250 ohm beyers won't be a lot easier to drive than k701/2. Any decent amp should do the job just fine with AKGs. And who cares where AKGs are made, they are still well built.

Dude, I own K701 (pretty much the same as K702, but without detachable cable and in white color). You can get them for less than 150 EUR at thomann currently. Just buy them. 

They are both over the ear. I'll recieve my AKG K701 in a day or two and I'll report :P. I guess you just won't get the best sound ever, definetly worse than M50s. I'm not really Shure about Shure 840s. I think M50s are safer bet.

Thanks for help. Since a3 is not too expensive, there's good chance I'll pick one up, unless the amp in my 2i4 is really strong, which I doubt.

It's really hard to go wrong with headphones you are looking at.

Sorry, left it out for some reason. Beyers are really comfortable, so with amp, you should be able to drive them. 990s are open, so they should also have better soundstage than closed models.   There are also AKG K701 which are really comfortable IMO, but they are really flat on EQ.  ...

I'm not an expert amp wise, but I think you can get something pretty decent for less than 100$.    Again, you won't need it for fidelio, m50s and 32 ohm beyers.   For example, I own m50x and sony mdr7506 and none of them require an amplifier, but K701 probably will. I should recieve them in...

Maybe you should consider buying an amplifier, ecpecially, if you are spending a lot of money on your headphones, but if you want to save some money and still have great quality, you can't go wrong with M50s (philips are probably good based on reviews, I just don't have any experiance with...

Yes, they are should be easy to drive too, I haven't tried them, but I own M50s and they are extremely versatile headphones. Whlie M50s are comfortable IMO, there are more comfortable sets in existance.   Beyerdynamics should work well (32 ohm), 80 ohm would be OK, but I would avoid anything...

Is A3 powerful enough to really drive K701 hard?

Ordered K701. I'll just try them with 2i4 and see if amp is really necesary. Any recomendations for an affordable (portable would be nice) amp that can drive K701 decently (around 50-max100$)?

Beyers are really comfortable, and if you don't use them with an amplifier, get 80 ohm version. You should also consider DT990 (open back version of 770). Do you want open or closed design?

If you don't want to use an amplifier, just get ATH-M50X. All/most other headphones you've listed will have to be driven pretty hard by an amplifier. They sound pretty good even with phone and you really can't go wrong with them, they are also cheap and pretty comfortable.

I live in Europe, so I can't really order from US. The question is; how power demanding K701s really are and if they can be driven by audio interface. I'm almost sold on them, but if interface can't drive them decently, I may pick something else like beyer dt770 80 if they are any easier to drive.

Your best option is probably M40x. I don't own them myself (I own M50x), but I have a friend who owns them (he loves them), so I've used them a couple of times. I prefer M50s myself, but I understand why some people prefer M40s to M50s.

What about 80 ohm Beyerdynamic DT770?

You may want to look at Sony MDR-7506. They are pretty flat EQ wise + they can be found in pretty much any studio in the world. If I remember correctly, they are around 80-90$. M40x are really good, but 7506s are better IMO (also flatter EQ response).

All that gear looks pretty "decent" to me.

I own Sennheiser HD201. In my opinion, they are not worth what they sell for. They are on ear, super uncomfortable + no detachable cable. They have a lot of bass and there is no midrange. If I were you, I would take a look at AKG K240 (semi-open) - they are about 80 euros in Europe, but they are...

I own M50X, and in my experiance, they are pretty easy to drive. Also, they won't benefit from an amp that much, so I guess you can't really hear the difference between the two phones. I use them with iPhone 5c when I'm travelling and they sound pretty good IMO.

Hi, I'm planning on getting a nice pair of headphones that I'll be using mainly for general music listening and mixing. I was thinking about getting AKG K701, but I've heard they need quite a lot of power to drive them properly. I was planning to use them without amp since I don't own one (yet)...