[kunalraiker]

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Thanks for the help cravenz. Kunal, nice review just what i was looking for. I'm seriously considering this combo now, not a casual listener so detail is important to me. Just to double check, ACSS works with the DAC 19 > C-2 right? I could only find ACSS in the description of the dac and other amps on their pricing page.

That is right.

 

[Acix]

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I'm thinking about paying Moon Audio to recable my K702.

The balanced one looks good.

 

[fishski13]

 
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@ Greeny24:
 
it's not a noob mistake, maybe classifying it as a high-end set up may have been a mistake, but in theory, there is nothing very very wrong with it. It may be high-end subjective to you and I would fathom a guess that this is your first high outlay on an audio set up.
 
Neither do I think that you will be disappointed because unless you have been listening to an extremely high-end set up all your life, which I do not deny the differences are there, the differences start to get smaller and less noticeable to an untrained ear. Further, there is a point of diminishing returns and it'll then depend on how much you are willing to outlay for that little bit more.
 
I hope you do not fall into the trap of thinking that the most expensive setup is the best, it probably is, but spend within the means that you have as well; people wax lyrical here about the night and day differences they hear with various boombastic words to charm the socks off your feet, and that is where the real disappointment is, that's just my point of view and opinion of course.
 
On a side note, I do not in anyway possess a high level set up (look at my signature); nor do I possess a mid level set up though perhaps the 702s could be considered that, but if you then look at what the real cost of actual high end set ups, the cost ratio I have put out is a small fraction at best. I have heard other set ups and also higher end setups as well, but if you are using your hard earned money to spend on this hobby, ensure you know what you are getting into as well and at the end of the day, it's your ears, not other people's. If you are happy with what you have, happy with what you hear (assuming you are coming for spending a maximum of a few hundred on your setup), you will not be disappointed with the suggested setup of $2000 you had in mind. Unless you do not like the sound signature of the cans. But I'd wager that you will not be disappointed unless it is in reference to finding out that a higher end set up could cost $5,000 and upwards.

$2K is more than enough to get excellent results from the K701.  btw, i hate the term hIGH eND.
 

 

[cravenz]

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$2K is more than enough to get excellent results from the K701.  btw, i hate the term hIGH eND.
 

yup, I agree

 

[Pariah1]

 
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Oh yess! I have the same opinion with vinyl, the pops and cracks just get on my nerves, putting aside the hiss, while CDs, SACDs or lossless are much cheaper and more practical with cleaner sound.
 
My newly bought DacMagic has been serving me well. However, the difference even when compared to my HUD-MX1, is subtle to my ears. 

Yea, I have heard good vinyl setups and was never impressed. If it sounded "warm and natural" it also sounded muddy, distorted, quiet, distant, too colored, inaccurate, etc. The albums that weren't meant to sound "warm and natural" did as well too. That's not good, that's inaccurate. My set up is more neutral (not that any are totally). "Warm" albums sound that way, "cold" albums sound that way. That's what I want: no coloration. Just gear that gets out of the way of the music. I don't want to try to change the tone of material to fit how I think it should sound or to color it to cover up the "defects" in the sound. That's killing the patient in order to cure him imo. Revealing set ups will, of course, reveal the bad recordings in your collection, but then they will also let the good ones shine, free from veils/coloration (like with vinyl).
 
I have also experimented with some lossless ripped from vinyl (from one of my vinyl friends who keeps trying to push it on me, despite him saying that my set sounds great...?). So I've heard vinyl and cd rips to lossless of the same albums on my same set ups (cans and speakers). Every time I preferred the cd rips. Dramatic difference between the two, with the cd always sounding best in any SQ criteria I can name. And yea, also no pops, crackling, and incessant hissing that would ruin the sound for me even if I did actually prefer the vinyl sound overall!

 
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I will never understand vinyl fans, sticking with vinyl seems counterproductive to me, but to each his own. And I grew up with vinyl! There is simply no accounting for taste.

I don't get it either, but I never try to "correct" them unless they try to "correct" me or insult my set up or something. I grew up during the cd age and have had no reason to get a vinyl set up, even for a third system or something. No thanks.
 
I do think that older audiophiles like or stick to vinyl more for the nostalgia effect and that they tire more quickly of "bright" sound (read: accurate/revealing sound). They get listener fatigue with more transparent set ups and prefer a "softer more mellow warm" sound.
 
Anyway, however you enjoy your music is up to you and there is no real right or wrong. I was just mentioning vinyl above as an instance of how what really matters is not so much the price of the gear you choose as how closely it conforms to the SS you want.

 

[Mochan]

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$2K is more than enough to get excellent results from the K701.  btw, i hate the term hIGH eND.
 

Eh $200 is more than enough to get excellent results from the K701.

 

[SP Wild]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Mochan]

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Yea, I have heard good vinyl setups and was never impressed. If it sounded "warm and natural" it also sounded muddy, distorted, quiet, distant, too colored, inaccurate, etc. The albums that weren't meant to sound "warm and natural" did as well too. That's not good, that's inaccurate. My set up is more neutral (not that any are totally). "Warm" albums sound that way, "cold" albums sound that way. That's what I want: no coloration. Just gear that gets out of the way of the music. I don't want to try to change the tone of material to fit how I think it should sound or to color it to cover up the "defects" in the sound. That's killing the patient in order to cure him imo. Revealing set ups will, of course, reveal the bad recordings in your collection, but then they will also let the good ones shine, free from veils/coloration (like with vinyl).
 
I have also experimented with some lossless ripped from vinyl (from one of my vinyl friends who keeps trying to push it on me, despite him saying that my set sounds great...?). So I've heard vinyl and cd rips to lossless of the same albums on my same set ups (cans and speakers). Every time I preferred the cd rips. Dramatic difference between the two, with the cd always sounding best in any SQ criteria I can name. And yea, also no pops, crackling, and incessant hissing that would ruin the sound for me even if I did actually prefer the vinyl sound overall!

 

I don't get it either, but I never try to "correct" them unless they try to "correct" me or insult my set up or something. I grew up during the cd age and have had no reason to get a vinyl set up, even for a third system or something. No thanks.
 
I do think that older audiophiles like or stick to vinyl more for the nostalgia effect and that they tire more quickly of "bright" sound (read: accurate/revealing sound). They get listener fatigue with more transparent set ups and prefer a "softer more mellow warm" sound.
 
Anyway, however you enjoy your music is up to you and there is no real right or wrong. I was just mentioning vinyl above as an instance of how what really matters is not so much the price of the gear you choose as how closely it conforms to the SS you want.

Yup. I actually don't like accurate sound I like colored, warm and mellow sound. But I like it clean and hiss free with no dirt. So I like to get amps and DACs that have those characteristics, while playing CDs or lossless or very good quality bitrate MP3s. Vinyl junkies can listen to what they want and I will not hassle them over it.

 

[sigtransduction]

I have been enjoying my AKG 702 cans for about a week.  The soundstage is incomparable, the frequency response true.  I listen mostly to classical and americana acoustic stuff.  Major upgrade over the Senn 590s I had been running.  I have played them from my NAD C370 integrated jack and also straight off my HTPC home build.  They sound great on either.   The RealTek HD integrated audio out of my GIGABYTE moboard thru VLC is pretty decent.  I am not sure I go for all the break in claims, if it mattered that much the manufacturer would do it, costing next to nothing and increasing sales would seem to suggest they would pre-break them-  the stonewashed jeans theory.  But, if they sound better next week or next month, so be it.
 
I am sure given enough time I'll relent and spend more cash on a headphone amp or maybe an asus essence soundcard.  The one saving grace about this subset of audiophilia is that the boxes are easier to sneak into the house then another set of floorstanders.

 

[Pariah1]

 
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Yup. I actually don't like accurate sound I like colored, warm and mellow sound. But I like it clean and hiss free with no dirt. So I like to get amps and DACs that have those characteristics, while playing CDs or lossless or very good quality bitrate MP3s. Vinyl junkies can listen to what they want and I will not hassle them over it.

Interesting you say that as you have the 701/02's. They are not at all warm or mellow imo.
 
And yea, if I was going to go "warm/natural" I'd do it with gear, not with static, crackling, hissing vinyl!

 
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I have been enjoying my AKG 702 cans for about a week.  The soundstage is incomparable, the frequency response true.  I listen mostly to classical and americana acoustic stuff.  Major upgrade over the Senn 590s I had been running.  I have played them from my NAD C370 integrated jack and also straight off my HTPC home build.  They sound great on either.   The RealTek HD integrated audio out of my GIGABYTE moboard thru VLC is pretty decent.  I am not sure I go for all the break in claims, if it mattered that much the manufacturer would do it, costing next to nothing and increasing sales would seem to suggest they would pre-break them-  the stonewashed jeans theory.  But, if they sound better next week or next month, so be it.
 
I am sure given enough time I'll relent and spend more cash on a headphone amp or maybe an asus essence soundcard.  The one saving grace about this subset of audiophilia is that the boxes are easier to sneak into the house then another set of floorstanders.

Congrats, I don't buy the burn in speculation either (I did burn my 702's in but if I noticed anything it wasn't much and they sound now after thousands of hours like my first comments on them said they sounded so...).
 
Do you mean Senn 595's? I have those too and these kick their butt! lol The 595's are decent but not what I'd call "hi-fi" or even "mid-fi". And they're totally over priced.

 

[Noobiiee]

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Interesting you say that as you have the 701/02's. They are not at all warm or mellow imo.
 
And yea, if I was going to go "warm/natural" I'd do it with gear, not with static, crackling, hissing vinyl!

 

 
The K701 is actually on the bright side of balance but I too, tend to use source and amps with warmth signature to improve the bass and make the mids less distant. I find the warmth of the HD650 quite boring after listening to them for a while. 
 
Edit: got my Millet MiniMax yesterday. The 12AE6 tubes give the K701 quite some more punch while the 12FM6 makes electric guitar sound much better than my other amps. 
 

 

[Mochan]

K701 isn't what I'd call a warm and mellow can either, it's the odd one in my collection for sure. But the Dared MP5 does make it sound warm, as does the Marantz 1090. Also I used dweaver's burn-in file on it and it actually changed the sig of the K701 into something warmer and bassier than it used to be. But basically the K701 is my "soundstage can" and it has its place in my gear lineup. I usually swap and alternate between the K701 and the HD650.
 
Also the CDR Flats mod on my Grado SR80i makes it unbelievably warm and bassy with no hint of brightness.... imagine that!
 

 

[Gamerzhell]

After 3 weeks of only listening to my pair of K701, I know I've made the right decision. This is not just a bargain, more like the bargain of the century.
 
Running my computer into a Musiland Monitor 02 US into the Burson HA-160 sounds almost too good to be true, the K701 rendition of the twin slide guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts in "At Fillmore East [Deluxe Edition]" is truly magical. I have never heard this level of sound, if there is anything better than this then I'll be on top of it right away. The bass is fast and punchy at most times, when I crank up the volume the bass just runs out, it isn't there and it sounds horrible. Safe to say that I listen at quite a low level. I could listen to these phones for all eternity, but I know there is something better out there, it may cost me an arm and a lung but i'm sure only audio nirvana awaits me. On another note, I feel that my current setup is almost too analytical, it reproduces music faithfully and true to the source, but lacks any "magic" or X-factor. My journey on the Head-Fi train has only just begun.
 
Now that I've gotten used to the sound of the K701, time to BRING ON THE MODS!!! 

 

[Cya|\|]

I'm sorry this has been asked over and over. My friend is going to buy the akg k701, after i convinced him upgrading his cheap monitors (200euros per pair), wich don't sound good enough imo.
He mostly listens to rock and metal, and seldom to jazz music.
Will he really like the k701. I read about many people disliking them, especially with metal. But he said he doesn't like too harsh sound (grado?) and uncontrolled bass (sennheiser hd650?).
What do you suggest guys? Will i be blamed for suggesting him the wrong option?

 

[wind016]

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I'm sorry this has been asked over and over. My friend is going to buy the akg k701, after i convinced him upgrading his cheap monitors (200euros per pair), wich don't sound good enough imo.
He mostly listens to rock and metal, and seldom to jazz music.
Will he really like the k701. I read about many people disliking them, especially with metal. But he said he doesn't like too harsh sound (grado?) and uncontrolled bass (sennheiser hd650?).
What do you suggest guys? Will i be blamed for suggesting him the wrong option?

Metal with AKGs? Difficult call...  It's either going to make metal easier to listen for him or harder to listen to.