The AKG K701 is a certifiable classic in the world of audiophile and studio monitoring. But is it the right headphone for you?
I got my pair of 701 because I was stuck in a basement with lousy acoustics and, despite having good monitors (old pair of Tannoy) I was not getting anything like an accurate representation of the bottom of my mixes.
So, I shelled out the medium bucks on a pair of these.
Were they worth the added expense over the run of the mill headphones? Well, maybe, maybe not.
They do sound fantastic but my mixes ended up sounding bass heavy when relying on them compared to a $100 pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro (which resulted in my mixes having weak low end).
I've since relocated out of my basement and rely on my near-field monitors in combination with spot checking with these AKG and the Sennheiser headphones. It's a learning process that results in using each source to provide the information they are best suited to provide. I hope my mixes improve over time using this method.
I will say this about the K701: they work best if you have a big ol' buckethead. Out of all the pair of headphones around here these AKG are the weirdest fit. If you don't have a big head you might steer clear of these and go with something from AT or Sennheiser that seem to fit normal heads better.
The ear cups are also heavy compared to the tension mechanism that prevents them from drooping. They feel like they're falling down sometimes.
Would I buy them again? I don't think so. The sound is amazing but I don't trust them to relay accurate info about my mixes and they don't fit that great.
I got my pair of 701 because I was stuck in a basement with lousy acoustics and, despite having good monitors (old pair of Tannoy) I was not getting anything like an accurate representation of the bottom of my mixes.
So, I shelled out the medium bucks on a pair of these.
Were they worth the added expense over the run of the mill headphones? Well, maybe, maybe not.
They do sound fantastic but my mixes ended up sounding bass heavy when relying on them compared to a $100 pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pro (which resulted in my mixes having weak low end).
I've since relocated out of my basement and rely on my near-field monitors in combination with spot checking with these AKG and the Sennheiser headphones. It's a learning process that results in using each source to provide the information they are best suited to provide. I hope my mixes improve over time using this method.
I will say this about the K701: they work best if you have a big ol' buckethead. Out of all the pair of headphones around here these AKG are the weirdest fit. If you don't have a big head you might steer clear of these and go with something from AT or Sennheiser that seem to fit normal heads better.
The ear cups are also heavy compared to the tension mechanism that prevents them from drooping. They feel like they're falling down sometimes.
Would I buy them again? I don't think so. The sound is amazing but I don't trust them to relay accurate info about my mixes and they don't fit that great.