[Shazb0t]

Quote:

 
Oh they measure the same when parts are swapped? You want to point out these measurements to us? They don't exist! People claim they know what causes the differences but there is really no proof of anything. Just people guessing. I hope we find out eventually.
 
I wish I could turn my Q701 into a K702 by removing the foam on it's outer grill but it's impossible. The K702 and Q701 both using the same foam behind the pads.
 
I would love to see someone turn their K702 into a Q701 just by swapping out outer grills and adding a piece of foam.
 
My guess is that the Q701 just uses "special" version of the K702 driver in production, but when you get a replacement driver it's highly unlikely it will sound the same. Anyone want to add a K702 capsule to a Q701 for testing?

Yes, I know it's all the same part numbers etc.
 
For the longest time the only idea I had was it's due to the outer grill and foam, but this seems to small to make such a audible difference. When you remove the outer grill and foam it still sounds like a Q701.
 
There could be some internal modifications that we just can't see.
 
There is always a small chance AKG made a K702 driver revision right around when the Q701 came out.
 
BTW have you seen this? K701 and K702 are like 99% the same here:
 

 
Out of curiosity, have you tried this?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod
Interesting quote from that thread:

I'm not sure this is widely known, but it looks like this is the change between the k701 and the q701.  My Qs did not have anything there.
 

 
Would be interesting to see if the K702 has or doesn't have the bass damping.

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

To put another fly in the ointment, I just purchased a Q701 on eBay. Should receive it hopefully by the end of the week. It only has 25 hours on it according to the seller, so there will be more break-in to do. If the Q701 has a little more bass than my K702, I will most likely keep it and sell the K702.
 
I did notice in the Inner Fidelity review that Tyll said the thicker part of the angled pad on the Q701 goes toward the rear. I thought it went on the bottom?

 
I think you will find the Q701 sounds the same as the Anniversary, with both being a tad warmer than the K702.
 
The thick part of the pads goes towards the rear (behind the ear).  One of the K70x service manuals shows this as well.

 

[bracko]

Of course, it's not only the driver and the pads that make the sound of a headphone. Let's not forget the material of the housing and possible damping inside the housing that we are not aware of. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I think you're correct about putting the Annie pads on the K702. I recently purchased a used Annie from eBay. According to the seller they are a few months old with minimal use. After receiving them and listening a little, I tried the Annie pads on my K702. I had exactly the same reaction you postulated above. The bass did come up some and while not as bright as with their standard pad, they still had a somewhat bright high end compared to the Annie. The bass was not quite to the level of the Annie, maybe 1 dB lower-enough anyway to tell the difference. But to my ear, my K702 with Anni pads did not sound identical to the Anni. I don't remember anyone talking about break-in, but I can confirm my K702 bass did improve after 200hours of use. I'm confident my K702 is performing as well as it can.

I am breaking in my Anni now to see if the sound changes. With maybe 50 hours they do sound clearer and less 'stiff'. Want to get 200 hours on them for a final judgment. However, from the start I prefer the Annie over the K702. There is more bass which I suppose may be what puts the highs in better balance. They sound very balanced to me. I would say the bass is truly 3 dB more than my K702. If the K712 has 3 dB more than the Anni, it would be too much bass for me. Can't believe AKG would do that as we would seem to be getting into 'basshead' territory.

To put another fly in the ointment, I just purchased a Q701 on eBay. Should receive it hopefully by the end of the week. It only has 25 hours on it according to the seller, so there will be more break-in to do. If the Q701 has a little more bass than my K702, I will most likely keep it and sell the K702. Mad Lust Envy may want to try it as he says he has never heard a K702.

I did notice in the Inner Fidelity review that Tyll said the thicker part of the angled pad on the Q701 goes toward the rear. I thought it went on the bottom? And I should mention I am using a Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable instead of the stock cable.

It's about damn time someone will FINALLY truly be able to compare the three directly. You're going to put a lot of questions to rest.

Though I have yet to hear the K702, I dont have the Annie or Q701 to compare myself, and its been a few months. I wouldn't be able to give a true comparison.

The thickest part of the pad goes to the backside/rear.

 

[Change is Good]

I was thinking about this earlier, you know. The Q701 is supposedly about 1db higher in bass than the original K702, and the K702 AE is about 2db higher than the Q701 in bass.
 
I'm no math major... but...
 
1+2=3
 

 
This is going to be verry interesting...

 

[Dafo]

Is everybody here aware of that the difference between k701 and q701 seems to be this little mod: http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod

 

[Salvatore]

Quote:

Is everybody here aware of that the difference between k701 and q701 seems to be this little mod: http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod

 
No I wasn't. Thanks for the tip.

 

[MLee]

The K712 will arrive today. As promised I'll burn them in a little and have a listen then ship them to Chicolom for the comparison to the Anniversary edition. Hopefully we'll have some definitive answers soon from him as well as others.

 

[zkkzkk32312]

waiting for Dpump to receive his Q701.
 
as for now i am guessing he will find that Anni has more bass than Q701 than K702.
and since he said putting Anni pads on K702 doesn't make it have the same level of bass like a normal Anni.
I'm gonna guess if he put Anni pads on Q701 it will sound 99% like a Anni.
which is also consistent with what alot of people are saying for a long time.
 
if this is the case,
regardless using the same drivers or not,
Q701 =/= K702
because K702+Anni Pads =/= Anni
while Q701+Anni Pads = Anni

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Is everybody here aware of that the difference between k701 and q701 seems to be this little mod: http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod

 
I just opened my Q701 and it has the paper/felt over the hole on the capsule. So it looks like this isn't causing the differences.
Darn, I was hoping it was!
 
The circle piece of paper looks identical to the one on the K702.

 

[bracko]

Quote:

Is everybody here aware of that the difference between k701 and q701 seems to be this little mod: http://www.head-fi.org/t/660408/reversible-akg-k701-bass-mod

That's true. That's the reason why the drivers have different part numbers. The one is with an open bass reflex hole (q701) and the other one is without (k701)

 

[zkkzkk32312]

the thing is K701/K702 are really old models.
and the production of these models changes over time.
some old K702 does not sounds like newer K702 at all.
and that goes for K701 as well.
hence these so called mod might not be suitable for the headphone that you own.
 
this is also why it is very difficult to differentiate AKG's headphones by their sound signature.
 
however a comparison of K702.65/K712 can still be really helpful since these are relatively newer models.
and we can minimize the possibility of this production change variable.

 

[bracko]

the thing is K701/K702 are really old models.
and the production of these models changes over time.
some old K702 does not sounds like newer K702 at all.
and that goes for K701 as well.
hence these so called mod might not be suitable for the headphone that you own.

this is also why it is very difficult to differentiate AKG's headphones by their sound signature.

however a comparison of K702.65/K712 can still be really helpful since these are relatively newer models.
and we can minimize the possibility of this production change variable.

It is easy to do this mod. The mod is also reversible.

 

[EvilKillaruna]

That is the way to go for older models with closed bass reflex hole. But for Q701 and newer 7xx variants to reinforce some low frequencies and apply other sound changes:
 
1. get the Annie pads (as already mentioned many times)
 
and/or
 
2. play with damping foams
 
You can get for example more bass+midbass / thickened midrange / reduced peaks in highs region simply by using such materials as canvas or even original AKG foam net pads from K24x/27x. I've got each one of changes in sound signature mentioned above by simply doing that and nothing more. Combined with better cable there should be sensible difference vs stock and closing to your goals with x7xx, no matter how old yours are.
 

 

 

[bracko]

I actually read somewhere that re-cabling k701 increases harmonic distortion.