One of the very best mid-priced headphones
Buyers have abundant options for mid-priced headphones, and at $300, you should expect stereophile quality. The AKG 701 is thought by many to be one of the very best all-purpose headphones. While they can handle pop music well, they really shine with classical, where their elegance and smoothness of tone come to the fore. At the same time, they're extremely detailed - some feel too much so - allowing you to hear details in the music missing in some comparably priced headphones.
Strictly speaking, this headphone works best with a headphone amplifier. At the same time, it's one of the more comfortable headphones around, with pads that you almost forget you're wearing. The ingenious design automatically adjusts pressure for different heads, and the open design allows for a pleasing sense of space. That latter feature means that you won't want to wear these when you can disturb others, because sound does leak.
Like many top headphones, these have been noted to improve with use as its diaphragm relaxes with use. While these headphones sound just fine out of the box, they improved markedly after a break-in period of up to 300 hours. (This is likely a function of the diaphragm's dual-layer design.) You can speed up the process by playing pink and white noise through the headphones at a solid, comfortable volume for a day or two.
I've owned a number of headphones, but the K701 leaves me comfortable with all types of music. At this price level, it's not so much finding the "best" headphone as getting the one that suits your tastes and needs most satisfactorily. After a long, hard search, the K701 does the trick for me. In its short time in production, users have rated it as tied for top headphone in its range. (The Senn HD650 is the other headphone, which boasts a lush sound, albeit with an overabundance of bass.)
