AKG K181.... upgrade..?

The K181 is more HiFi than it ought to be. Whereas the K81/518 will obscure some detail and has limited highs the K181 is truer to the source.

 

Contrary to you I find the K181 a large improvement compared to its little brothers but even then it does not sound as fun and involving. To be honest I prefer the the more distanced presentation over the first row plus subwoofer presentation of the K81/518. With the K181 I can listen to pretty much anything but I found the K81/518 mostly suitable for Electronic and Industrial music. J.S. Bach's organ works with large club are a treat with the K181. It handles 'Classical' music and Jazz quite well.     

 

Regarding the listening fatigue, if the recording exhibits strange and annoying tones in the the highs, the K181 will pass them on. For instance there is a this great Japanese group of instrumentalists named Kodo. One of their albums is on my DAP and the last song on it has this strange high tone that does not blend in with the harmony of the composition neither its sound: it just annoys me to such an extent that I only use that track as a test track despite it musical beauty. 

 

The K81/518 is the more comfortable headphone but I can live with less comfort and more sound quality. I preferred the K181 in the end given its sound quality overall was on par with the PX200 II but the isolation and sound stage were extras that I just could not ignore. 

 

I hope to have helped you a bit...

All music I listened to with the K518 I had sounded closed in. Now the K181 is not a K701 but for a closed DJ headphone the stereo image you get is larger and more detailed than you would expect thus when switching from K518 to K181 it felt like finally getting a clue of what was going on in the recording. 

 

A good test for the highs is Miles Davis' "So What". The intro starts quietly after which the trumpet follows. Now on the K518 the trumpet lacked presence, impact and extension to say the least. On the K181 you will be able to distinguish a clearly defined trumpet solo. Listen closer and you will hear more than the K518 ever allowed you to hear.

 

P.S. When buying new headphones do not expect too much. Give the headphone a fair chance and trust your own ears.

Edited by Deep Funk - 12/31/11 at 8:03am

I've just bought a pair of the AKG 181s and haven't had a chance to test them in depth but so far I'm pretty pleased with the sound. I haven't noticed the left sounding louder than the right, they seem pretty balanced. What have you been listening to them through? If all the songs sound louder on the left it could be because they're not getting enough power or they have a bad connection. If its just some songs it could be the recording. These headphones have a pretty big driver and an mp3 player or something portable might have a hard time powering both speakers. The power cord plugs in on the left so it could make sense that the left sounds a little louder. It also could be why the bright sounds are hallow or strange sounding. If you get the chance I'd recommend trying the headphones with adapter for the larger socket and plug it into a home stereo system or something with the larger socket that puts out more power. If that fixes it it means your not getting enough power. You can get portable amps for mp3 and cd players to fix the problem

I have not heard the 181, but I've had the 81 (same as 518) and really liked it. It's bass heavy and excellent for some rock or easy listening. Have you tried taking out the foams from the cups. This makes them a little less bass heavy. Now my main on-ear headphone is the superlux hd668B, excellent value, but a thin bass light sound if you come from the akg.