[kazaakas]

Quote:

Bass is more tuneful and well defined on the AKG's with surprising body and heft on some songs.

Only owning a Q701 (yet), but I can soo relate to this, especially now I modded my amp a lot of notes have unimaginable body and a really awesome punch to them.
 
Really like these headphones right now, strangely enough I'm liking them the most for their bass representation, so well defined, punchy, tight and most of all separate sounding from the rest of the music, it's not "bleeding into" the other frequencies.

 

[OperatorPerry]

Does anyone else feel that the Q701 is too small for your head?  My pair is extremely tight and constantly exerts upward force on the bottom of my ears because it doesn't want to stretch enough.  I also have pain around my temples from the ear pads and pain from the headband (both of which I believe are exacerbated by my large head).

 

[Idiosyncrisia]

So I have been eyeing these for a long while now, and I know there are 157 pages talking about this particular set.
 
Let me just give you guys a little run down of what I have, plan on doing, and listen to.
 
Currently I am running a pair of HD 280 Pro Senns through a nuforce icon uDAC 2. I do enjoy the way this setup does sound, and will be using the 280s for my public life due to them being closed. However, I wear glasses, and after hours in front of my computer, these things HURT. I've been dealing with this for about 5 years now. Any way, I was hoping to upgrade a bit.
 
I listen to mainly calmish indie rock (The National, Broken Social Scene, etc.) I am looking for something that will not fatigue me, both physically with skull crushing pain, and aurally. 
 
Now, I do also plan on getting the Schiit Magni/Modi combo eventually as I have read that the nuforce may not be exactly all that great (also, it has been getting really, really hot lately). I am currently unemployed though, so funds are tight and would rather get a pair of headphones instead of a new DAC / Amp as I feel that would give me more of what I am looking for.
 
So basically what I am asking here is for someone to tell me "Go ahead, get these headphones" without me feeling that I may not have the exact right choice. I'll be using these as my daily drivers for years if my 5 year old (and still very much alive) HD 280s can attest to.
 
Thanks!

 

[autoteleology]

Quote:

Does anyone else feel that the Q701 is too small for your head?  My pair is extremely tight and constantly exerts upward force on the bottom of my ears because it doesn't want to stretch enough.  I also have pain around my temples from the ear pads and pain from the headband (both of which I believe are exacerbated by my large head).

 
There's no way. The Q701 is easily one of the biggest headphones out there, not counting Stax.

 

[asdfghjkzxcvbnm]

Quote:

 
There's no way. The Q701 is easily one of the biggest headphones out there, not counting Stax.

Very true.

 

[GrowthValue]

Q701 has a little clamp, but I wouldn't say it is too small.

 

[OperatorPerry]

Quote:

Q701 has a little clamp, but I wouldn't say it is too small.

 
The Q701 clamps extremely hard - many times harder than audio technica models.  The HD 598 has more clamp than the audio technica models but much less than the Q701.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

 
The Q701 clamps extremely hard - many times harder than audio technica models.  The HD 598 has more clamp than the audio technica models but much less than the Q701.

 
You must have a slightly larger than normal sized head. Almost nobody says this. Is the AD700 bad for you too? That has like zero clamping force for me.
If the Q701 and HD-598 have too much clamping force for you, don't ever get the HD-650!!
 
I had the Pro3AAT once and it felt like my head was in a vise. The HD-650 is a little bit better for me and it's clamp reduces after awhile.

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

 
The Q701 clamps extremely hard - many times harder than audio technica models.  The HD 598 has more clamp than the audio technica models but much less than the Q701.

 

 
From my experience, in order of clampiness, it's:  AD700 <<<<<<<< Q701 <<<  HD5xx
 
My Senn PC360 definitely had more clamp than AKG x70x.  I had to put the sennheisers stretched over a box for a while to loosen the clamp.

 

[jimmers]

Quote:

 
You must have a slightly larger than normal sized head. Almost nobody says this. Is the AD700 bad for you too? That has like zero clamping force for me.
If the Q701 and HD-598 have too much clamping force for you, don't ever get the HD-650!!
 
I had the Pro3AAT once and it felt like my head was in a vise. The HD-650 is a little bit better for me and it's clamp reduces after awhile.

I find HD650 very comfortable and find the Q701 feels a bit insecure - like if I moved my head a little suddenly they would fall off, they certainly wobble around a bit. And I have "a slightly larger than normal sized head", maybe it's peanut-shaped, or my ears are too small to hold theQ701 in place?

 

[jasonb]

Just picked up a nice little headphone stand from Best Buy on sale for $4.99. So here is my updated couch-side Q701 listening station. 
 
HP G60 (Win 7) laptop -> E17 -> Q701
 

 

 

 
Showing some Q701 love!

 

[tdockweiler]

Listening to the Q701 right now with the Magni and ODAC. Sounds great. Very smooth and not bright at all unless it's the recording.
Even the most painfully harsh tracks in my collection are no problem.
 
Out of the box it sounded like poop with the Q701. Not sure why and I won't try to explain it. Was way too thin and something wasn't right.
Now I can say that all my headphones sound like they should. Ok, we all know it's amp burn in.

 
It sounds nearly as balanced and as good with all my headphones as it does with my favorite amp in the world the Headroom Micro.
I'm not going to compare them too much since I'd rather just listen to my music. The Micro is a bit fuller sounding with the Q701, but it's a tiny difference.
Pretty sure the bass is a little better on the Micro. The Magni's soundstage might be a tad larger, but I think I'm just fooled by something.
The Micro Amp certainly isn't warm sounding at all to me. This is even coming from a person who thinks the Clip+ is too warm for an HD-650

 
NOTE: The Magni (and my Micro) are not good with a surge protector. It just makes them sound screwy with bassy/closed headphones.
 
BTW I previously had the Asgard years ago, but my opinion of the Magni is a lot higher. I only really liked the Asgard for the HD-600 and D2000. Weird.
Hated the K702 on it for some reason. Never figured out why.
 
It always amuses me how the Q701 with the proper setup can go from thin/slightly harsh to very warm and full sounding depending on the recording. Sometimes it sounds like I have an HD-650 on my head and other times an AD700! I mean with this setup it's just being very accurate to the recording. I need to keep a mental note of all these dramatically different sounding recordings. Also interesting how many songs have bloated bass IN the recording. I always wonder how many blame the headphone for faults, but it's just being dead accurate. I like hearing the recording studios gear

Ok..so it's not THAT revealing..or is it? Oh and we're still talking about a $99 amp and $140 DAC.
 
Oh yeah...I fail to believe there is any headphone on earth that would require you to be past the 90% volume level. At least not with my ODAC as source. Q701 is only at 25%. HD-650 somewhere around there. The 600 ohm Sextett is stupid easy to drive with this too.

 

[lostmage]

Just went ahead and ordered a Fiio E9 for my Q701s. Hopefully there's some improvement over the E10s amp, which I keep getting told there is. 

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Just went ahead and ordered a Fiio E9 for my Q701s. Hopefully there's some improvement over the E10s amp, which I keep getting told there is. 

 
That's a pretty good match. I have that amp and the Magni also. When you get the E9 it's best to use the larger jack.
The E9 also seems to measure fairly flat and it's 10ohm output impedance doesn't bother the Q701 one bit.
 
There's not a massive difference IMO from the Magni and E9.

 

[hippie]

I've had my pair for just a few months now and the right side has gone totaly dead. AKG sticks some card in the box telling me I have a 2 year warnty, but when I look at the akg website I find nothing. the link about the warnty just leads to a parts list. has anyone else managed to get them replaced?

also is my broken pair just an uncomon manafacture defect or pretty common, I've babied these things sience new, they've never even left the house I see no reson for there death.

I love the SQ but if there just gona have to be replaced evey 3 momths I'll just buy some he-400 or some new vacumtubes for the speaker set up.