Recommended Listening

Welcome, the AKG Q701 Headphone.

Why is it that worst-looking things can often sound the best?

It's an operatic question. A rhetorical one. One of inner-value. One that questions the very nature of this magazine.

We ran into the Q701 in Headphone Bar. It's a fine establishment, filled with many of the products we've picked up since encountering the lovely Focal Grande Utopia III. Good headphone.Quite good.

To us, the shiny bits of metal on the Q701 look remarkably like band-aids. Perhaps that's a positive. Let's digress.

The Grand Utopia 3's would be the perfect studio monitor for someone composing orchestral music today. It's that good - as good as the best. They'd be perfect in your modern home, or home theater, serving as main-channels. If you're in the habit of collecting super-cars, or even one level down, they'd be eminently more valuable in your home, than yet another hard-top in your driveway. The price, is rather similar, so you might as well go for more use-value. That's what we say here.

Now, Quincy Jones is a composer of renown. If he's saved up anything, or makes enough of the royalties from AKG from this line of headphones, he could very well enjoy a grande speaker and hi-fi above. They're be no need for headphones, except in the studio, we'd say.

For the rest of us, however, there's the AKG Q701.
It's all the headphone you'll really ever need.
We like the sound with a simple iFI DAC driving them, more
than a complete B&W 802 Diamonds.

[Even one driven by a top Classe stack (CTM-600 Monoblock Amplifiers, CP-800 Pre-Amplifier/DAC, CDP-102 CD Player, and Transparent Reference Cables).]

In comparison, the 802 diamond setup is biting, and lacking wholesome enjoyment.


We like it. Not completely, but we like it a enough. When is enough, enough? That's a fine question.

The AKG Q701 is a fine headphone, and it's priced the same as a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label.
The Whisky very well may get you walking, which is good, in and of itself, but likely it will be for another bottle, and another $300.00 + deposit, please.

The headphone on the other hand, will give you service for a relative lifetime of enjoyment.

It's all the walkin' you'll need.

Highly recommended. 10/10 for general purpose. Hi Fi Rating, below.

AKG Q701 Headphones - $299.95 CDN ($349.95 reg).
www.akg.com

Rating: 20/100
Value: 66/100
Total Points: 86/200


Direct Link: eu.akg.com/akg-product-detail_eu/q701blk.html

Associated Equipment:

iFI IDAC Headphone Amplifier ($314.95 CDN) - www.ifi-audio.com
Audioquest Cinnamon USB Cable ($64.00 CDN) - www.audioquest.com

Optional:
iFI USB Power Conditioner ($200.00 CDN) - www.ifi-audio.com

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JP
www.hifiart.ca