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So what's everyones beef with the K701's?


Chekhonte

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I tried a pair of K 701's and they were pretty lifeless compared to my Grado HP-2's. They were supposed to have had more than 1,000 hours of burn-in and the amplification setup was decent, but they just couldn't rock.

It's too bad - I really wanted to like them when they were released. Do the new K 702 or K 272 share the same sound?

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My balanced and re-wired K701s with dual-entry Black Dragon cable are really great-sounding cans. Many K701 haters have listened to them at meets on the SDS-XLR and suggested that maybe the K701s aren't all that bad after all. They can be made much better by avoiding the single-entry wire as morpshci suggested earlier, and by improving the cable. They have much fuller bass and more life to the sound than the stock configuration, but they are still quite accurate. All of that said, however, I have lots of other cans I reach for first, so they don't suddenly displace other top cans by making those changes.

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Now that the fun of getting a new pair of cans is starting to wear off I am beginning to see what some of the gripes are that you guys are talking about. They have such an exceptional headstage and instrument separation that I was dazzled like I was in an episode of trueblood and couldn't see it's shortcomings. This is the first set of headphones that have the neutrality required from a studio monitor and I can see how it can suck the fun out of music that needs a more forward presentation to drive in order for you to be able to "rock the fuck out" to it. I still like them for music that has gone through little or no post production like a well recorded symphony or chamber music, particularly if there is a lot of room ambiance in the recording. I guess I'm still a little beadazzled by the headstage.

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No headphone is going to be all things to all people, and the K701's strengths and weaknesses are perfectly straightforward. The K701 does well-recorded acoustic, vocal, and instrumental or orchestral music very well (when it's well-driven, it does these things better than anything I've heard in its price class). It does not rock. Even with well-recorded rock, it doesn't sound great, and it sounds like crap with bad recordings or other things that have been really heavily produced.

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i saw lots and lots of question over at HF asking what portable can drive this headphone. I owned 701 and headsix. Obviously it cannot drive it. I tried various Ray Samuels, Ibasso none can drive it too. Havent tried Larocco, Lisa and the likes, but from what I read, no luck on that either.

Can the experts here once and for all agreed that it is not possible? At least with the portables out in the market currently?

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Now that the fun of getting a new pair of cans is starting to wear off I am beginning to see what some of the gripes are that you guys are talking about. They have such an exceptional headstage and instrument separation that I was dazzled like I was in an episode of trueblood and couldn't see it's shortcomings. This is the first set of headphones that have the neutrality required from a studio monitor and I can see how it can suck the fun out of music that needs a more forward presentation to drive in order for you to be able to "rock the fuck out" to it. I still like them for music that has gone through little or no post production like a well recorded symphony or chamber music, particularly if there is a lot of room ambiance in the recording. I guess I'm still a little beadazzled by the headstage.

The K701 almost got the opposite reaction from me. The huge soundstage confused the crap out of me, being diffuse and hard to grasp, but after a week or so I got used to it and came to embrace it.

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I'm starting to discover this too. A decent part of my music collection is 60's rock or early 20 era jazz and man do these headphones reveal the recording technology. The only headphones I've owned that sucked this bad with that music were the original black sr325's and that was because of sibilance. I don't find these headphones to be all that sibilant but makes it sound so thin and lifeless it's unlistenable. I'm definitely need another pair of headphones if I'm going to keep these. I wish I would have kept my ms2is now. The k701s make Bartok and Ligeti sound so amazing that I can't get rid of them but man does Billy Holiday sound awful.

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I'm starting to discover this too. A decent part of my music collection is 60's rock or early 20 era jazz and man do these headphones reveal the recording technology. The only headphones I've owned that sucked this bad with that music were the original black sr325's and that was because of sibilance. I don't find these headphones to be all that sibilant but makes it sound so thin and lifeless it's unlistenable. I'm definitely need another pair of headphones if I'm going to keep these. I wish I would have kept my ms2is now. The k701s make Bartok and Ligeti sound so amazing that I can't get rid of them but man does Billy Holiday sound awful.

yeah I feel the same with with bad jazz recordings and my k340's

but when you find a well mastered/recorded one, like kind of blue the effect is nothing

short of stunning

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