Quote:
Originally Posted by tnmike1
Been burning my Portaphile now for three weeks using Ety4p IEMs. Feel the urge to get a pair of full-size phones and noticed a few pages back in this thread there were several who loved the AKG 501 for the maxxed Portaphile.
Now that they're discontinued, what are the options?/ 601?? 701?? Or something else?
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Sorry for delay in answering! It's been a challenging few days.
I've got a number of phones here, some of which I was "burning in" for a friend. K501 does have a sweet midrange, but the K701 passes it by a wide margin in many ways.
I personally would not recommend the K601, which I feel is a middle-of-the-road compromise, much as the Sony SA3000 is a mediocre price/performance compromise on the way to the SA5000.
The K701 sounds wonderful with the Portaphile. It is much more extended, down and up, than the 501, has a huge sound space, wider than the 501, as well as much deep and taller, with palpable volume. The 701 sounds more musical, with richer and more accurate timbre.
Physically the 501s are lighter, and in some ways cooler to wear, but when I wear the 701s at work (sometimes) everyone seems impressed by their look. I probably look like a total geek, but the phones are cool, the velour pads soft, and though heavier than the 501s, I've gotten used to them.
The 701s' sound is so much more satisfying that I don't think about which is more comfortable when I'm listening to them.
The sweet, open-yet-focused sound (not unfocused as some say) really takes about 350 or more hours to develop, and sounds pretty weird and dissatisfying along the way, which is perhaps why many people give up on them. 100 hours is far from adequate, and provides a mere tease of their potential sound.
So without more embellishments, I heartily recommend the K701 for the PV2^2-LT1210 Maxxed!
Cheers,
Peter