AKG K 701 Ultra Reference Class Stereo Headphone Level 1
$178.01 $469.00Save:$291.00(62%)
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Price: $469.00 - $178.01
(as of Aug 25, 2024 14:05:50 UTC – Details)
%3Cfont size%3D%222%22%3EWhether you prefer the holistic approach or like to listen analytically%2C the K 701 will turn perception into pure enjoyment%2EAKG is the first manufacturer in the world to use revolutionary flat%2Dwire technology in headphones%2C namely%2C the K 701%2E The result is a truly dramatic sound that places every musician at their correct location with pinpoint accuracy%2E This kind of agility%2C spaciousness%2C brilliant highs%2C and velvety%2C punchy bass is simply miraculous%2E These superlative open%2Dback dynamic headphones provide an outstandingly accurate sound and excellent imaging%2E Try the K 701 and find out what ingenious headphone engineering can do for you%2E%3C%2Ffont%3E
Revolutionary flat-wire voice
Extremely accurate and detailed sound with excellent transient response
Built to last with premium components and unbreakable metal arches without compromising on comfort
Revolutionary flat-wire voice coil provides higher sensitivity with improved impulse and treble response
Customers say
Customers like the mixing capabilities of the headphones. They say they’re ideal for reference mixing, and mixes come out absolutely perfect. Customers are also impressed with the appearance, saying the headphones are intelligently designed and have a very natural top-end sparkle. They’re also satisfied with quality, clarity, and comfort. However, some customers disagree on performance, size, and sound quality.
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sdc30161 –
Finally, a worthy contender
I’ve been listening to myÂ
Bert Ward –
Amazing sound, wide (sound-stage)
Nice fitting headphone. Great warm sound, with very good high-end. You can hear you surroundings easily with them on. Not much if any isolation. Not for noisy environments. Extremely comfortable. (using with a digital piano). A good chose for a home audio system.
The Mayor –
Awesome Headphone great sound ?
Everything I read about these headphones was true. Great soundstage, isolation , instrument separation, and very comfortable. Extremely light on head. I was able to get on sale for 150 and I am very pleased. Sound is much better than some of the more expensive headphones ones I have. I am driving with thx 887 and JDs atom . Power (amp) and equalization needed to get full potential out of these headphones.
Will 123 –
Good headphones but with known potential defect.
I upgraded from my Audio-Technica ATH-M30 (cost about 60$ to 80$) to a pair of AKG K701 headphones ($550 at launch, about 200$ to 250$ now) and so far, I’m not disappointed. A word of caution however: They are known for a potential (but mostly fixable) defect (more about that at the end of this review).Overall sound quality: The K701’s offer a well balanced and clear sound, with a very flat frequency response and a wide soundstage. The high frequencies are clear and the mids are well present. The basses are what you would expect from proper monitoring headphones: They are not “boosted” or colored at all. For some people, it might be an issue, especially if they are bass lovers. I would recommend to check out the bass mod on the Internet, it’s just a matter of removing a piece of felt that is covering the bass port in each ear cups. This mod is reversible and makes the basses more “punchy”, sort of like making the attack quicker on a ADSR envelope. My M30’s sound kinda muffled when compared to the K701’s, but they have more bass than the K701’s.Build quality: Made of plastic, with some metalic parts (mostly the decorative parts). I would not recommend these headphones if you plan to travel or go outdoor with them. The plastic is quite thin and glossy. My M30’s are build tougher than the K701’s in comparison.Comfort: Clearly, the best headphones I ever had in term of comfort. They are super light and the ear pads are soft but not too soft, so they keep their shape and no plastic rests near your ears. I should mention too: These headphones use an elastic mechanism that automatically adjust the headband to the proper setting. I was not sure about this system at first, but it works very well ! In comparison, my M30’s would hurt my ears after an hour or so of use because the ear pads were too soft and thin.Now, the potential issue you might face with these headphones. AKG K701’s are known for disconnected wire(s) in the ear cups. There are many reports about this issue over the Internet and a video on how to fix it. Basically, some solders are weak and tend to break, so you might lose the sound on one or both sides. Sometimes, wire might still make a contact when the ear cup is in a certain position and you will get sound, but you will lose it when moving the ear cup. This issue is usually fixable by taking apart the headphones and soldering the wire correctly. It’s easy to do if you know how to follow instructions. Just be careful to not damage the little decorative grids, you should always turn counter-clockwise to remove them !It doesn’t seem to be an recent issue, since you can find reports dating as far as 2011. Recent K701’s are made in China, the AKG logo on the headband is now simply “AKG” (no more “three hearts” logo) and the box is different from the original I think (it as a full-size window at the front instead of no window).Overall, very satisfied by these headphones even with the (fixed) wire issue.
Gunther –
Ahorita si puedo disfrutar una buena serie con estos audÃfonos con un sonido de calidad!!! Muy buen producto.
Jochen –
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.
tim weatherill –
I discovered AKG headphones (hereafter ‘cans’) essentially at random. I saw a display with a set of very nice cans on display. they were expensive, but I’m picky about music, so I figured “why not give these a listen? I had been of the school that had as accepted wisdom that Sennheiser was really the pair for anyone who had any sort of reasonable budget, and in fact I had a pair getting old back at home hooked into my MIDI system. As a younger guy I’d tried all the big names of the ’70s, and onward. I never considered myself an expert, but I certainly felt I could give a friend reasonable advice. I did a little comparison and was so startled by the lovely sound and true comfort of the set of K271s I was auditioning, I walked out with them right then and there. The other ones I passed along to a friend who owned no reasonable cans – just earbuds. THEN, I was passing the same shop, this time with some intent (as any audiophile will understand), and saw another pair of AKG cans on sale: these were K712s. These remain my gold standard cans – I have heard you can spend huge funds a get yourself an actual head-orchestra, but for those of us who do need to be reasonable, I can say nothing other than if you have not had the pleasure of the K271, save up and treat yourself. You’ll be one seriously happy camper! (I hope they still make these!) Finally, to the K701s, which are resting VERY comfortably on my head as I write this. They arrived by post yesterday – a package was sitting nicely by my door. Firstly, if you want cans that punch your head with bass response (distortion, in my view), forget it. These are, how to put it? Very Gentlemanly or Lady-like? My first impression was of a gentle, cool and open appearance, judging by the colour alone. The earpieces are made of that superbly comfortable suede or suede-like material, and gently surround my entire ear. The openness of the cans is immediately, and pleasingly apparent. And how do they sound to me? The K701s cover all bases, and in my view, well. The high end is clean and clear as glass. No pinching, or brittleness at all. The midranges all sit well in place (I listen a lot to orchestral music, and this is an important consideration). When I listen to Bowie this is also important when it comes to his singing and saxophone work, as well as his often complex arrangements. I also had fun listening to some YES and Zeppelin, and the K701s came through really, really well. The bass response is probably the most interesting and surprising of all. At first I felt this was the weakness of these cans. However, I am a very big fan of the ‘flat response’, and although I have no graph to look at, audibly these cans perform at the bottom end with a clean, warm, commanding and altogether satisfying way. No, they are most certainly NOT the most impressive in this regard: the K712s are superior in every respect. NOW the big ask. Should you buy these? If you are listening to almost any other headphone that comes to mind, and can’t stretch sensibly t the K712s, I can STRONGLY recommend the K701s without hesitation. Your ears may take a day or two to get accustomed to the glorious clear vistas these cans offer. They do a very fine job of staging an orchestra of a rock mix, and that matters. Most important of all for any pair of these devices: they are incredibly comfortable, and comfort cannot be emphasised enough for anyone who intends to listen for hours, if not all day, to something attached directly to your head! I have given these K712s 5 stars because they deserve them. I just can’t whine my way around to removing a star because they are not my beloved K271s. Nope, 5 stars it is: brilliant and comfortable design, extreme comfort when worn, wonderful, wonderful sweet clarity of sound reproduction – have I sold them to you yet? Enjoy the K701s in good health!
Amazon Customer –
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!
Edgar de la Torre Valencia –
Si tienes un buen amplificador estos son sin duda los mejores audÃfonos en calidad-precio te dan mucho detalle de instrumentos y voces tienen una escena sonora muy amplia y además son muy cómodos