[DutchGFX]

Yes I'm sure lol, I have owned both. I had the drivers replaced by beyer, maybe they put in 770 drivers accidental o.o but it was an 880, the 770 actually wasn't that dark IMHO

 

[Chris J]

Is this conventional wisdom?  I find the Q701 more neutral and the DT880 on the bright side....

I think the problem comes from both Beyer and AKG have changed their designs thru the years.
Apparently the older DT880 have a more pronounced treble peak.
Complicate this even more by using different amps, good designs, bad designs, SS amps, tube amps.

I have a pair of DT880 and a Pair of Q701.
I've brought them to Head fi meets. The only bright comments I heard were WRT the Q701s.
Which is what I hear.

 

[Chris J]

Yes I'm sure lol, I have owned both. I had the drivers replaced by beyer, maybe they put in 770 drivers accidental o.o but it was an 880, the 770 actually wasn't that dark IMHO

Oooops!
I missed this'
DT770, DT880 and DT990 drivers are all the same.
The difference is in the cup construction:
sealed DT770 never heard a pair.
semi sealed DT990 which sounds fairly neutral
open DT990 which has "the loudness button pressed in" sound

 

[3X0]

Might have to do with your ears as well. I hated the DT 770 LE and didn't like the T1, and look at how many people love both.
 
My ears prefer Austria to Germany, and Ireland slightly over Austria. Of course, Japan is king of them all.. 

 

[AristoNYC]

Ok, 
What am I doing wrong here. 
I bought a the Q701 from a member here *yes before trying them at a store like an idiot, but reviews were glowing*
Anyway, I have been using them with a FIIO E6 amp and I am extremely unimpressed with these cans. My old Sennheiser HD485 & even my HD280 sound much better. Do I need a higher powered / better amp to drive these to get full potential or should the E6 give me a good idea of how they will ultimately sound?
I am willing to buy an amp like the FIIO E17 if it will drastically improve sound quality, if not I will have to resell these and get another pair of Senns. 
 
Thanks,
Aristo

 

[Change is Good]

Quote:

Ok, 
What am I doing wrong here. 
I bought a the Q701 from a member here *yes before trying them at a store like an idiot, but reviews were glowing*
Anyway, I have been using them with a FIIO E6 amp and I am extremely unimpressed with these cans. My old Sennheiser HD485 & even my HD280 sound much better. Do I need a higher powered / better amp to drive these to get full potential or should the E6 give me a good idea of how they will ultimately sound?
I am willing to buy an amp like the FIIO E17 if it will drastically improve sound quality, if not I will have to resell these and get another pair of Senns. 
 
Thanks,
Aristo

 
The problem is your E6... not the Q701. These cans are notoriously hard to drive. I even had the E17, once, and while others may say it has enough for their Q701s... it certainly did not for me.
 
Ultimately, I ended up with the Matrix M-Stage as my desktop amp and the E12 as my portable amp. Both have sufficient power to drive the Q701.

 

[daleb]

What is the E6 even for? It just seems too low end to me to have a purpose...
 

 

[Evshrug]

Hmm, I tried the E5 with my Q's, sounded alright but better with a better amp. Better amp being a tube amp, BUT I LIKED THE Q701 FROM THE BEGINNING. What, specifically, do you not like about them? I recommend you listen to the Q701 at least a week of good usage without using other headphones and see if your ears get accustomed to them, unless you absolutely hate them.

Daleb,
My college, Seton Hill University, turned into an all-Steinway school while I was there. I grew up with a piano in my day's house (tho To my shame, I didn't learn to play nor remember the brand), and I was unimpressed with the Steinways in the music wing by comparison. My one friend is the real expert though, he can identify most acoustic or electric pianos. In general I love pianos, and specifically the piano in the intro of Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #1 (tunnels)" gives me shivers.

 

[Chris J]

Quote:

Ok, 
What am I doing wrong here. 
I bought a the Q701 from a member here *yes before trying them at a store like an idiot, but reviews were glowing*
Anyway, I have been using them with a FIIO E6 amp and I am extremely unimpressed with these cans. My old Sennheiser HD485 & even my HD280 sound much better. Do I need a higher powered / better amp to drive these to get full potential or should the E6 give me a good idea of how they will ultimately sound?
I am willing to buy an amp like the FIIO E17 if it will drastically improve sound quality, if not I will have to resell these and get another pair of Senns. 
 
Thanks,
Aristo

 
I don't have any experience with the E6, but an E17 has absolutely no trouble driving a pair of Q701s.
What is it that you don't like about the E6 + Q701?
Judging by the specs on the FiiO website, the E6 should have enough power to drive the Q701.
OTOH, for $30 I wouldn't expect too much out of the E6.
The Q701 deserves a good amp to get the most out of it.
The Q701 may just be letting you hear how bad the E6 is.
I'm not too impressed with the sound of my Q701 from the headphone jack on my laptop computer.

 

[Evshrug]

Nah, I don't like darkness. Even when I'm playing a 9 foot Steinway in real life, it just feels like it lacks too much treble.. and something else. I really need to figure out why I hate how real life sounds...

Anyways, so I was deciding on my color, and I remembered one of my college's color is green, and the hallways throughout the dorms are lime green. So, I have decided which color headphones to get!

For a more unusual color scheme, I did like the green one, but I got the white.

Great! I can't wait to get my pink Q701s!

There's a pic floating around on head-Fi of a pink K701 (with a coiled cable).

 

[Change is Good]

Quote:

 
I don't have any experience with the E6, but an E17 has absolutely no trouble driving a pair of Q701

 
Really? I used to almost max it out at 55 before noticing distortion... and sill felt like it could use some more juice... hence why I ended up with the E12.

 

[jasonb]

Wow, your source was either really weak or you are listening waaaaay too loud. I use my E17 with the Q701 at 25-30 out of 60, and that's on the +6db gain. 
Quote:

 
Really? I used to almost max it out at 55 before noticing distortion... and sill felt like it could use some more juice... hence why I ended up with the E12.

 

[Change is Good]

Quote:

Wow, your source was either really weak or you are listening waaaaay too loud. I use my E17 with the Q701 at 25-30 out of 60, and that's on the +6db gain. 

 
I was using my laptop on +6db gain, also. I don't see how 25-30 was sufficient for you. I have read numerous back n forths on both this thread and the E17 thread about whether it was loud enough or not. Maybe I'm just hard of hearing or maybe you just have an awesome source that I do not. I mean, it was decent, but I could easily tell it was not driving the Q701 to its full potential.

 

[daleb]

I, on the other hand, keep turning my music down. I used to listen to my current headphones at 33% of full volume. Then I moved down to 24%. Now I am listening to it at 18%. Isn't hearing supposed to get worse?
 

 

[Change is Good]

I stand corrected from a prior post. The volume was 45 on the E17 not 55.