[Dancingduck]

.

 

[d4nny392]

i decided to test the quality of the coils in the XB-700's the other day when i got bored...
...usually, i find the best way to kill even the most powerful floorstanding speakers etc, is to throw a good 7-12 volts across the coil...
...it took me THIRTY (30) volts!!! to pop the coil in the XB-700's!!
(i had an intermittent fault with the plug...due to the accident i think...and wanted to make sure they were DEFFO faulty!)
NEVER had to throw so much power and current at a speaker driver unit to kill one before!!

 

[djviciouscycle]

Saved your life in a car accident? XB700 order has been placed.

I'm also an XB-700 owner....
...had these beauties for around 8 months now, and never heard such clarity from ANY other headphones!!
 
first of all...the sound. WOW. 3watt, 50mm drive units delivering stunning bass ranging from an incredible 4hZ (below the human hearing capability!) to treble hitting an incredible 28kHZ! (WAY in excess of hearing ability!)  These headphones deliver the most crisp high frequencies imaginable, there is no hissing or sense of "pushing limits" with them, they just deliver and deliver and leave you with a nice case of tinnitis! lol

The bass output will literally shake off your earlobes! enough volume, some Tinie Tempah etc, and you've got a perfect ear massage going on! the bass delivery is powerful, yet very refined. If you are using a decent audio source (ie, anything BUT an ipod or Windows Media Player) you are in for a treat! the only way you can mess up the sound quality is by playing with equalizers when you're completely tone deaf...
 
The build quality; EXCEPTIONAL. Cast plastic chassis' supporting the drive units mean that there are no nasty rattles, they are ported at the back (behind the headband to prevent obstruction) and are backed in well finished silver plastic.The earpads are made from a marshmallow soft, leather wrapped foam which makes them feel beautiful and soft on your ears; backed with the soft padding across the top of the band, they feel completely weightless! (despite weighing in at nearly quarter a kilo!)
The side parts of the headband mech are made of laser-cut aluminium, and offer a very solid feel.   i was actually in an accident in which i was (fortunately!) wearing these headphones, and they managed to stop a solid metal bar passing through the top of my head at 30mph! despite being knocked out and waking up in a puddle of blood, the headphones only suffered a tear in the leather and a bit of scuffing on the right-side of the band. all reviews saying these feel "fragile" or "brittle"....are talking utter SH**E! lol

So, to sum up these eardrum blasting, wallet busting, life saving (literally) headphones, i would score them 10 out of 10 without a doubt!

 

[d4nny392]

I really can't emphasise how satisfied you will be with these babies!!!
Found a pair of XB1000's on Sony Asia's website, they're almost FOUR times more expensive than the '700's, but only offer slightly improved sound quality....use 80mm driver units though, so they will handle higher volume, but with little other change in overall performance..

 

[Croozer]

The XB1000 have 70mm drivers.

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Quote:

Those two amps are very different in terms of how they handle headphones.
 
The Little-Dot MKII is a full tube amp using a Singled-ended Push Pull OTL design, which means it puts out a lot of Voltage but not much Current, making it ideal for high impedance headphones:
 

1. 300mW into 300 ohms
2. 200mW into 120 ohms
3. 100mW into 32 ohms

 
The Little-Dot I+ is a Hybrid design that uses Transistors for the output, which means it doesn't put out nearly as much Voltage but has tons of Current.  That makes it ideal for low impedance headphones:
 

1. 150mW @ 300 ohms
2. 300mW @ 120 ohms
3. 800mW @ 32 ohms

I know this is an old post, but if you still read this thread, dude, I just want to thank you for this post.  It's exactly the type of information I've been looking for in regards to an amp.

 

[Merdril]

I'm glad you like the XB700, but they are other options for bassheads. The Audio-Technica ATH-A700 has just as much infrasonic sound and bass quantity as the XB700 (provided equalization, of course. But then, I'm talking about all of the following headphones when the best has been equalized out of them), I really can't argue about your statement about build quality. I've had my XB700 for about 3 years now, if not more, and besides some tearing in the leather (or pleather?) headband, there's not much of a cosmetic difference from the original. As far as how well the XB700 handles frequencies north of 63 Hz, I must disagree with your statement that these headphones "deliver." The Shrue SRH440, which can be had for a similar price, do a considerably better job than the XB700 in terms of clarity, openness, crispness, naturalness, and any other -ness I can think of. The SRH440 lacks bass, to be sure, but it's one way or another at this price range. There's also the ATH-700, does a considerably better job than the XB700 in these frequencies, but not to the same extent as the SRH440. The only reason why I'm not recommending them outright is that I dislike their sound signature, which is a considerable bias on my part. Anyway, depending on how you equalize your XB700, you may not be getting lots of infrasonic sound from it (I'm talking about below 20 Hz, and trust me, it's plenty audible and obtainable if you take a look at some advanced DSPs). If that's the case, you won't be disappointed in the Ultrasone HFI-580, which I found for $138. It's more expensive than the XB700 by a moderate amount, but it's a worthy upgrade in SQ. I ended up exclusively listening to them (as I now exlusively listen to my beyerdynamic DT770 Pre 600 ohm) after EQ'ing them properly and getting as much infrasonic sound out of them as possible, which is not nearly as much as the XB700 or A700, but the bass above those frequencies is in more quantity than the XB700 and of a better quality. In other words, you should try some other headphones side-by-side with the XB700, because I used to be a vehement defender of them until my headphone (and DAC) library grew.
 
But who's to say that these other headphones will sound better to you as they did for me? We're all different here on head-fi, but we're also similar. The XB700 are great entry-level headphones for bassheads, and to this day, I still like their cold sound on many songs that are rendered warmly by other headphones (the A700 and HFI-580, so far, are the only headphones in my library to have this property). But trying just 1 other pair of headphones will help you identify what it is you want in terms of sound, and from there, you can read the many reviews and impressions here on head-fi and then accurately judge which pair of headphone's you'll actually like (unlike me when i made my purchase from the Sony MDR-XD200 to the Shure SRH440 

) without ever having listened to them, and you'll only get better at it as you listen to more and more headphones. That's precisely what happened when I got the DT770 32 ohm, and now the 600 ohm version. I'm hoping my next purchase of the Ultrasone Pro 900 continues this string 

.
 
 


Quote:

I'm also an XB-700 owner....
...had these beauties for around 8 months now, and never heard such clarity from ANY other headphones!!
 
first of all...the sound. WOW. 3watt, 50mm drive units delivering stunning bass ranging from an incredible 4hZ (below the human hearing capability!) to treble hitting an incredible 28kHZ! (WAY in excess of hearing ability!)  These headphones deliver the most crisp high frequencies imaginable, there is no hissing or sense of "pushing limits" with them, they just deliver and deliver and leave you with a nice case of tinnitis! lol

The bass output will literally shake off your earlobes! enough volume, some Tinie Tempah etc, and you've got a perfect ear massage going on! the bass delivery is powerful, yet very refined. If you are using a decent audio source (ie, anything BUT an ipod or Windows Media Player) you are in for a treat! the only way you can mess up the sound quality is by playing with equalizers when you're completely tone deaf...
 
The build quality; EXCEPTIONAL. Cast plastic chassis' supporting the drive units mean that there are no nasty rattles, they are ported at the back (behind the headband to prevent obstruction) and are backed in well finished silver plastic.The earpads are made from a marshmallow soft, leather wrapped foam which makes them feel beautiful and soft on your ears; backed with the soft padding across the top of the band, they feel completely weightless! (despite weighing in at nearly quarter a kilo!)
The side parts of the headband mech are made of laser-cut aluminium, and offer a very solid feel.   i was actually in an accident in which i was (fortunately!) wearing these headphones, and they managed to stop a solid metal bar passing through the top of my head at 30mph! despite being knocked out and waking up in a puddle of blood, the headphones only suffered a tear in the leather and a bit of scuffing on the right-side of the band. all reviews saying these feel "fragile" or "brittle"....are talking utter SH**E! lol

So, to sum up these eardrum blasting, wallet busting, life saving (literally) headphones, i would score them 10 out of 10 without a doubt!

 

 

[benzoylmethyl]

I just ordered mine today to compliment the 225i's I ordered.  I'm stupid excited to compare them to my Munitio Tek9s.  I feel like they'll have a similar sound signature, but more presence and hopefully a better soundstage.  It just takes sooooo looooong for stuff to get to me!

 

[Duff-Guy]

The head band on mine broke a little. The headband part on the right side connecting to the pads broke, but it's still connected, just very loose. So you can swing the pad to either side, and I'm sure it will break off completely over time.
 
Has anyone else's broken in anyway?

 

[Ouspensky]

Not me, this is the first time I recall reading about a broken xb700 headband...

 

[WhiteCrow]

yea, could you post a picture. I'm having a hard time envisioning this.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well the only place I see it might breaking are the plastic pieces (not sure if it's even plastic either could be some other material) at the place the cups are connected to the headband after some very unlucky drops or something, the headbands themselves could probably take a fall from a 5 story building.

 

[benzoylmethyl]

I've forgotten to mention that I love these things.  I can't wait to get the 1000s. 

 

[Masquerade1]

Between this and the Beats pro which is better?

 

[benzoylmethyl]

I've never heard the beats, so i won't even pretend to comment.  That said, while the beats are pretty stylish, you can get XB700s from Amazon for about 1/5 the price, and you will, by no means whatsoever, be disappointed in the sound.  And if worst comes to worst and you don't like them...return them to Amazon.  They refund everything, even shipping, for 30 days.