AKG K 701 Ultra Reference Class Stereo Headphone Level 1

Exceptional sound quality, beats much more expensive ‘phones
As an audiophile, I’m very picky when it comes to sound quality. My main audio system is built around Martin-Logan SL3 speakers and a REL T1 subwoofer, which, to my ears and after much auditioning and changes of systems, afford me the most “musical” sound I could get for the money. By musical, I mean sound that as much as possible approximates that of live instruments and singers.For my bedroom system, I was looking for headphones that sounded as good. I’m happy to have found them in the AKG 701s!Coupled with a decent headphone amp, the AKG 701s are exceptionally uncolored ‘phones, with almost perfect tonal balance. High frequencies are well extended, with plenty of ‘air’ and detail, but no stridency. The midrange is smooth and full. The bass is mercifully free of the mid-bass bump so common in headphones, and is robust without being overwhelming (if you listen mostly to rock and value high-punch bass, these are NOT the cans for you).I compared these ‘phones to the slightly less expensive Audio Technica ATH-AD900. The ATs are very good (see recent review in Stereophile magazine), but absolutely not in the same league as the AKGs. They tend to be shrill and lacking in detail and delicacy.I also compared the AKG 701s to the twice-to-three-times as expensive Koss ESP-950s, which are a very refined electrostatic design. The Koss offer a seductive midrange that is particularly effective with the presentation of vocal music. Unfortunately, they are quite rolled off at both frequency extremes, resulting in a rather veiled sound that rests immediacy and drama from the music.As indicated above, the AKG 701s perform best if coupled to a good amp. I use a Little Dot Mark III tube headphone amp, driven by a Logitech Squeezebox Touch — a system that I highly recommend. The Touch is wirelessly connected to a Vortexbox Appliance server, on which all my digitized music (including high def files) resides.Are the AKGs perfect? No. As other reviewers have found, they are not very comfortable. They tend to compress the top of your head. But at this price and with this level of performance, perhaps a little discomfort can be overlooked.

Misschien omschrijven sommigen deze als “neutraal” maar ik hoor toch echt te weinig laag om er echt plezier te kunnen van hebben. Ja, hij is gedetailleerd, mooi gebouwd, prima draagcomfort. Maar mijn andere koptelefoons (Philips X2HR, Sony MDR-1AM2, Sennheiser HD599) klinken toch aangenamer. Zelfs mijn ondertussen ter ziele gegane AKG-242 klonk warmer. Spijtig.

I have just purchased these out of pure curiosity because they were on sale at just £108 plus a £10 further discount voucher on Black Friday, that was too much for me to resist taking a gamble.BUILD: These will definitely be talking points and I really like their retro look when sitting on their stands, I’d say they are “headphone art”. The build quality seems decent enough although nothing out of the ordinary either, fairly solid with a nice comfortable fit and surprisingly light. The ear cups are very large and they do take a bit of getting used to. But like going from a Ford to a BMW, you know you’ve moved up a step or two but the BMW is still unfamiliar and it takes time to settle into it and enjoy it properly.SOUND: These are quite different to my Grado SR60i’s that I’ve enjoyed for many years and will continue to do so, I am very familiar with the Grados sound so I will try and give some comparisons with those as a point of reference.Firstly the 701’s are much less emphasised in the bass, in other words they are flatter in frequency response, when there is bass present they will show it but they are not designed to initially impress in the bass department, instead they are very accurate of the signal presented to them. I can say the same across the rest of the audio spectrum. At first this makes them sound a little strange because the Grados clearly have more bias towards the lower end, but the lower end is more “muddy” on the Grados, I supposed you would call it added warmth. This added warmth works well on stuff like Spottify / TV and other such devices. It also helps drown out harshness on poor recordings etc. However, you can easily add some equalisation to these at the low end if you desire more “artificial warmth”Having said all that, I believe the 701’s are a headphone that just gives you what is there and some may find that strange, I would say that giving yourself time to adjust to this and also listening to some well recorded Jazz, classical, acoustic will show just how good these head phones can be, they are more open, cleaner and dynamic than the Grados on well recorded music of any genre. But there is still a place for the Grados and that is on ipods, mobile phones and some pop / rock that needs added colouration to make it palatable!One thing I would like to stress, there is a lot of nonsense in Hi-Fi and no two individuals will hear things the same, I recently bought an Asus Xonar One Muses Edition Pre/Dac and I can honestly say that comparing the headphone amp on that with my PCI Asus DG sound card at the same volume level, I could not honestly tell any difference in sound quality when running the 701’s. People will argue with me but I’m afraid it’s true, as much as I didn’t want it to be! Price doesn’t always equate to performance in Hi-Fi, beware the marketing hype! There are very few “bad” out there these days, everything is adequate, it’s nothing like the difference in spending £1000 on a turntable compared with spending £50 because a turntable is all about precision engineering and you do hear big differences. But headphones? not! They are all pretty decent above the £70 mark, we are talking about a diaphragm housed in a case that’s it! They are simply different and a matter of personal taste, I will be using the 701’s for critical listening to well recorded music and keep the Grados for general use, films and the like.Anyway, I can guarantee that using a properly installed Asus DG soundcard with the gain set to +64 in the impedance in the Audio centre software, plus a pair of these you will have made a significant improvement in your PC sound which will be over 90% of what you can achieve by spending £1000’s more so don’t bother!Asus DG is only £23 on Amazon at moment but make sure you install the drivers carefully and set up the supplied Audio Centre Correctly, this card also sounds great with the Grados by the way.I asked AKG for their opinion about the concept of “running in” because according to many reviews, these need 300hrs use before sounding right, here is their reply…”I think you are referring to the “burning-in time” of the headphones, as it is regarded on the Internet and other media. However, I would say that this is just folk law. The headphones are tested and set to perform at their peak level straight out of the box”Make of it as you please.Good listening!Edit 03/03/2016: Having now used these for a good few months, i have decided they are not for me and i’m back on My Grado Sr60i’s. The reason is that I find the flat response of the AKG’s a bit boring, I also started to find the massive ear pads a bit uncomfortable and I found the sound to be a little detached or “distant” from my ears and having to increase the volume to try and get me excited. Having said all that, my son likes them (he’s 19 and does a lot of music mixing). For him the clarity is what he needs, but for me, they just don’t exite me and don’t have that warmth and fullness of the Grado’s. Good phones no doubt but just not for me!