justaalawstudent

justaalawstudent t1_j26gzyg wrote

I absolutely love my K702s and I pair them with the Topping E30II and L30II combo which should be pretty similar to yours. I'm waiting for my second pair though because the right speaker on the first one died within 3.5 months of use. Shame.

Edit: just wanna add a question, am I the only one impressed by the level of detail and clarity the K702s bring? Those things sound more detailed to my ears than headphones that are much more expensive, even with that huge soundstage they have.

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justaalawstudent OP t1_iud23iv wrote

So after a lot of experimenting with the EQ, I found out that the DAC/AMP have nothing to do with what I was hearing. They just revealed what I later found out to be a pretty grotesque 10-12khz peak on the K702 frequency response. After I EQd it down, the harshness I was hearing is gone. If I switch back to Oratory's preset, it just sounds ridiculously bright and impossible to listen to, so I'll no longer be using that. I'm now enjoying this combo very much, thank you all for helping.

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justaalawstudent OP t1_itz1iln wrote

Again, thank you for this. I thought the Harman curve was supposed to be "neutral" so I didn't even think of using other measurements, but after tweaking a lot I found a K701 measurement that REALLY tames the harshness. I was nuts thinking of selling the E30II before doing this. It solved the problem. Now I'm enjoying my K702s again.

Edit: that was not a misspell, it's a K701 measurement that I'm using (which shouldn't be all that surprising that it works since they sound almost identical).

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justaalawstudent OP t1_ituzaz2 wrote

The PC I don't think (please, correct me if I'm wrong) has any influence in sound after I connect a USB DAC to it, isn't that how it works? I mean, it is worth trying. The problem with playing from the phone is the lack of PEACE (I don't have anything equivalent actually, I don't use my phone to listen to music that much) so I'd have to compare them without EQ.

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justaalawstudent OP t1_ituygcz wrote

K702 (even if EQd) not properly amped just sound very bad imo. Lackluster both in high and low end. When properly amped I did love their sound signature but for some reason am finding them too bright after adding the E30II and have no idea if it's true, placebo, E30II really is bright when it shouldn't be... I don't know.

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justaalawstudent OP t1_ituy2jd wrote

Placebo was the first time that came to mind, but it's incredibly difficult to rule it out without another DAC to compare as any blind test attempt would be screwed up by the fact that the volumes mismatch a lot when switching between E30II and PC connection. I wonder if an E50 from Topping which uses a different, more premium chip compared to the ak4493s on the E30 would sound a lot different? I always imagined they would not, but now I don't know.

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justaalawstudent OP t1_itt3u9v wrote

I was actually using it straight from my PC to the L30II, which is obviously not ideal but I didn't have anything else at that moment. My PC is pretty high end but I doubt the mobo DAC is better than the E30 (I could actually hear noise when my PC was under load lol), which is why I don't know why it sounds so harsh.

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