[i_love_hina]

I am this close to pulling the trigger on a sexy pair of K701s... however all I have to drive it is a stock Zero DAC/Amp and I have no intention of upgrading. Will it drive the K701's sufficiently, or should I stay away?

 

[Mochan]

It will do. But form what I read it probably won't give you the full potential. I've had many hard to drive headphones driven "sufficiently" with a GoVibe Petite and heck I even used a FiiO E5 to drive a pair of Beyer DT770 250 Ohms. They sounded fine.

But I will be the first to say the Beyers could be driven far better by a bigger, beefier amp -- when I use them at home with a vintage Marantz amp they sounded a lot better than they did on the E5 or the Petite.

So yeah, you can drive it sufficiently, but if you want it to sing you need a better amp. I say go pull the trigger now, some day down the line you will upgrade to a better amp and you the K701s are ready for you.

 

[Currawong]

I've done it, it'll work. Bit of a waste though overall. What kind of music do you listen to? Under-drive K701s are quite bass-anaemic and mid-forward from memory.

 

[i_love_hina]

TBH everything I've heard about K701 would indicate that they're horrible for me. I listen to metal and trance, I like bass (I enjoy my DT700/80 far more than my AD700), and I don't have an adequate source for the AKGs. I'm just in the mood for something new, and the K701's are so beautiful o_O

 

[Currawong]

You don't get to see them when listening to music, which is the problem. They aren't so beautiful when they aren't suited to the music you like.

 

[vvaffles]

i used the k701 with the maverick tube magic d1 (suppose to be pretty similar to the zero) for a while, ya it was definitely lacking bass. but the k701 mod from ipodpj helped quite a bit and i survived on it till i got the ckkIII. you can check out the mod HERE

 

[Dexon]

If you have no intention of upgrading stay away. Out of Zero they sound good with acoustic music but lack solidity and body throughout whole spectrum. Bass is especially thin and everything less than very best recorded music is hard to listen. Certainly not a first choice for metal and electronica. To my ears trance sounds very fun with K70x, super analytical, fast and detailed but no punch like with pretty much every other dynamic cans.