AKG K701 Studio Headphones

I own a pair of AKG K701 now since 2007.
And I always loved the sound for its clarity.
But I remember the first time I pluged them in - uh? where is the bass?
After burn in for 50hours it improved a bit.
And it was great when I used it for recording guitars with my RME babyface.
I have the earpads replaced at least four times and it has been used in endlos recording sessions for more than 1000 hours.

But this year, 2024 I started my hifi journey and bought a lot of different hifiman headphones, dacs, amps..

And I discovered that I never ever had the proper amp for driving my AKG K701!!!

Today I have plenty of crisp, precise bass with a lot of punch!

Cayin Ha-3A did the trick!!!
It has plenty of tube power to drive the headphones AND it has an impedance adjustment!
I am sure there are plenty of other good amps out there that can drive the AKG K701. But I really emphasize to not judge these headphones without a proper amp.

Comparison:
I think it can easily compete with hifimans $2000 headphones.
My top headphone is a R10P and it's closed. It provides same clarity, smaller soundstage and bass has a bit more punch. Trebles & timbre is very good on both.
Anyway for Classic, Jazz I go for my AKG K1 for it's perfect reproduction of the original sound and it's crazy soundstage.
Love is even stronger after 17years of shared lifetime.

Disclaimer: I have no clue what has changed over the years in the production as the price dropped from $400 to $100.
I just referred to my old version.

I know these cans get a bad rap in certain areas but that's dependent on the listener and gear they use with it. When burned in and driven properly they are a great set of reference headphones. Emphasis on reference. They are exactly what they are meant to be and deliver great presence. I'm not a fan of over-driven bass which was I huge reason I bought these. They aren't lacking at all in this area as many reviewers claim, yet most likely under-driven and hence the reason some feel this way. When pair with a good amp, especially a tube headphone amp that can match the impedance they a deliver strong responsive bass that's not over produced. I'm a big jazz fan and Jaco comes through clean and rich, same goes for Entwistle, Jack Bruce, et al. My taste in music covers several genres including jazz, classic rock, bluegrass, folk, etc... and these cans perform well across the board. There is no artificial sound in the mids at all as some feel, they are true and direct. For those wanting a clean, flat, true reference sound that can't afford top tier, these are the cans for you.

Why do I like these? They are comfortable (compared to M50s IMO), they have really big sounstage and they really flat frequency response which I really like. They also come with nice stand that will keep your headphones "stored" nicely. Build quality is pretty good, but these aren't really ment to be travelled with. They are really big and can't fold at all + they also don't come with any kind of box/pouch, so these are really ment to be used at home. Another reason for that is power; they need quite some juice to sound good. They will reach some volume even with phone, but it won't sound very good. They work with Focusrite scarlett 2i4's amp pretty good, but I'm sure they will sound even better with nice amplifier. They are also open, so you don't want to take them to a train or something. 
 
I would recomend these for home use with some kind of amp for music listening and mixing (why I like them), but wouldn't use them in public since they obviously don't isolate very well. Iverall, really nice headphones I would recommend to a friend (unless he wants to use them on a go).