AKG Headphones, Gold, One Size (K240STUDIO)

After reading a lot of reviews on headphones which fall into this price range, I took the plunge on these AKG K240s. Most reviewers found them excellent for the price and they were right. I had been using the Oneodio A70 (Bluetooth) and A71(wired) which with equalization sounded pretty good. Now that I have these I realize how narrow their sound stage is, and how the K240 is far superior in that area. The sound seems balanced across the spectrum with the highs very slightly over emphasized (easily tamed with Peace Equalizer). The bass is clear and just strong enough for me. Like most decent headphones the mid-range is clear and present. I have worn these for several hours on end and they have been very comfortable. They are not meant to travel so the build quality seems very good for home or studio use. Caveat, if you like heavy base, I understand these and other open back headphones are not what you should look for. Also, as they are open back, you do still hear outside noise but it is not intrusive. Everything came as advertised and they sounded good out of the box and they have improved with use as all headphones and speakers do. I am not an audiophile nor do I have access to a lot of headphones to compare so this is subjective review on these alone. I am quite satisfied with these and I will update this review if something changes.

My review of the AKG K 240's is a few months in the making. I've purchased entry level headphones several times in the last number of years, primarily Sennheiser PX-100s and the Koss PortaPros. Notice that I listed only two headphones, that's because I've had to buy them several times.Various issues. First pair of good cans I ever bought, a family pet destroyed. However, specifically the Sennheiser PX-100s came apart on their own. Several times. Sennheisers excellent warranty system got me into new ones every time,so they have not been a bad experience, but it is kind of upsetting to have something you purchase fall apart on it's own. I digress, but only a little, as durability is a factor here.The end game of AKG K 240s usage? I like them, for good reasons.What I've noticed in the length of I've had them:The initial cord that comes with the cans is long. Way too long for casual use. Chairs run over it, stuff gets snagged, it's an extra foot of cable in your pocket, it's not a portable cord, it's the stay still and love them cord, which makes the cord an excellent cord to come packaged in the box. Have not yet purchased a smaller cord, but am quite happy that this feature exists to take advantage of. Most cans, the cord gets messed up, you need a whole new pair of headphones, with these obviously anything happens to the cable, and you can be up and running again with a new cable, and everything's great.Important point: Sound. The sound. That's why you're buying cans. That's why you're here now.The sound is great. Let me color that tho, my initial experience, meaning first song I played, (after taking off the PortaPros which I had been using religiously for the last year) I could not figure out what happened to all my bass, especially seeing as how these things are so large.I'll get into the size in a bit, but first things first, the sound.Today? The sound is perfect. It's wonderful. The profile is one you can get used to, minimal fatigue for good reason, and the precision and granularity feels like you are hooking a stethoscope up to your audio tracks.Really.It's great for gaming since, key word here, clarity and directional sound provide great auditory information and it's intuitive. Nothing's off about the cans in that department save the curious lack of bass when I was someone else, putting these on for the first time. Lots of headphones amp their bass response. AKG wonders who these people are.They're semi-open, which is better for clarity than closed, and great for environmental awareness. If you've only had closed back phones, assuming you're aware this difference exists, AKG allows your environment to aurally hit you're ear, and the headphones provides a listening stage which sits somewhere nestled inside of it, if you can even believe that. You're playing XBOX, maybe listening to some tunes, and you can hear your friends nearby. They can't hear your music, maybe lightly if they're sitting next to you, but you can hear them talking, and your tracks are not in the background, but around you, and the conversation is somewhere all outside of that.So fidelity is the word here. In my limited headphone experience, they are of a high caliber in the fidelity department of the Sennheiser PX-100, Grado, PortaPros, and what else is in the entry level good-cans bracket. The grados I've never had the pleasure of utilizing, but the AKGs are right up there with the other guys, providing a better depth of sound. Stethoscope to your tunes, baby. You buy these, you're a doctor now.Anyway, I used to never want to be caught dead in public wearing anything this big, which is why the sennheisers and koss were such friends of mine, but these look so nice, no one minds. People just kind of think they're nice or I'm flashy. They're comfortable around the neck in public for me, but I'm a big guy. The gimbal suspension makes them always comfortable to wear. Gimbal means you don't adjust the phones to your head, they adjust to you, however you have them.So Kudos! Buy them for yourself, or if they're a gift, and you've made it this far, you're not going to be wrong buying these.There are other pros, but I couldn't recommend the durability, listening profile, aesthetics, and engaging price any higher.Cons? They're not over the ear pads, but they're obviously not supposed to be, so if size is a con, or the fact that they're semi-open is a con, then there's that. Outside of design, the only cons is that, if you've never experienced them, they look like they should explode your head in bass, but they don't. Meaning some music can feel like something's lacking when making the transition, but the fidelity of the phone brings the bass into a good contrast of the whole sound profile.

The short and sweet of these phones is they are a really solid cheap option for studio grade flat response phones that are well worth the money and where you should be making your entry into the studio grade space with AKG. Read on for a more detailed reviewTesting performed on an SMSL DAC using OpticalWindows 10 at 24 bit 96000Hz Studio quality no enhancements of any kindTested using Spotify Premium Quality, Youtube videos, and MusicBee FLAC music, and some Bluray MoviesCompared against Sennheiser HD598 and Pioneer HDJ-1000(for distortion purposes)So these headphones were a very pleasant surprise for me to give a review. The last “cheap AKG” phones I’ve had any experience with were the K70. Those phones were flat just on the edge of tin like and overall a massive disappointment. I might be considered an “audiofile” by some and would consider my setup to be at the bottom of premium. I normally listen to things on a set of HD598 that I love with everything and an S.M.S.L. DAC connected via SPDIF(optical). So coming into these phones at this price point I was not expecting good things to say the least given my last experience. Turns out I was way off base as these are really solid phones.So first things first the sound is very neutral which is something I look for in studio grade phones. No bass boosting or extra crystal in the highs. Just nice neutral sound to appreciate the original source material. The sound stage is large but The highs are nice and clear with a little cut off at the peaks. The bass is nice warm and clear if a little flat. Giving a listen to a bass boosted version of Invincible I would have to crank my DAC to a level that on my HD598’s would have my ears bleeding. However there was no distortion or muddling so I would more likely chalk it up to gain hunger for bass than I would weak output. Switching over to a song I know has a lot of highs as well as bass I gave a listen to Ignoring My Heart Bass Boosted. The story was the same. No real distortion happening I could discern a clear difference between the highs and the bass on the drops. I think the lesson here is if you’re wanting a rich thick bass signature out of these phones then you’re going to have to be listening on a dedicated device like a DAC or Audio Interface and not a phone/tablet. Highs I listened to a couple songs that give me a good impression of the highs and their qualities. First off I listened to Jolie Coquine by Caravan Palace. DAC was at the normal level I keep it at this time around and everything from the lyrics to the violins were nice a clear if a bit lacking in the peaks. Next up a gave Beauty Beats by Beats Antique a listen which has the highs more muted but still present in the foreground. It was a much better listening experience here the violins are more in the background while the fiddles are more foreground. Next up I gave Carmina Burana a go particularly the version performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s one of the best versions that really shows off highs as well as giving you a solid idea of the sound stage of the phones. This was outstandingly good in terms of the highs but the sound stage was quite lacking here.I would say it's about half as wide as my HD 598's. Last I gave Madame Coquette by Tape Five a listen and noticed the slight cut off in the highs once a gain compared to my 598’s. It’s nothing an average listener would notice or someone who’s more a casual listener would notice but it’s definitely there in the highs Mids songs are always really hard to pick out because I think a huge difference in peoples listening experience comes in at the Mids. So I would use my track list here to find where your listening defaults lie. First off I gave My Kind of Town by Sinatra a listen because with the lyrics and the woods section I think this song has a really solid mid presence throughout. Here’s where I noticed the first bit of the corner cutting that I think gets these phones into the price point they are in. There’s a flatness that isn’t obvious but very pronounced. It sounds like you get to right where a mid would fill your sound stage and it stops just before that. Next up I gave In The Air Tonight by Collins a listen. I think this song is a good choice because the Mids are what I would call the essence of this song. No real issues here this time around and the flatness isn’t as big of a deal here.Moving on to movies and general video content from the likes of YouTube, Netflix, etc I think this is where the phones really shine. The overall neutral sound signature gives any spoken word content a perfect balance. Everything form YouTube videos to movies to Netflix sounded as good as I expected it to sound. With no real issues or noticeable drops offs of any kind. Everything sounds just right in my book.So conclusion time is upon us and it’s important that you remember that sound in general is a very subjective medium and it’s hard to just outright say something or give a person a conclusive yes or no answer to a question. All that taken into account are these good headphones? Yes I think the neutral studio sound signature and level detail in the sound is perfect for this price point. If you’re a streamer, gamer, or video watcher then these headphones are hard to beat. If you’re a big music listener or expect booming thunderous sounds then I think you should look elsewhere. I don’t honestly believe you can get a set of headphones that are this comfortable and this quality at this price without a major sale going on at the time. These are a solid buy and a solid 5 star from me.