Another AKG K271 MKII Review - Page 2

So what are y'all using for these as the pads? The vinyl/pleathers or the velours? Vinyls for me. I find that these sound the best with the vinyl/pleathers as they seem to tighten up the sound overall; to me at least, the velours sound too splashy and loose, which is not my cup of tea... my ears sweat less with the velours but to me the vinyls sound better enough for me to make that comprimise.

Velour for me, couldn't make a good seal with pleather. Velour pads are deeper and better seal translates into better bass. Didn't notice any other difference like "splashiness" or looseness, same nice and tight sound.

Weird, the velour pads I got with my K271 (bought new) is shallow and thin; my pleathers are definitely a bit deeper and fatter when put side to side, and the holes seem slightly bigger as well, and they seal MUCH better for me personally. I also feel that my velours don't give me much padding and they press into my head more; pleathers are more cushy for me. Sound is unfocused and splashy for me on both bass and treble. I'm guessing this is a seal problem in my part then... are there different types of velour pads out there for the AKG's or something like that?

I had the opportunity to compare these with the Denon 2000 and for me it was no contest. I kept the Denon and sold these for one simple reason. Comfort. Even with the velour pads, I found them extremely uncomfortable while wearing glasses.

Yeah, with these being first and foremost studio/monitoring headphones, they naturally clamp a bit so they keep the seal better. It's loosened up for me a little after about a week or so (mainly the headband and the pads) to tolerable levels but I don't think the clamp is going to get much better... so yeah, I'd think for people with glasses these could be a bit tough. It's difficult to find a well sealing studio headphone that doesn't clamp a lot actually... the SRH840's are about the only one I can think of, and even they got other comfort issues (with weight and headband that presses down on the top of your head).

I have original K271S that comes w/o velour stock and pads were ordered separately from AKG, may be they were different from what supplied with MKII, but they are significantly deeper than pleather ones.

Cankin has said otherwise, but I do prefer the mkII because the mids are better. With both having the same pads (velour or plether), the S has more bass.

But we're talking here about ever so tiny differences. Not night and day differences. They both still have the same sound signature. The problem here is that they were bought many months apart. Both have varying amounts of use. The S I actually used a lot when I'd run on a treadmill machine despite the racket of noise generated by the mechanical parts of the headband assembly. So a lot of sweat and mechanical stresses come into play. I have babied the mkII, but there could have been manufacturing inconsistencies that may have cropped up that made my specific S variant have just a tiny little bit more bass than the mkII. Who knows. All I know is that my mkII has less bass than my S variant, and I like it more because I can tweak that aspect on the mixer when my mood calls for it.

If I were forced to make a buying decision over which one to get right now, It would be the mkII simply because you get more accessories out of the box for your money and not because of the minute sound difference. They still sound inherently the same.

This on my short list of cans now that I got some money. I was going to get a pair of the open version of the ATH-A700 I have but I have a pair of Grado SR80s and probably would be disappointed in comparison. My main pair are my well broken in Ultrasones in my sig. Just like to try some low ohm offerings of makers I've never owned.

Edited by slick1ru2 - 10/18/11 at 5:25am