[Benn Beckman]

   
I own the X2 and Q701 and the Q701 is better for gaming, especially competitive gaming. It's a really analytical headphone and its positioning is god-tier. Replace the headband or put something over it. The bass is weak but it's certainly present. 
 
The X2 is great too for gaming and very, very easy to drive and is the most comfortable headphone I've ever used. I've not had the bleeding ink issue and I wear them for 8-10 hours a day for work, gaming, and movie watching. The bass is great and the soundstage is ridiculous as well. You can also use it with the V-Moda Boompro mic.

yah at first i thought x2 will be great since it easy to drive and i can use boompro. in my country its hard to find modmic on local store. if i buy from ebay there will be so much extra charge (tax, ship, etc). 
is q701 hard to drive?
 

   
 
The X2 QC issues are overblown, in my opinion. I owned 3 pairs, and I thought they sounded identical. Furthermore, the Brainwavz velour pads are about $25/$30, and are even more comfortable. Edit: These were all post glue-gate, but I really never saw a problem with them and thought they sounded good.
 
The AKG K7XX sounds like a good match, and they do sell replacement pads, but they cost $70 last time I checked. Also, you'll need an adapter to get the K7XX's mini-XLR input to work.

what it mean "post glue-gate"? what about sound quality if you change to brainwavz pads?
i think i saw someone sell k7xx on my country, it will be great since i don't have to buy from international site like ebay or amazon. 
i don't understand why i need adapter to make it work? is the cable xlr to xlr, so i must buy xlr to 3,5mm?

 

[Evshrug]

X2 is easier to drive than the Q701, the Q701 can be driven loud out of an iPhone but a dedicated desktop amp helps it scale up. The Q701 doesn't need an amp for more sheer volume, the extra current helps extend how deep the bass goes (bass extension), helps treble smoothly flow in a more liquid fashion, and decreases bloom across all the frequency ranges. Typically, all good headphones benefit from better amping in this way. I do think the Phillips X2 might be a better fit for you due to your stated preferences, or maybe one of the new Sennheiser HD5... range.

Regarding "glue-gate," there was a period of time where Philips started gluing the X2 pads onto the headphone, making it harder to change pads. I am not up to speed on whether they stopped glueing them (shuto77's "post" glue-gate comment makes me wonder if they stopped gluing them?), but the sound does change as pads break in and get more dense from the oils of our skin. Even my skin, which is very dry! I recommend replacing pads after about 1.5-2 years, and do a comparison between old and new pads... the change will happen so slowly you'll barely notice, but the instant you compare old and new pads you'll know.
The Q701 has replaceable headphones, but the jack on the headphone is mini-xlr while the boompro uses a 3.5mm plug. Another alternative to a boom mic could be a desktop mic, or lapel mic... in both cases, you don't have to worry about connecting the mic and the headphone.

 

[John Q Lin]

I try the T1 for gaming yesterday, but I prefer the HD800 for sure.

 

[Evshrug]

I try the T1 for gaming yesterday, but I prefer the HD800 for sure.

I don't want to say "called it!"

But I was thinking it
Do you like the T1 for music?

 

[ToonMechaMan]

  yah at first i thought x2 will be great since it easy to drive and i can use boompro. in my country its hard to find modmic on local store. if i buy from ebay there will be so much extra charge (tax, ship, etc). 
is q701 hard to drive?
 
what it mean "post glue-gate"? what about sound quality if you change to brainwavz pads?
i think i saw someone sell k7xx on my country, it will be great since i don't have to buy from international site like ebay or amazon. 
i don't understand why i need adapter to make it work? is the cable xlr to xlr, so i must buy xlr to 3,5mm?

It's fairly hard to drive in order to get the most out of it. Also, it's fairly amp dependent. I used to use them with the Magni 2 but the highs frequently overshadowed the rest but with the amp/DAC Aune X1S and even more so with Darkvoice 336SE tube amp it helped calm the highs and allowed me to hear the mids and lows a lot better. Put simply in games like Battlefield 1 the gunfire and explosions overshadowed footsteps and other noises but with the right amp it you can hear everything else without losing much detail of the more high-pitched noises.
 
If you want more bass you can try the bass mod for this though I've not tried it.

 

[Benn Beckman]

X2 is easier to drive than the Q701, the Q701 can be driven loud out of an iPhone but a dedicated desktop amp helps it scale up. The Q701 doesn't need an amp for more sheer volume, the extra current helps extend how deep the bass goes (bass extension), helps treble smoothly flow in a more liquid fashion, and decreases bloom across all the frequency ranges. Typically, all good headphones benefit from better amping in this way. I do think the Phillips X2 might be a better fit for you due to your stated preferences, or maybe one of the new Sennheiser HD5... range.

Regarding "glue-gate," there was a period of time where Philips started gluing the X2 pads onto the headphone, making it harder to change pads. I am not up to speed on whether they stopped glueing them (shuto77's "post" glue-gate comment makes me wonder if they stopped gluing them?), but the sound does change as pads break in and get more dense from the oils of our skin. Even my skin, which is very dry! I recommend replacing pads after about 1.5-2 years, and do a comparison between old and new pads... the change will happen so slowly you'll barely notice, but the instant you compare old and new pads you'll know.
The Q701 has replaceable headphones, but the jack on the headphone is mini-xlr while the boompro uses a 3.5mm plug. Another alternative to a boom mic could be a desktop mic, or lapel mic... in both cases, you don't have to worry about connecting the mic and the headphone.

hd558 maybe meet my criteria, but i think i prefer phillips. i ask at my local forum that x2 in my country isn't glued version. since brainwavz earpads can fit on x2, i think the problem solved. soundstage and positional cue compare to beyer dt990? which is bigger and accurate?
i'll consider akg in the future when i got a job. i don't know since i watch sound demo on z channels i am interested with akg, i feel their soundstage is really huge. but only k7xx i saw someone sell it on local store. if i got a job modmic or a good amp wouldn't be a problem.

 

[Benn Beckman]

 
It's fairly hard to drive in order to get the most out of it. Also, it's fairly amp dependent. I used to use them with the Magni 2 but the highs frequently overshadowed the rest but with the amp/DAC Aune X1S and even more so with Darkvoice 336SE tube amp it helped calm the highs and allowed me to hear the mids and lows a lot better. Put simply in games like Battlefield 1 the gunfire and explosions overshadowed footsteps and other noises but with the right amp it you can hear everything else without losing much detail of the more high-pitched noises.
 
If you want more bass you can try the bass mod for this though I've not tried it.

yea maybe i will buy akg later since it hard to drive. for now i just can buy a cheap amp or dacamp

 

[ToonMechaMan]

  yea maybe i will buy akg later since it hard to drive. for now i just can buy a cheap amp or dacamp

I don't know about the HD558 but you don't need an amp for the X2. It helps though.

 

[Evshrug]

hd558 maybe meet my criteria, but i think i prefer phillips. i ask at my local forum that x2 in my country isn't glued version. since brainwavz earpads can fit on x2, i think the problem solved. soundstage and positional cue compare to beyer dt990? which is bigger and accurate?
i'll consider akg in the future when i got a job. i don't know since i watch sound demo on z channels i am interested with akg, i feel their soundstage is really huge. but only k7xx i saw someone sell it on local store. if i got a job modmic or a good amp wouldn't be a problem.

What headphones did you use to listen to the Z Reviews sound demo, the same one he was recording?
Think about it, you can't tell how the soundstage, detail, bass, or practically anything about how a headphone is an improvement when that is filtered through the speakers/headphones you're already using. Major bottleneck. The microphone and how he mounts it to the headphone is also going to color the sound. You can compare different Z Reviews demos with each other, but they're useless for understanding what a headphone actually sounds like. It's a fundamentally flawed test.

I've read many reviews and impressions of the Philips X2 and Beyerdynamic DT990, but I haven't heard them myself. I've had several opportunities to listen to the DT990, but because the DT880 literally caused pain in my ears I wasn't interested in trying the DT990. Your experience may vary.

I haven't tried all the new open and closed HD5 series from Sennheiser yet, but I love my HD800 and really liked my PC37X, which is basically a PC373D without the USB dongle (and much less expensive) from Massdrop.com. If the 5 series is anything like the PC37X, then they don't have god-tier soundstage size, but they have great imaging placement and a decently fun sound (warmer than the AKGs) while also having replaceable earpads.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

The 880s are a lot brighter than the 990s. FWIW. 
 
I'll say this. The DT990s have the famed Beyer treble spike, whereas the X2s do not, and I think that's going to be the primary difference between the two. I preferred the 990s after a while with them, mostly because that spike (unnatural as it may have been) just turned out to sound better to my ears. Additionally, I absolutely hate the X2's saddle system. It doesn't hold still on your head, it'll bounce around if you move. No thank you.

 

[John Q Lin]

I was doing a review on T1 vs HD800, TH900, THX00, D7k, HD650, HD600, X2.......

My computer crashed .....

 

[John Q Lin]

I try the T1 for gaming yesterday, but I prefer the HD800 for sure.

I don't want to say "called it!"

But I was thinking it
Do you like the T1 for music?

Yes its very musical, not as much fun as the th900

 

[mbyrnes]

In case anyone is interested. I'm holding an event in South Philly on April 1st. All are welcome of course, and it'll be a great time. My gear alone will be an event, and I expect a handful of others dying to have a local event to come. All welcome

 

[shuto77]

In case anyone is interested. I'm holding an event in South Philly on April 1st. All are welcome of course, and it'll be a great time. My gear alone will be an event, and I expect a handful of others dying to have a local event to come. All welcome

Hey Buddy - I'll try to make it. I'm in Barrington, NJ. Probably 20 minutes away.

 

[Benn Beckman]

  I don't know about the HD558 but you don't need an amp for the X2. It helps though.

yep thank you for the advice
 

What headphones did you use to listen to the Z Reviews sound demo, the same one he was recording?

Think about it, you can't tell how the soundstage, detail, bass, or practically anything about how a headphone is an improvement when that is filtered through the speakers/headphones you're already using. Major bottleneck. The microphone and how he mounts it to the headphone is also going to color the sound. You can compare different Z Reviews demos with each other, but they're useless for understanding what a headphone actually sounds like. It's a fundamentally flawed test.

I've read many reviews and impressions of the Philips X2 and Beyerdynamic DT990, but I haven't heard them myself. I've had several opportunities to listen to the DT990, but because the DT880 literally caused pain in my ears I wasn't interested in trying the DT990. Your experience may vary.

I haven't tried all the new open and closed HD5 series from Sennheiser yet, but I love my HD800 and really liked my PC37X, which is basically a PC373D without the USB dongle (and much less expensive) from Massdrop.com. If the 5 series is anything like the PC37X, then they don't have god-tier soundstage size, but they have great imaging placement and a decently fun sound (warmer than the AKGs) while also having replaceable earpads.

i use ws1100 to listen z review. yea i can't tell bass, detail etc but about soundstage i think i can imagine how it will be in real life. so i'm not talking about sound signature since it colored with my headphones. i read that hd558 have more bass than 598 but the soundstage is bigger in 598. since 598 is basslight so it may not my priority for now. i want an open back with a good bass and huge soundstage for now.