I was reminded earlier of how good the k702 is in games. Playing COD WW2 on the London docks map. Running along the water front I was about to turn to go up the alley and I heard someone hiding behind the wall. I froze and listened and pin pointed them with incredible accuracy. I walked around the corner of that wall and they were exactly where I heard them. These literally are wall hacking with sound. In buildings you can here exactly where everyone is. If someone makes a sound you can position them with incredible accuracy.
AKG K701/2, K712 and Beyerdynamic DT990 gaming comparison.
- Thread starter EsaT
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What have you got the headphones plugged into delta? I have a soundblaster z would this be for them?
Soundblaster Recon3Di. This is more than enough to drive them. A Z will work well.
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Reading through this, the idea of getting a K702 for the "most competitive edge" as possible intrigues me.
EsaT - you've helped me greatly in my previous query which prompted me to purchase the DT990's (which I still love!). If I were to get the K702's, would it be worth moving away from the Strix Soar to the Soundblaster Z for Creative's better surround software (if I've understood that well) and if so, would the Z be powerful enough to handle the K702's?
Thanks in advance!
EsaT - you've helped me greatly in my previous query which prompted me to purchase the DT990's (which I still love!). If I were to get the K702's, would it be worth moving away from the Strix Soar to the Soundblaster Z for Creative's better surround software (if I've understood that well) and if so, would the Z be powerful enough to handle the K702's?
Thanks in advance!
The bass is gorgeous on these K702's. People say they're too light? It is so rich. Currently listening to Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins/Sarah Brightman. Stunning.
Scary though that I cannot feel my ears touch anything. Except this chunk of velvet on my hair.
Scary though that I cannot feel my ears touch anything. Except this chunk of velvet on my hair.
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Been looking for new headphones and your review has just helped me to decide!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much!
Watching some reviews on these HE400i's and they seem nutty for the price, I'm sure tempted to give them a try.
HD598 should be slight iteration of HD595
So soundstage at that second best level behind AKGs. (+ tin can bass ATH-AD700)
But neutral bass makes distinguishing foot steps and such easier than in DT990.
K701/702 are pretty much at same level with bass, but with step bigger soundstage.
K712 has basically same notch bigger soundstage, but because of fun bass in situations with explosions foot steps are little bit harder to distinguish.
Though overall fun bass and bigger soundstage are still nicer for immersion.
What I've read planars apparently have medium sized binaural soundstage.
So more aimed at that music enjoyment for ordinary music which can definitely benefit from more "intimate" sound...
How genuinely this feels like being in there scales with binaural soundstage:
That's good to know thanks
think I'm going to give the 702's a try; would they be okay with my FiiO E10K?Haven't really found any videos with Asus Sonic Studio or at least in similar game.
There's vast differences between sound engines of games and if that source material is different in quality and style it makes comparing actual binaural simulation hard.
Just like trying to compare headphones without listening to same music.
Basically when trying to find videos with that Sonic Studio there's just marketing stuff and then Sonic Radar hype.
If Sonic Studio's binaural simulation works well would expect to have people uploading videos to Youtube.
D/A conversion wise SB Z and Strix Soar are at same level.
Strix Soar's TPA6120 is beefier than SB Z's headphone output, but beyond that it's harder to find data.
Strix Raid Pro which should be same card + external volume controller gave 100 ohm output impedance in this test similar to some earlier Xonars.
And while such output impedance wouldn't be problem with 250 ohm Beyers low impedance headphones would have seriously compromised damping factor.
Anyway SB Z is known to work with 250 ohm Beyers and K702 won't require that much voltage.
But with very little actual information from that Asus software hard to say what kind difference there would be between SB Z and Strix Soar.
That FiiO is better chan cheap USB sound cards so don't see why it wouldn't work.That's good to know thanks
The FiiO E10K is a very capable little beast and manages to power K702 and HD650 quite well when switched to high gain.
It is also possible to give the K702 another 5db of bass and sub-bass with a very simple mod that entails removing an internal sticky pad.
It is also possible to give the K702 another 5db of bass and sub-bass with a very simple mod that entails removing an internal sticky pad.
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I have the Q701's, love them to bits.
Did the port mod on both sides for a bit more bass.
Powering them with an SMSL 793, sound good to me.
Did the port mod on both sides for a bit more bass.
Powering them with an SMSL 793, sound good to me.
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Thanks again for the information - see where you're coming from regarding Asus - might be time to switch back to Creative!
Voltage isn't the problem with the AKG K7** series it's current, and the SB Z is just about able to drive them - they will get plenty loud enough but don't sound as full as they should. Even though their input impedance is only 62 ohms, they are harder to drive than the 250 ohm Beyers. I changed from the SB Z to the STX with my K702s and there was a subtle but noticeable improvement in sound quality, mostly due to the more powerful amp which had considerably more headroom.
SB Z could indeed do with beefier headphone output.
Because of that often highish pricing of Zx has never made sense.
Maybe it's going to get refresh/update sometime now that AE-5 has market segment of top level DAC and beefy output covered.
I think I’m needing one for the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Have my eye on one of those glass tube amps as I find the Prelude starts clipping at -9dB. I’m still getting good volume at 65% - 75% and 85% becoming too loud but I feel my quest for more power is required? Or maybe I’m still adjusting to this new sound. That and playing Quake Champions and its sucky sound engine doesn’t help since it is my main game. It sounds crap compared to Doom 2016.
Music detail is etc is wonderful. As are other games.
For binaural sound gaming non-neutrality of tubes likely isn't good.
Such shame that not all game delopers put much effort into sound engines of their games.
Having started PC gaming in 94 besides extreme graphics development also game sounds went lot forward in next ten years.
Then soon after that game sound development stalled badly and even took back steps.
Guess having some hybrid patchwork as game engine isn't helping even though they don't have console limitations...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Champions
Or maybe someone purposely limited sound engine to not give major advantage to those with proper gaming audio setup?
There weren't much of those worries in age of original Quake...
