[Mad Max]

dat upper midrange sweetness 

 

[frank2908]

Quote:

dat upper midrange sweetness 

If you want midrange, buy a T50rp and mod it, its cheap and the mid is better than k701, just smooth and effortless, and with diy enclosure they are even better. However i tried your dynamat mod with blu tack, and it works like a charm, and I recomend all k701 owner do it, however taking it apart is painful. The piercing high and upper midrange is tamed and the k701 now can make a perfect relaxing headphones with clean, lean bass for jazz
 

 

[frank2908]

my bad madmax you already had a t50rp, hope u agree with me on their sound
 

 

[Mad Max]

I've put T50RP down lately in favor of K701. 

I intend to give the Fostex another chance later when I get around to putting the drivers in a DT880's cups and headband.
T50RP is great, but I am preferring K701 and A2000X.  K701 especially makes T50 sound a little "polite".  T50RP also lacks a little "vividness" (not sure how to put it), though that is typical of a "studio monitor" in my experience.  I don't prefer K701 by a large margin either, I do very much enjoy my modded T50RP.  I also love K701's fit, one of the most comfortable for me along with the DT880Pro I used to have and HD600.
M-Stage with ISL55001 gives K701 very full, weighty bass.  Not as full-sounding as my SR325is, but not that much less.

 

[Moonwalker]

Hi Mad Max!
 
I'm quite afraid that the dampers added to the cardan and driver can limit adjustment mechanism angle freedom.
Or making them stick together, if only a bit.
 
Could you please give me more thoughts on this?
 
Can I just use BlueTack instead of Dynamat? - It (Bluetack) has sticky surface all-around.
That's why I resisterd the urge to give it a try last weekend.
 
Is there other possible way to reduce reflections in the K701/702 phones? Like wad put under the silver grille (glued to not allow it to move into the cardan thingy) ? Must be better than the Quincy buttons iI think...
That way the reflections may be under control, and there's still lot of air movement in the outer perforated shell, IMHO.
 
Thanks
Moonwalker
 
 

 

[frank2908]

Quote:

Hi Mad Max!
 
I'm quite afraid that the dampers added to the cardan and driver can limit adjustment mechanism angle freedom.
Or making them stick together, if only a bit.
 
Could you please give me more thoughts on this?
 
Can I just use BlueTack instead of Dynamat? - It (Bluetack) has sticky surface all-around.
That's why I resisterd the urge to give it a try last weekend.
 
Is there other possible way to reduce reflections in the K701/702 phones? Like wad put under the silver grille (glued to not allow it to move into the cardan thingy) ? Must be better than the Quincy buttons iI think...
That way the reflections may be under control, and there's still lot of air movement in the outer perforated shell, IMHO.
 
Thanks
Moonwalker
 
 

I can confirm that bluetack works too. the only way where bluetack may limit the adjusment mechanism is if you apply too much on the top part of the back of the driver. you can always apply thinner layer at the top and thicker at the bottom. Just open it and you know what i mean. To open the white plastic cover, I slid a credit card inside the gap and twist it. 

 

[Moonwalker]

Thanks, frank2908!
 
Using credit card seems IMO best way to open AKG or Sennheiser HD phones without damaging plastic parts
 
I have them recabled using cloth cable from K530LTD and installed headband from K601 on them.
So I was not worried to open them, it's just the BlueTack is like glue on all surfaces
 
I cannot find store near my home selling small Dynamat rolls / sheets.
This is why i was making my inquiry abut stickiness of Dynamat or BlueTack in the mechanism and experience with using the K701 after the mod.
 
Moonwalker

 

[Mad Max]

Getting the grill off without scratching it was somewhat tricky at first I suppose, unless you use scissors like these.  The two plastic rings after that I just removed by hand after removing the two screws on the topmost ring.  They are not terribly delicate due to their thickness.  Glued?  The grill was not that way on mine.  You twist it counterclockwise then pry it off.  It takes no effort at all.
If you are refering to the plastic silver ring that is attached to the perforated shell, I have not messed with that area.  It is part of the cup, as air comes out the back of the driver, it does fill up that area, I think, and so adding dynamat there will negatively affect the soundstage or absorb certain frequencies, creating significant dips in the headphone's FR and/or killing off detail around certain frequencies.  Mostly likely, it will absorb bass if you add it directly on the silver ring or under it.  You don't want to do that unless you add it on the outside, but that will look really ugly and ghetto, and possibly inconvenience you somehow, I think.  It may also be unintentionally moved around by your fingers as you handle the headphone.
 
While the dynamat I added to the back of the driver does slightly get in the way of the piece of assembly above it, slightly restricting freedom of movement, I honestly can't tell the difference.  The aluminum lining of dynamat xtreme prevents it from sticking to everything.  Blu-tack, on the other hand, does not have this so it may be messier, but I have never messed with the stuff.
 
I bought my dynamat from sounds-great-usa on Amazon (they also sell on fleabay) because they sell the smallest "kit" (2x 10"x10" sheets) at a little lower price than other sellers - according to them, they cut the sheets from larger ones and so they come without original packaging.  I paid around ~$17 (from a regular price of about $22-$25, a long time ago, however), then you can just use the bit you need and sell the rest here as modders like myself to use the stuff (nah, I'm not interested in buying as I have enough of the stuff myself).  K701 isn't the only headphone that benefits from extra dampening to kill off resonances resulting from its design.  Then there are the Markl mods that some people like for Denons 2k/5k/7k, and Dynamat is required for that.
 
I have not yet experimented with dampening other parts of the headphone to kill off more resonances.  There aren't very many places to add the material without hurting the sound.  The best solution would have been for AKG to have not used that cheap plastic for the white parts from the very beginning.  They are the source of the resonances, giving the upper midrange its weirdness and dirtying the treble.  If you rub the back of the driver, you'll notice that its housing/encapsulation/whatever is some kind of different material from the rest of the headphone.  That is the material they should have used for the white plastic parts instead, then it wouldn't suffer so much from resonances.
 
Edit: great deal on the Dynamat material

 

[Ze_Blitzkrieg]

 
Just thought I would share my post from the K601 thread here. . .
 
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Quote:

This post is not directly related to the K601's really, but just AKG (Harmon Kardon) in general.  I received a pair of K701's recently, and for the life of me could not believe how unbalanced the volume seemed to be between the R and L channels.  I contacted the support team there and began communicating with a extremely great individual who always responded surprisingly quick (just sent responded to an email I sent him less than 10 minutes ago at 11:15 here on the east coast of the US).  
 
At first, even though I did not have the original purchase receipt he was going to do a return/replacement free of charge.  Later, through my own experimentations with putting the K701 pads on my K601, I determined that it was in actuality the ear pads somehow causing the issues.  There was obvious differences between the two without anything even playing through the headphones, as the external sounds were blocked much more so in one side compared to the other.  So I returned to the support rep with my findings and he promptly shipped me a new pair of ear pads which completely solved my issues!
 
I can not speak high enough praise, or express how much gratitude I have for their customer service in this situation.  I thought that customer service was a dying art so to speak, but my eyes have been opened up to the fact that it does still exist out there, and AKG (Harmon Kardon) are on their game!
 

 
As an interesting side note from all of this, I now have two sets of K701 pads sitting here in front of me.  I actually had to mix the new and the old to make the two sets, as there was somewhat of an imbalance in the new set as well.  So now I have seemingly "transparent" set along with a set which seems to be "darker".  I am amazed at the differences between the two sets to be completely honest, and it really makes me wonder just how much, something as simple as a set of stock ear pads, can control the impressions of someone who were to buy a new pair of these headphones.  If I were to receive a K701 with the "transparent" set of ear pads, I would be left saying, "wow, those are extremely sparkly headphones," while on the other hand with the other ear pads I would be left with, "wow, these are pretty balanced headphones.  The highs are not as prominent and sparkly as I have read others mention."  I know that may sound like some sort of exaggeration possibly, but it really is that much of a difference between the two sets.  So now I highly question all of this talk about, "I listened to a set with 1,000 hrs on them and they sounded so much more tame than my 300 hr set!"  How much of this is actually something as simple as some sort of variation in the ear pads?  

  I doubt that most stop to think about possibly swapping the ear pads between one set and the other to see the differences.  This is with all 4 ear pads being in new condition by the way.
 
-Blitz

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[mike1127]

Can you spot any physical differences between the pads? Thickness/density of mesh, thickness/density/springiness of pads, shape of pads; location of mounting holes on backs of pads; color differences; textural differences of mesh or pads; etc.

 

[Moonwalker]

Hi!
 
Did the non-optimal plastic choice, source of resonances, apply to the K401/K501 as well?
It's the first time I've read about unhappy choice of materials in premium headphones like K701. But the construction parts in older Kx00/x01 seems identical and the plastic very similar...
And, I've never heard of resonance problems in the K401/501 phones.
 
Suggestion: Could this be attributed to he diaphragm itself? Peakiness, breakup and the absence of ridges on outer perimeter - K601 and K701 have smooth diaphragm, quite unusual in comparison with other headphones, even these from AKG itself.
 
Thanks for enlightening this for me.
 
Moonwalker

 

[Mad Max]

Some headphone designs seems to better deal with those issues, my suggestion only attributes to K701 for the most part.
 
It could also be the driver, but I doubt it from the results of adding dampening.  AKG did a great job with the driver, as we all know.  ;D

 

[smaugem]

Interesting posts about dampening the resonances. I returned a pair of k701s after 9 mponths due to resonance problems. In hindsight I could have dampened them (I tried opening them but did not know how to remove the grills). Anyway the replacement pair don't suffer this problem but I will still consider dampening them.

 

[frank2908]

Quote:

Some headphone designs seems to better deal with those issues, my suggestion only attributes to K701 for the most part.
 
It could also be the driver, but I doubt it from the results of adding dampening.  AKG did a great job with the driver, as we all know.  ;D

Maybe AKG consider the concentration of the treble is not a problem, as for many people who is new to headphones, the bright sound give the feeling of more detail. I thought so too, as the treble was not a problem with me ( I owned a grado and a SFI phone before, both are bright), and the K701 is not as piercing, so it was not a problem for me. Until I got my hand on the T50rp, then the treble is too high and stop me from picking them against the ortho

 

[Mad Max]

It's not a case of it being bright that it "seems" to pick up more detail.  It does resolve more, even versus my modded T50RP.  It's a small difference.
I do like plenty of treble extension.  K701 after dampening is quite non-fatiguing for me, so I've no issue with it even when compared to T50RP.  I wish the Fostex was brighter, honestly.  I find K701 to comfortably fall short of being too bright for my tastes.  Less treble forwardness than my SR325is and AD700.
My SR325is also has dynamat Xtreme on the back of its drivers, by the way.  =D