Drop AKG K7XX Review (Headphone)

[Chyżwar]

I've tried the whole series: K701, K702, Q701, K7XX, K712 and the cheapest ones (K612) sound definitely the best

 

[ZENERGiA]

I've tried the whole series: K701, K702, Q701, K7XX, K712 and the cheapest ones (K612) sound definitely the best

It's the most neutral, that is for sure.

 

[Lewzke]

I never clicked so fast, as I am a AKG lover. Amir someone can send you a K701? I think that is a better headphone.
Also I think that Harman ruined the AKG quality, when the K1000 and K501 was in production, they were legendary headphones. They targeted the Diffuse field curve back than. I own K501 and I bought some aftermarket pads to enhance the bass but other than that I think it is more accurate than the new AKG models. Still lacks in bass, but the Harman curve is not ideal for studio listening or classical music. I prefer the Diffuse Field curve or similar. Recently I bought a k612pro and it was a dissapointment, bad build quality, horrible headband comfort, and sounded somehow less detailed and accurate, I just sent back immediatly.
Also I compare my headphones with my room EQ compensated and flat measured studio monitors and the Harman curve is too veiled in the high frequencies. Harman curve is basically a Hi-fi curve, not for professionals. They even raised the bass to mimic the uncompensated in room hi-fi speakers response (boomy). The Diffuse field curve is closer to the ears flat response, read some studies. Just listen side by side with flat response speakers and you will hear it also.

 

[Jimbob54]

Graphs from Crin show that K701/702 and K7XX are actually quite a bit different. It would be interesting to know if K702 exhibits the same distortion problems though.View attachment 139260

The K702 distortion seems to be age/ model dependant. See @Robbo99999 post earlier in the thread- he's had 2 pairs measured with very different distortion levels.

EDIT- he beat me to it!

 

[restorer-john]

My AKG-601s are fabulous. Better frequency balance in my opinion to the 702s, and quieter headband pivot assembly (no squeaks). And a 1/4" Jack which I love.

 

[jae]

I've tried the whole series: K701, K702, Q701, K7XX, K712 and the cheapest ones (K612) sound definitely the best

Missing out on the 371!

 

[_thelaughingman]

Another Drop atrocity and ruined product.

 

[Lewzke]

My AKG-601s are fabulous. Better frequency balance in my opinion to the 702s, and quieter headband pivot assembly (no squeaks). And a 1/4" Jack which I love.

I agree. Look at this graphs, Tyll (innerfidelity) used a compensation curve similar to Diffuse Field. Look how the new AKG's get's V shaped - Harman

 

[Aperiodic]

AFAIK K702 Anniversary is supposedly the same thing as K712 (Much as Senn's HD 580 Jubilee= HD600). Who knows what you're getting with Drop; their documentation is usually a bunch of 'word salad' whipped up by the sales dept.

 

[Kachda]

No comments about the review, just wanted to ask if this is the first time the headless panther has posed with his head?

 

[JohnYang1997]

No comments about the review, just wanted to ask if this is the first time the headless panther has posed with his head?

Hmm not necessarily. The head used to be on there. Seeing the displacement is worse than not having the head altogether. silent whisper: The headless panther used to have a head.

 

[ZENERGiA]

Just tried amirm's EQ settings with my k712 PRO, sounds quite good.

 

[Severian]

I love my K712 Pros, but it definitely requires a significantly amount of EQ to get them right. I started with oratory1990's filters and then tweaked by ear to taste, and now they're my daily driver headphones.

 

[maverickronin]

Is it theoretically impossible, given enough information about the specific driver and some adaptive non-linear (deep learning?) filter?

It's really best to have some kind of feedback. ANC headphones can cancel low frequency distortion via acoustic feedback from the internal mic and server subs are supposed to do the same with electrical feedback.

 

[Robbo99999]

The K702 distortion seems to be age/ model dependant. See @Robbo99999 post earlier in the thread- he's had 2 pairs measured with very different distortion levels.

EDIT- he beat me to it!

Ha, I did! I don't know that we can say it's age dependant re distortion levels, it might just be random from unit to unit, or maybe the thicker supposedly genuine pad I had put on there somehow contributed to the distortion (don't know if that's possible).

 

[Francis Vaughan]

Is it theoretically impossible, given enough information about the specific driver and some adaptive non-linear (deep learning?) filter?

"Distortion" covers a very wide range of things. Here we are concerned about non-linear distortions, and even those come in a range of flavours. A simple non-linear transfer function could reasonably be nulled with DSP by simply applying the reverse transfer function. But life is never that simple. It isn't just that the driver may be moving non-linearly, different parts of the driver may be moving differently relative to one another. You can still DSP out some of these distortions (JBL do this for one of their very high end compression drivers where they have a closed form model of the way the dome flexes, and can pre-distort the signal to manage it. This is probably the limit of current technology)

If you see huge nasty spikes of distortion you know you have some sort of resonance/breakup mode involved with the distortion. Drivers can also have different stable modes of breakup, so once you get them distorting, you might reduce the level, below where the distortion set in, and they keep distorting. None of these are likely to be possible to compensate for. Even with feedback/feedforward systems.

Feedback is pretty difficult anyway, you need a feedback sensor that has lower distortion than the target for the system you are trying to correct, and the entire system has a whole range of near impossible stability constraints. Can be made to work for bass drivers, but past this it gets desperate. Adaptive feed-forward is garnering a lot of interest. That tries to predict the way the system will distort from internal models and correct for that (feeding the correction for the predicted distortion forward, hence the name). The prediction system can measure how the system is currently distorting and update the model on the fly. This isn't subject to the same stability constraints. The AI weenies like to imagine they can use some sort of deep learning technique to short circuit the work needed to construct the distortion model. Wish them luck. There are fundamental constraints on how much information is available.

A reasonably well behaved system might well be successfully be further linearised, but one that is just plain badly behaved is unlikely to be a viable candidate. This headphone fits the latter class.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Can I assume that the 701 perform more or less the same? They are made in Austria (sn 58920), in case it makes any difference.

Although K701 production shifted from Austria to China about 10 years ago, the only significant difference between K701’s manufactured in the different regions is the number of bumps on the headband.

 

[Svperstar]

I got these exact headphones on drop.com in I think 2017? I wanted to hear the amazing wide AKG soundstage people rave about having only heard the 240 before.

Never used them much, one of the drivers died and rather then fix them I just tossed them.

 

[xaviescacs]

Although K701 production shifted from Austria to China about 10 years ago, the only significant difference between K701’s manufactured in the different regions is the number of bumps on the headband.

I actually found that quite uncomfortable so I made a sort of cushion with some memory foam and cotton fabric that covers the bumps completely. It looks horrible but makes them very comfortable. It has 8 bumps, how many has the one made in China? An even number I expect.

 

[m8o]

I bought one on its first drop many years back (at that time only black on black was available). I hardly ever used it tho. Bass distortion was evident at the levels I listen. I coupled an antlion (sic) mic to it and started using it exclusively for voice in my work meetings (camera off in those days so nobody saw the bulk and wires)

I wish now tho that I sold it long ago as I toyed with, before the reality of how poor it is became so widely visible and readily found [googleable -grin]. I have a friend with good non-damaged hearing so he listens at low levels. He liked this and would have bought it from me. Lol. But as I didnt choose to do so he bought this red series one. He is still happy with it.