V-DiV
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2008
- Posts
- 336
- Likes
- 17
I’ve been trolling around Head-Fi for the past few months getting information to build my headphone system. I received lots of great comments that helped me narrow my search. See the following thread.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/k701-hd650-315839/
I have finally come to my final conclusion and offer this review of the K701 and HD600. Of course there are plenty of statements which will be my opinion only based on my sound preferences and my particular ears. I have tried to give as much objective information as I can for those who are doing their own search.
Gear
Transport & DAC: Squeezebox Duet (Wolfson 24 bit DAC) (stock wall-wart)
Interconnects: Bluejeans BJC LC-1
Headamp: CI Audio VHP-2 (stock heavy-duty wall-wart)
Burn-In: Everything was burned in several hundred hours, including the K701 which had over 350 hours.
Music: lossless (ALAC); all moderately good to very good sound recordings
Classical: string quartets, quintets, sextets (Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann…)
orchestral music (Bax, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven)
vocal (Sandrine Piau - Opera Seria) & choral
early music (renaissance & baroque viol consorts, trio sonatas, etc.)
more...
Jazz: Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Pat Metheny, Joe Pass,
Dave Holland, Sara Jane Cion, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz/Chick Corea…
Pop: Steely Dan (esp. the recent albums), Sting, Sade, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Norah Jones...
Rock: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Boston, Doobie Brothers, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Santana (recent albums), Creed...
Most of my headphone listening is to classical. Jazz is second. Pop and rock come third. I listened extensively over the burn-in period and for a couple weeks thereafter. Sometimes listening to whole albums with one headphone, sometimes switching back and forth repeatedly on specific passages.
General Impressions
Both headphones are good! But they are fairly different. Both are a good bit better than my HD595 in terms of resolution and frequency response (although I like HD595 fine out of an iPod or laptop).
K701 accentuates the high frequencies. The sound is very brilliant. Brass sound great (most everything sounds great). Instruments and voices have a little extra high end, sometimes like the sound of the high frequency horns in the PA of a live concert. Sometimes this is annoying, and sometimes the sound seems lacking in the low end because of the extra-present treble. But the bass is very well defined and extends quite low. Upright bass in jazz sounds very natural. There is nice space in the music and separation between instruments. It is open - it breathes! Orchestral music is awesome. Nice and detailed.
HD600 accentuates a nice warm upper bass. The sound is warm without the sometimes overly insistent treble of the K701. But it lacks the brilliance of the K701. It sounds a little muffled in comparison to the K701. On the whole, to ears accustomed to typical warm sounding stereo systems (like myself), HD600 has a slightly more natural sounding frequency balance without the treble emphasis of the K701. But HD600 really has an overemphasis in the warm upper bass, and a weak top end (relative to the bass), the Sennheiser veiled sound, so I don’t feel that it really has a better tonal balance, just a more familiar one. It is not as detailed as the K701 and the sense of space is not as great, but still these are good, just not as good as K701. The HD600 doesn’t fatigue the ear with tons of treble, but the treble in some recordings sounds ragged, where the K701 treble is always smoother, if sometimes too strong. Vocals are sometimes somewhat recessed due to HD600’s warm bass. Violins sometimes sound a little more natural on HD600 (more body). Cellos (classical) and upright bass (jazz) are often exaggerated and overly warm.
The Verdict
K701 is brilliant, detailed, with plenty of air and space, defined bass (plenty in most music, but occasionally too shy), strong but smooth treble. Sounds great on most classical, jazz, and pop albums. It also sounds decent on most rock albums though guitar chording with lots of treble gets overbearing at times and the defined (not warm) bass often doesn’t adequately support the high end. The strong treble sometimes makes instruments sound thin. Despite its faults, at its best K701 is significantly better than HD600, at least for much classical and jazz as well as some pop and rock. On the other hand, sometimes the sound is a bit too bright or too thin (though not with really well-recorded music).
HD600 is warm and easy to listen to. On tracks where K701 is too bright, HD600 is comfortable. HD600 is good for engineered music, as opposed to largely acoustic music. In pop and rock we expect the bass and treble to be pumped up and HD600 performs well here (with the caveat that the vocals may be recessed in rock). HD600 bass pumps for rock where K701 may be too refined. The smoothness of the sound also is at the cost of a lack of brilliance even in pop & rock, and I found that sometimes annoying.
My Choice
So which will it be, the brilliant (sometimes too brilliant), hi-performing K701 or
the warm (safe), hi-but-not-quite-as-hi-performing HD600?
I choose...
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/k701-hd650-315839/
I have finally come to my final conclusion and offer this review of the K701 and HD600. Of course there are plenty of statements which will be my opinion only based on my sound preferences and my particular ears. I have tried to give as much objective information as I can for those who are doing their own search.
Gear
Transport & DAC: Squeezebox Duet (Wolfson 24 bit DAC) (stock wall-wart)
Interconnects: Bluejeans BJC LC-1
Headamp: CI Audio VHP-2 (stock heavy-duty wall-wart)
Burn-In: Everything was burned in several hundred hours, including the K701 which had over 350 hours.
Music: lossless (ALAC); all moderately good to very good sound recordings
Classical: string quartets, quintets, sextets (Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann…)
orchestral music (Bax, Vaughan Williams, Beethoven)
vocal (Sandrine Piau - Opera Seria) & choral
early music (renaissance & baroque viol consorts, trio sonatas, etc.)
more...
Jazz: Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Pat Metheny, Joe Pass,
Dave Holland, Sara Jane Cion, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz/Chick Corea…
Pop: Steely Dan (esp. the recent albums), Sting, Sade, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Norah Jones...
Rock: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Boston, Doobie Brothers, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Santana (recent albums), Creed...
Most of my headphone listening is to classical. Jazz is second. Pop and rock come third. I listened extensively over the burn-in period and for a couple weeks thereafter. Sometimes listening to whole albums with one headphone, sometimes switching back and forth repeatedly on specific passages.
General Impressions
Both headphones are good! But they are fairly different. Both are a good bit better than my HD595 in terms of resolution and frequency response (although I like HD595 fine out of an iPod or laptop).
K701 accentuates the high frequencies. The sound is very brilliant. Brass sound great (most everything sounds great). Instruments and voices have a little extra high end, sometimes like the sound of the high frequency horns in the PA of a live concert. Sometimes this is annoying, and sometimes the sound seems lacking in the low end because of the extra-present treble. But the bass is very well defined and extends quite low. Upright bass in jazz sounds very natural. There is nice space in the music and separation between instruments. It is open - it breathes! Orchestral music is awesome. Nice and detailed.
HD600 accentuates a nice warm upper bass. The sound is warm without the sometimes overly insistent treble of the K701. But it lacks the brilliance of the K701. It sounds a little muffled in comparison to the K701. On the whole, to ears accustomed to typical warm sounding stereo systems (like myself), HD600 has a slightly more natural sounding frequency balance without the treble emphasis of the K701. But HD600 really has an overemphasis in the warm upper bass, and a weak top end (relative to the bass), the Sennheiser veiled sound, so I don’t feel that it really has a better tonal balance, just a more familiar one. It is not as detailed as the K701 and the sense of space is not as great, but still these are good, just not as good as K701. The HD600 doesn’t fatigue the ear with tons of treble, but the treble in some recordings sounds ragged, where the K701 treble is always smoother, if sometimes too strong. Vocals are sometimes somewhat recessed due to HD600’s warm bass. Violins sometimes sound a little more natural on HD600 (more body). Cellos (classical) and upright bass (jazz) are often exaggerated and overly warm.
The Verdict
K701 is brilliant, detailed, with plenty of air and space, defined bass (plenty in most music, but occasionally too shy), strong but smooth treble. Sounds great on most classical, jazz, and pop albums. It also sounds decent on most rock albums though guitar chording with lots of treble gets overbearing at times and the defined (not warm) bass often doesn’t adequately support the high end. The strong treble sometimes makes instruments sound thin. Despite its faults, at its best K701 is significantly better than HD600, at least for much classical and jazz as well as some pop and rock. On the other hand, sometimes the sound is a bit too bright or too thin (though not with really well-recorded music).
HD600 is warm and easy to listen to. On tracks where K701 is too bright, HD600 is comfortable. HD600 is good for engineered music, as opposed to largely acoustic music. In pop and rock we expect the bass and treble to be pumped up and HD600 performs well here (with the caveat that the vocals may be recessed in rock). HD600 bass pumps for rock where K701 may be too refined. The smoothness of the sound also is at the cost of a lack of brilliance even in pop & rock, and I found that sometimes annoying.
My Choice
So which will it be, the brilliant (sometimes too brilliant), hi-performing K701 or
the warm (safe), hi-but-not-quite-as-hi-performing HD600?
I choose...
