Thank you my friend, the first title I played through the K701 was 'When I find Peace of Mind' from the Neon Genesis Evangelion soundtrack, and I was so impressed as it has the bass I didn't expected it to have. As you know, the DT 770 Pro has great sub bass, but the K701 didn't disappointed. Next I played some orchestra arrangement cover of a mobile game soundtrack, I was teared up. It's so good I was just sitting there smiling for like an hour.

Fren, I love your headphones and your stack. Great setup.

The main character from the anime series K-On! Mio Akiyama has a pair of the AKG K701, she's the bassist and the lyricist for her band. She's my favorite character from the series. Naturally, I wanted a pair of K701 for myself, however, I didn't have the luxury to buy a $200-$500 headphones back then. About a couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a Meme Monday post, it has Mio in it, wearing her K701. I was reminded of how much I wanted the AKG back then. So I pulled the trigger the moment I knew what model it was. This is my second pair of audiophile headphone, as you might have guessed, the first was the DT 770 Pro. The open back experience is nothing I've anticipated, I didn't have too much of an expectation for the K701, because you know, I literally just bought it because of an Anime. But holy hell, I was blown away. I aim to get the DT 1990 Pro as my next pair, probably Christmas next year. (Yes, I did just bought myself this year's Christmas present on a January lmao)

Your points are mostly about your self admitted animosity towards Amir and constructing false framing, false dichotomies and straw men. I have no interest in debating that. Also, you can't tell me what I hear or don't hear or what headphones I have owned or how data is useful for me and in what way.

I keep talking about distortion because that is what these "TOTL" high "fidelity" headphones produce and it can be audible and these headphones obviously have variations in how they preform. Abyss is selling people a "feeling", not fidelity. Pretty obvious why you like your LCD-5 more, IMO.

I'll continue to listen to 1khz sine sweeps, its all I listen to, and I sometimes sit in silence with my headphones on listening to graphs..../s

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Game mode will still process 5.1 / multichannel and I prefer it for movies as well. My guess is that Movie mode is somewhat consumer oriented and probably accounts for less than perfect headsets. So it will have a bit more bass boost and it’s spatial reverb will be greater / wider. But it also may match better with some high end headphones and IEMs. So use to taste.

And yeah the music mode doesn’t seem to be that dramatic but perhaps that’s a good thing for those that want less processing.

I really only use Dolby for shows and movies. For music I have separate apps (nPlayer Pro using DTS-X on iOS hood for flacs and easy file transfer, Waves NX on iOS which is better but has some quirks and limitations and Waves Abbey Road Studio on Mac/PC but requires some technical know how to setup as it requires VST or AudioUnit host). Also been enjoying using my PS5 and still experimenting with media on it - certain games are incredible on it with my 660S.

I think maybe you should listen to the “tired old things” because they are true. They are only settled for Amir’s sheep. Amir is the worst and most dangerous influencer in this hobby because he is a fraud. Zeos, Josh, etc may not be trustworthy but they never claimed to be objectivists. Amir claims objectivity and science and then runs bull shit tests with his own intuition and then castigates anyone that disagrees with him along with his minions (you) because, ya know, science or something. So Zeos and Josh get a pass because they are not claiming to be anything so no harm no foul, but Amir does not get a pass and why I refer to him as a fraud. You bring up not liking him and you are correct, but that has nothing to do with him personally but instead his laziness and unscientific process that he then tries to make people feel bad about by using big words that he then comes to also be found incorrect on.

You are also incorrect that I trust his hardware measurements. I do trust the measurements resolve did, because he follows industry standard practices, and am not trying to claim the Diana does not have high distortion numbers. I also have no ties with HeadFi other than I use their classifieds.

I do find it sad that you think a graph can tell you all you need to know about headphones when our current measurement/interpretation ability is not able to tell use a fair bit about a headphone I.e. slam, detail, soundstage, etc. just use your own ears and you will see how wrong Amir is.

Your last point is just flat out wrong. I EQd more than just bass and never had a single issue with distortion. I’m inclined to believe you have never heard a Diana because you just keep taking about distortion. Again, it wasn’t the headphone for my taste, but if you are bringing up distortion as if it is audible in anyway you are a liar or probably bought shitty source equipment based on Amir’s recommendation.

Happy Listening! (Does not include sine sweeps)

First off, welcome to the hobby!! The HD560s are a great entry to audiophile headphones. My personal advice is take your time to listen to them. Don't make up your mind on the first 5-10 songs. Lastly it's important to have a good source. If you have your own HiFi library that's great if you don't I'd recommend Apple Music or Qobuz (similar price range). I hope you enjoy them!

I wouldn't necessarily call them an upgrade. The TC with the original pads were still the best headphone on the market to me. This is just a sidegrade for people who like bass boost

Ugh, you're just repeating tired old things that have all been settled over there. Like the sustained 94db vs peak and on the mounting... You just don't like him or the people on the site and you're missing the point of that site in general as its not headfi. Its about the objective performance of the hardware. You just don't like him or his listening conclusions even though it seems that you accepted the hardware results. I don't read audiophile review articles about impression as they are worthless to me. The data says far more if you have reference points to compare it to. Again the site is about hardware not his listening conclusions.

I had the diana v2 as well and I thought it was "meh" too. Probably a reason you like the LCD-5 despite it having a similar FR, ear pads and closeness to the ear is the incredibly low amounts of distortion. Even though you EQ'd a bass shelf on the Diana the distortion from bass is far less audible than in other frequencies. The fact that the distortion is so bad in the places that matter if you wanted to EQ on top of it being so bad stock, is an objective failure for an audio company selling high "fidelity" audio, as its not.

I think this about sums it up.

They are a match made in heaven.

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Sir, of course ! ;p

Do you have any general idea of how the intelligent equalizer works? For some reason I hear very little diffirence between detailed/balanced/warm preset. Music mode seems to disable many DSP effects, while Movie mode seems to add crossfeed and some reverb/hall effect. I also don't understand the Game mode, especially the Performance preset. Could you shed some light based on your knowledge of the software?

It’s always interesting when a $4500 pair of headphones need an upgrade.

Listen to baby shark through a $5 bluetooth speaker and get blown away by the quality jump

I'm glad they finally made these. From what I've read abyss headphones have always benefited greatly (in the bass department) from an air gap. Still waiting for the closed back Diana's. Can't wait.

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Had a pair of LCD-2C before upgrading to the LCD-X. Both are exceptionally easy to drive. You don't need a fancy amp or dac to get them to comfortable listening and ear drum damaging levels, on a phone. If all you can afford is a dongle dac and adapter then you're good to go. Anyone that tells you otherwise either has damaged ears themselves or don't own a pair.

Is build quality an issue throughout their range or just the entry and mid-fi stuff?

This is the sound of air pressure moving the dust cover and diaphragm. Those leather pads create a better seal than whatever you were using before, and the air pressure inside the cups is shifting the films around. On Stax it's know as "Stax fart".

Amir basically runs a cult so many people active on ASR don't really care if his measurements are meaninglessly or not and many are convinced bigger / lower number = better / worse even if it isn't audible. Amir also does his "listening tests" after measuring but his 70 year old ears are infallible. On the other hand the Abyss guys seem like pretentious clowns.

I think Amir and Abyss deserve each other.

Apparently it is/was. See recent Zeos video and comments by Dekoni on prototyping them. I think the new Dekoni pads are some type of Abyss collab and are included in the new model but I didn't get too far in the video because Zeos was shilling so hard it was getting obnoxious.

If you ever want to upgrade to a better portable dac/amp I can highly recommend the ifi go link :) also truthear is releasing a new dongle dac around the 60$ price point

I bet you will see a little less deep sub bass, and more higher sub bass above a certain point. Basically the more you let the driver vent, the louder and higher up the bass boost gets, and the more sub bass gets leeched out.

Audezes can get a slight bass boost if you use dense velour pads. The bass cut is so low that you don't lose any usable sub bass, and the boost is so wide and smooth that it creates a decent slope. They ought to default to velour pads IMO!