[AudioEndeavor]

 
Nice!  Another lurker starts posting

I think I'm going to buy a pair of K702, once I can find a dealer that will promise to only ship me the flat headband version (several emails sent).  

If you've been reading here a long time you know that these are likely to see sound improvement from being "burned in" (aka "run in", "broken in") for at least 100-200 hours.  I know I heard a difference with my old K701 and my new K712 has developed nicely with around 150 hours on them.  Bass seems tighter and a bit of that edge on the very highs should tame down just a bit.

"Neutral" should be that an overlay showing the original source material and a recording of the speaker/headphone that reproduces it are a very close match.  This is difficult for any chain to actually accomplish and extremely tough with testing headphones in particular.  Me?  I look at frequency response graphs like those from innerfidelity and headroom...  If the highest bass peak is higher than the treble peaks then it can be considered to have a bass emphasis and vice versa. 

I've included a graph comparing the K702 and the K712 (that I recently got).  If you look closely you can see that on the K712 the highest level on the left side of the spectrum is nearly +3db higher than the highest level on the right side and approximately +9db higher than the very far right peak.  The K702 has mid/bass that peaks only +1db higher than the highest on the right and +5db higher than the highest treble shown...  it will probably provide the "flatter", more "neutral" listening experience and the K712 definitely sounds like the more bass heavy of the two.  Just my US$0.02 worth!

I've never tried a K70X with a bumpy headband but the flat headband on these is not necessarily comfortable . I do get hot spots every now and then and have to re adjust just like my Grados. 
 
We'll see if they really improve with Burn in X3.
 
Hmmm But how do I really know if that's how the source is supposed to sound? I was not next to the engineer.  
 
I love looking at graphs, too! :3 they give me an idea of how the headphones will sound. 
 
Also, I've been thinking... If AKG designed the pads to be 3D (Thicker on the back) so that the cups would sit at an angle to get a better soundstage... BUT the temporal bone is a bit "lower" than the Zygomatic bone (had to google the names.. lol) does it mean you have to slide the cups towards your face to get the intended effect? Or am I over analyzing this? .-. Some one else in this thread noticed a change in sound, too, specially in the treble. Thank you! ^-^ 
-Eric 

 

[buson160man]

  It will be interesting to hear what your thoughts are of that pairing. The K701 is a little on the bright side as is the A2, so I would like to know what the synergy is like for you.

 I do not agree with you about the k701 being on the bright side. At least my old Austrian made k701s which are now about six and a half years old. Despite being detoured at times by my audeze lcd2 v2 I keep going back to my beloved k701 for the most honest and neutral rendering of the recordings that I play.
   If you are hearing brightness it is the driving amp and or source that is bright along with your recording. The k701 is being honest. The k701 is a demanding headphone to drive though but since I picked up a recapped monster vintage receiver from the late seventies (a concept 16.5) if I had any doubts about my k701s those doubts are gone. But not everybody is crazy like me buying a sixty seven pound vintage receiver to power my headphones. This hobby makes you do crazy things .
   But my old burson ha-160 works pretty well with my k701s. But the concept receiver awakens them like no headphone amp that I have heard but it is no ordinary headphone amp . They just do not build receivers like these old vintage monsters anymore.

 

[loic54]

 
 I do not agree with you about the k701 being on the bright side. At least my old Austrian made k701s which are now about six and a half years old. Despite being detoured at times by my audeze lcd2 v2 I keep going back to my beloved k701 for the most honest and neutral rendering of the recordings that I play.
   If you are hearing brightness it is the driving amp and or source that is bright along with your recording. The k701 is being honest. The k701 is a demanding headphone to drive though but since I picked up a recapped monster vintage receiver from the late seventies (a concept 16.5) if I had any doubts about my k701s those doubts are gone. But not everybody is crazy like me buying a sixty seven pound vintage receiver to power my headphones. This hobby makes you do crazy things .
   But my old burson ha-160 works pretty well with my k701s. But the concept receiver awakens them like no headphone amp that I have heard but it is no ordinary headphone amp . They just do not build receivers like these old vintage monsters anymore.

I have to completely agree with you, my pair is also Austrian made and over 5 years old. The headband's plastic has cracked, but they're still a pair that I can't let go. The k701 will find the most miniscule mistakes in a track, and will make you aware of them.

 

[qqexpress]

Any of you guys got any idea how to fix the elastic issue with the headbands?

 

[buson160man]

 
I have to completely agree with you, my pair is also Austrian made and over 5 years old. The headband's plastic has cracked, but they're still a pair that I can't let go. The k701 will find the most miniscule mistakes in a track, and will make you aware of them.

My headband is still ok but the clear plastic headband tensioner on one side has been torn and is now completely torn. These still are the most comfortable headphones that I have owned and even with the torn headband tensioner I still find them to be very comfortable for extended listening sessions.
  Since I have joined the vintage monster receiver owners. My late seventies concept 16.5 which has been recapped is an excellent headphone amp easily besting my other dedicated headphone amps .The akg 701 a hungry headphone and needs a powerful amplifier to really reveal their stellar qualities. So far I have never heard any dedicated headphone amp regardless of cost that can do what the concept 16.5 does for the k701. In fact you probably have not heard what the k701 are capable of till you hear it with one of these monster vintage amps.
   A friend of mine recently bought the k 712 and I noticed that the flat headband is much narrower in width than my old akg 701s headband.
If anything I felt the old headband design with bumps and all was still more comfortable than the k712s headband.
   I do not know and can not understand why so many people are bothered by the underside bumps on the older akg headphones. They never bothered me .

 

[K_19]

 
My headband is still ok but the clear plastic headband tensioner on one side has been torn and is now completely torn. These still are the most comfortable headphones that I have owned and even with the torn headband tensioner I still find them to be very comfortable for extended listening sessions.
 
   I do not know and can not understand why so many people are bothered by the underside bumps on the older akg headphones. They never bothered me .

 
This is probably what the designer of the original K701 thought... and I'm sure this design can be perfectly comfortable for some. However, the problem is that they never did the research first to see how comfortable it would have been for the majority. Ergonomic reasons for why these bumps don't work is that unless you have a really flat crown on top of the head, the majority of the pressure from the headband is put on only the central bump(s) (the single middle bump for the 7 bumps version and the middle two for 8 bumps version) as headband lies relatively flat and the top of the head for most people tend to be curved. The headband itself is not curved enough to distribute the pressure evenly on most heads, and the grip of the headband holds its place with an elastic mechanism instead of just laying there... that's why most people can feel that narrow pressure point literally digging into their scalp. It would have maybe helped if the bump had a soft padding, but it is made of too rigid of material for it to be comfortable, and never really works in to become soft enough.  
 
So overall, for the masses, it was just a badly thought of design, there's no getting around that point. Even AKG themselves have now obviously admitted that this was a design fault now, since even the newer K701s, K702's, and the new K7xx versions are all coming out with bumpless headbands.
 
And yeah, they really need to use better strength plastic for that clear plastic strip, I've noticed that they crack on most units at some point. 

 

[pp312]

  This is probably what the designer of the original K701 thought... and I'm sure this design can be perfectly comfortable for some. However, the problem is that they never did the research first to see how comfortable it would have been for the majority.
 
 

 
 
Actually--and this is not well known so keep it under your hat, or headband as the case may be--but there is a race of beings from the planet Ergo living on earth incognito, who absolutely love these bumps as they exactly correspond with the dips in their skulls. In fact, several of them work at AKG. I spoke with one once, and he was adamant that the bumps must stay. "Bugger these Earth people," he said, in a most peculiar accent. "It suits us and that's all we care about. Anyway, we're returning to Ergo soon and taking the tools and dies with us, so anyone who hasn't got a pair of 701 somethings by now, and by god there's enough varieties, can just get stuffed."  
 
They have no manners, these Ergo people. No compassion either.    

 

[spookygonk]

   
   I do not know and can not understand why so many people are bothered by the underside bumps on the older akg headphones. They never bothered me .

I have an old pair (ser no. 4359) and have never been bothered by the seven bumps on my headband.

 

[miceblue]

I've never been bothered by the bumps on the headband of my 8-bump K 701 either.

 

[moarended]

I just got mine yesterday, and i have enjoyed them very much, i used to be a basshead, but i see no problem transitioning to these headphones. They are great and i dont think that they are boring at all, especially with the fact that they are very detailed.

 

 

[Smugsie]

Hi guys! Just dropping in from the AKG Q701 thread. As I'm sure some of you have owned AKG's since the beginning of time (2003).

How do they hold up? Still sound the same as it was the month after you bought them? I'm just curious because I just finally reached the climax of everything I ever wanted in an audio setup and I'll be so sad if these headphones don't last that long.

 

[miceblue]

Hi guys! Just dropping in from the AKG Q701 thread. As I'm sure some of you have owned AKG's since the beginning of time (2003).


How do they hold up? Still sound the same as it was the month after you bought them? I'm just curious because I just finally reached the climax of everything I ever wanted in an audio setup and I'll be so sad if these headphones don't last that long.

Don't you have the Q701s though? XD

My K 701 is still going strong after 2.5 years. The earpads are getting a beating though since I've washed them with clothes twice. The clear plastic part of the headband suspension connecting the headband to the rails is also seeing some scrapes from wear and tear, but they're holding up.

I've seen some pretty old K 701s from previous Head-Fi meets with glorious yellowing pads. Lol

Also, because I just made these drawings yesterday:


I just took the frequency measurement plot from Innerfidelity and superimposed the HRTF target curves on it. The green line is the HRTF one would get from an artificial eardrum when listening to flat-tuned loudspeakers. The black line is the Harman-generated preferred headphone response based on subjective responses and double-blind tests worldwide.

The K 701 does pretty well for the most part.

 

[K_19]

K/Q701/2's all hold up very well for the most part, EXCEPT for that thin piece of clear plastic strip on the headband. Those tend to crack over time for most people. However, its onyl purpose is to hold the headband angle in place so it doesn't really affect things much even if they break.

Then there's natural wear of the pads that happen with any headphones but that's about it. The frame, the driver and the cable are all quite solid.

 

[econaut]

Anyone having compared the bass mod with the gel ear pads? Either in comparing bass mod vs gel pads and/or the sound with bass mod AND gel pads?
 
I have the K702 with bass mod and I am interested in checking out the gel ear pads as well, but they are expensive (100€)...
 
If anyone wonders what the gel ear pads are, read this post.
 
It seems that the gel pads are the same as the memory foam pads of the K702 65th Anniversary Edition.

 

[K_19]

Pics of the newer K701's made in China without the bumps:
 




 
 
Thing is that I haven't really seen these in actual circulation yet. Does anyone actually own a pair of these newer ones?
 
Pads seem as if they are still angled unlike the newer K702 which now seems to come with non-angled flat pads...