones. Currently, I have the K701 powered by a Tube Magic D1. The K701 simply do not impress me. Sure, they do sound very good, but there are still many flaws.
Cons:
Even so, the K701 are by no means bad. Here are some things I like about them.
Pros:
Are there any headphones that eliminate the cons of the K701, while still retaining all the pros? Also, would I have to upgrade my source/amp to get the best out of the new phones? Thanks.
Cons:
- Soundstage does not sound realistic. It's very wide, but too wide. For instance, when I'm playing CoD 4, other players often sound much farther than they actually are. For instance, if someone is right in front of me, it will sound like they are 20-30% farther away than they really are. In addition, the soundstage isn't very accurate. Footsteps are often muddled into a blob, which will give me the general direction of where the steps are coming from but not the exact place. The sound gets lost. Also, in music, it often sounds as if songs were recorded in a massive chapel or tunnel or something, as in there is a large amount of reverberation. Thirdly, though the soundstage is very wide horizontally, it's not very strong vertically. It seems more like an ellipse, rather than a sphere, which if what I imagine a soundstage should be.
- The overall response is slightly too treble heavy. I do like treble, but there seems to be a fairly massive peak near 12kHz. This, in turn, results in the bass response being weaker, due to there being too much treble. Additionally, some instruments and vocals sound slightly unnatural, due to the pronounced treble. A flat response is what I'm looking for.
Even so, the K701 are by no means bad. Here are some things I like about them.
Pros:
- The detail retrieval is really excellent. I feel like I am really hearing almost everything that is in the recording.
- The treble and bass extensions are very good. The treble doesn't even start rolling off to about 16kHz, and is still ample up to ~18kHz. The bass extension remains solid to about 40Hz, in which it starts to roll off.
Are there any headphones that eliminate the cons of the K701, while still retaining all the pros? Also, would I have to upgrade my source/amp to get the best out of the new phones? Thanks.