You're taking this too personally, Obobskivich,
Where have I taken anything personally? This is going to be the first point where I have taken something personally, because I take offense when people put words in my mouth or tell me how I'm feeling about something.
Thus far, I have responded to the relatively OT diversion into discussing the K701 because it's been relatively interesting. Thus far.
It began with a simple questioning about any possible 'weird humps' in the 701's upper midrange. Some harmless examples in the form of graphs and certain people's experiences later, and you're taking it as if we're trying to attack your credibility.
No, the point on credibility was not about my own. It was broader. I completely understood the "weird bumps" in example from Jerg's post as being the ~2k bubble on the 701, I'm not even denying it exists. I posted the other CSDs mostly for kicks, not as a "challenge" to anything - primarily because of the K701 inconsistency idea. GE actually shows the same bump, and so does He&Bi if you look at it long enough. It seems to be one of the few qualities that comes through. It even appears in the FR from GE.
Where I'm in disagreement is with interpretation - I have never heard the 701 as "shouty" and do not think a very wide and gentle "bubble" at 2k is going to produce that effect either (especially when it decays into the overall waterfall within ~1ms). Generally the nastiness you'll see through a CSR are expressed as ridges that stick out across space and time. And the 701 don't show that. Yes, the mids are a bit forward, but "shouty" or "cupped hands" sounding disagrees with many thousands of hours of listening on my part. But I'm not even implying "those people" (thus far I've only seen MLE say this, and I'm not disagreeing) are wrong - they wouldn't be saying it if they hadn't heard it (right?). So then what explains it? We know they've screwed with them at least once in production (the headband was changed, who knows what else changed), and they've likely changed parts as they've moved through various re-badging iterations (likely as cost control measures).
There have already been a couple of reviews stating that the Anniversary Edition mitigates these would be peaks of previous iterations of the 701/2. If your argument is that these bumps only lasted through a couple of batches of these cans, then that's fine. That still doesn't take away these people's experiences with the Anniversary Edition vs the regular 701/2.
Did I say it did? Did I even make an argument about anyone else's experiences? Have I even challenged any of those reviews (which I've admittedly not even read)? Like I said - I take offense when people put words in my mouth or tell me how I'm feeling.
As I speculated two pages ago (which seems to have been completely ignored), improving the pads and headband on the 701 (without touching anything else) would probably help the sound, as it would help them fit and seal better and reposition the drivers in a better way. And that's what AKG reports they did (no idea if they've ever actually changed the drivers, and I doubt we'll ever know conclusively) - and MLE said it improved them, and now you're saying "other people" also are saying this, so I guess my theory is supported by "those people."
And yes, my argument is that the 701 have been inconsistent since their release (and I'm so glad I have your permission to make it) - I've only said it about a dozen times today (and I've only been saying it for a few years); the reviews are too inconsistent (including reviews from people who I otherwise tend to agree with very much). I don't think that little bump by itself is enough to create that kind of division and difference of opinion. Again, radiation is probably a serious consideration here (and it usually tends to be the "experimental" wide soundstage type cans that are usually most sensitive to this), but there's less than no data available on the subject.
I'm still curious what your interest in this is though - since you're apparently fairly invested in it. Despite that, most of your posts have been based on second-hand comments, hearsay, and a lot of "these people say" and "those people say" and so on. I've yet to see you actually stake out "I heard these and this is what I hear" or similar - you just keep posting other people's accounts, other people's opinions, and so on. Why? Are you hoping to appeal to a majority consensus by trying to "side" with other people? Do you not have an opinion of your own on the matter? So again, what is your interest here?
