K701

Ok, some will say I am just a AKG fanboy but I also own Grado RS2i's & the 'legendary' Sennheiser HD600's but the K812's are a really worthwhile upgrade over my AKG K702 65th Anniversary headphones. So they should be at £938. I have read every online & magazine review around on the K812's and ended up somewhat confused, the first lesson is to trust your favourite headphone manufacturer to produce a fabulous flagship headphone and not to get to get bogged down with the minutiae within some of the reviews. The headphones arrive in a simple but attractive box and AKG provide a lovely wooden headphone stand which is more useful to me than an aluminium box (I bought two sturdy but light headphone boxes from Amazon for £15 each and they accommodate any of my headphones for when I travel abroad). The materials used in the construction of the K812's are of great quality, they look prestigious and are very comfortable. I particularly like the larger than average earpieces which provide plenty of room for your ears and seal the earpieces to your head really well. I don't need a 3m cable so I will be ordering a 3ft cable from Double Helix Cables who make very high quality headphone cables. Lot's of headphone porn on their website... I resisted listening until the K812's had had 24hrs listening to songs on their own via my laptop, yes, I do believe that things like headphones & loudspeakers need running in but let's not get into that debate please! I only use headphones with my two digital audio players, Cowan Plenue 1 & Colorfly C4 Pro, so I welcomed the easier to drive K812's compared to my K702/65's although I chose both my DAP's because they have healthy power outputs, I'm using noticebly less than I was. The K702/65's produced enough bass for me but the K812's produce a much better quality of bass, better defined, more tuneful, doesn't become befuddled when put under pressure, goes nicely deeper so a real improvement in the bass. I started listening to Emeli Sande's wonderful 'Live at the Albert Hall' CD/DVD and the K812's reproduced her voice beautifully providing more clarity and detail to her voice than the K702/65's, more emotion was conveyed. I have written about the K702/65's that I would have liked a bit more treble bite & intensity & I'm delighted that the K812's provide this, I am listening to Arena's new album 'The Unquiet Sky' as I type this review and I am hearing more of Mick Pointer's cymbals and a more vivid version of John Mitchell's fantastic solo guitar work. Some of the reviews have talked about a treble bite as bad as a pit bull terrier's but I haven't found this but equipment partnering is very important and the Cowan Plenue 1 is described as an 'analogue' type of sound so isn't going to provoke an excessive treble bite from the K812's. I find the Colorfly C4 Pro less good with the K812's but it is an earlier generation of DAP & £200 less expensive than the Plenue 1. The other thing is that I'm in the 50-70 age group and my ears are less sensitive than The Child's (in her twenties) so I know she would have a different point of view but as most 18-30's either couldn't afford the K812's or are simply not nearly interested in music to spend substantial sums on music equipment, perhaps AKG tuned the K812's for the average buyer? Last year I visited Hi Fi Lounge, the top notch hi fi dealership run by Paul & Wendy Clark who have one of the very few dedicated headphone rooms, in fact it's not a dedicated headphone room nowadays, it is a dedicated headphone building adjacent to their hi fi building. I visited before the dedicated building was opened but I was able to listen to a variety of headphones in the £800-£1,700 range (good thing The Wife doesn't read my Amazon reviews!) and whilst one had nicer bass than my K702/65's, I didn't like its treble, another was more open in the midrange but lacked bass, another had too much bass but a lovely midrange & treble! On it went, sadly Paul wasn't an AKG dealer. So it ain't quite as easy as it might seem, regardless of budget, to find a 'perfect' pair of headphones anymore than my very substantial Hi Fi system is perfect either. The £££££ speakers are fabulously clear (a bit too so with some recordings), have beautifully defined and very quick bass (but could do with a bit more with most recordings). My last speakers (PMC) had lots of transmission line produced bass but on most recordings I could hear the bass lagging behind the rest of the music notwithstanding the high quality amplifiers powering each speaker separately. So as Arena's great new album demonstrates, the K812's give me what I personally wish from a flagship pair of headphones so I would encourage you to buy the AKG K812's if you are a music lover as I am. They give what my K702/65's were unable to produce and more besides, can't ask for more than that. September 2015 Update: My K812's are now well run in and sounding worth every penny (I see the Amazon price has gone up by £130!), I have listened to many of the albums on my Cowan Plenue 1 and I really love the sound. I have upgraded my USB headphone amplifier to an Audioquest Dragonfly v 1.2 with an Audioquest Jitterbug and this has made a useful difference to all laptop listening. The quality of the K812's has resulted in my listening to music far more than I did using my K702/65's which is a testimonial in itself. The 10ft cable supplied is annoyance and I am delighted my Double Helix Cables 3ft cable is now on its way from the States (DHC Elite 4 wire Fusion hybrid silver/copper OCC Litz). A cable of comparable quality to the K812's, can't arrive soon enough, why can't AKG also provide a 3ft cable?

This product is more of a work of art than a piece of technology, AKG know how to build and present quality gear - every part of the packaging, aesthetic design and sound reproduction oozes quality. I've always been a 'studio monitors only' producer. After entering a relationship, moving into a two room flat (plus bathroom fyi) and having a bedroom serving as our place of rest and production studio I quickly came to the realisation that in order to allow my gf to get some sleep (thereby sustaining our relationship) I might have to change tact. As with all tech purchases the (seemingly endless) hunt was on to find a product that could fulfil my strict set of criteria - this time to find a comfortable pair of headphones that could give my HS80M studio monitors a run for their money. Challenge accepted. Unboxing the headphones is a special moment, kind-of a grand reveal, providing pictures would spoil the moment... so I won't. If you don't run in the headphones then the sound will be pretty flat. I left them on with white noise playing through them for about a week and resisted the urge to try out the sound until the end of that week. The first time I tried them on it was something quite amazing. I could hear a level of detail and clarity in music I'd never heard before. I ended up binge listening to songs I've heard many times before but with a completely near lease of context and articulation. For that alone (listening, not necessarily making music) I'd buy these - the experience is incredible. The same is true though for production, examining sounds and how they sit in the mix and stereo space with the 701s is an enlightening experience. The cable is very long (still haven't gotten to the point where I've forgotten I have them on, walked away, and yanked the audio interface off the desk) and the sound isn't confrontational or fatiguing, even after hours of use. That coupled with the comfort of the leather strap means you don't have to tear yourself away from these headphones for hours at a time. As open back headphones they're quite noisy to people nearby - being open back however is essential in producing sound at this quality. Just as studio monitors would suffer in a completely closed environment, these are no different. All in all I love these headphones and don't have a bad word to say about them, especially at this price point. Please hit 'yes' below if you found my review helpful :)

For the price these are a fantastic pair of headphones. Whether you just like listening to music whilst you play games or study, the open-back aspect, the lightness, soft ear muffs and leather makes it feel very comfortable and you can wear them for hours on end without getting sweaty or a headache. Open-backs make it feel a lot more spacious, almost as if you aren't even wearing the headphones, granted you hear background noise but for some depending on where you are it might be a desirable feature. Pair the headphones with a decent AMP or DAC and you will certainly get some banging tunes/audio quality. Personally I have the Topping L30 paired with a D50s and it goes very well with the headphones. So far after 3 years of ownership no dramas, I've dropped them several times and nothing has snapped or broken. All the components have shown barely any signs of wear and tear which is credit to the good quality materials used for the leather and other components. Pros: - Head strap is very flexible and automatically adjusts to your head size making it super easy for anyone to wear them - Ear Muffs easily come off with a twist and pull - Open Back - Super comfortable for long hours of wearing Cons: - MiniXLR adapter (not a common cable) I had to buy a replacement for $50 - You will accidentally forget that you are wearing them because of how soft they are :)

By far the most comfortable headphones I have ever had. The self adjusting aspect is very good. They sound great and the micro fiber ear pads are wonderful. I am using them mostly for my ham radio station where they do everything I need them to do. The plug is a bit backwards in that the line has a 1/4" plug and the adapter takes that to 1/8" which is backwards from what I'm used to but it works fine. At this price they are a real bargain .

"Unicuique aures eius" Cioè "a ciascuno le sue orecchie"… Questa ironica premessa perché come sempre accade vedo pareri contrastanti su queste cuffie, però in maggior parte di apprezzamento delle loro qualità. E qui mi schiero io, insieme a quelli soddisfatti della resa sonora ed anche della costruzione delle cuffie. Come mio solito parto dagli aspetti progettuali: essenziali come struttura, non si può immaginare di usare meno materiali per delle cuffie, due archetti a filo ed una banda a collegarli, questo è tutto, la solita ben nota e ben affermata filosofia costruttiva storica di AKG. Poi quei due padiglioni enormi alla vista, ma essenziali per avvolgere interamente nel flusso sonoro (aperto) la testa del fortunato ascoltatore. Fortunato perché si ritrova un pregevole prodotto capace di riprodurre molto bene il segnale che riceve. Le plastiche sono di qualità e garantiscono robustezza unita ad una leggerezza così importante per una perfetta comodità nell'uso prolungato: per questo aspetto sono le migliori della mia collezione (paio n° 19). Prima promozione senza riserve dunque per l'aspetto progettuale e costruttivo, unito all'apprezzamento per la fabbricazione europea, senza sciovinismi di sorta in ciò. Riguardo alle prestazioni queste per me sono cuffie molto analitiche, come delle reference devono essere per ripetere il più fedelmente possibile tutto lo spettro audio, e rendono decisamente bene lo spettro, con soundstage ampio e dettagliato. Essendo un fanatico di basso innanzitutto e poi di batteria va da sé che apprezzo quei +3 dB di incremento rispetto alle sorelle "minori" K702, un guadagno che non rende i bassi "pompati" ma dà loro un risalto meritato che attenua la "freddezza" complessiva di molte reference. Esaminate coi miei pezzi preferiti conosciuti a memoria (vedere le mie altre recensioni per i titoli) ho ritrovato tutto ben reso ed esposto, con una soddisfazione complessiva elevata. Un esempio particolare è dato dall' album "Body and soul" di Joe Jackson, registrato e mixato magistralmente, con la sua impostazione jazzistica per strumentazione e stage costituisce un ottimo banco prova per apparecchi musicali, siano essi lettori, ampli, casse o cuffie (a proposito, da "Body and soul" in poi ogni album di Joe Jackson è un capolavoro per registrazione, mixaggio e incisione). Giusto per proporre un titolo accessibile ai più senza avventurarsi in esoteriche registrazioni certificate come audiophile, ebbene qui la libidine si scatena. Ecco, qui le mie orecchie si impongono, come detto… Devo dire che il mio precedente di riferimento per questa classe erano le Sennheiser HD 540 Reference di ben 30 anni fa (purtroppo tragicamente distrutte da molti anni) che con l'impedenza da 300 ohm erano una "bestia" da addomesticare col mio spettacolare Pioneer A-91 D ed erano assolutamente superbe come resa. (Altra parentesi, quell'ottimo ricordo sedimentato in me mi ha spinto, proprio dopo le AKG, ad acquistare in super occasione l'evoluzione HD 540 Reference II). Quindi per me dire che queste cuffie sono difficili da pilotare con discreta facilità non è vero, tanto che provate col notebook sia con scheda Realtek interna che Terratec Aureon esterna si hanno dei buoni risultati, fatto salvo che per avere lo stesso SPL percepito occorre raddoppiare verso l'alto la corsa della manopola del volume, ovvio. Addirittura provate nell'uscita cuffia del piccolo ampli Dynavox CS-PA1 che da "voce" al notebook, rendono piuttosto bene, con volume a fondo corsa, certo, ma la resa è migliore di quanto pensassi. La prova definitiva per chiudere il discorso è stata in due parti (vedere foto allegate): _abbinamento col lettore cd portatile Aiwa XP-205 con DAC interno a 1 bit (sì, un altro dei miei pezzi vintage) con cd "Celloverse" dei 2cellos: ottimo pilotaggio e col volume a fine corsa l'SPL è di tutto rispetto. _abbinamento col lettore digitale xDuoo x-10 con file wav (il vero "uncompressed lossless" !!) dell'album "Laughing stock" dei Talk talk: anche qui ottima resa sonora e col volume a manetta si rischia di perforarsi i timpani ! Comunque per nutrire questa "bestia" AKG prenderò un ampli perché le mie orecchie meritano di godersi tutto quello che può dare ed oggi vi sono molte valide opzioni per creare il giusto accoppiamento anche con cifre ragionevoli. Dunque, tutto questo per confermare che la spesa vale l'impresa, ora che i prezzi si sono assestati ben sotto i 300 € di non molto tempo fa. Ancora adesso purtroppo qualche appartenente alla Banda Bassotti ha il coraggio di chiedere 300 ed anche 400 €, f**k you lousy bast***s! Meno male che c'è Amazon, poi grazie ad un Warehouse Deal ho preso un articolo perfetto scontato del 10% per un piccolo strappo nella copertura della scatola rigida, davvero un super affare. Meditate gente, meditate. __E D I T__ Ho preso questo ampli/eq su Amazon: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B01IS81LVW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 L'ho subito recensito perché merita e finora sembra assente dagli acquisti su amazon.it. Strano davvero perché è un ottimo prodotto Inline, marchio di qualità che già apprezzavo, che garantisce il giusto pilotaggio delle cuffie con tutte le opzioni di intervento sul suono che cercavo, ad un prezzo assolutamente basso per la qualità offerta. Lo consiglio vivamente, una volta accettata la inconsueta struttura e provate le sue funzioni si capisce che è un ottimo acquisto. Con questo accoppiamento ora più che mai non riesco a togliermi le cuffie dalla testa… in tutti i sensi.

The AKG K812 was introduced in 2014 as a professional headphone and marketed as such. AKG fumbled the ball here and may have brought about their own demise, as these headphones could have been marketed as a TOTL audiophile headphone as well, seriously competitive with Sennheiser's HD800 (now the HD800S) and Beyerdynamic's T1 (now at Generation 3). Unfortunately, this never happened and samples to listen to were thin on the ground. I took a chance with the K812 headphones and they remain my favourites, even more so with a little modernisation using Oratory1990 EQ to bring up the deep bass and take the edge off the treble. IMHO, they are about on a par with the Focal Utopia OG sound wise, and are better constructed than the Focals. Anyone thinking about a TOTL headphone needs to hear these. Buy one soon - they have never been cheaper than at Amazon currently (they were AUS$1546 when I bought mine). Hopefully, AKG will one day produce another masterpiece like this. Sadly their audio design team appears to have been retrenched at about the time of the move to Slovakia of their main HQ. The design team is still doing excellent work at Austrian Audio and Mysphere.

Bien, la verdad es que Akg ha logrado superarse a si misma, de hecho, es el cuarto auricular que tengo de la marca tras los 272hd, 701, 702 y desde luego ninguno suena como suena esta bestia. Diseño: mas o menos lo típico de siempre, evidentemente han evolucionado pero siguen manteniendo el espíritu Akg. Construcción: están muy bien hechos aunque dan la sensación de que se van a romper en cualquier momento, pero no, aguantan bien y se ajustan a la cabeza muy bien, de hecho si te pones otro de la marca notas la diferencia en la presión que ejercen, pero en ningún momento molesta y puedes estar horas sin fatigarte. Los materiales usados están bien con partes metálicas y el resto de plástico que en general son de buena calidad. En cuanto a las almohadillas son muy suaves de material de efecto memoria que se ajustan perfectamente al contorno de la oreja y resultan muy cómodas, es posible que al principio notes las costuras pues están cosidas hacia dentro pero en poco tiempo se doman y ya no las notas. Algo que podría mejorarse es el cable, no por calidad,es el típico de la marca con conector Lemo, sino por la presentación pues no le vendría mal que estuviera recubierto de algún tipo de malla simplemente para que fuera algo mas elegante. También destacar que el conector xlr aun siendo de alta gama es mas pequeño de lo habitual y puede ser un inconveniente si quieres cambiar el cable, aunque se pueden encontrar. Un punto a favor es que vienen con un soporte para dejarlos colgados cuando no los usas de madera contrachapada bastante elegante, cosa que se agradece. Sonido: aquí es donde realmente se diferencian de cualquier otro ya sea de la marca en si o de otra marca pues el sonido que dan es realmente increíble, de hecho ningún otro que tengo ahora mismo me suenan bien, y me explico, por ejemplo, las voces tienen un timbre y una claridad especial, mas natural, el sonido de las guitarras no lo había oído de esta manera, es mas he llegado a oír el sonido de los dedos al deslizarse por las cuerdas de una guitarra española, increíble pero cierto, y ese es el tipo de detalle que caracteriza a esta maravilla de auricular. Como buen Akg que es, el sonido tiende hacia los agudos pero con un nivel de detalle que te deja desencajado, no por que sean chirriantes ni difíciles de soportar sino por la calidad que aportan, siempre se pueden ajustar al gusto de cada uno tirando de ecualización ya que cada oreja es un mundo y lo que a mi me gusta, a ti igual no. Las frecuencias medias son excepcionales, también con un detalle impresionante, y en cuanto a los graves pues bueno es como si estuvieran en un segundo plano pero que se aprecian, es decir están pero sin tapar a las demás frecuencias y como he dicho antes las puedes ecualizar para que suenen mas, cosa que es típica de la marca que parece que dan poco pero están. En cuanto a escena sonora, yo diría que se encuentra prácticamente al mismo nivel que los 702, pero con mas garra, mas caña y mas potencia, con una acústica muy difícil de batir que llenan por completo toda la oreja. Amplificación: bueno aun siendo de 36 ohm agradecen ser amplificados, yo los he probado con varios y la verdad que mejoran mucho dependiendo de cual se use. Personalmente prefiero los de válvulas que los llenan mas que los de transistores. De transistores o normales, probado con, Burson Soloist SL y Schiit Magni, en este caso el sonido es bastante parecido, no así el precio y solo me atrevería a decir que el Burson le da algo mas de calidad a los agudos, pero por lo demás no merece la pena gastarse tanto pues no hay tanta diferencia de sonido, pero con ambos el sonido es muy bueno. En cuanto a válvulas he utilizado el Little Dot MKIII con valvulas Mullard CV4010 y aquí si que la diferencia es notoria con respecto a los de transistores, llenando los 812 , dándole ese empujón que hacen que suenen de otra manera, algo mas cálido, con mas cuerpo y mas amplitud, eso si en ambos casos utilizo como fuente un dac Musical Fidelity V90. Con respecto a estilos de música van muy bien con trance, pop,e incluso con heavy aunque adolezcan algo de graves el sonido de las guitarras es increíble . En fin, estamos ante un producto que vale lo que cuesta, pero que si no te gusta el sonido Akg, mejor prueba con otra marca pues seguramente no te acaben de gustar por el perfil sonoro que tienen, pero si te gustan por ejemplo los 702, estos te van a encantar. Conclusión, gran sonido con un detalle impresionante, indicado para los amantes del sonido Akg.