[Stillhart]

 
I was talking about the Quincy Jones line specifically, not the K7xx series. I know the K702 does not have this issue. On the other hand, having never heard a K702, I can't tell if it's really that much different from a Q-series.

 
Isn't that a meaningles distinction?  I thought the Q701 is just a rebranded K701.

 

[ThurstonX]

The regular K701/K702 line was first to have the angled pads, should still be unless AKG changed them the same time they changed the headband. It was a big advertised feature... But then, the K612 and K712 have even pads without an angle.

Btw, I can easily swap my Q and K pads.

 
It's the K702 Annie pads that are non-angled gel.  Maybe the K712 uses the same?  The part number is the same in AKG docs.  If you go hunting for AKG pads, some sites sell the angled K701/702 pads which look gray in most photos.  The Q pads look identical, but black.
 
As to price, except for AKG/Harman direct in the US, prices are ridiculous for these pads.  The 702 Annies are around $60/pair shipped from AKG, but more elsewhere.  In my hunt for Q701 pads the cheapest I found that was not direct from AKG was $35/pad (not a pair) for the black model.  So that price of 38 GBP/pad for the Annies is not at all surprising.  Doesn't mean it's not a lot for pads.  YMMV on how the Q701s sound with those pads.  I sold mine after about three hours of testing, but there's no denying the comfort.  Pretty sure my Qs were bass-modded at that point, which needs to be factored in.
 
As for compatibility, I'd be surprised if AKG has switched from the bayonet-style locking mechanism that the Qs and others use.  I have no idea when they first started using it, but it makes it simple to try other pads.
 
HTH.

 

[Evshrug]

K712 uses memory foam padding, not gel.

 

[eXistencelies]

A lot of pages to read, but I picked up my Q701s. Very nice. Sound great. At first I hated using Dolby for gaming, but now I love it. Guess it is something you have to get use to coming from a gaming headset from Razer. One thing that I would like to ask is if there are any pads for the AKG that is more noise cancelling from the outside? As I mentioned I came from Razer and their headset was good at blocking out external noise. With the Q701 I can hear everything and not sure if I like that. Sure when I am in game and everything is loud external noise is less noticeable, but I would like to get out as much external noise from leaking in as possible. I over read that some of the leather pads (forget which ones) would help out on this compared to the soft cloth pads the Q701s come with. Is this true?

 

[Solrighal]

No.

 

[Stillhart]

  A lot of pages to read, but I picked up my Q701s. Very nice. Sound great. At first I hated using Dolby for gaming, but now I love it. Guess it is something you have to get use to coming from a gaming headset from Razer. One thing that I would like to ask is if there are any pads for the AKG that is more noise cancelling from the outside? As I mentioned I came from Razer and their headset was good at blocking out external noise. With the Q701 I can hear everything and not sure if I like that. Sure when I am in game and everything is loud external noise is less noticeable, but I would like to get out as much external noise from leaking in as possible. I over read that some of the leather pads (forget which ones) would help out on this compared to the soft cloth pads the Q701s come with. Is this true?

 
Unfortunately, a lot of what makes the Q701 so good for gaming (the massive soundstage) is directly related to the open nature of the headphones.  There are no closed headphones that compare to the Q for gaming.

 

[Solrighal]

No.

Or... wear a big hat

 

[eXistencelies]

No.

 
 

   
Unfortunately, a lot of what makes the Q701 so good for gaming (the massive soundstage) is directly related to the open nature of the headphones.  There are no closed headphones that compare to the Q for gaming.

 
 

Or... wear a big hat

I guess I will just go find bubble gum ball machine. Remove the top plastic/glass part, cut in some holes for air, and put it on while playing. No external noise lol.

 

[Solrighal]

I'm afraid it kinda goes with the territory around here. Nothing is best for everything. It's all about priorities.

 

[Dragonzeanse]

I'm afraid it kinda goes with the territory around here. Nothing is best for everything. It's all about priorities.

Something I've noticed a lot of people tend to forget, even on Head-Fi. For what it's worth, they tend to remember quickly once you remind them.

 

[morristhecat]

Quick change of tact folks. I am a real live noob here yes but i have been an avid HiFi follower for many years, usually DIYing my amplifiers with an emphasis on tubes and currently have a quad KT88 scratch build underway. I have just moved into the realm of HD Music and after years of CD listening have begun buying a few albums here and there, (usually HDTracks)  .flac 24/192 which i play off my MacbookPro using Fidelia through a FiiO E09 and E17. for headphones or a simple desktop active amp from SO-VOIOE. I even have a very recently purchased FiiO X5 to 'get my head used to decent portable sound'. I've even backed the Kickstarter for Pono so hence my project of finding some good cans...
 
I've now come to love the convenience on offer accessing extremely good quality material compared to the old approach of having a CD and CD player or the pointless hours i spent ripping them in iTunes for my iPhone or iPad as 320MP3s where i never did like the actual quality of the music... hence the shift into HD... I'm still out on 16bit/44.1 being so bad but i do say i hear my favourite music better if it's a 24/192 encode etc...
 
So i've begun a search for headphones and my preference lead me to the K712s that were just too far out of my budget on the day but i met the Q701s and they sounded just as well which lead me to Amazon's recent excellent offer so i now have a set (in black). Of course i have tried the K812s on the day but not yet on my gear and was stunned and that's another story... My  Q701s were ok out of the box but i detected a feeling of restraint for all frequencies as if they are not responsive enough and rather than allow myself to 'compensate' i have decided to do a burn-in... after I've spent a few hours here reading the pros and cons of it for the Q701s and i need to ask if this approach is going to be any good:
 
PINK noise track (1:03 repeating with 2 second break) 24/192 .flac from Dr Chesky's Ultimate Headphone Demo Disc
 
Played down using MacBook Fidelia > USB FiiO E09 headphone amp with E17 DAP > Q701s, the amp set to fairly high volume.
 
So far it's been running for around only 72hrs none stop, 3 days and nights. I know it will take 100s of hours according to the info i have gleaned from here but is my setup any good? I know i should invest i a proper audio frequency oscillator/generator but for now is there any chance i might be wrecking something?... so, anyway, thanks in advance.
 
Pete.

 

[Chris J]

Quick change of tact folks. I am a real live noob here yes but i have been an avid HiFi follower for many years, usually DIYing my amplifiers with an emphasis on tubes and currently have a quad KT88 scratch build underway. I have just moved into the realm of HD Music and after years of CD listening have begun buying a few albums here and there, (usually HDTracks)  .flac 24/192 which i play off my MacbookPro using Fidelia through a FiiO E09 and E17. for headphones or a simple desktop active amp from SO-VOIOE. I even have a very recently purchased FiiO X5 to 'get my head used to decent portable sound'. I've even backed the Kickstarter for Pono so hence my project of finding some good cans...

I've now come to love the convenience on offer accessing extremely good quality material compared to the old approach of having a CD and CD player or the pointless hours i spent ripping them in iTunes for my iPhone or iPad as 320MP3s where i never did like the actual quality of the music... hence the shift into HD... I'm still out on 16bit/44.1 being so bad but i do say i hear my favourite music better if it's a 24/192 encode etc...

So i've begun a search for headphones and my preference lead me to the K712s that were just too far out of my budget on the day but i met the Q701s and they sounded just as well which lead me to Amazon's recent excellent offer so i now have a set (in black). Of course i have tried the K812s on the day but not yet on my gear and was stunned and that's another story... My  Q701s were ok out of the box but i detected a feeling of restraint for all frequencies as if they are not responsive enough and rather than allow myself to 'compensate' i have decided to do a burn-in... after I've spent a few hours here reading the pros and cons of it for the Q701s and i need to ask if this approach is going to be any good:

PINK noise track (1:03 repeating with 2 second break) 24/192 .flac fromDr Chesky's Ultimate Headphone Demo Disc

Played down using MacBook Fidelia > USB FiiO E09 headphone amp with E17 DAP > Q701s, the amp set to fairly high volume.

So far it's been running for around only 72hrs none stop, 3 days and nights. I know it will take 100s of hours according to the info i have gleaned from here but is my setup any good? I know i should invest i a proper audio frequency oscillator/generator but for now is there any chance i might be wrecking something?... so, anyway, thanks in advance.

Pete.

I would burn in at a loud listening level, but nothing louder than what you would consider "loud".
Any music will do.
Personally, I think if you don't like them right out of the box, burn in won't fix that.

 

[PleasantSounds]

Burn-in may help a bit, but don't expect a different headphone at the end of it. The changes will be quite subtle.
 
Personally rather than torturing my equipment with 24x7 pink noise, I'd try to EQ a bit while listening. That's actually what I did. Burn-in is as much mental as mechanical process, so it will progress twice as fast if the cans are on your ears. Now I'm happily listening to un-EQ'd sound and enjoying it immensely. 
 
You may also want to consider the bass port mod (check post #1 in this thread) - many users consider it very beneficial to the bass performance, and it's easy to do and reverse if you happen not to like it.

 

[62ohm]

  So i've begun a search for headphones and my preference lead me to the K712s that were just too far out of my budget on the day but i met the Q701s and they sounded just as well which lead me to Amazon's recent excellent offer so i now have a set (in black). Of course i have tried the K812s on the day but not yet on my gear and was stunned and that's another story... My  Q701s were ok out of the box but i detected a feeling of restraint for all frequencies as if they are not responsive enough and rather than allow myself to 'compensate' i have decided to do a burn-in... after I've spent a few hours here reading the pros and cons of it for the Q701s and i need to ask if this approach is going to be any good:
 

  
Well if you are comparing the Q701 to the K812 it is certain that the Q701 would feel restrained in comparison. Out of curiosity, what amp are you using to drive them with? That could also be a factor.

 

[morristhecat]

  
Well if you are comparing the Q701 to the K812 it is certain that the Q701 would feel restrained in comparison. Out of curiosity, what amp are you using to drive them with? That could also be a factor.

I had the K812s for all of ten minutes. They are probably the 1st time I had ever listened to a manufacturer's 'flag-ship' product and it was an almost a religious experience. The source material was not good, a 320 MP3 on my iPad (Diana Krall) and I hate MP3 as a standard because I can pick the errors in the way a percussionist's cymbals are being reproduced to the emotion in vocals. That's why I did not want to use the K812s for any longer, (plus the salesman could not leave them with me), unlike a set of K712s and K701s.

I was able to truly give them both a 'good bash' on my HD .flac material and found a very subtle difference with the K712s over the K701s probably more an issue of comfort. I have a big head and big ears. I'd studied the comments here and watched the You tubes and felt some K701s might be a good starting point in my new hobby as a Head-Fi-er

Then an email from Amazon announced a great deal on Q701s and knowing their similarity to K701 my inevitable headphone collection began.

My only driving amp is the FiiO E09 with E17 for now. My real desire here is to DIY the multitude of tube or transistor designs. This is my biggest passion, building gear myself so my thinking is having an extremely good source of material (my Mac running Fidelia, playing 24/192 .flac and a choice of excellent to top end headphones) I will be able to learn what is or isn't good practice first hand. Of course I need to factor in the sort of DAC but as a reference point there's always my FiiO kit which also now includes the X5 player which can be used as a standalone DAC as a start.

Ok, I've gone a bit off track here but I had read the Q701s benefitted from burn-in so that's what I setup to do and has been happening for 4 days and nights now. I guess the best thing now is to set some time aside and do some proper listening and see if theses cans are doing a good account of themselves.