[chicolom]

Haha, check out this recent review on Amazon for the black Q701:
 
 
Quote:

I have to say Q701 or 70x are the top and mainstream products for headphone lover. One remaider, get youself a nice amp, it will be a waster of money if you don't use amp and Dac...
 
....If you truely want to experience 100% of Q701, you should prepare to have a $2000-5000 budget on amp and DAC. It's fine if you don't want to spend this more. Even 40% functioning will be totally better than many $200 headphone.

 
 
My Q701 is only functioning at 40% capacity!  I'm getting less than half of what the Q701 has to offer!!!

 
The good news is I only have to spend 8-20 times the cost of the headphones to experience them properly.
 
 

 

[tdockweiler]

I still am amused that some think the Q701 apparently can't sound good without buying an amp over $300.
 
I do think they deserve a good one and I still can't suggest a portable amp for them (battery powered). Only one that has done a decent enough job is the Total Airhead.
E11 is OK with it as long as you don't use a LOD cable.
 
IMO the difference between my E9 and the Micro Amp and possibly M-Stage is quite large.
 
BTW I don't know why, but my K601 seems to benefit more from my HRT DAC than my Q701. Wonder why...very bizarre.
 
 
On my Micro Amp my Q701 can be used on medium gain at around 11 o clock. On my K601 I can crank the volume to high on high gain and not get hearing damage. Very, very loud, but not enough to damage anything.
 
I think it might be harder to drive than the K501 and K400. Sure seems like it.
 
I still love how in a more recent K601 thread everyone was saying you don't need an amp for the K601

 
It's interesting how with all our amps we only need to put them at 50% volume. I wonder what the heck would need to be at say 90% on high gain? Not even any 600 ohm headphones needed to be past 50%

 

[Papander]

Well calculations indicate that K601 is harder to drive than Q701.

66mW, 2.82Vrms, 23.5mA into 120ohm Vs 51mW, 1.78Vrms, 28.7mA into 62ohm.

Assuming specification numbers listed on manufacturers website are accurate.

 

[Lurkumaural]

I've heard the Q701 on a few different amps.  To my ears, it scales up beautifully past $300. 
 
If you're saying it sounds good below that threshold, I'd agree, and at $500 for my DAC/amp I don't see myself going any higher for at least a year if not more, but if someone gave me an Eddie Current 2A3 or something like that I'd probably never look back.  Unless I was really itching for some solid state, but you know, different flavors make this hobby more interesting.

 

[Chris J]

What he's not saying is the setups are not in the same location. What really happens is the Earth's magnetic field is not the same force and/or direction from one setup to the other. This has very drastic effects on the dynamics of the headphone's drivers. The Earth's magnetic fields will disturb the shape of the driver's magnetic field and cause non linearity. As the coil moves out of the magnet, it gets pushed away from the toroidal magnetic field's axial line of movement. This bends the driver's diaphragm, leading to distortions and muffling of the lower frequencies.

The solution is to place a good quality compass right where your head is when you wear the headphones and place your head so that the Earth's magnetic field is parallel to a line that goes trough both drivers. That way the Earth's magnetic field will be in line with the magnet's linear axis. Sadly it's impossible to get a real perfect axis matching with the Q701 as the drivers are angled with each others. This is why these headphones have so little authority in the lower registers. People who find them to be well balanced and like their bass are just lucky: at their place, the Earth's magnetic field makes a bend, having a perfect linear fit with each driver's angle.

Hey man,
I gotta start smoking what you're smoking!:rolleyes:

 

[Eisenhower]

Quote:

Got my Q701 issues fixed. Turns out that my laptop must have terrible USB ports. I attached a USB hub just as a test and it sounds much better. What the heck? The only issue is that the cables are now longer. At least my Q701 is sounding much better. Don't know if I like the idea of attaching the HRT DAC to a hub! Seems ok so far.
 
I noticed some loud static like sounds from one port previously on my laptop. That should have given me a sign right there.
 
I did notice yesterday that on my left USB port I always get bad disc burns with my external DVD burner. Maybe it's on it's last leg or something. Switched to another port and it's ok.
 
I know you might think i'm nuts or hearing things, but the difference between this laptop and the desktop the other day was very noticeable. So glad it's now fixed.
 
I was wondering why the heck my Q701 was sounding so weird all of a sudden. Really harsh and kind of fatiguing.

 
hahahahaha!!!

 

[derbigpr]

Seems like marijuana has been legalized in a lot of countries.

 

[bcpk]

Ah, thank you very much for the information (crossfeed is a word I've seen tossed around a bit, but never knew what it meant).

Do you always use crossfeed or only on particular recordings?

And I might as well ask since I'm here already -- I googled and found a few different plugins for Foobar; do you have a specific one that you recommend?
In particular, I found this: http://www.ohl.to/about-audio/audio-softwares/head-fit

Awesome find. Interaural cues are such an important part of audio that most people are completely oblivious to!

 

[Chris J]

Quote:

Haha, check out this recent review on Amazon for the black Q701:
 
 
 
 
My Q701 is only functioning at 40% capacity!  I'm getting less than half of what the Q701 has to offer!!!

 
The good news is I only have to spend 8-20 times the cost of the headphones to experience them properly.
 
 

 
I disagree, the Amazon review makes perfect sense.
 
BTW,
you will have to upgrade the headphones too.  I recommend $1,000-2,000 'phones.

 

[KimLaroux]

I just watched the 3 hours long Collector's Extended Cut of Avatar with my Q701. I watched the movie with my laptop on my lap (who's have thought?) feeding my NFB-12 trough SPDIF. Q701 powered by the NFB-12 itself.
 
I used VLC on Linux. It took me a dozen of minutes to get it working properly. The DVD I have doesn't have stereo audio, so I had to use VLC's "headphone surround" to decode the dolby encoding. Else the encoded audio went directly to the DAC, which didn't sound very nice (aka ugly noise). Virtual surround can sound weird sometimes, especially if you have it set with the virtual speakers far away. I set it at the minimum, which is 1m. You can use 0m which mixes all the channels into stereo without any surround cues. For some reason, the sound was very dark at first. The treble was gone. So I turned on VLC's EQ to try to fix this, but I just had to turn it ON with a flat curve to get audio right. Weird.
 
Anyways. The experience was great! Even after 3 hours, the comfort was good enough that I forgot I had headphones clamping my head. The sound was fantastic. WAY better than most theaters I visited in the past years. Once I got everything working properly, the sound was well balanced and engaging. Voices were natural. Details were immersive. Bass was better than your average home theater sub. Hell I'd say even positions and surround effects were better than these day's "just throw the speakers where there's place for them" home theaters.
 
I'm really enjoying the Q701 with movies. Their sound stage and comfort makes them my first choice for this application.

 

[Jodiuh]

I got rid of the twisty ties and am now using 2 zip ties per side to extend the headband to its fullest. Much more secure. Ready to cut those bumps out tho...

 

[Enverex]

Luckily I was right, I've just connected them to my new NFB-10.2 and it's AMAZING. This is what I was expecting in the first place.
 
So on a side note, DO NOT PAIR THESE HEADPHONES WITH THE FIIO E17!

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Luckily I was right, I've just connected them to my new NFB-10.2 and it's AMAZING. This is what I was expecting in the first place.
 
So on a side note, DO NOT PAIR THESE HEADPHONES WITH THE FIIO E17!

 
What's wrong with the E17 and Q701? I wouldn't expect it to drive them to 100%, but still sound decent. But who wants just a decent setup!
 
My E11 (by headphone out only on source, no LOD cable) and Airhead do a pretty good job of driving them.
 
I think getting the Q701 with just a portable amp is not a good idea.
 
I also am still annoyed that people are more likely to suggest portable amps over something like the more powerful E9 for the Q701 (just don't use the small jack).
 
BTW my Q701 and K240 Sextett have been sounding so much better now that i've found out my DAC wasn't getting enough power from my laptops USB ports. Still sounded good, but had a few issues.
 
If you use the HRT MSII with a laptop, try using a POWERED usb hub and see if you notice any improvements. My 3 year old HP laptop has really awful USB ports I think. With a desktop you won't have any problems. You'd think a powered usb hub would degrade the sound, but it doesn't.

 

[Enverex]

Basically look back at what I described a few posts back, everything was just... crap. The headphones sounded far worse than my Senn HD580s. The E17 just appears to have REALLY been struggling to drive them.
 
To expand on this, with the E17 it was dull, flat and lacked bass. Basically sounded like cheap headphones in a nice case. With the NFB-10 it now sounds as good as I was expecting. Just a warning for anyone else that thinks something with the E17's power is enough for these headphones.

 

[tonyrox]

Hi 
I've had my Q701 for about 5 months now, I am using them with a creative soundworks phone output (on my desktop), and through my Denon AVR2310 receiver, no proper amp yet. Any way I ordered a "Lovely Cube" and am waiting for it.
Now I am contemplating a DAC, have been thinking of the "MusicStreamer" couple, and the "Centrance LX" or may be the "ODAC", the thing that's making me hesitate is that I prefer something with more connections than just "USB". And I'm also thinking of getting a portable amp for use around the house when I'm away from my main rigs. So please Chime in.
 
And tdock
Can you please elaborate on why you think Q701 and E11 should not be used with LOD Cable.
And since you have both the "E11" and the "Airhead" can you please provide some pros and cons for each or may be some comparison of the 2 with the Q701
Quote:

 
 
My E11 (by headphone out only on source, no LOD cable) and Airhead do a pretty good job of driving them.