AKG K271 MKII's Sounding Weak? What's going on?

Heya,

Your onboard sound solution is the problem.

It's dangerous to go alone, here, take this. (Or this).

Very best,

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuTra 

The only pair of headphones I've owned were the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro until now. I just bought the AKGs K271 MKIIs and a lot of the reviews said that the mids and highs were crisp and awesome and that the lows were way better than the 280s. Yet, my K271's are so quiet and the mids are no where near as crisp or clear to my 280s. The 280s, although really lacking in the lows, were really great in the mids and highs. I could hear so many things with the 280s (except for the bass).

 

I'll admit tho, the bass on the K271s is very nice and the highs seem fine. Anyway, what's with my K271's being so quiet. My normal listening volume for my 280s is 32 on the Windows 7 volume meter, but for my K271's, I have to raise it to 75 to achieve the same loudness.

 

Are the mids so weak because I need an amp for my K271s? Will an amp help bring out the mids or are my headphones broken? I did read that the K271s are hard to drive.

 

Thanks guys,

AuTra

the Senns are 11dB/mW more efficient than the AKGs.  the K271 are not "hard" to drive but require more voltage swing and twist on the volume to achieve a similar volume as the Senns.  no, they don't sound great out of an iPod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AuTra 

Is the http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/miscellaneous-audio/miscellaneous-audio/q5/ (Samson Q5) a good headphone amp? My friend has one and he says he'll sell it to me for cheap.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was wondering, what's mor important to get first. A soundcard or amp? I'm currently using my onboard soundcard and it crackles so much even with Asio4All when I produce music.

I would get off the onboard immediately. You can get a single soundcard that will be a better DAC and cover amplification in one sweep. Or you can get an external DAC/AMP combination that does that too (by the way, a soundcard is just a DAC without a case that fits in a computer, and a lot of them have amps built in). I would put you on the Asus Xonar DG for $30. All the amplification you need, good DAC, and lots of options in the software so that you can tweak things to be what you want while you do your music thing. Or, you can get something external, like a Fiio E7, or iBasso Zero, or even a Hifiman HM-101.

Very best,

Hate to revive this thread, but how do you think the Fiio e10 will stack up against the iBasso and other options for the K271 MKII? I realize it's  a fairly new amp/dac combo, but it seems to be pretty well received so far. 

I've got my k271 tapped into an e7 and it makes a big difference. The bass is much richer (you can really hear it in acoustic recordings) and the mids are a little more "dynamic" (not sure if that's the right word). While some might not appreciate the slightly less neutral mids under the e7, I found it added just enough warmth to make my pianos and other mid-instrumentals really sing out.