K612 Pro

I was leery about buying these since I knew ahead of time that most are now made in China instead of Germany. I messaged the seller and he confirmed they would be the China version. I made the purchase anyway. These are made of plastic, sure. It did not detract from the sound quality one bit though. These K612's in my opinion are a must have headphone. Inexpensive for what you get and have superb sound quality. Big earcups, comfortable earpads, lightweight and wonderful sound. The only downside is that they don't have a detachable cable. If you are a gamer looking for a bad a$$ gaming headphone, look no further. A few things to keep in mind though. Make sure you have a good sound card. AKG are known for their mids and highs. If you want a little more warmth in your gaming, just make a couple slight EQ adjustments. I like bass, but don't consider myself a basshead by any means. So I have made a slight adjustment on my Sound Blaster Z's EQ and I must say, these put out some of the cleanest bass I've ever hear. They get very low and sound superb. The mids and highs, well, best I've heard. Crisp and clear. I play competitively and have been since the 90's (old school gamer here), these AKG k612's are almost like using a cheat in FPS gaming. The sound imaging these have will allow you to know exactly where the enemies are (by way of footsteps or any other sounds they make). I game with several people when playing competitively and am always the first person to hear footsteps and pinpoint where they are coming from. I highly recommend these for gaming. As far as music goes. Make sure your collection is in FLAC format or some other high quality lossless. MP3 doesn't cut it anymore. You hear all the imperfections of the compressed audio and it makes music sound terrible. If playing FLAC or something of the sort, your music will sound better than it ever has before. I listen to everything (except country) and these things perform astoundingly. (side note: I also bought a Schiit Magni to go along with these, as a friend on Head-Fi told me that they sound better with more power. My Sound Blaster Z has a 600ohm AMP. I DO double AMP these. I have volumes turned down in Windows and I have my Magni sitting around the 1 O'Clock postion. Swapping back and forth between the AMP and no AMP, I only notice a very slight difference, of course they will get louder, but the sound itself does have a slight change. The Magni is known for making sound "brighter" and it does, this is why I slightly adjust the EQ to offset this. But as far as sound quality goes, I do notice that with the Magni the overall sound gets a little cleaner. It may not justify the extra $100 to buy an AMP, I hear the Schiit Vali is better for the AKG line, but I feel this Magni makes enough difference to justify what I payed. Even if the difference is slight, it is there. The Amp is not necessary with a good Sound Card, but may be something to look into. I also have some Pioneer SE-A1000's coming in the mail, should be here by this weekend. I will compare them with these after I have them and will update this review.

I got them used like new for about 120$, they sound more neutral than the Sennheiser HD6XX headphones (which I got for about 250$) and have much better stereo imaging, the only things worse about them in terms of sound quality is that they are slightly less detailed than the Sennheiser HD6XX. Regarding comfort, they squeeze and crush your head a lot right out the box and the earpads are stiff, but with use, they break in and are pretty comfy, although not as comfy as the Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro. (in case you're wondering, they sound worse than the AKG K612 pro at a similar asking price) Build quality is pretty mediocre but on par with the HD6XX except for the extremely long (3 meters or about 9 feet) soldered on cable, which I use twist ties to keep in check. TL;DR: Amazing sound quality for the price with mediocre build quality and high clamping force right out the box. I recommend putting books between these overnight to fix the clamping force without having to squeeze your head.

I was choosing a new pair of headphones and immediately ordered a dozen models. Including several from AKG, namely the K612, K712, K701 and K371. Let's start with the K371. Although they are the cheapest, they are a very decent device. They don't press on the head, and the soft ear cushions allow you to wear the headphones for a long time. The device stays on the head very securely, you can easily take it outside for a run, a bike ride or just a walk. The rather strange design raises some questions. It's unclear how fragile it is. Judging by many reviews here: very fragile. The headphones sound decent for their price, a little bassy. The K612, K712 and K701 headphones are of a completely different type: they are open-back and significantly larger, you can't take them outside, and there's no point. A detachable cable is only available on the K712, and that's a shame. I believe that absolutely all headphones more expensive than ~$100 should have a detachable cable. But there are detailed photo instructions on the Internet on how to add and solder a connector yourself. They all sit on the head perfectly, albeit with slight differences. The K712 is the "older brother" of the K612, so the ear cushions are slightly improved. They are a little thicker, softer and made of a different material (memory foam, it seems). So the K712 is a little more comfortable than the K612, but that doesn't mean that the K612 themselves are uncomfortable. There are practically no differences between the K612 and K701 in terms of comfort. Sound. Personally, I liked the K612 the most for its clean, "unbiased" sound. In them, you can focus on all the instruments or vocals, and none of them "stick out" too much. The K712 are generally considered a more bass-heavy version of the K612, but I only partially agree with this: there is a difference, but it's very small. At the same time, it seemed to me that the K712 lost some clarity and purity compared to the K612. The K701 are a completely different pair. They have very strong high frequencies, and the low frequencies are, on the contrary, weakened. While the K612 and K712 are easily suitable for simple and enjoyable music listening, the K701 might seem "boring" due to the unexpressive bass, but they are very detailed! You can hear all the nuances of the composition, and that's really cool. I also think they would be well suited for FPS games. Regarding reliability. Things are bad here. There are many bad reviews with photos of the K371 regarding the reliability of the construction. The K series headphones have known problems with the quality of soldering of the thin cables inside, which often leads to the sound disappearing in one of the headphones. I personally encountered a similar problem twice: the first pair of K701 I received had a non-working left earphone, and in the K712, during testing, the sound started to cut out. Also, in the K series, the black headband is held by four thin elastic threads, two on each side. They constantly pull the headband down, allowing people with different head shapes to wear the headphones comfortably. However, over time, these threads degrade and deteriorate, like office rubber bands, which means the headband will always be in the highest position, making it difficult for people with smaller heads to wear the headphones. One of the pairs I received had exactly these worn-out elastic bands, and I could only wear the headphones because my head is quite large. In the end, I returned all the AKG headphones and kept a pair from a completely different brand, but if it weren't for the build quality issues, I would have kept the K612 for home listening, I really liked them. Or the K371 for the gym and cycling trips. I hope this short review will help someone make a decision and find their favorite pair of headphones.

Clear, accurate, analytical yet enjoyable. Very crisp, high fidelity. Only issue is a slight lack of bass response due to the open back designs. The bass is THERE, it's just a tad muted/quiet One con though is lack of removable cable.

Nach einer kleinen Kopfhörer-Odyssee bin ich mit diesem K612Pro nun am Ziel und sehr angetan von dessen Fähigkeiten auf den Gebieten Klangneutralität, Auflösung und Raumeindruck. Die Nennimpedanz von 120 Ohm hat sich sowohl am PC als auch (natürlich) am iBasso DX160 als völlig unproblematisch erwiesen, beide Zuspieler treiben reichlich genug Lautheit in die Ohren. Den K612Pro benutze ich vornehmlich am DX160 und habe die vorhandenen leichten Defizite in Bass- und insbesondere im Höhenfrequenzgang (Google hilft beim Finden eines Frequenzgangschriebs) mittels parametrischem Equalizer ausgeglichen. Der Kopfhörer reagiert sehr gutmütig und die Verbesserungen sind, je nach Genre, mehr oder weniger deutlich wahrnehmbar. Ich höre Quer-Beet, vornehmlich Klassik und Jazz aus unterschiedlichen Epochen, Rock und Pop eher am Rande. Mein Eindruck ist, der K612Pro "liebt" Live-Aufnahmen und bringt mäßig gemasterte Aufnahmen, egal ob Live oder Studio, auch nur mäßig zu Gehör - so soll es ja auch sein. Am iBasso DX160 lässt sich der parametrische Equalizer während des Abspielens an- und ausschalten und man kann so leicht überprüfen, ob die Sache etwas bringt. Ich für meinen Teil kann regelmäßig feststellen, dass die Wiedergabe _mit_ Equalizer differenzierter und tendenziell räumlich aufgelöster zu Gehör kommt als nativ. Ich liebe es! Der Bassbereich kommt allerdings nicht besser weg, der AKG offenbart hier seine größte Schwäche indem der Tiefbass zwar lauter, aber nicht knackiger gemacht werden kann. Während ich dies schreibe, höre ich "Blood Sweat and Tears in Concert" und bekomme das Gefühl vermittelt, in der dritten Reihe vor der Bühne zu stehen. David Clayton-Thomas steht oben vor mir, die Drums dahinter...ich denke, ihr wisst was ich meine. Tragekomfort: da gibt es nix zu meckern. Sanfter Druck von den Ohrpolstern, die meine relativ großen Ohren problemlos in sich aufnehmen und ein selbsteinstellendes Kopfband, das auch nach längerem Hören keinen unangenehmen Druck ausübt. Ich ordne den Tragekomfort auf gleicher Höhe wie den Philips Fidelio X3 ein. Kabelanschluß: das leider nicht vom Hörer trennbare Kabel ist ca 3m lang und sehr flexibel und schmiegsam und bereitet, anders als seinerzeit beim Fidelio X3, keine störenden Körperschall-Probleme. Ein Klinken-Adapter von 3.5 auf 6.3 mm ist im Lieferumfang (Kabelstandard ist 3.5 mm). Ich habe und nutze mehrere AKG (Harman/Samsung) Kopfhörer (N400NC, Y500, N700NCM2), allen gemein ist eine klangliche Abstimmung ohne nervige Merkmale, der K612Pro ist aber die erste Wahl für HiFi zuhause. Den K612Pro kann ich bedenkenlos allen empfehlen, die einen bequemen offenen Kopfhörer mit hoher Klangqualität zum kleinen Preis suchen. 5 Sterne ohne Vorbehalt! Bemerkung am Rande: den direkten Vergleich zwischen AKG K612Pro und Focal Clear kann ich nicht mehr ziehen, aber im Nachhinein bin ich sicher, dass der 10-fach teure Focal den Klang nicht 10-fach besser an mein Ohr zu bringen vermochte.

Neutral sound and not too hard to drive. Details and sound stage are OK. It doesn't clamp too hard on the head, and being an open-back headphone, it doesn't need a good seal to sound right. Suitable for a good variety of music genres and responds well to EQ.

Ce casque est parfait en tout point pour mon utilisation. - prix abordable - son fidèle au son d'origine - on entend les sons extérieurs même avec le casque sur les oreilles - confortable au niveau des oreilles - pas mal à la tête grâce au système élastique - long câble

密閉型は長時間使ってると疲れちゃうんで開放型が欲しくて購入。10時間くらい着けてても疲れませんでした。まあ開放型なので低音はあんまり出ないです。しかし中〜高音域は素晴らしい。買ってからずっと使ってます。