After deciding to build Patrick's (EUVL) DAO headphone amp. I thought it was time to buy some new headphones.
So last week I checked out 3 headphones within my price range:
1 Sennheiser HD600 Sennheiser USA - Around Ear Headphones HD 600 - highest quality for DAT, DVD, MD, CD, players - Private Audio
2 AKG K701 AKG Personal Audio - K 701
3 Denon AH-D5000 Denon USA | AH-D5000
Source was an Arcam CD37 cd player Find out more about the FMJ and Solo product ranges
Headphone Amp was a Musical Fidelity X-Can V8 Musical Fidelity
My cds used to assess the performance of these hadphones were:
1. Maceo Parker - Roots and Groove Maceo Parker Roots & Grooves
2. Weather Report - Black Market Black Market (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
OK the first thing I want to say here is, I did not expect to hear big differences between these headphones in this sought of price range. Well I was very wrong about that, the differences were immediately obvious.
First up I put in Maceo Parker's Roots and Groove disc 2. This album has some nice bass playing and drumming which has been well recorded.
I plugged in the AKG K701 headphones, and really enjoyed what I heard. The amount of detail was excellent. These headphones really brought out the best of this recording.
I next plugged in the sennheiser HD600. I got horrible shock here. They sounded so bad I did not put them on again for the rest of the testing.
I then plugged in the Denon AH-D5000 and was immediately impressed by the overall sound and presentation, however when I went back to the AKG I noticed there was something special in the way the AKG could really separate instruments and the level of detail with drums and cymbals was very impressive.
I then put in Weather Report's Black Market album and went straight to track 6 (Barbary Coast). I had the AKG K701 phones on.
Again I was surprised to find myself unimpressed. This is one of my all time favourite tracks, and was left feeling totally bored.
I put the Denon's back on and OH YEAH, awsome sounding bass playing, also the feeling of actually being there was incredible.
In the end I couldn't make up my mind. If I had the money I would buy both.
With a really good recording the AKG K701 sound excellent, with an ordinary recording they sound ordinary.
The Denon's have a bit of magic in the sense they tend to bring an ordinary recording to life, almost like being live at the concert.
However on a really good (balanced) recording the bass tends to dominate slighly to hide some of the details of the other instruments.
If I could only choose one, I would probably go with the Denons mainly because it made Barbary Coast sound very special indeed.
So last week I checked out 3 headphones within my price range:
1 Sennheiser HD600 Sennheiser USA - Around Ear Headphones HD 600 - highest quality for DAT, DVD, MD, CD, players - Private Audio
2 AKG K701 AKG Personal Audio - K 701
3 Denon AH-D5000 Denon USA | AH-D5000
Source was an Arcam CD37 cd player Find out more about the FMJ and Solo product ranges
Headphone Amp was a Musical Fidelity X-Can V8 Musical Fidelity
My cds used to assess the performance of these hadphones were:
1. Maceo Parker - Roots and Groove Maceo Parker Roots & Grooves
2. Weather Report - Black Market Black Market (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
OK the first thing I want to say here is, I did not expect to hear big differences between these headphones in this sought of price range. Well I was very wrong about that, the differences were immediately obvious.
First up I put in Maceo Parker's Roots and Groove disc 2. This album has some nice bass playing and drumming which has been well recorded.
I plugged in the AKG K701 headphones, and really enjoyed what I heard. The amount of detail was excellent. These headphones really brought out the best of this recording.
I next plugged in the sennheiser HD600. I got horrible shock here. They sounded so bad I did not put them on again for the rest of the testing.
I then plugged in the Denon AH-D5000 and was immediately impressed by the overall sound and presentation, however when I went back to the AKG I noticed there was something special in the way the AKG could really separate instruments and the level of detail with drums and cymbals was very impressive.
I then put in Weather Report's Black Market album and went straight to track 6 (Barbary Coast). I had the AKG K701 phones on.
Again I was surprised to find myself unimpressed. This is one of my all time favourite tracks, and was left feeling totally bored.
I put the Denon's back on and OH YEAH, awsome sounding bass playing, also the feeling of actually being there was incredible.
In the end I couldn't make up my mind. If I had the money I would buy both.
With a really good recording the AKG K701 sound excellent, with an ordinary recording they sound ordinary.
The Denon's have a bit of magic in the sense they tend to bring an ordinary recording to life, almost like being live at the concert.
However on a really good (balanced) recording the bass tends to dominate slighly to hide some of the details of the other instruments.
If I could only choose one, I would probably go with the Denons mainly because it made Barbary Coast sound very special indeed.
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I thought I should give a score for the headphones against the test cd's to try and quantify my experience and hopefully clarify for those that might be interested.
Here goes
Test CD 1: Maceo Parker - Roots and Groove
AKG K701 - Score 10/10
Sennheiser HD600 - Score 4/10
Denon AH D5000 - Score 8.5/10
Test CD 2: Weather Report - Black Market
AKG K701 - Score 6.5/10
Sennheiser HD600 - Score (Did not Test)
Denon AH D5000 - Score 10/10
Here goes
Test CD 1: Maceo Parker - Roots and Groove
AKG K701 - Score 10/10
Sennheiser HD600 - Score 4/10
Denon AH D5000 - Score 8.5/10
Test CD 2: Weather Report - Black Market
AKG K701 - Score 6.5/10
Sennheiser HD600 - Score (Did not Test)
Denon AH D5000 - Score 10/10
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HD600 vs. AKG K701 vs. Denon AH-D5000
thanh1973
You can not judge the performance of various headphones based on how they sound with one headphone amplifier.The amplifier you used has a quoted output impedance of only a couple of ohms. The headphones you are trying to compare have very different input impedances, and different driving impedance requirements .The Denon AH-D5000 are 25 ohms input impedance, the AKG K701 are 62 ohms, and the Sennheiser HD600 are 300 ohms. IEC 61938 states that all headphones should be driven from an output impedance of 120 ohms, irrespective of headphone impedance.
Earlier, and some other models may not conform to this.
My personal experience with the AKG K701 is that it sounds best when driven by an output impedance between 62 to 68 ohms, for example.
I am not surprised that the Sennheiser headphones sounded very poor when driven by this amplifier. You could try inserting series 120 ohm resistors in line, and see if the Sennheiser headphones improve. I suspect that they will markedly improve.Another example of headphones that sound better when driven fom a 120 ohm source impedance are the Audio Technica
ATH W1000
SandyK
thanh1973
You can not judge the performance of various headphones based on how they sound with one headphone amplifier.The amplifier you used has a quoted output impedance of only a couple of ohms. The headphones you are trying to compare have very different input impedances, and different driving impedance requirements .The Denon AH-D5000 are 25 ohms input impedance, the AKG K701 are 62 ohms, and the Sennheiser HD600 are 300 ohms. IEC 61938 states that all headphones should be driven from an output impedance of 120 ohms, irrespective of headphone impedance.
Earlier, and some other models may not conform to this.
My personal experience with the AKG K701 is that it sounds best when driven by an output impedance between 62 to 68 ohms, for example.
I am not surprised that the Sennheiser headphones sounded very poor when driven by this amplifier. You could try inserting series 120 ohm resistors in line, and see if the Sennheiser headphones improve. I suspect that they will markedly improve.Another example of headphones that sound better when driven fom a 120 ohm source impedance are the Audio Technica
ATH W1000
SandyK
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AKG (I have some contacts to AKG service, I live near Vienna) recommend low impedance output for the K701/702
My experience with Denon AH-D7000 - he loves low impedance output HA - the bass are tighter
i think one point to consider is that some (many?) headphone manufacturers design their product to be driven by the "standard" 120 ohm impedance. If you use other than 120 ohms to drive the headphones, you may not get the manufacturer's "designed" performance.
i recently (well, more like a year ago) changed to 50 ohm sennheiser headphones from older 300 ohm beyer dynamic headphones. changing the impedance driving the headphones seemed to impact the sound to me more so on the lower impedance headphones. i find that my personal preference is lower than 120 ohms (i have settled on 50 ohms resistive, no series inductor-resistor and no output r-c zobel) for the low impedance headphones.
mlloyd1
i recently (well, more like a year ago) changed to 50 ohm sennheiser headphones from older 300 ohm beyer dynamic headphones. changing the impedance driving the headphones seemed to impact the sound to me more so on the lower impedance headphones. i find that my personal preference is lower than 120 ohms (i have settled on 50 ohms resistive, no series inductor-resistor and no output r-c zobel) for the low impedance headphones.
mlloyd1
HD600 vs AKG701 vs Denon AH-D5000
mlloyd1
My findings are similar to yours , even down to the removal of the Zobel network etc.
My statement about the use of series resistors of 62-68 ohms with the AKG K701 was based on the reports of many K701 owners from another forum, who constructed a modified version of the Silicon Chip magazine Headphone Amplifier.(>112 constructed)
Initial recommendation was to vary the series resistor value from 47 ohms to 68 ohms to achieve the best results.
The majority of the K701 owners settled on 68 ohms, as the K701 can sound quite edgy (exaggerated treble) with lower values.
With the majority of headphones, a small reduction in the value of the series resistor increases apparent treble response, and conversely,
a small increase in the value of the series resistor improves low end balance. This has also been previously reported in other forums.
SandyK
mlloyd1
My findings are similar to yours , even down to the removal of the Zobel network etc.
My statement about the use of series resistors of 62-68 ohms with the AKG K701 was based on the reports of many K701 owners from another forum, who constructed a modified version of the Silicon Chip magazine Headphone Amplifier.(>112 constructed)
Initial recommendation was to vary the series resistor value from 47 ohms to 68 ohms to achieve the best results.
The majority of the K701 owners settled on 68 ohms, as the K701 can sound quite edgy (exaggerated treble) with lower values.
With the majority of headphones, a small reduction in the value of the series resistor increases apparent treble response, and conversely,
a small increase in the value of the series resistor improves low end balance. This has also been previously reported in other forums.
SandyK
sandyk:
interesting. my hd595 sennheisers were a gift from my wife to replace my old, worn dt990 beyer dynamic. some don't like the hd595; they sound quite nice to me. however, had i purchased my own replacement headphones, i would have purchased the akg k701 over anything else i've heard.
mlloyd1
interesting. my hd595 sennheisers were a gift from my wife to replace my old, worn dt990 beyer dynamic. some don't like the hd595; they sound quite nice to me. however, had i purchased my own replacement headphones, i would have purchased the akg k701 over anything else i've heard.
mlloyd1
I'd have to search through head-fi for the exact reference but I'm certain that Sennheiser representatives have stated that their headphones are designed for near 0 ohms outputs (and they demo them with such amps). Same for Akg and Grado.
Only Beyerdynamic sticks to the old 120ohms standard.
This of course shouldn't prevent anyone to tailor the sound to their liking.
Only Beyerdynamic sticks to the old 120ohms standard.
This of course shouldn't prevent anyone to tailor the sound to their liking.
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