AKG K240 MKII

Not exactly flat as it has slighty boost lower frequencies and slightly rolled off upper frequency. I have the studio version myself and they are very good especially for the price that I paid for them. I'm curious, how does your K240 compare to your K701?

The k240 is definitely more forgiving because it won't reveal all the detail(the good and the bad) like the 70X....nor does it have the vast sound stage  It's less bright and has a fairly big bump in the upper bass, but nice natural sounding midrange for the price.

Good question, and I'm probably not the best person to answer it, but there's not a lot of leakage if memory serves me well...they're only semi-open...and the 600ohm versions are supposed to be very flat/neutral. I DO know they are used a lot for recording, but where leakage is an issue the k271(closed) is obviously better. FWIR, an old best selling Boston album from the '70's was mixed on the old k240's....one of the 600 ohm versions....DF or M, I guess. I think sufjan stevens uses them for mixing...or maybe it was someone else. He has very unorthodox recording techniques from what I read on another forum.

 

 

Thanks for the info lejaz!  It's scary to think that there even more details to be had from my music as I find the k240 to be pretty detailed, although it's the one of the best among my small collection 'phones that I have now.

coming from the k240 the k70X can really floor you the first time you hear one! Floor you in a good way that is....but it's over the top bright too, IMO. And with bad recordings or poor quality mp3s....well, you'll hear all the flaws in great detail!

Wow, I much prefer the K240 Mk II (Studio) over the K701's.  To me, the K240's are a lot flatter sounding than the K701's.  It's been posted many times elsewhere here by other people, but the K701's have a "treble emphasis" I just cannot accept.  The flipside is: Minimal bass.  The K240 sounds much more balanced to me.

 

And now there seems to be a more bassy version of the K701:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/540766/are-the-new-k701s-more-bassier

 

Imagine that !!

 

Edited by Kevin Brown - 3/1/11 at 9:52am

All MKII are 55Ohms ... the MKII is a recoloured K240s with velour pads in each box.

 

The DF are the most neutral, followed by the M... (both 600ohms) while the K240MKII/K240s/K242HD are a bit mid-bassy and a bit more easy-going.

The Sextetts are quite musical but not flat at all (great though).

 

Compared to my K701 my K240s have a lot more body but fail to compete at the huge sound stage the K701 has to offer.

Plus the K701 needs a good amp (m³ on my end) while the K240s manages to sound quite decent without an amp.

The K701 on my end have great bass but not much in terms of quantity and impact.

Overall the K701 sounds like a big brother to the K240s and does most things a lot better. It sounds less muddy and is fast as hell.

 

And... yeah, I have to equalize my K701 a bit (search the forums for a Tutorial) to tame its tremble a little.

 

This said let's come to the K701s biggest weakness -> your own media library... bad recordings are a no go... so I switch to my K240s to not rage myself to death when I listen to old mp3s.

It hurts my heart if there is a track I used to love but it was only released in 128/192 by the artist (plus there are no CDs to rip)

 

This said... both are great bang for a buck.

Agree that the k70X is excessively bright and the k240 more balanced because of that. The k240S doesn't sound as flat as the k240DF or the dt48 though.  
 

 

I never said the K240 Mk II was flat.    Just that it's more balanced to me for what I'm looking for in a headphone.  But by no stretch of the imagination is it a basshead headphone.

 

I had a pair of DT48e's for a while.  Didn't like those much along with any of the DF or K240M.

 

But one problem I have is that many people say that the DF is flat, or the M is flat, or the DT48 is flat, or the K701 is flatter.  My problem is that I have extensively characterized my home theater with static SPL freq response measurements as well as software such as http://www.etfacoustic.com/ (to look in the time domain).  And I do have as flat a frequency response as anyone would get in my room.  But ... the K240 Mk II (Studio) and K240 Sextett sound a heckuva lot more like what my home theater sounds like than the DF/M/DT48/K701.

 

Here's an experiment for any of you: try watching/listening to U-571 with any of the above headphones.  Now ... which one seems to convey the action of the movie better?  

 

 

Many people say that the K701 has a "treble emphasis" ... specifically because ... it has a treble emphasis and is bass deficient.  Not because it's any flatter than the K240 Mk II.