[Pariah1]

Quote:

^ It's not really "bull", people are just trying to say that sure they sound good when used with a "lower" tier amp or whatever but you're not getting the full value out of them. If you're going to underpower them you might as well have bought something cheaper/not as good. 

Agreed. However, who says when an amp is "good enough"? Is my under $300 M-Stage good enough or should I go out and buy a "real" amp for $800? (I'm not about to btw).
 
But just with the power aspect you're right on. These things need POWER.

 

[Young Spade]

Quote:

Agreed. However, who says when an amp is "good enough"? Is my under $300 M-Stage good enough or should I go out and buy a "real" amp for $800? (I'm not about to btw).
 
But just with the power aspect you're right on. These things need POWER.

Haha that is true man. Of course the marginal differences between cabling and ampliction are different.... From my experiences with amping these cans... the more power they have the more involving they are. The sound seems to start coming from all over rather than just in front of you.
 
For an example: ALO Rx: sound cable about... from everywhere but the emphasis was between 10 and 2 oclock. With the iBasso PB1 (Which puts out a lot more power) I'm getting sound on average from around 930 to 230. Although the "times" are similar the experience is much more involving. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

 
Quote:

^ It's not really "bull", people are just trying to say that sure they sound good when used with a "lower" tier amp or whatever but you're not getting the full value out of them. If you're going to underpower them you might as well have bought something cheaper/not as good. 

My 'full' value of them is not the same as it is for you. Again, I didn't get these for music. I got them for gaming off my Mixamp. The Mixamp drives the K701 VERY well as long as the voice/chat knob is leaning heavily towards just the game audio. This is a non-issue for me, as I game without a mic, so it's a perfect mix for me. Nothing 'cheaper' comes close to sounding as awesome as these for gaming. They do everything I wanted for gaming.
 
As for the E7 and the K701 together, I find it lacking NOTHING when I pair them together with BBL3. The E7's BBL3 changes the sound signature of the K701 completely which will turn off those who like the general signature of them, but it changes the signature sound to something I generally like. I prefer a fun headphone over the analytical sound of the K701. I wouldn't have ever used them for music, but the E7 allowed me to. They don't sound weak, or hungry for power.
 
I'm quite happy with them with what I have, and don't need to justify a few hundred dollars more to get them to be 'likable' to me.

 

[kite7]

I bought a pair of AKG K701 today. I wasn't sure if I was going to love it or hate it until I had it on my head through my own source and amp. It is the most detailed headphone I have heard and I was impressed enough to buy it. However, I don't think it pairs well enough with my HDP because the K701 through it sounds like it is lacking bass. Everything sounds very clean and the details were presented effortlessly even at low volumes which is a great when I don't want to turn it up.
 
Completely blew away my AD700 in every aspect regarding sound, litterally day and night difference. I don't think anyone in the right mind could say the AD700 can compete with the K701 when amped. My RS1 however still has its place and I feel like the K701 is a very good complement to it. They sound decent with rock too which was nice because 65-70% of my music collection is rock.
 
So far so good, whether it has a permanent place beside my RS1 I'll have to let time and my ears be the judge of that

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Among those people who didn't like the k701, is there anyone who tried them with tube amps? Did you start liking them with a tube amp instead of a SS amp?
Has any of you tried them specifically with the bravo/indeed G2 amp? They're very cheap on ebay.

 
Quote:

people are just trying to say that sure they sound good when used with a "lower" tier amp or whatever but you're not getting the full value out of them.

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Pariah1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Agreed. However, who says when an amp is "good enough"?
-snip-
But just with the power aspect you're right on. These things need POWER.

 
Quote:

Haha that is true man. Of course the marginal differences between cabling and ampliction are different.... From my experiences with amping these cans... the more power they have the more involving they are. The sound seems to start coming from all over rather than just in front of you.

I think that while the K701 are quite picky, they don't necessarily need an expensive amp to sound good. I liked the K701 with the high-gain Indeed Hybrid amp, and yes I did get it off eBay but I don't know if I got the G2 or not, it was a 2-3 years ago at least. I also liked them out of the Maverick D1, which is a hi-gain SS amp, with a tube hybrid preamp and DAC.
 
The amps that I did not like the K701 out of were the same ones that I did like my SR325is out of, it would seem those two headphones have opposite synergy requirements.
 
Recently I converted my K701 to balanced since it already had a Silver Dragon cable, and I can tell you that they do scale up nicely. I have a whole new level of respect for them now since I heard them out of a Woo WA22 with the optional 7236 high-power tubes.
 
It's nice when an affordable headphone can sound good out of a starter amp, then scale up accordingly with proper cabling and a top-tier balanced amp as well.

 

[Acix]

 
Quote:

 
 
 
 
 
Recently I converted my K701 to balanced since it already had a Silver Dragon cable, and I can tell you that they do scale up nicely. I have a whole new level of respect for them now since I heard them out of a Woo WA22 with the optional 7236 high-power tubes.
 
It's nice when an affordable headphone can sound good out of a starter amp, then scale up accordingly with proper cabling and a top-tier balanced amp as well.

 
This is the pure magic of the 70X they'll scale up according to your budget.

 

[Happy Camper]

Tube amp budgeting will naturally be more expensive because of the power supply requirements. Get above the budget parts amps and you will find a very nice match with the 701s. I use both the 701 and RS-1 on my amp but have to change the tubes. They do have different demands. That's why you want to get as much power supply as you can.

 

[Young Spade]

@Grokit: How much of an improvement was it going from the silver dragon to the balanced? I'm trying to decide between silver cabling (regular) or going a blanced route with silver cabling. I'ts going to be more expensive (obviously) to go balanced but I was wondering how much more of an improvement it really is. 
 
I'm using a PB1 by the way so power isn't really an option; they are well driven SE or balanced. 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

@Grokit: How much of an improvement was it going from the silver dragon to the balanced? I'm trying to decide between silver cabling (regular) or going a blanced route with silver cabling. I'ts going to be more expensive (obviously) to go balanced but I was wondering how much more of an improvement it really is. 
 
I'm using a PB1 by the way so power isn't really an option; they are well driven SE or balanced. 

 
Big difference to my ears but I would think that it would depend on the amps involved. I got my SD-cabled K701 from another Head-fier in the FS forums. It used to be single-ended, I had Drew at Moon Audio change it to balanced just recently. So it is the same SD cable, just balanced now. I have heard another balanced K701 out of the same amp with an APS cable, and the SD cable sounds not only better to my ears, but the SD-cabled K701 has a noticeably higher volume level as well. The APS is also a highly-regarded cable, but it is copper, not silver. It's the first time I have heard such an obvious difference with the only change being a cable, but it does confirm the higher conductivity of silver as a cable material for sure.

 

[Katun]

I can't believe I just ordered them.

 

[Zinterax]

Question for you folks.
 
I'm trying to plan out my upgrade path and budget so I can upgrade my source and amp down the road. I've been trying to decide if I should upgrade my DAC or AMP first when I get my headphone fund filled up again.
 
Currently I'm running uDAC-1 > Starving Student Millet Hybrid > 701
This sounds pretty good to me but I know these headphones will scale really well with upgrades so I'm looking for opinions on if upgrading the DAC or AMP would give the biggest bang for my buck.
 
Looking to upgrade from what I have to something in the $3-400 range, such as the DACMagic / Matrix M-Stage.

 

[dmk1]

Can't talk about the uDAC-1, but going from a Xonar D2X to a DacMagic was a clear upgrade!

 

[genclaymore]

So far I enjoying my AKG 702's  that came today running them thru my Bravura's headphone amp thru 2x OPA228s since I didnt like OPA2111AM sig with them.I cant wait til I get cash to get me some OPA-Earth to see how they do with them. I puzzle why people in other threads would say they dont have any bass unless there talking about heavy bass.

 

[KeVan]

The K701 headband got annoying after awhile but the details I hear on this headphone is superb. I am still amazed at how different some of my favourite songs sound when I have these headphones on.

 

[Young Spade]

Quote:

So far I enjoying my AKG 702's  that came today running them thru my Bravura's headphone amp thru 2x OPA228s since I didnt like OPA2111AM sig with them.I cant wait til I get cash to get me some OPA-Earth to see how they do with them. I puzzle why people in other threads would say they dont have any bass unless there talking about heavy bass.

My thoughts are that either they are underpowering the phones or they are used to headphones with bass emphasis.