[Slaphead]

FWIR all new K702s and Q701s are made in China.  If it doesn't say "Made in Austria" on the headphone, then it's made in China.

These days I doubt that moving production to China is necessarily a bad thing for the consumer. It's bad for US and EU economies, but as far as the quality of the end product is concerned one could ague that the chinese version is likely to be equally as good and more consistent than the product made in the western world given the leaps and bounds China has made in manufacturing technology.

Take for instance an example from my other major hobby, photography. A while ago Nikon moved production of a popular but sepcialist high quality lens from Japan to China. I own the original verson made in Japan, and a friend of mine owns the newer version made in China. Technology these days allows us to make very accurate objective evaluations of optical equipment, and I would definately say that the Chinese varient has a touch greater resolving ability. There's not much in it, and what difference there is could be accounted for in terms of product variation. However, given that lens production requires a very high degree of precision, much higher than producing transducers does, it shows that the chinese are definately up to the job.

I also work with hi tech products sourced from China. 7 years ago we had an "out of the box" failiure rate of around 20% - 1 in every 5 units was effectively DOA. These days that percentage is now down lower than 0.1% - that's less than 1 in every 1000 units. Things have improved greatly within China's manufacturing industry, and to write off a product, especially a premium product, simply because it's made in China doesn't make sense these days. 5 years ago yes, these days no.

 

[herpderp]

  Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" has never sounded so good!

 
Definitely my favorite album by them.

 

[GirgleMirt]

...  it shows that the chinese are definately up to the job.
 

You really can't generalize this way.  Canon's chinese factory might be up to the job, doesn't mean all chines factories are.  Now AKG headphones are AKG headphones no matter where they're made, and AKG will have standards and technical specs and quality insurance for its products, and whether they're made in Taiwan, India, China, etc,. a factory is a factory, and the quality of the product will be dependent only on the quality of the parts/producer.  

 

[derbigpr]

You really can't generalize this way.  Canon's chinese factory might be up to the job, doesn't mean all chines factories are.  Now AKG headphones are AKG headphones no matter where they're made, and AKG will have standards and technical specs and quality insurance for its products, and whether they're made in Taiwan, India, China, etc,. a factory is a factory, and the quality of the product will be dependent only on the quality of the parts/producer.  

I don't know whats the big deal. I mean these are headphones you're talking about, not CPU's. Headphones are extremely easy to manufacture these days, its an idiot-proof job when they're hand made. If they're designed properly, you could train a monkey to assemble them. And parts are all machine made plastic or metal pieces. You have a mold and all pieces are created the same way. Putting them together is not really a problem. The quality of the end product depends much more on design and engineering than manufacture. You can have the best manufacture in the world working on a badly engineered product and its going to turn out bad. But properly engineered pieces fit together like Lego's. As I said, its idiot proof. Try taking apart the Sennheiser HD600 or HD650. Its dead simple, anyone could assemble them given the pieces, not a single screw is involved in the ear cup for example, yet, when you put the pieces together, the whole assembly feels rock solid, because its engineered properly. Same goes for all other great headphones, including the AKG's, which are not as modular as the Sennheiser's, but still reasonably simple involving only a couple of screws.

 

[pearljam50000]

   
I'm using Fiio E17 right now with my Q701 and K550. Very satisfied with both

 
Could you please do a comparison between the two?Thanks

 

[GirgleMirt]

I don't know whats the big deal. I mean these are headphones you're talking about, not CPU's. Headphones are extremely easy to manufacture these days, its an idiot-proof job when they're hand made. If they're designed properly, you could train a monkey to assemble them. And parts are all machine made plastic or metal pieces. You have a mold and all pieces are created the same way. Putting them together is not really a problem. The quality of the end product depends much more on design and engineering than manufacture. You can have the best manufacture in the world working on a badly engineered product and its going to turn out bad. But properly engineered pieces fit together like Lego's. As I said, its idiot proof. Try taking apart the Sennheiser HD600 or HD650. Its dead simple, anyone could assemble them given the pieces, not a single screw is involved in the ear cup for example, yet, when you put the pieces together, the whole assembly feels rock solid, because its engineered properly. Same goes for all other great headphones, including the AKG's, which are not as modular as the Sennheiser's, but still reasonably simple involving only a couple of screws.

I'm not saying it's a big deal, I'm just saying you can't judge the quality of a product based on where it's made.  It could be made in China and be of fantastic quality or it could have shoddy construction and quality.  The big deal if there is one is that It's an AKG no matter where it's made AKG will have quality standards no matter what. 
 
There are issues with manufacturing in China, as many put in an order from a factory and might not be exactly as commissioned.  If any order from China resulted in perfect results we'd all have perfect products, which isn't the case.  So quality assurance is very important, which is where many lax, but when we're talking about huge companies like Harman Kardon, you know they're likely to know how to manufacture quality products...

 

[Kouzelna]

I really appreciated the section in the thread about the Q 701 mod. Looks like I'll be doing that.

However, I'm also wondering about a cable upgrade. Something from moon audio perhaps? But I'd like to know what the typical experiences have been.

It's a big investment, like 200 bucks or more. So I'm wondering if any improvement is really heard, and if it's truly worth the extra money.

I love the headphones as they are stock, but any improvement of course is gravy. I'm running this from a glow audio amp one tube amp. Between the quality amp and the quality headphones, why not invest in a quality cable?

However I don't want to blow the cash if it's a waste of money.

 

[derbigpr]

I really appreciated the section in the thread about the Q 701 mod. Looks like I'll be doing that.

However, I'm also wondering about a cable upgrade. Something from moon audio perhaps? But I'd like to know what the typical experiences have been.

It's a big investment, like 200 bucks or more. So I'm wondering if any improvement is really heard, and if it's truly worth the extra money.

I love the headphones as they are stock, but any improvement of course is gravy. I'm running this from a glow audio amp one tube amp. Between the quality amp and the quality headphones, why not invest in a quality cable?

However I don't want to blow the cash if it's a waste of money.

Rather spend that money on music.

 

[papamogl]

Why not try the mod and see if you're happy then? Save your 200 bucks, no cable is worth that. If there was a change in sound - which I very much doubt - it'd be extremelY subtle. There are cheaper placebos than that.

 

[BobJS]

I really appreciated the section in the thread about the Q 701 mod. Looks like I'll be doing that.

However, I'm also wondering about a cable upgrade. Something from moon audio perhaps? But I'd like to know what the typical experiences have been.

It's a big investment, like 200 bucks or more. So I'm wondering if any improvement is really heard, and if it's truly worth the extra money.

I love the headphones as they are stock, but any improvement of course is gravy. I'm running this from a glow audio amp one tube amp. Between the quality amp and the quality headphones, why not invest in a quality cable?

However I don't want to blow the cash if it's a waste of money.

 
I would consider this if the cat/dog chewed through the cable.

 

[koiloco]

I am currently just running the Q701 on my Asus Xonar Essence STX, and I am about to get a T90 because the Q701 hurts my head a bit after prolonged use. 
And everyone knows Beyer got the some of the most comfortable headbands in the industry, huehue Already got a DT 990 and it's like heaven compared to Q701's headband.

It's about time I get a proper amplifier for them but I am not sure what to get.

These days I doubt that moving production to China is necessarily a bad thing for the consumer. It's bad for US and EU economies, but as far as the quality of the end product is concerned one could ague that the chinese version is likely to be equally as good and more consistent than the product made in the western world given the leaps and bounds China has made in manufacturing technology.

Take for instance an example from my other major hobby, photography. A while ago Nikon moved production of a popular but sepcialist high quality lens from Japan to China. I own the original verson made in Japan, and a friend of mine owns the newer version made in China. Technology these days allows us to make very accurate objective evaluations of optical equipment, and I would definately say that the Chinese varient has a touch greater resolving ability. There's not much in it, and what difference there is could be accounted for in terms of product variation. However, given that lens production requires a very high degree of precision, much higher than producing transducers does, it shows that the chinese are definately up to the job.

I also work with hi tech products sourced from China. 7 years ago we had an "out of the box" failiure rate of around 20% - 1 in every 5 units was effectively DOA. These days that percentage is now down lower than 0.1% - that's less than 1 in every 1000 units. Things have improved greatly within China's manufacturing industry, and to write off a product, especially a premium product, simply because it's made in China doesn't make sense these days. 5 years ago yes, these days no.

+100. Worst thing is that a few of these people dissing made in China akg HPs probably are iPhone owners. Life is so ironic sometimes.

 

[tdockweiler]

I really appreciated the section in the thread about the Q 701 mod. Looks like I'll be doing that.

However, I'm also wondering about a cable upgrade. Something from moon audio perhaps? But I'd like to know what the typical experiences have been.

It's a big investment, like 200 bucks or more. So I'm wondering if any improvement is really heard, and if it's truly worth the extra money.

I love the headphones as they are stock, but any improvement of course is gravy. I'm running this from a glow audio amp one tube amp. Between the quality amp and the quality headphones, why not invest in a quality cable?

However I don't want to blow the cash if it's a waste of money.

 
Here's a suggestion..
Try a Mogami Redco Q701 cable for the Q701. If you hear no difference with that $25-$30 cable just stop there. It's not that much more than a stock replacement cable.
 
 
The benefits of cable upgrades are so minor now with my setup that I don't bother anymore. I heard the changes more easily with my HRT MSII and not sure why.

 
Right now I alternate between Mogami, RCA brand and Monoprice interconnects. They work just fine! I think the differences I heard were due to to capacitance.
 
The mod is definitely a larger improvement than a cable upgrade.

 

[ThurstonX]

   
Here's a suggestion..
Try a Mogami Redco Q701 cable for the Q701. If you hear no difference with that $25-$30 cable just stop there. It's not that much more than a stock replacement cable.
 
 
The benefits of cable upgrades are so minor now with my setup that I don't bother anymore. I heard the changes more easily with my HRT MSII and not sure why.
 
Right now I alternate between Mogami, RCA brand and Monoprice interconnects. They work just fine! I think the differences I heard were due to to capacitance.
 
The mod is definitely a larger improvement than a cable upgrade.

 
+1 from experience.  Pick a length that will work for you.  It's a good deal.

 

[papamogl]

The benefits of a cable of a cable upgrade are always so minor (zero, that is) that you shouldn't bother

 

[koiloco]

  The benefits of a cable of a cable upgrade are always so minor (zero, that is) that you shouldn't bother

 
+100