So I used the Q701 pads again tonight specifically for gaming. I haven't heard them for about two weeks, and I've been using the Anniversary during that time.
The first two things I noticed were:
1) I was surprised to hear that the Q701s really weren't too much of an improvement in terms of soundstage and positioning. The actual soundstage itself is really essentially the same as on the anniversary pads - it really just comes down to the weight of the sounds. I said all this
in my review, and I stand by it. I was expecting the imaging and positioning to sharpen up more with the Q701s, but it didn't really. It was basically the same level of diffuseness as on the anniversaries. The difference was just that the sounds were lighter and sharper. There's something about lighter airier sounds that gives the effect of making sounds sound farther away then weightier sounds. But like I said, once you adjust for that "effect", the sounds are still basically coming from the same location/distance in the soundstage. So the Q701s competitive advantage mainly just comes down to the lighter overall balance (think AD700) which emphasizes and makes things a bit clearer. The anniversaries are definitely more immersive sounding, and IMO better choice for single player gaming. Not necessarily because of the bass, but because of the overall body/weight of all the frequencies. It just gives objects and characters more mass in game, and they feel more 3D and physically "there" (hmm...would that be "imaging?" still not sure what exactly "imaging" means - positioning?, or how sounds are outlined in the space?). This is especially true if your not using a bass boost with the Q701s (I always keep it ON during single player gaming), which leads me to my next point...
2)... I was a little surprised how much more bass the Anniversaries had. I remembered the differences being more minor last time I tested (which was mainly with music). I did some tests with the Mixamp 5.8's bass boost, and I found that the Q701 with the bass boost ON actually has fairly similar bass levels to the Anniversaries with bass boost OFF. The Q701 just has a little more initial impact. I think the bass also seems to decay quicker on Q701 though, and it doesn't have much support body-wise from the other frequencies compared to the anniversary. Like the bass is trying to fight to give all the body but the mids and treble aren't helping out much. The annivesary's entire spectrum gets a volumizing body-boost over the Q701, and since you can't boost the body of the mids and treble the Q701 is at a disadvantage there. I was expecting Q701 + Bass Boost to fall somewhere in-between the anniversary without bass boost, and the anniversary
with bass boost, but it's closer to the former. Once you turn the Bass boost ON with the anniversaries, they're on another level though. They leave the Q701s behind in terms of body and impact. Sometimes it's almost too much bass (or mid-bass) - like your standing near a generator and it's humming louder overtop of the other sounds. Sometimes it can sound muddy-ish depending on what the game is doing. I blame some of this on the mixamps muddy bass boost though, which is why....
...I just re-snagged a
DSS v1 off eBay
I miss it's bass boost - it really has a superior bass boost over the Mixamp 5.8. It's tighter/cleaner, affects less of the mid-bass and more of the sub-bass, and punches significantly harder than the mixamp if you max out the dial. The mixamps bass is muddier and cuts off slowy affecting more lower mid frequencies. Not to mention, it clips more. The added control over the bass is worth it for the $30 shipped IMO. The DSS has a slightly higher noise floor, but that's pretty much a non-issue with the AKG K70x - they don't really care.
BTW, it sounds like I'm ragging on the Q701, but I don't mean to. I love them and think they're great. I'm just trying to clarify some of the differences I hear between the two pads during gaming/single-player gaming in relation to soundstage and bass - only this time I'm specifically coming off of having used the anniversaries for two weeks and normalizing
their sound, without being able to hear the Q701s. The first time I compared, it was coming from using the Q701s as the default and the anniversaries as the outsider, and I said things like they're "slightly too dark," "Forward sounding", "I prefer the air on the Q701," "I like the floating sounds on the Q701", etc. So it's all sort of relative to whatever you're used to at that moment.
