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Q701 impressions thread
Jan 17, 2015 at 10:34 AM Post #8,461 of 9,603
peter123 said:
I got the Matrix M-stage a couple of days ago and DAMN :wink: I Can certainly understand why it's a popular pairing with the Q's.
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Damn, it does sound great with the Q's!

Right now I'm using a Matrix Quattro amp, which is just a balanced M Stage.
I use it SE with my Q701.
I find it hard to see why I would want to upgrade my amp.
 
Jan 17, 2015 at 10:39 AM Post #8,462 of 9,603
chris j said:
Damn, it does sound great with the Q's!

Right now I'm using a Matrix Quattro amp, which is just a balanced M Stage.
I use it SE with my Q701.
I find it hard to see why I would want to upgrade my amp.
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Yes it sure does. I do have quite a few other amps as well but I'm enjoying the M-stage a lot so far. It's different and the match with the Q's and my favorite IEM's (Havi B3 Pro1) makes it a keeper for me.
 
Jan 18, 2015 at 10:18 PM Post #8,467 of 9,603
danpyre said:
  So, I have the Q701s, the Schiit Vali, and the Schiit Modi.  What should my next upgrade be?
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A bottle of the 15-year-old McCallan and a super comfy chair 
biggrin.gif

 
Jan 19, 2015 at 9:09 AM Post #8,470 of 9,603
Has anyone tried making some leather or pleather pads for these? It seems the material the pads are made of keep rubbing against my glasses and is really annoying. I do have the stock Q701 pads which I don't like so thinking about sacrificing them to use the bottom part for some DIY pads. I think the only pads with this type of material I didn't have an issue with was the HD800 probably because of the size of the cups was huge.
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 9:49 AM Post #8,471 of 9,603
danpyre said:
  I've looked at reviews of the 650, and I think it's a bit too far off from neutral for me.  I'm wanting to mix and master one these as well as listen to music.  That's why I chose the Q701.  I've heard it's basically a good mix between mixing/mastering and listening.
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Well if you really want to upgrade with the "true to the quality" sound sig in mind, you should probably get a Lyr 2 + Bifrost uber, then an HD800 later on.
 
Edit: If you're interested on a Lyr 2 alternative, try Project Ember - much easier to tube roll since it only has 1 tube.
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 12:23 PM Post #8,473 of 9,603
danpyre said:
  So, I have the Q701s, the Schiit Vali, and the Schiit Modi.  What should my next upgrade be?
Click to expand...

 
Biggest improvement for the Q701 with that setup (IMO) would be upgrading the Modi.
The Modi is very good, but many DACs $200-$400 might be an upgrade.
 
I actually found a nice improvement for my Q701 going from my Modi to the Headroom Micro DAC (CS4398 chipset).
 
The nice thing about the Modi is that it's not too analytical and slightly forgiving. It's a "fun" sounding DAC and not excessively revealing.
I didn't find this out until I tried it with the Beyerdynamic DT-90.
 
Difference in sound quality might be less than 15% though if I were to guess.
 
I myself don't think the Q701 is good enough for a $500 amp AND $500 DAC. Yes, I do love the Q701!
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 12:27 PM Post #8,474 of 9,603
tdockweiler said:
   
Biggest improvement for the Q701 with that setup (IMO) would be upgrading the Modi.
The Modi is very good, but many DACs $200-$400 might be an upgrade.
 
I actually found a nice improvement for my Q701 going from my Modi to the Headroom Micro DAC (CS4398 chipset).
 
The nice thing about the Modi is that it's not too analytical and slightly forgiving. It's a "fun" sounding DAC and not excessively revealing.
I didn't find this out until I tried it with the Beyerdynamic DT-90.
 
Difference in sound quality might be less than 15% though if I were to guess.
 
I myself don't think the Q701 is good enough for a $500 amp AND $500 DAC. Yes, I do love the Q701!
Click to expand...

 
I don't either. My DAC is overkill for the Q701 but I had it already so no point in selling and buying a cheaper one. Then again I do have a $500 amp (after tubes, etc) and expensive amp for the Q701 lol...
 
Jan 19, 2015 at 12:48 PM Post #8,475 of 9,603
tdockweiler said:
   
Biggest improvement for the Q701 with that setup (IMO) would be upgrading the Modi.
The Modi is very good, but many DACs $200-$400 might be an upgrade.
 
I actually found a nice improvement for my Q701 going from my Modi to the Headroom Micro DAC (CS4398 chipset).
 
The nice thing about the Modi is that it's not too analytical and slightly forgiving. It's a "fun" sounding DAC and not excessively revealing.
I didn't find this out until I tried it with the Beyerdynamic DT-90.
 
Difference in sound quality might be less than 15% though if I were to guess.
 
I myself don't think the Q701 is good enough for a $500 amp AND $500 DAC. Yes, I do love the Q701!
Click to expand...

 
I think the Modi is pretty meh and there's a lot of room for improvement.  The Q701 is good enough to be revealing of those differences so the DAC upgrade makes sense.  I was pretty happy moving to the NFB-15 with my Q701.
 
But I still think there's a lot of fun to be had trying out different headphones.  Depending on your budget, you have a lot of choice for headphones that will give you immediate noticeable differences.  For instance, I moved from the Q701 to the HE-4 and got an immediate improvement in detail across the board, as well as awesome planar bass.  (Of course, you'd need up upgrade your amp with the HE-4, but that's just one example.)  
 
My recommendation would be to spend some time on the classifieds buying and selling to get a feel for different headphones and sound signatures to see what you really like.  I never thought I'd like the HD650 until I tried it and fell in love.  There's no replacement for actually trying them all yourself.
 
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