I haven't used any aftermarket cables on the AKG, although I have thought about having them redone with Cardas (I thought I might wait until I'd actually sent AKG a check before modifying their property), but I have used the Cardas balanced cable on the 650s so I could connect them to my HeadRoom BlockHead.

Now, that made a tremendous improvement in just about every parameter, but I can't rightly say it was all due to the cable -- some of it may have been the lowered noise floor of balanced mode. I have also used (and greatly appreciated) Stefan Audio Art's Equinox HD-650/600/580 cables, but on my 600s, not the 650s. I assume the improvements to the 650 would be in line with those to the 600. I have made many excuses for not employing the Equinox on my 650s, but the simple fact is that my seemingly endless basement/office remodel has kept a lot of my stuff in boxes, which, of course, I never thought to label. (Famous last words: "How long could it take?)

I'm reaching the end of that and just uncovered a box containing my 600s, the Equinox cable, and a few headphone amps I'd almost forgotten I owned, so I'll try the 650/Equinox combo and get back to the Forums with that.

Quote:
Thanks Wes for the great review of the new AKG K701 headphones.

I have a question for you and/or anyone here who has experience with both the K701s and the Sennheiser HD-650s. What are your impressions with the aftermarket headphone cables available (such as the Cardas cable for the Senn's or the Moon Audio "Black Dragon" cables for the AKGs)?

Thanks for any opinions!

May I suggest that you try posting your question over at head-fi.

Head-Fi

Most people over there are fairly obsessed about headphones and will jump at the chance to discuss the differences in sound between the AKG K-701's with Moon Audio Black, Blue or Silver Dragon, single ended or balanced, cables or anything in between, including the various tubes available for use in any given headphone amp.

Have fun.

Quote:

Most people over there are fairly obsessed about headphones

Yep, it is pretty fun over there. That is how I ended up with all of this stuff......

Cans:
Grado SR60,
Grado RS-2,
Sennheiser HD-650,
STAX SR-404,
Etymotic ER-4S,
STAX SR-007 Omega II,
AT W5000,
Grado GS-1000

Power:
Grado RA1,
Xiangsheng708 Head Amp,
MCCORMACK MICRO HEADPHONE DRIVE AMP,
ASL MG MkIII,
STAX SRM-0006t

A townhouse, and kids changes everything about home listening.

I can't wait to read this when it hits the shelves - there's good buzz about this article over on Head-Fi (I think he took Jazzfan's advice and started the thread over there, which led me here) and the K701s are currently enjoying some well deserved exposure right now on the boards due to Headroom bringing both a single-ended and balanced K701 to the NYC meet last weekend, powered by his Max I believe. I admit that I've previously only liked the K1000 in the AKG lineup, and that only in ideal listening conditions and with pristine source material, but I might have to give the K701 another listen soon.

Well it looks like there are about four separate threads on this article there now, with the latest unfortunately not being that kind, but of course we all can't be responsible for everyone else's opinions on the boards!

Great question and great review Wes - was the first one I eagerly read!