AKG K-712 Pro

comfort, sound and design

The trusted design of the AKG headphones produces a comfort second to none. It is night and day in comparison to my Grado. The leather headband was smooth day one, and did not produce any discomfort. Earcups are larger than my ears, perfect.

Sound quality is perfect for me. Even with Spotify, details are heard that were totally invisible through my Sony MDR-7506. The stereo scene is truely great, not pressurized as in the closed back Sony. They of course leak a lot as every open back headphones do.

Curled cable is a bit stiff, but nice and feel sturdy. Straight cable with 3m is a bit long for my use, but feels smoother.

As usual for headphones, be sure to feed them with a source impedance around 8 times less than the impedance of the headphones. These, at 62 Ohms, are rather stringent regarding this. Check your headphones output or source impedance on your interface/amp/portable before committing. Sadly, this info is seldom given in the figures. Power output is not everything here.

Mine are fed with a homemade headphones amp that has a source impedance of 0.015 Ohms, plenty of power, and incorporates a crossfeed filter for good measure ;-). The sound is amazing through that one. I didn't took the time to test it directly on the Macbook output.

Next step will be an SPL Phonitor x, so as to be able to switch between headphones and monitors easily, with the best quality possible on both use.

Avoid: Amazing sound, let down by build quality

I bought a pair of K-712s just over two years ago, the sound quality is impeccable. The comfort is brilliant especially for extended listening sessions, I would forget they were even on my head.

Sadly after two years of use the elastic, which is the one thing that manages the extension of the headband and how the headphones sit on your head, has deteriorated and become next to useless. The headphones used to sit comfortably around my ears, but now they are held on by the tops of my ears and will slip down to my jaw.

After looking around online there are other users who have had similar problems with their pairs of K-712s. Given that headphones can have very long lifespans if cared for properly it is a massive disappointment to have these become so loose that they slip off my head after only two years of use. They were stored safely in a hard case when not in use which wouldn't lead to over extension of the elastic.

In summary I would avoid these as they have one single point of failure which is known to fail over time.

Just like monitors!

I was pretty confused when I tried these the first time. Plugged them in an swapped output from monitors to headphones and had to double check several times that my monitors were actually muted.

I don’t know how well they can go really low cause my current monitors are only flat down to around 40-80 Hz, but for mixing in a small home studio with sub-optimal acoustics and huge dips in room response they really great.

I would buy them again in a heartbeat.

Good

Cant compare with other headphones because its my first and ive been using MDR-XB55AP before. I can hear a new instrument after switching to this while playing Genshin and listening to other. Also the Sound Stage is good that i thought the sound was coming from outside but it was from the headphones instead.

The only downside is i need to pay extra for the delivery because the UPS in my area somehow cant deliver it and using Yamato Transport services instead. Theres even a UPS logo on my package. But I think the problem is on the UPS side. To anyone who order from Japan, i suggest spend some extra cash just in case the delivery courier is changed.

Worringly Cheap!

I like them

feels super good!

worries me they are from 500 euros to 195 euros... gives me a strange feeling in the belly something should be off... something should go wrong, or it'll break after some months... But am satisfied with the product, for now.

My friend tried them and complained, mentioned the typical AKG problem that its too wide, you miss a bit the middle/centre, feeling it strong and safe for your critical mixing.

I think that its a matter of taste... if you understand relativistically with what headphones you are working then you can work well with any headphone. But of course these headphones actually make me want to try the Sennheiser HD 650... couldn't afford the extra 150 euros though.