Ryan's Headphone Review Thread

Sorry man, these sold. I should have mentioned it. I'm considering selling my B&W P7. Easy to drive, nice treble and bass! Really clean sounding headphone. They are spotless and have about 9 hours on them. Only selling if I can get about £230 for them as I really do like them.
 
Haha there's too many different flavours out there! Had a go on some newer Annie's and they sound great. Not as good as the original Annie's though, they were magical.
 
KiiYzOo said:
Hopefully they should be fine then :)

would the q701s be worth the £70 difference to the k612 pros?
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I think the 612 is the better buy. It's more balanced, warmer and more musical. The Q701 is good, it's smoother than the K701 but still isn't what I'd call fully warm, it's close though. It's refined and detailed and is in a different league but it's genre specific IMO.

Out of all the AKGs the Q701 has the best base(not bass) because it's smoother nature gives you more room to adjust the sound in a pleasing way. Some Annie pads plus the Annie foams will get you a sound close to the Annie if you fancy modding.
 
The HD700 is warm, quite detailed but I don't really care for them much. They are a different signature to the Q701 and are going in the other direction. The Q is more detailed than the HD700. If you like the Q a lot then you are going to find it hard to upgrade.

The AKG 501 might be worth a look if you want the AKG 701 signature but smoother and much better mids.

AD2000x also is a good headphone but more of a side grade with again, better mids.

HD800 is the only real upgrade being brighter, more resolving and more spacious. The HD800 and HD598 are the only Sennheisers that don't have that typical Senn sound if that makes sense.
 
To be honest I can't really see any upgrades that are not HD800 priced being available. The Q701 in terms of detail, refinement is pretty under priced IMO compared to other headphones. You should look into seething to compliment them like HE500 or something similar?

As for the new Sony flagship I'm very much interested. The price however is a bit scary. The Alpha Prime is due soon and I think Dan Mrspeakers is taking the piddles. Basically $999 for the Alpha dog housing and tuning on the driver....
 
At least the Annie has different pads, different grills and a bumbless headband and different foams and a slightly different tuning The Prime is the same as the other dog but just a different tuning and that's nearly double the price of the $600 Alpha dog.
 
Ninja Pirate said:
Hahaha, $1k for a T50RP, get real.

I'm very curious to see if anyone can actually find out what 'tuning' Dan has actually done to the drivers (everything else is the same afaik). The email I got did mention that there is the possibility of the driver failing if you send in your Alphas to do the Prime upgrade. I wonder if it's just using better quality/closer matched drivers with some kind of evolution of the Doggy treats (additional dampening on the driver.
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It's ridiculous. Dan's kept it quiet, smart man. Yeah I was thinking that also for the tuning. The housing is completely 100% identical to the AD. He's really taking the mick by charging that much. I loved the Mad Dog mainly the 3.0 and 3.1 man those mids but when they start overcharging like they are with the Prime I just can't help but roll my eyes. Some of the modders will figure it out one day.
 
rids57 said:
The K702 already has a bumpless headband, it got changed when the Annie became available, the only difference in the grills is that the Annie has a little K702 badge and the drivers are the same but the ones for the Annie are hand picked.

That leaves the cushions and internal foam to account for the huge price difference.
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The Annie's leather is a bit more plush and higher grade. The grills are different on the Annie where the badge is, nothing drastic at all though! It's the same as the K712 Pro. They feel slightly different to the other K700 models in the hand.

No one knows what the driver differences are just speculation. All I know is the K702 with Annie pads isn't the Annie exactly. It's a dryer headphone like the K701. I didn't like it.

The Q701 with Annie pads and K712 foam is 95% there, some won't tell the difference but a trained ear will notice the slight difference so it's exaggeration really but there's a tiny amount of smoothness to the drivers in the Annie that makes the treble dark.

The K701 is the driest, most detailed, and spacious of them all. I think they are the base of the treble happy K712 personally. SCREW AKG I've spent hours comparing their stupid products.
 
DJ_Bucho said:
Ryanr,
After reading your review I'm seriously considering buying a pair of AGK K702 as I want a really good pair of headphones for competitive gaming. However they are a sizable amount of money and one thing concerns me, in your review of the AKG K702/K701 (and some of your other reviews) you refer to a Mixamp, what actually is this and do I have to get one in order to use these headphones.
I have to admit I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to headphones and Audio in general, but I really want a headphone that gives me great positional awareness when playing competitive games such as Call Of Duty.
Any help would be greatly appreciated ;)
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A Mixamp is an amp that has Dolby Headphone built in. It pairs well with those spacious analytical headphones giving you a huge soundscape.

If you want the absolute best for competitive play the K701 is your headphone. In stereo they sound similar to the 702 but the 701 has an endless soundstage. In general dry, bright headphones go well with the mixamp and make the best gaming headphones.
 
I feel that the K612 is more balanced, it's actually one of the most balanced headphones I've heard. It's warmer, more linear and I find it suitable for more applications. The Q701 is not a warm headphone. It's just not designed to be and even out of tube amps with very warm tubes they are still not what I'd call warm. They are wonderfully detailed and quite smooth in comparison to the K701/K702 with a tiny bit more body bringing the bass just under neutral.

The 612 has more body and bass and it's more enjoyable with faster recordings. I like the 612 and Q701 equally in the mids, they are a different flavour in that section but about equal. The Q images a bit better and has a bigger soundstage but in Dolby Headphone the 612 does expand well.

Treble is more extended on the Q and it's also smoother while the K612 is less extended but more grainy. I'd pick the Q701 for games and K612 for music personally.

The K702 has even less body than the Qs but only a tad and is more dryer, treble happy and colder. The K702 for gaming over both.
 
Rids believe me it will be lol

Yeah the D7000 is a good headphone but it's awfully overpriced. Very fun, warm and quite balanced. It's got excellent bass impact, not much in the mids to satisfy me though but other than that it's up there with the top closed hifi phones.

Good luck finding a pair that's good condition and at a reasonable price though! The cheaper Denon D7100 may be to your liking.
 
The mids on these headphones is out of this world. I paid £90 for these things. Vocals sing with such beauty.

My vocal kings are

HD650
Annie's
LCD2
Mad Dog 3.0 and 3.1

These sound ridiculous! Just so effortless. The style is on the lighter side unlike the heavy weighty HD650 but the mids are so deep and warm and precise. Right now listening to some warm and emotional vocals and these encourage and perform them amazingly well.

When's HD650s arrive I think they face some tough competition.
 
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