K701 insanity spreading over at head-fi

[Smeggy]

People can believe whatever they want, I just get tired of having that crap plus cables thrown into every headphone discussion and instantly derailing the whole thing. I wish they'd stick to the headphones as they are.

[deepak]

The burn in on Ultrasones is the most obnoxious. Give them 700 hours I swear they won't sound like bass and treble monsters, midrange ?

[ilikebananafudge]

Here's a newbie point of view. I got my K701s after only hearing the shitty apple earbuds. They sounded like heaven! However, I found that I got somewhat fatigued because (to my ears, my PERCEPTION of the sound) the cans were a bit bright. After reading stuff on head-fi (yes I bought into the hype) I played them continuously for 300 hours, with short listening sessions every so often. After a while I found that they weren't as bright and the bass had beefed up slightly.

Whether this was a false perception, my ears getting used to the sound or whatever, I don't know, but that's how I perceived it.

I feel like the headphones themselves changed, because I didn't change the source, amp, or cables, but I know the power of the brain in deception (hell, music isn't even real, its just air molecule vibrations).

[Dusty Chalk]

I stand by "burn-in is real". Though I agree that the newbs and the zealots give those of us who believe a bad name, and I disagree that it goes to the extremes that they describe, and I do not believe that they can hear differences of the fine-tuned-ness that they claim. 576 hours vs. 577 hours, WTF?

I mean, I had a pair of silver interconnects that went from having no bass to having bass, and it took several weeks. What I could not tell you is exactly which hour the bass kicked in.

[n_maher]

You said "slightly", I can accept that. My thoughts are it was probably a combination of some actual physical changes in the headphones and your mental adjustments to them.

[Smeggy]

Yep. For instance, my modded old MS-1 sounded like shit when I first modded them, now, a day later of simply wearing them while doing other things, I love the sound. I just got used to the new signature. No burn-in, just familiarity.

[Knuckledragger]

I hardly remember what new HD-650s sound like. I habitually burn in everything for 100 hours. I have small rig built for that purpose (2x FM tuners + a DJ mixer). I find that Koss titanium drivers benefit hugely from burn-in. They're cold and distant out of the box, and quit euphonic and fun after a few days of being fed white noise.

I burned in the DT-880s (which were B-stock) and noticed very little difference. Both before and after, they are amazingly comfortable, very graceful, entirely non-fatiguing, but not very involving cans.

I have made no effort to burn in the TakeTs. I also haven't noticed much change as I've used them. More to the point, so many other parameters have changed (amp, interconnects, etc), eliciting major sonic changes (the Fugs are, after all, Ming the Merciless when it comes to revealing what's downstream) that I wouldn't know where to begin attributing what characteristics are the result of "burn-in."

[cclragnarok]

Here's a newbie point of view. I got my K701s after only hearing the shitty apple earbuds. They sounded like heaven! However, I found that I got somewhat fatigued because (to my ears, my PERCEPTION of the sound) the cans were a bit bright. After reading stuff on head-fi (yes I bought into the hype) I played them continuously for 300 hours, with short listening sessions every so often. After a while I found that they weren't as bright and the bass had beefed up slightly.

Whether this was a false perception, my ears getting used to the sound or whatever, I don't know, but that's how I perceived it.

I feel like the headphones themselves changed, because I didn't change the source, amp, or cables, but I know the power of the brain in deception (hell, music isn't even real, its just air molecule vibrations).

My K701 also sounded a little shrill/edgy at first. I tried to listen to them for a little while (maybe 10 or 20 minutes), and my ears started hurting. That was the first time I actually felt real pain from listening to a pair of headphones.

After that, I burned them in for a few days, and they never hurt my ears again.

[Fitz]

My K701 didn't sound their best until I gave them a few minutes of burn-in in the fireplace.

[Fitz]

It did at first, but it really cooled down once I let the drivers rest for a bit.

[morphsci]

I never noticed any burn-in with my stock 701's. They sounded shrill to these (at the time) 49 year-old ears, which is scary. They never lost that "edge" after some long burn-in sessions and a lot of painful listening sessions. I almost gave up on them until I read some threads on recabled 701's so I gave it a try and they are now my second favorite phone. They sounded immediately better in the top-end and also in the bottom end. They haven't changed much to these ears and I am sure (but I'm not anal enough to really keep track) they have 500+ hours since the recable, So I am as bemused as the rest of you by the burn-in bandwagon with the 701's. I have experienced burn-in (or acclimation or a combination thereof) with both of my recabled AKG K340's so I am not burn-in "non-believer".

[guzziguy]

I never noticed any burn-in with my stock 701's. They sounded shrill to these (at the time) 49 year-old ears, which is scary. They never lost that "edge" after some long burn-in sessions and a lot of painful listening sessions. I almost gave up on them until I read some threads on recabled 701's so I gave it a try and they are now my second favorite phone. They sounded immediately better in the top-end and also in the bottom end. They haven't changed much to these ears and I am sure (but I'm not anal enough to really keep track) they have 500+ hours since the recable, So I am as bemused as the rest of you by the burn-in bandwagon with the 701's. I have experienced burn-in (or acclimation or a combination thereof) with both of my recabled AKG K340's so I am not burn-in "non-believer".

Welcome to HeadCase. Sorry about your thin skin.

Burn-in is the fotm (or maybe "all time") magic elixir at HF. It fixes all problems.

Interesting, 701s have never sound strident to me. In fact it's always been the opposite. They sounded too bland. That was until I heard them out of Voltron's SDS-XLR where they came alive. So I think that amplification is very important to get good sound out of a 701.

[Dusty Chalk]

Hi, morphsci!

Welcome to HeadCase. Sorry about your thin skin.

Ditters.

[Fungi]

Now it's K702 madness.

[Fitz]

I skip the K702 and go straight to K703 madness. Why waste time?

[Fungi]

You should discover the magical mystical vintage K700 instead.

[Fitz]

I wanted to try it but some jerk named Fitz bought the world's supply of them already.

[Dusty Chalk]

I skip the K702 and go straight to K703 madness. Why waste time?

Why specialize? How about AKG madness? Headphone madness? Audio madness? Madness madness?

[Fitz]

Because it looks better on my CV.

[Augsburger]

Welcome to HeadCase. Sorry about your thin skin.

Burn-in is the fotm (or maybe "all time") magic elixir at HF. It fixes all problems.

Interesting, 701s have never sound strident to me. In fact it's always been the opposite. They sounded too bland. That was until I heard them out of Voltron's SDS-XLR where they came alive. So I think that amplification is very important to get good sound out of a 701.

I agree with guzziguy, the K701s have always sounded mellow and perhaps a bit laid back to my Pinot damped ears. The degree of detail differs greatly between system such as one of Tyll's HR desktops mated to a Wadia--airy and wide sound stage to DigiPete's DynaHi mated to a Saturn - very airy even wider soundstage and super quiet with a mid bass smudgie kid of thingy. Amps will make a difference here because I think they reall need a lot of umph to get the job done with these cans.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

They sound laid back and strident. What a terrible combination.

Biggie.

[dc]

amping definitely has plays a large part in the K701's ability to sound good

a little colouration doesn't go astray IMHO but it needs lots of POWER

going from original master > heed canamp > G&W AT-F100 > PPAv2 has yielded improvements with each step.

[Duggeh]

I've never heard the K701 out of anything better than a Singlepower Extreme (also amps like the Heed, Amp1, GS-1, etc) and I've never liked them as much as the Ergo 2. They've always been like a slightly wonky sounding HD600 to me.

[Augsburger]

I've never heard the K701 out of anything better than a Singlepower Extreme (also amps like the Heed, Amp1, GS-1, etc) and I've never liked them as much as the Ergo 2. They've always been like a slightly wonky sounding HD600 to me.

For the most part, an apt description but the right amp can make them sound like an entirely different set of cans. A change for the better IMHO.

[Beefy]

Burn-in is the fotm (or maybe "all time") magic elixir at HF. It fixes all problems.

It couldn't possibly be a matter of people's brains getting used to a new sound.

No-sir-bob. That's just crazy talk.