AKG K 701 WHITE HEADPHONES

The AKG K701 is the latest headphone from AKG which takes place at the top of their line. Their previous top end headphone is the K1000 "ear speaker" which has now been discontinued. This headphone has some fancy new technical features, such as their new Varimotion diaphragm and flat wire coil, which is unique to this model and its baby brother K601, features that are supposed to give it better sound.

Let's get to the meat of this review. The two most important things: the comfort and the sound.

Comfort:

The headphone is very comfortable, the soft ear pads surround your ear. The headphone top headband is made out of leather, and self adjust to the size of your head. Even with my size 7 1/2 hat size, I find the headphones comfortable for more than 2 hours of listening, the clamping force is strong but not overly so. In comparison to the popular Sennheiser HD580/600/650, I find the clamping pressure to be more tolerable. However, I do find the...Read more

How much do you like music? Do you ever shut off your life entirely so that you can listen to your favorite music alone in a dark room for hours at a time and let your mind float away to a more perfect world?

If music is your joy, your balm, your solace, your raison d'etre, then I can't think of a better way to spend 270 bucks. In fact, after owning the 701s for a year, I'd say that I would gladly pay a grand for these and not mind at all.

I was a Sennheiser man for over 25 years, as AKG cans always sounded a little too processed for me. I preferred the open soundstage and realism of the Senns. But these 701s quite frankly blow away the Senn 650 and 600, the other top-end audiophile phones that, along with Beyer, comprise almost all of the headphone market for those who demand the very finest musical reproduction available. At that level, these are beyond a bargain. They are a gift.

I look forward every single day to putting these on. They are...Read more

The competitive mid-range in stereophile headphones includes fine products like the Sennheiser HD-650 and the austere Beyerdynamic DT-880. The AKG K-701 fits between these two headphones sonically, and as you can imagine, each product has its vocal adherents. The 701 has enough outstanding points to deserve careful consideration when shoppoing for a mid-price headphones.

The K-701's white exterior has a white iPoddish look - which some may not care for - but the construction is solid. It's distinguished by the two radial adjusting bars along the top of the phones (making for an automatic fit), and a contoured leather strip underneath. The outside of the ear cups have a wire mesh center, allowing for some free flow of sound - and creating the phones' typically bright, crystalline sound signature. The cups are lined with a comfortable velour, which can be worn easily for hours without fatigue. Indeed, there are times when you forget you're wearing headphones, though there...Read more