[cravenz]

Quote:

cravenz, thanks for the suggestions - I already have the 702's for about 4 months now - previous headphones were Bose Triport's which I enjoyed the bass on.  End result, I'll probably learn a lesson buying a couple various combo items like the ef2's.  I'll probably be better off getting dedicated units like a dac then say the matrix m-stage.  Part of the reason I got the Xiang Sheng Dac-01is because it has a lot of output power and will most likely end result be better than my current setup (which I should get pretty close to what I paid for the Xiang Sheng Dac-01 when I resell the nuforce and cmoybb).  
 
I'm very curious how the K702's will sound when properly powered.  The 555's from what I read are the same as the 595's or at least the driver is the same - the 555's have some foam between the driver and the plastic housing.  So I figured for about $88 I could try out the 595's, maybe have a pair of cans for home, and for work.  Thought they would be less picky as well - would be fun to have a couple cans next to each other to compare first hand.  However I do not like the idea of used headphones - used amps and so forth are fine and dandy and why I'm ok with the reselling aspect but reselling used headphones I'm guessing would lose significant value.
 
 

Ah, sorry, was pretty late so I wasn't exactly reading everything, I kinda more or less just jumped to your last post and also noted that you had done fairly extensive research work prior. The sound signature of the 702s will sound pretty much the same as for any other pair of cans that are improperly amped and then amped to its full potential later on. What will happen though with the 702 properly amped is that you will find that the soundstage will tend to open up, the notes will be less shrill, instruments will be better separated and everything will just start sounding better and have more 'body'. Basically, even though you think your can is properly amped because the amp can drive the can to crazy volumes, that's not the point of an amp. Driven improperly, the cans will sound uncontrolled and extremely shrill. I don't know how else to express it, but when something is driven properly on an amp, it just sounds right and just sounds like the amp is driving it effortlessly. Poor analogy I know, but it's really what I've come to realise on my experiences.
 
On a side note, actually, buying used and then reselling results in less of a loss than buying first hand then selling it actually. Just a thought.

 

[PelPix]

This has probably been recommended numerous times, but the M-Stage drives them very well.

 

[timwillhack]

I ended up buying the M-stage from someone on the forums.  I also got the Xiang Sheng Dac/ preamp tube (DAC-01).  I also bought the HiFiMan EF2, and a MUSE mini tube amp for giggles.  I'm going to super glue my Bose Triports (headband snapped off) and add them to the mix, even though I think I have progressed past them after hearing the K702's.  I'm probably going to buy some closed cans (not sure which model) for this round as well since I can't be excessively loud at work - and at home my soon to be wife usually ends up poking my shoulder and saying she can hear the music clearly (too loud to be around me in the home office).  I need to get some cables as well - I bought some better than radioshack RCA's a while back but I don't have any converters or anything - maybe I won't really need them but I think I'll end up preparing for all the possibilities of mixes when I get everything.
 
Ok so another question - and realistically I should probably just make a new thread since its unrelated to the original topic (picking an amp for the K702's):
 
What is the 'rules' for putting amps together, like should I not try to put the Matrix M-stage after the EF2?
 
I am definitely interested in doing this at least from the XiangShengDac-> XiangSheng tube preamp -> Matrix Mstage -> K702
 
Is that ok?  Does it basically introduce the 'bottle neck' crap sound of which ever is the worst culprit in the set?
 
 

 

[PelPix]

If you let the Mstage and the K702 get used to each-other, they'll be warm enough that you won't need it.  Honestly, from my experience, the lack of warmth exhibited when listening to music on the k702 is a result of incomplete or low quality mastering.  Songs that need specific amps to bring them to life don't have life of their own.
 
As for closed cans, If you don't mind something a bit bassy, check out the Koss's.  I have a pair of pro4aat's somewhere and they're quite good closed cans.  I haven't used them recently because I prefer open cans.
Your ears can get sweaty though.  They have an actual air seal.  Once you put them on, sound in and out drops by 10-15dB.  Sounds like just what you need.

 

[timwillhack]

I'd check out those Koss, I had an old cheap koss set that was really really bass heavy and they were awful even for electric drums - I do have a pair of porta pros though so I know they are not stuck in bass land as a brand necessity so I might give them a shot thanks.

 

[Artguy]

I have a Heed Canamp in the buy sell forum right now for $280. This is a solid state amp that really had great synergy with my 701's! I also just sold a Woo Audio 3 tube amp which was very nice with the 701s as well. So, check out the CanAmp reviews in the forum from about two years or so ago, and you will see that you have the cans that will really play very nicely with this amp. Check it out in the forums and you will find plenty of fans of this combo. And check out my amp for sale.

 

[timwillhack]

Well lets add one more amp to the mix, I bought Artguys Heed Canamp.  I'm getting ready to pin the matrix against it in a battle for my love...

 

[dxanex]

I also purchased a used Canamp for my 702's and I enjoyed it very much. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about the 702's with the Hifiman EF2 because I'm now looking at that as a portable solution for my laptop listening sessions. And I would also like to try out a tube amp just to see..(I've only ever heard ss amps). 
 

 

[daveDerek]

glad to see the heed and audio g-d on your list. another amp that some feel is really great with the k701 is the hybrid bada ph12.

 

[ghahn]

I'm subscribing to your thread, I'm interested in your findings.  I too am relatively new here, so far am listening to HD650 through the EF2A and NuForce uDac.  Source is lossless FLAC and APE files.  My next headphone (shipping soon I hope) is the K702, so I am curious to hear your thoughts on how these sound together.  I'm happy with the sound I'm getting so far, but like I said, I'm relatively inexperienced and this may be like getting in a Toyota Camrry after driving a clunker for many years: probably there is much better out there. 
 
(no offense to current Camry dirvers)

 

[TheMiddleSky]

I'm still curious about EF5, because K70x really need high current to shine, and EF5 is built for HE5 which is really current hungry.
 
oh, btw, I'm using Linearossa k3 now to drive my K701. (K3 bring the "fun" things to K701, l really like to use them for rock songs) 

 

[larrabee]

try the linearossa K3.. i heard that they're pretty good with the K701/702s, especially their bass..

 

[Berggren]

Running my K702's with a Heed Canamp and can´t be happier!
It´s my first set of proper cans and amplifier so I can´t compare it to anything but the headphonejack on the computer or on the receiver (Onkyo 608) but it´s a big difference in power and control when using the 702's with the Canamp.
Looking forward in reading your thoughts on the different setups you are going to put together.

 

[Mysteek]

If you like the tube sound and already have an amp that you're satisfied with, I HIGHLY recommend the Maverick D1 Tube Magic DAC.  Here is the thread for it:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/470639/maverick-audio-tubemagic-d1-dac-amp-condensed-faq-and-info-thread

 

[timwillhack]

 
Hey Guys,
 
I'll add the new recommendations to my initial post soon.  I received the Matrix M-Stage and the HiFiMan EF2 yesterday and I spent a long time last night playing with the various configurations (nuforce icon mobile as well)  I really wanted to compare things with my cmoybb since its such a little guy and was super cheap but I ran out of batteries and don't have an ac adapter for it.  I know lame using batteries!  Also apparently my RCA cables suck or at least my splitter from rca to 1/8 stereo is my noise maker.
 
So Mysteek as for the Maverick D1, isn't the Xiang Sheng Dac 01 the same unit maybe just older?  That is one that was supposed to be at my house today but my soon to be wife (this sunday) took down my note for the DHL guy to leave it at the door.  She said there were two other boxes so she assumed one was the DHL one (silly silly woman)  Apparently I also missed the USPS guy so I'll have to pickup the canamp tomorrow morning so I will have to bring my rig to work with me.
 
So unfortunately I won't be able to have any new impressions tonight over last night.  Luckily for readers I did have a little time to mess with what I did get yesterday though including most of my old hardware.
 
On a side note - I'll tell you that the comparison of the sound quality of the EF2 compared to the Nuforce Icon Mobile is like night and day (day being the EF2, day being good).  Its almost like I have my own little concert hall now in my head at least for classical and acoustic.  Whereas before with the Icon Mobile it just doesn't have as natural of a sound.  Also I had the nuforce volume at 100% on the computer and the hardware and its not loud enough for my taste, whereas the EF2 was at about 1/4 and it was louder than I could get the nuforce.  It is possible that the tube is the reason for it sounding more natural to me and not the dac itself.  Unfortunately I'm not sure if the EF2 can really be used as a preamp - because plugging it into the matrix did not produce a better sounding combo than just the EF2 itself.  I would say it lost a bit of the low end and ended up sounding unnatural again.  This is with the ef2 at various volume settings and the Matrix at whatever volume to get it safely loud (or at least wasn't ear splitting painful).  
 
Of course probably less people are going from a icon mobile to say the ef2 since its a portable device.  Myself included I used the nuforce as a preamp for the cmoybb which did output a much stronger signal and I did have the bass boost on.  
 
I have an audiophile cd that has very high quality recordings on it:
Bowers Wilkins Very Audiophile New Recordings
 
All the songs from that disk in Flac sounded really clean with the K702's with the EF2 together, all effects turned off in windows 7 for the sound card (DAC) and the EQ for foobar zeroed out.  Most of the songs are acoustic guitar and vocals but the ones that really stood out to me were the female vocals, one accompanied by unkown to me orchastra stringed instruments.  It was such a rich presentation.
 
I want to point out that over the last year or so my tastes in music has varied significantly than what I enjoyed earlier in my life.  I'm 28 now as of last month and I'm going from being a Christian and really liking a lot of Christian rock to kind of losing my faith and having a hard time enjoying any of my old favorites such as Derek Webb, Jars of Clay, Stavsacre, Living Sacrifice, Blindside etc.  I really enjoyed Neal Morse (Prog rock) who was in Spocks Beard and ended up becoming a Christian, but now I'm more leaning towards softer listening such as classical / jazz, more mellow rock such as Pink Floyd, I've actually really been enjoying a Chinese band called 12 Girls band (for those curious sample Doraemon No Uta) and so forth.  I've been spending a lot of time listening to Final Fantasy sound tracks as well.  Also enjoying say the Lord of the Rings soundtracks as well as embarrassingly Harry Potter soundtracks.  So I'll say that last night my initial impressions of the EF2 / K702's for my old collection of rock (Smashing Pumpkins, Sound Garden) did not sound as good to me as my old Bose Triports.  I will point out that I noticed the Bose hid a lot of imperfections in the recordings though, which made for a more thorough enjoyment of the music imo.  I don't listen to say Nirvana and expect perfect recordings - I noticed Nirvana Live in New York has quite a lot of noise (floor?) in the recording, less noticable with the Bose than the intensely precise K702's.  I noticed that the distortion for songs off of Around the Fur by the Deftones sounded really good.  The bass guitar and drums were also more pronounced than a lot of my other music.  A lot of my collection is in WMA 256 VBR, but I tried to run direct from CD for my source last night - cd's such as Dave Matthews Busted Stuff sounded really good, although none of the bass stood out at all.  So I'd like to really just point out that direct from the CD drive of a computer to the DAC of the EF2 with the K702's classical was sounding amazing and rock was not what I feel is exceptional.  
 
I let it play overnight and listened in this morning - seemed like the bass actually improved with only an overnight burn in, so lets not take my current opinion as definitive.  You know you shouldn't takes someones opinion seriously when they doubt themselves from the night before!
 
Ok so that is out of the way and a lot of you probably don't care anyway but the more background the better for me when I was trying to find recommendations from people.  I like to read about what people listen to music preference wise and detailed descriptions of any experiance they have relating to the setup.
 
I'm hoping to be able to hook up the Dac-01 and the canamp tomorrow but its going to be a crazy couple days before the wedding - so don't expect to much feedback... but I will be very active next week making babies I mean plugging away at amp setups!
 
Tim