[Odium Child]

First off I'll start off by saying I have HFI-580's and I really am liking them for movies and more bass oriented music. Now I'm about ready for some new headphones, I've narrowed it down to the 2 in the title. I am also using a Asus Xonar STX sound card.
 
What a big thing for me in the new headphones is going to be for the sound stage for gaming, after reading Mad Lust Envy's guide the K/Q701's win as far as that goes. But I can sacrifice a little sound stage if I'm going to be getting better quality overall in the DT990's. From what I have seen the DT990's have some minor treble and mid's problems but overall have a pretty good sound to them. From what I have seen on the K/Q701's is that they do require some good audio equipment and I'm not sure if my STX would fall under that or not.
 
Any other recommendations/comments/opinions are more than welcome.

 

[viralcow]

For gaming both the Q701 and the DT990 are top choices, so no problems there. They should also be able to run on the Xonar STX fairly well (don't quote me on that, but I've run both on the lesser Fiio e10 and it's possible). It's just that they sound entirely different from one another. Almost like comparing apples to oranges, frankly. So get the one that suits your music preferences, since both have great soundstage for gaming.

 

[Odium Child]

With these set of headphones I think the highs/mids would be more important, I like the HFI-580's for music that is bass oriented and it's also very nice for movies. So on top of gaming, which did you prefer for more rock to metal? From a review I saw that the 990's did amazing for mids and pretty well for highs. He said that all you mostly missed was sliding across the fret board and such, which wouldn't be that big of a deal to me but I didn't see much as far as that goes for the Q701's.
 
So pretty much if you were to pick one for more of a rock/metal stand point, which do you think would stand out on top?

 

[viralcow]

So you're looking for a mid/high-centric phone to complement your Ultrasones. The DT990s have some serious bass and an emphasized treble so the mids almost feel recessed. It's a pleasing combination, but maybe not what you're looking for.
 
The Q701, on the other hand, is neutral, laid-back, and analytical. The bass impact is less and instead you get very detailed mids and highs. They're excellent for acoustic/vocal/soft rock sort of stuff, but also very competent in rock and electronic. Metal, not so much.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Q701 would be more complimentary. The 990 would be too much like your Ultrasones.