[Highend75]

Have you purchased the Bottlehead Crack for your Sennheiser HD700?
How do they match? I have the HD700 and am about to purchase a good amp, but am hesitating between the WA3 and the Bottlehead Crack, mainly due to the 150 ohm impedance of the cans. Any opinions and experience sharing will be welcome.

 

[Nikori]

  Hello to all My first post here but I have been following this fantastic forum for a long time Always super helpful.
 
I would like to share my own impression of the HD700 and also hope for some feedback.
 
I had the HD700 for over a year and have been driving them with my Asus Sonar STX II sound card. I listen to music, watch movies and occasionally game. Through this setup the HD700 have been smooth, detailed and never fatiguing. The bass was somewhat light but very well defined. What changed? ... I recently acquired a Naim Dac V1 primarily to use in my main Hi Fi setup but also for using with the HD700. I used the Naim for a month before plugging in the HD700. To my surprise and slight shock... when I use the Naim with the HD700 I get a bit of the hot treble that a lot of reviewers report. Should I assume this is due to the two spikes in the high frequencies? Some EDM and electro music does give me a bit of discomfort. Not huge but I suspect it might become fatiguing over long listening sessions. I am not sure what to conclude from this... Is the Naim Dac showing the dreaded treble spikes that have been reported for the HD700? If so then I guess I have two options: i) keep the HD700 and use them with the Asus sound card only, or ii) change the HD700 for some headphones with a more flat frequency response.
 
Any experiences or impressions about this?
 
Many thanks
John

Don't know if this would help but I notice the harsh trebles only when I turn the volume up on SOME songs through my setup. But at my normal listening volume I don't notice any problems...

And I think I did mention previously that using the O2 made a huge difference in comparison to the h/p output of the Dacmagic. U could try the Naim through a different amp and see how it goes??

 

[DavidA]

  Have you purchased the Bottlehead Crack for your Sennheiser HD700?
How do they match? I have the HD700 and am about to purchase a good amp, but am hesitating between the WA3 and the Bottlehead Crack, mainly due to the 150 ohm impedance of the cans. Any opinions and experience sharing will be welcome.

If this was directed at me, yes I have a BH Crack but it more for my HD-600/650/800 and T1.  The only thing I've done is upgraded the tubes, TS-5998 and either Telefunken, Mullard, or Amperex are my favorites.  I went with the BH Crack since it can use the driver tubes I have for my Ember.  I looked at the WA3 and WA7d before going with the BH Crack, had a WA7d for a few weeks and it was disappointing for the price.  The WA3 I tried at my friends place and it was the equal or better than a stock BH Crack.  If you like tinkering the BH Crack is the way to go, if not the WA3 is great, looks nice and sound great.
The Project Ember is a better all around amp than the BH Crack and WA3, very flexible since you can change the output resistance/impedance which makes it easy to match almost any headphone.  The BH Crack and WA3 are only for high z headphones which they do pair very well with, better than the Ember IMO.

 

[gibosi]

I use the HD700 with a Glenn OTL. And instead of rolling different amps and DACs to tame the highs, I roll tubes. As others have noted, some combinations are just a little too hot for the 700s while others are just right. Finally, I found that inserting some filter-paper cut out of a surgical mask in front of the driver (per Tak's HD700 mods) takes the edge off the highs and allows me to enjoy tubes that were just too hot before.

 

[AudioMan612]

I'm using a WA7 as my primary amp (stock tubes currently, but I plan to upgrade soon) with a Grace Design m920 as my alternative, and I've been very happy with both.  I used to use the DAC built into the WA7, and it was good, but obviously doesn't compare to that of the m920.  Also, while sound quality is of course the most important part of an amp, I love the look of the WA7, which is a nice little bonus.

 

[DavidA]

  I'm using a WA7 as my primary amp (stock tubes currently, but I plan to upgrade soon) with a Grace Design m920 as my alternative, and I've been very happy with both.  I used to use the DAC built into the WA7, and it was good, but obviously doesn't compare to that of the m920.  Also, while sound quality is of course the most important part of an amp, I love the look of the WA7, which is a nice little bonus.

The look of the WA7d was really nice, my GF said it was like 2 beautiful pieces of art on the coffee table but unfortunately both she and I didn't like the sound from it.  As you noted the DAC is not that great so I sold the WA7d and got a Teac UD-301, BH Crack, and 4 TS-5998 power tubes for the BH Crack, already had a bunch of driver tubes from my Ember so didn't need anymore.
FWIW the person I bought the WA7d from had 3 pairs of tubes for it and they didn't really make much of a difference, not like rolling tubes in the Lyr2, BH Crack or Ember where its more noticeable, YMMV, but I really miss the look of those two glowing black cubes

 

[AudioMan612]

 
The look of the WA7d was really nice, my GF said it was like 2 beautiful pieces of art on the coffee table but unfortunately both she and I didn't like the sound from it.  As you noted the DAC is not that great so I sold the WA7d and got a Teac UD-301, BH Crack, and 4 TS-5998 power tubes for the BH Crack, already had a bunch of driver tubes from my Ember so didn't need anymore.
FWIW the person I bought the WA7d from had 3 pairs of tubes for it and they didn't really make much of a difference, not like rolling tubes in the Lyr2, BH Crack or Ember where its more noticeable, YMMV, but I really miss the look of those two glowing black cubes

 
Yeah it's pretty for sure.  I actually don't mind the limited tube options.  It removes the temptation.  I'll probably build some amps that use more common tubes one of these days.  I recently got a ton of tubes when someone dropped off some old ones from a university at work, and I took a lot that can be used for amplifiers, including some NOS RCA 6080's.  I have no complaints about the WA7's DAC.  It's not amazing, but I never expected it to be.  The WA7 is built to be a very good amp with a DAC built-in for convenience, and it is just that.

 

[DavidA]

   
Yeah it's pretty for sure.  I actually don't mind the limited tube options.  It removes the temptation.  I'll probably build some amps that use more common tubes one of these days.  I recently got a ton of tubes when someone dropped off some old ones from a university at work, and I took a lot that can be used for amplifiers, including some NOS RCA 6080's.  I have no complaints about the WA7's DAC.  It's not amazing, but I never expected it to be.  The WA7 is built to be a very good amp with a DAC built-in for convenience, and it is just that.

Sounds like you scored the mother load

.  Post back with what you build or buy to use those tubes, wish I had gotten in to tube when I was younger, a friend of my dad used to work on the telescopes on Maunakea on the Big Island and I remember seeing his work shop and back then there were hundreds of tubes all over the place, mind you this was back in the late 70's.

 

[AudioMan612]

Well, it was a huge score, but most of the tubes weren't very useful for audio (they were mostly meant for test equipment).  I haven't built an amp yet, but it's something that I've been wanting to learn to do, so this should be a good excuse to do so.  I only took a tiny amount of what we had available (basically if I could find a reasonable amount of info on the tube relating to amp-building, I took it, otherwise I left it).  Hopefully I can make something decent lol .

 

[tf10charged]

hi, how are you feel about valhalla 2? was checking out valhalla 2 and vali. just cant stop looking at these gears or i should just get a mojo and be done with it! 
 
anyone has a mojo with hd700, care share your thoughts? 
 
Quote:

as you can see, I've got that end covered as well. Better results with the tube amps. Tube amps. In my experience seem to tame treble so it's not fatiguing. But my violectric ss amp does very well with all of them. Also have a cheap matrix m-stage that sounds pretty darn good.

 

[raybone0566]

Vahalia2 is an excellent amp & pairs very well with the entire hd line

 

[tf10charged]

Vahalia2 is an excellent amp & pairs very well with the entire hd line

thanks, and they look sexy!! 

 

[dog]

HD700s are excellent to me. Every headphones got some issue for me - sibilance, fatigue, bass bloat, lack of detail, bad instrument separation, or certain songs sound dull etc. These headphones play everything excellent, with overall exciting sound stage. Can't get this feeling out of any other headphones. Definitely not on large spectrum of songs. Easily better than HD600s in one on one comparison. After years of usage, I have no reason to think about any upgrade in any future, just doesn't make sense to think that way.

 

[tf10charged]

in case you worry about your ears, and worry that the treble of your headphone might hurt you in the long run.
try to find your tinnitus frequency, then try to EQ/find ways to tone it down.
 
 
free program that i use is in audio notch dot com.
or any tinnitus freq program that you can find. 
 
 
mine is around 14k. 

 

[Namaskar]

Hi All
Some thought re hd598 vs hd700 -- I have no opportunity to audition live (200km away from nearest big audio shop), wanting to upgrade to my 'one-and-only open headphone' for years to come, max price is AUD$600. I'm still new to this 'hobby', sometimes still confused what I hear and what I just imagine... - anyway:
 
For my listening experience :   I have the hd598, like it, but still feel there's a shadow/veil - comfort-wise wonderful! .... got Grado 125e too - love the extra sparkle and forwardness (if only they would be more comfortable). Closed can I have the Shure 840 - nice detail but the mid-bass boom is almost overpowering (still nice though). Had AKG K167 too - nice clarity and top, great bass - but the mids were distant, piano sounded odd, something was just not right (sorry, don't know how to explain).
 
Favourite earphones are etymotic (hf5), I like my GR07c and DUNU Titan1 too (even though that one already gets a bit bassy/boomy for my taste) ... but ultimately crave the highest clarity and bright sq ... strong bass is fine for low frequencies (if need be), but I seem to be put off by 'mid-boom' (shr840 is borderline for me).
 
Source is from a Dell xps 1730 - old but gold  .... portable Colorfly C3 plus ibasso D Zero mk2  ... no other dedicated equipment, no amp/dac - and not planning on getting one so far.
 
Music is mainly jazz (old and new) , some classic, acoustic, plus maybe 15% for rock, R&B, and everything else (not a priority)... 
 
 
Who has direct experience with similar set-up and preference, owns hd598 and hd700?  Will the extra cash spent on hd 700 be 'worth it' ? Much appreciate your thoughts!
 
Thanks guys!