AKG Debuts New K702 Headphones

I burned mine in for a week without improvement so I left them to simmer for another week or so. Jellyfish's Spilt Milk CD must've played through them a thousand times. When I came back they still had that upper mid boost and lean bass. This was right after the review was published in Stereophile. I had to send them back knowing I would never be happy.

An engineer friend and I bought them together (there was a sale online). His complaints were the same as mine and we never agree on things. They changed our mixes way too much to ever be called reference.

 

Ok, I believe you.

Well, maybe my set is some different European version...

Actually I've seen there are at least two different packaging types for the AKG K701's... who knows... maybe there are differences...

 

What? Please elaborate. Has anyone checked this out with AKG?

 

There are K701 knock-offs out there, but AKG did change the packaging at one point.

 

I know these two designs. Mine have the all black background design...

 

I am pretty sure mine came in the top one, but my box is in storage so it may take a few days to check for sure.

 

Geez, more than a few haters in this thread. They're both good hp's that cater to different listening psyches, doesn't mean one is crap and the other magic. What's wrong with saying 'there not to my taste, but I'm glad you enjoy them' instead of mega-hyperbolizing perceived flaws. I think I'll give the rest of this thread a miss. I was kinda hoping it was going to be about the 702's.

 

AKG is known for making changes without renaming model numbers, which makes for fascination but frustration comparing models among fans. Still in all, they are my favorite headphone maker. I believe they are innovative. I wouldn't trade my k501s for any other phones, although I certainly have and enjoy others.

I will be interested to hear the k702s. If history serves as a guide, it may sound completely different from the k701s, although they seem to bring out strong opinions as do many headphones.

My theory is that headphones actually sound different to listeners than different loudspeakers.

 

I found a good budget AKG can today. We did a recording of a cellist today and my friend brought his new K271 cans, priced around $250. I used Senn 600s during the session but we traded phones after the performance and I think the 271s captured the midrange a bit better. The Senns boosted the bass.

 

The AKG 702 cans are now discounted to the 250-300 dollar range. I just received mine from Amazon and am burning them in but of course I couldn't help but listen to them for a minute. One thing that is obvious is the change in overall tonality depending on how you have these sitting around your ears. When they are sitting with the backs of the cups just touching the backs of my ears, pretty much the way they naturally go on for me, there is only a slight treble tinniness but otherwise a smooth and balanced sound with plenty of bass. However, if you put your ears right in the middle of the cups, the treble and midrange jump way out with reduced bass like people complain about.

They sound better than my Grado 325 (not the i model) right out of the box when seated on my head properly. I'm pretty sensitive to upper midrange and treble boost, too. Looking forward to them breaking in.

 

I heard the AKG's at CanJam last month. Nice phones, and in the setup I heard, I thought they were fine and didn't remind me of NS10 loudspeakers. I am still partial to my AKG k501 phones, but in my limited assessment, I could live with the k702s very well indeed.

 

I know this is an old post, but now owning both headphones mentioned I have to say that I find the K271 to be a smidge too bright with fairly anemic bass. I use them for tracking and not music listening so that's not an issue. A re-cable and removing that annoying switch cuts some of the glare, but still leaves the headphones with a bright signature.

The HD 600 on the other hand I find to have natural sounding, more speaker like, bass.

 

I don't like the highs on the K271. There is some glare there. I've done some more listening with the Senns and they seem to sound good with the right cable. I still prefer the openness of the better Grados but at the end of the day Stax is still the best imho.

 

AKG 702 & PreSonus HP4 Headphone Amp Special at Amazon!

Amazon's selling a pair of 702's with the PreSonus HP4 Pro Series Headphone Amp and adapter cable for $359, INCLUDING shipping! If I audition these cans and like them, would you recommend I buy this setup?

 

I take back what I previously posted as it looks like the amp retails for $130 so it would be a savings on the bundle. I had read that the amp was available for $99 but can't find that price anywhere online myself. I don't know anything about the amp, and personally would buy an amp from Headroom if I was getting one, but there seem to be some happy owners of the PreSonus amp online.

 

I've had the 702 headphones on continuous break-in from my computer based system for 3 days. They seem settled in and sound great. Finally got to try them out of the headphone jack on the c2300 instead of from the ULN-2 DAC and really don't notice much difference. I didn't find them overly fatiguing after 4 hours of listening. I went back to my Grado 325 cans once again for comparison which play louder at the same volume, which surprised me as I thought the AKG were more sensitive but maybe not. Anyways, the Grados come across as a slap in the face compared to the 702 cans. They just hit you with that upper midrange compared to the AKG.

I even plugged 'em right into my ipod playing lossless files, and while there was a definite drop in performance from the c2300, they still sounded pretty good. They were not going to get very loud, though, as I was listening at 3/4 volume to match the volume on the c2300.

As far as comfort, I wear glasses and that was a big decision to get new headphones as the Grados were uncomfortable after 1 hour. The AKG are more comfortable by far. After four hours I did hurt a little behind my ears.