[DavidA]

do you think the Lyr has a good soundstage? It would be silly to get these headphones with a great soundstage and positioning and then ruin it with an amp....

If you want the best sound stage I think the Lyr2 would be decent, my impression is the sound stage of the Lyr2 is about as good as it gets for anything under $500, its better than the Ember and BH Crack to me in sound stage but the overall sound is better with the BH Crack or Ember, to me the Lyr2 is not a great pairing with the K7XX.  I know with the AudioGD Master 11 the sound stage and overall sound is about as good has I've heard with the K7XX, but its a $2K DAC/amp that will drive anything, including an HE-6, its at 8W @ 50ohms, overkill and very much a diminishing ROI.
 
If you really want sound stage I would look at other headphones, might be cheaper versus trying to find a DAC/amp that will preserve the sound stage.  Its why I went to the HD-700 for gaming and watching movies, the sound stage is better than the K7XX and its easier to drive IMO.  I think even the DT-990 premium as a better sound stage than the K7XX, to me anyway.  The HD-800 has a very wide sound stage but with some genres with lots of vocals it sounds off, vocals done much better with the HE-560 which also has a good sound stage.

 

[Ljanmi]

So HD-700/800 VS K7XX - soundstage, overall sound picture, gaming footsteps, game immersion?

 

[loki993]

If you want the best sound stage I think the Lyr2 would be decent, my impression is the sound stage of the Lyr2 is about as good as it gets for anything under $500, its better than the Ember and BH Crack to me in sound stage but the overall sound is better with the BH Crack or Ember, to me the Lyr2 is not a great pairing with the K7XX.  I know with the AudioGD Master 11 the sound stage and overall sound is about as good has I've heard with the K7XX, but its a $2K DAC/amp that will drive anything, including an HE-6, its at 8W @ 50ohms, overkill and very much a diminishing ROI.

If you really want sound stage I would look at other headphones, might be cheaper versus trying to find a DAC/amp that will preserve the sound stage.  Its why I went to the HD-700 for gaming and watching movies, the sound stage is better than the K7XX and its easier to drive IMO.  I think even the DT-990 premium as a better sound stage than the K7XX, to me anyway.  The HD-800 has a very wide sound stage but with some genres with lots of vocals it sounds off, vocals done much better with the HE-560 which also has a good sound stage.

Not for nothing but your comparing headphones that cost twice the price of the AKGs...

 

[DaveLT]

Not sure what you're getting at here....are you saying the Lyr isn't good? if so what makes you think that? Do you have any other suggestions?
 

Like I said, uncontrolled. It's very powerful, yes but it's very unrefined

 

[DavidA]

Not for nothing but your comparing headphones that cost twice the price of the AKGs...

Actually the DT-990 is cheaper than the K7XX these days and I've seen some HD-700 go for $300, granted they are used or demo models but even at the $430 price I feel they are a better value than the K7XX @ $200 since they have better sound stage, bass, highs, are more resolving, less grainy, more comfortable and are better constructed, but this is just my opinion.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

The DT990 suffers from voice coil wire problems just like its sibling the DT880.

 

[Ultrainferno]

We finally got round to reviewing these. Berkhan has a red edition and I have a first run Massdrop edition. This is about one of the only AKG's I personally like but I don't like using them because of the headband and the lack of grip on the sides of my head.
 
http://www.headfonia.com/review-massdrop-akg-k7xx-limited-red-edition-the-dark-side/

 

[Virtu Fortuna]

Such a good headphone for the price. It was a joy to test it.

 

[nicermog]

I have a Philips SHP-9500 which I use with a Nuforce uDAC and I like its sound especially after packing some extra padding into the earpads. Will the K7xx be a good upgrade and will it perform well with the uDAC?

 

[DaveLT]

I have a Philips SHP-9500 which I use with a Nuforce uDAC and I like its sound especially after packing some extra padding into the earpads. Will the K7xx be a good upgrade and will it perform well with the uDAC?

Yes.

 

[chef8489]

Can anyone compare these to the k553 pro? I currently have the 553 and will be getting the vali 2, so i thought about expanding my full sized cans.

 

[Frihed89]

  About the amp part, I'll leave it up to one's experiences but for me, they are ok on my amp and on a couple of other amps (Beyer A20 low impedance output etc etc)
 
I'm the only one who has does damping mods for the m50x i suppose. Dynamat extreme works for it

OTL amps will always sound better with high impedance headphones.

 

[DaveLT]

OTL amps will always sound better with high impedance headphones.

Tube yes. Not with SS.

 

[DavidA]

Can anyone compare these to the k553 pro? I currently have the 553 and will be getting the vali 2, so i thought about expanding my full sized cans.

K553 being closed headphones don't quite have the sound stage of the K7XX but to me are easier to drive properly and I think the Vali2 might be a good match with the K7XX since I like mine on my Project Ember or BH Crack.  The only issue I have with the K553 is they need to seal good to get the best sound while the K7XX doesn't need to seal as good to have a really nice sound.
 
While I have both headphones they don't get much use these days, been building some Ypsilon and Nhoord driver Grado clones and these are more to my preferred sound signature but the K553 and K7XX are still really good headphones in their price range.

 

[Frihed89]

Tube yes. Not with SS.

Thanks for the qualification.  I've never owned or heard or looked into an SS OTL.  In fact, I have never heard this mentioned.