I want to upgrade from my K701's and K550's however I wanted to know where to upgrade to. I want the HD800 but i want to know if there is a headphone in between the HD800 and the K701.
Thanks
Shiori
Shiori,
It really depends what aspects of your listening experience that you are interested in upgrading?
I have the K702s which are similar to the K701s and I have also been looking to "upgrade". Different headphones excel at different things. The K70x excel at a very neutral and flat presentation between 100-10,000 Hz. They have a large, somewhat amorphous yet airy soundstage. They start to roll off at 100 Hz and do not present much below 40 Hz. This bothers some listeners. I recently auditioned some high end loaners, both of which were "better" than he AKGs @ 3x to 5x their price. You are really at a point in the cost/return curve where improvement will be quite costly. That being said, some headphones to consider are:
Audez'e LCD-2 (3x price)
Beyerdynamic Tesla T1 (4x price)
HiFiMAN HE-500 (2x price)
Sennheiser HD800 (5x price)
What are you looking to improve in a headphone?
- deeper bass
- more resolving musical detail
- more precise instrument placement
- more comfortable to wear
- more efficient
It really comes down to your definition of "upgrade" is. All of these headphones excel at different aspects. To really "upgrade" you will be likely laying out 2-5x the price of the AKGs. They really are remarkably good headphones when properly amped. There are many threads that discuss these headphones and others on this site.
Good Luck,
Bob