[sygnus21]

  That's why I keep most of my headphones

 Also because my GF and her friends use them once in a while so need more that a few

Hey DavidA I meant to thank for your help, and also for the rep. Much appreciated. Oh, and it's looking like I'll be keeping the HD 700's. I now think my issue was my lack of understanding about the 700's, and also how I had JR, and the TEAC drivers were setup. Tweaking these things helped bring the phones to life. I was also trying to listen to them on low volume settings with my DAC, which I now understand these things need a bit more power to get them going.  It also helps in burning them in as the more and more I listen to them, the better they sound.
 
Anyway thanks.  And thanks to all others out there who helped as well.
 
Peace

 

 

[Zombie_X]

Good on you for keeping them! They are really good headphones, but get a ton of unneeded hatred.

 

[moonbogg]

   
Hey moonbogg, while I don't exactly have the Soundblaster ZxR, I do have an older Creative X-Fi card that also does virtual surround through headphones. In short - it's very good. It's ridiculously good, in fact, with the HD700. I find that Creative does a great job of producing a convincing virtual surround, and with the HD700's excellent abilities in imaging and depth perception, you'll be quite easily able to tell where people are coming from and (to an extent) how far or close they are to you - especially in a game like BF4 with great in-game audio.
 
And I also agree with @sygnus21 about the HD700 probably being bright with the ZxR - my older X-Fi also leans toward the brighter side and it can become too much at times when paired with the HD700. It seems like Creative likes to make their sound cards sound bright.

 
Hey I have an idea.  I think the ZxR lets you change out the OP amps or whatever they are called.  I don't know much about them, but I do know you can get them to change the sound a little based on preference and I can research and put some more complimentary ones in the ZxR if I find it too bright.  What do you think about that?  It won't be a high end amp/dac solution, but it might be good enough to make the cans sound less bright and make me happy should I not like it.
 
Also, I'm glad to hear you like the 700's for surround sound in gaming.  That is very encouraging, especially since I just dropped $600 blindly on them!  I had to have them though.  Really, I was being drawn to them.  They were calling me.  It had to happen.  Its like this:
 
13.7 billion years ago, there was a peculiar quantum fluctuation that let to the creation of the universe.  Deep within the complicated mathematics was the absolute determination that, one day, seemingly forever in the future, moonbogg would buy a pair of HD700's.  And I'll be damned here we are.

 

[DavidA]

 
Hey DavidA I meant to thank for your help, and also for the rep. Much appreciated. Oh, and it's looking like I'll be keeping the HD 700's. I now think my issue was my lack of understanding about the 700's, and also how I had JR, and the TEAC drivers were setup. Tweaking these things helped bring the phones to life. I was also trying to listen to them on low volume settings with my DAC, which I now understand these things need a bit more power to get them going.  It also helps in burning them in as the more and more I listen to them, the better they sound.
 
Anyway thanks.  And thanks to all others out there who helped as well.
 
Peace

 

I also had some issues with the USB driver for my Teac AH-01 so I changed over to optical, no problems what so ever.

 

[sygnus21]

   
Hey I have an idea.  I think the ZxR lets you change out the OP amps or whatever they are called.  I don't know much about them, but I do know you can get them to change the sound a little based on preference and I can research and put some more complimentary ones in the ZxR if I find it too bright.  What do you think about that?  It won't be a high end amp/dac solution, but it might be good enough to make the cans sound less bright and make me happy should I not like it.

 
The ZXR does in fact let you change OP AMPS, though I've never done it myself so I can't comment on sound or anything. Here's the link to Creatives website telling you how to do it - Replacing Op-Amps on Sound Blaster ZxR.  Good luck.
 

  I also had some issues with the USB driver for my Teac AH-01 so I changed over to optical, no problems what so ever.

I only use the optical side when I need to view videos online as it seems Teac's driver causes them not to play. Don't know what that's about but I need figure it out.   
 
That said I notice the ASIO drivers Teac uses tend to crash a lot when using JRiver, so I just stick with WASAPI instead of ASIO and all is good.

 

[FClasby]

Just a general comment particularly to those who may not understand why HD700's might get some bad reviews. Apologies if someone has said this already but there's a lot of pages here...
 
These things have scalability. They don't need HD800 class rigs and can easily drop into HD598/558 level rigs and you will hear a difference but how much of a difference depends on the rig. As the rig improves the HD700 reveals more, hence scalable.
 
My experience - upgraded from HD598 to HD700. An improvement? - yes. Worth the money improvement? - not so sure.
 
Flac > iUSB 2 > DAC > iTube > amp
 
The things everyone mentions were there - textured bass, revealing mids, clean highs, more layers and microdetail  - but not enough to justify the outlay. The HD598s are pretty good value in their own right.
 
Over a couple of nights listening I started gravitating towards the HD700's in preference to the HD598, so they have something going for them.
 
Then I made a minor change to the rig. iPurifier2 between the laptop and the iUSB.
 
What a difference! All the improvements sensed between the HD598's and HD700's became almost tangible. The micodetails become sharper, the layers less veiled. Now I can hear the money spent on the cans and the HD700s stomp on the 598's.
 
If I take the iPurifier2 out I can use the HD598's again. I'm not saying the 598s don't benefit from the iP2 but the HD700s definitely do and reveal tons more. Maybe it's more correct to say what they reveal is more clearly revealed.

 

[Matro5]

  Interesting.......

 
Re: my leaning towards the HD700 over the HD650. Yep - I feel like the things that are important to me - comfort, spacious sound, separation of instruments, clarity, beautiful midrange - are all just a little better on the HD700. Obviously that's IMO and on my system. 
 
On its own, the HD650 is a beautiful, lush headphone. I could absolutely be happy with it. But, head to head with the HD700, I'm finding that I prefer the 700s. Keep in mind, I'm coming from Grado PS500s and I always loved my SR60s. The review mentioned above notes that the 700 might be the perfect entry into Sennheisers for the Grado lover and I'm finding that to be true. 
 
Here's an example of what I mean. One Wye Oak's Plains, I got my first taste of what I'd consider to be the HD700's brightness or harshness. Comes just after the 1:30 mark on this video, though I'm listening on Tidal. The song goes from brooding and rhythmic to discordant, intentionally. It's almost painful on the HD700. Uh oh. So, I swapped to the HD650, and it's similarly painful. It's just that two second burst of the song.
 
But, everything is clearer on the HD700 throughout the rest of the song, and while I understand why people appreciate the HD650's lushness, the HD700s suit me better. 
 
 

 

[sygnus21]

  Just a general comment particularly to those who may not understand why HD700's might get some bad reviews. Apologies if someone has said this already but there's a lot of pages here...
 
These things have scalability. They don't need HD800 class rigs and can easily drop into HD598/558 level rigs and you will hear a difference but how much of a difference depends on the rig. As the rig improves the HD700 reveals more, hence scalable.
 
My experience - upgraded from HD598 to HD700. An improvement? - yes. Worth the money improvement? - not so sure.
 
Flac > iUSB 2 > DAC > iTube > amp
 
The things everyone mentions were there - textured bass, revealing mids, clean highs, more layers and microdetail  - but not enough to justify the outlay. The HD598s are pretty good value in their own right.
 
Over a couple of nights listening I started gravitating towards the HD700's in preference to the HD598, so they have something going for them.
 
Then I made a minor change to the rig. iPurifier2 between the laptop and the iUSB.
 
What a difference! All the improvements sensed between the HD598's and HD700's became almost tangible. The micodetails become sharper, the layers less veiled. Now I can hear the money spent on the cans and the HD700s stomp on the 598's.
 
If I take the iPurifier2 out I can use the HD598's again. I'm not saying the 598s don't benefit from the iP2 but the HD700s definitely do and reveal tons more. Maybe it's more correct to say what they reveal is more clearly revealed.

 
As this is a matter of opinion on both sound quality and the viability of add-ons to enhance sound quality...
 
For me, adding AudioQuest's Jitterbug (which appears to be a variation of the iPurifier) to my system, I found it actually made the HD700's sound worse.. they were less bassy, and more thin sounding. Thin sounding in that the HD700's are already airy, and running them on an amp with insufficient power, or adding filters that cut certain frequencies, may make them sound "too airy" or thin.  This is what I experienced when I added the jitterbug to my system and listening to them though my Teac DAC. In fact, even my Audio Technica ATH M50X's sounded a bit dull, and these are closed back phones!
 
Point is depending on what you have, add, and how it works, could actually have a negative impact on performance. In the end it really depends on the whole system and how they relate to each other in getting the best sound out of whatever.  That sometimes adding could actually subtract. For me, this is what I found in the Jitterbug. Others such as yourself may see it differently. 
 
That said, I do agree with your overall assessment that the HD700's are highly equipment dependent; and in general, the better the equipment, the better the phones will sound.
 
My two cents.

 

[Dadracer]

The AQ Jitterbug and iP2 are quite different functionally to be fair. I have compared them both on my ifi Audio rig via HD700s and the iP2 made a useful and sustained improvement over the the Jbug.

 

[sygnus21]

Yes, functionally they might be different but their end goal is to minimize/eliminate jitter. That was my point. 
 
As to the effectiveness of either, that could be debated as everyone perceives performance differently.  That was also one of my points.
 
Thanks

 

[chowmein83]

   
Hey I have an idea.  I think the ZxR lets you change out the OP amps or whatever they are called.  I don't know much about them, but I do know you can get them to change the sound a little based on preference and I can research and put some more complimentary ones in the ZxR if I find it too bright.  What do you think about that?  It won't be a high end amp/dac solution, but it might be good enough to make the cans sound less bright and make me happy should I not like it.
 
Also, I'm glad to hear you like the 700's for surround sound in gaming.  That is very encouraging, especially since I just dropped $600 blindly on them!  I had to have them though.  Really, I was being drawn to them.  They were calling me.  It had to happen.  Its like this:
 
13.7 billion years ago, there was a peculiar quantum fluctuation that let to the creation of the universe.  Deep within the complicated mathematics was the absolute determination that, one day, seemingly forever in the future, moonbogg would buy a pair of HD700's.  And I'll be damned here we are.

 
I think you should try changing out the op-amps, as long as they don't cost ridiculous amounts of money. I personally don't have experience with this, but I have heard changing out the op-amps on something like Asus' Essence STX sound card does seem to make meaningful changes. Hopefully it will be the same with the Creative.

 

[moonbogg]

The 700's arrived at my house.  I look forward to checking them out.  I'll come back here with my opinion and I'll compare them the best I can to the X2's.  Nothing long winded.  Just my opinion of the phones for my uses.  There is a tremendous amount of garbage separating me from that moment though, like my workout, dinner with family, kids bath time, wife wants some time tonight, BLAH BLAH BLAH.  I want a fast forward button to where the cans are in my hands and all that crap is already done! 
Oh, by the way.  I am a sniffer.  I love to smell my new electronics products.  Its like smelling a new car.  I will report back with my impressions of how these cans smell.

 

[buke9]

  The 700's arrived at my house.  I look forward to checking them out.  I'll come back here with my opinion and I'll compare them the best I can to the X2's.  Nothing long winded.  Just my opinion of the phones for my uses.  There is a tremendous amount of garbage separating me from that moment though, like my workout, dinner with family, kids bath time, wife wants some time tonight, BLAH BLAH BLAH.  I want a fast forward button to where the cans are in my hands and all that crap is already done! 
Oh, by the way.  I am a sniffer.  I love to smell my new electronics products.  Its like smelling a new car.  I will report back with my impressions of how these cans smell.

Never want a fast forward button with family time is too precious . 

 

[sygnus21]

 

Be aware they're not going to exactly sound right until they fully burn in which should be around 100 hours - give or take.
 
And yeah, take it from me, spend as much time as possible with family... you never know what life has in store..
 
Peace

 

[DavidA]

   
Re: my leaning towards the HD700 over the HD650. Yep - I feel like the things that are important to me - comfort, spacious sound, separation of instruments, clarity, beautiful midrange - are all just a little better on the HD700. Obviously that's IMO and on my system.
 
On its own, the HD650 is a beautiful, lush headphone. I could absolutely be happy with it. But, head to head with the HD700, I'm finding that I prefer the 700s. Keep in mind, I'm coming from Grado PS500s and I always loved my SR60s. The review mentioned above notes that the 700 might be the perfect entry into Sennheisers for the Grado lover and I'm finding that to be true.
 
Here's an example of what I mean. One Wye Oak's Plains, I got my first taste of what I'd consider to be the HD700's brightness or harshness. Comes just after the 1:30 mark on this video, though I'm listening on Tidal. The song goes from brooding and rhythmic to discordant, intentionally. It's almost painful on the HD700. Uh oh. So, I swapped to the HD650, and it's similarly painful. It's just that two second burst of the song.
 
But, everything is clearer on the HD700 throughout the rest of the song, and while I understand why people appreciate the HD650's lushness, the HD700s suit me better.
 

Its harsh with even my K7XX (happened to have them on while reading post).
 
Never heard that the HD-700 is a perfect entry for Grado lover but it makes sense after listening to me SR-225e (modded) and RS2e.
 
I glad I can keep most of my headphones because I would be impossible to chose between HD-650 and HD-700 for me.
 
Would like to know the final outcome, just out of curiosity