The AKG K550 Appreciation/Discussion Thread! - Page 10

Katun!! Your not a fan of the K550? Just picked up a pair and loving them so far. Of course great sound and comfort at a really good price is a big draw for me. If I paid regular retail I might be more critical of fit or the long cable and no replaceable cable. But the seem like they are built like a tank at least.

 

I just bought them locally (on my way to work) from Canada Computers. They were $289 but there was a $35 discount special, so it was $264. Not as good as $199 + shipping but still not bad. When I got to work, the K167 had arrived. It was AKG day.

So how do the 2 AKG's compare? I was thinking about the k167/267 line as well.

 

I actually really liked my first pair. It was definitely one of the better closed headphones I had heard, sorta melding the sound of two other decent closed headphones (SRH840 and SRH940).

 

Bought my second pair a little over a month ago and I honestly didn't like it. I think I was too used to the smoothness of the MA900 at the time, so it made the K550 sound like the Pro 900 or something.

Just picked up a pair of these myself a few days ago. New to closed backs (new baby in house!) and very, very pleasantly surprised. In the process of comparing them to Beyer DT880s in 250 ohm and my fave HiFiMan HE-6, all through an NJC Reference 2 using the variable gain. Amp is being fed by a Naim CD5XS.



Firstly, i haven't had any fit or comfort issues at all. They slipped on my head right out of the box and instantly felt sealed in the way my IEMs do. I didn't even need to adjust the headband. They are incredibly light and comfortable and the pleather is top notch. More comfortable even than the Beyers - I could definitely wear these for hours at a time. None of "sweaty ears" issues I've read about elsewhere either.

Soundwise, these are still burning in but out of the box I am very impressed. Never owned a full size closed back can before, but I don't hear any drawbacks and the level of isolation is very good indeed, my wife sat next to me on the couch can't hear a thing even though the volume level is slightly higher than I would normally listen at. Bass is very tight and lean but still plentiful, bass lines easy to follow. Superb vocals as well.

Comaprison wise, these blow my old faithful Beyers out of the water, with the added benefit of isolation. Actually a bit saddened by that as the Beyers have been with me a long time :-)

The HiFiMan is a different story. The orthos are in a different league, and at well over 4x the price I should hope so too. Everything is more present, bass is still tight but richer, and so. But, they are heavy and leak like a sieve. I realise it isn't exactly a fair comparison, but the AKGs still give a very good account of themselves and are definitely not 4x worse - diminishing sq returns for cost increase being an unfortunate fact of life in this hobby!

So, as I said, dead impressed by these cans and looking forward to hearing just how much better they can get with burn in.

Which closed headphone do you recommend? 

Hey guys! I've been looking into these but I'm a bit worried about my headsize, I havn't read all replies in this thread but still quite a few. Not really sure what is considered to be a small or medium sized head, but mine is def not big. My head's circumstance is aprox 58ish cm (22 3/4") Do I need to try mod/bend it?

What do you think?
Edited by christoffer - 11/30/12 at 2:51pm

^in all honesty the shape of you head has bearing on it more than anything else. Bigger heads would just tend to have more surface area for the pads to seal against without the curve of your jawline or cheek breaking the seal. I think it's more one of those things you just have to try out for yourself. I have never had an issue with it. Bending is to increase the clamping force which helps with seal and can be found in the OP of this thread if I recall.

My head's circumstance is 54cm about 21.25 inches. What about me? Too big?? I can't try it as i don't live in the US and this items simply don't exist for sale in Venezuela. 

Edited by mvtm - 11/30/12 at 3:25pm

 

It will be a while before I listen to the Tiesto. It is still new, unopened in the box. If I rush to open it today, then I will need to buy another new headphone tomorrow. You know how it is.  Just got some brief listening in with the K550. They seem pretty nice. No problems with the fit. I'll get back with more impressions later.

I would be particularly interested to hear how your 550's compare to your B&W P5's. I enjoy listening to music on my P5's but for long listening sessions they don't work we'll for me at all (too uncomfortable) and tracks with a lot of brass, trumpets etc. at the forefront I cannot enjoy as they sound harsh to my ears.

Thanks for your answer! Ye i've been reading about some modding methods (as presented in #1 post, and with rubber bands) but I guess you're right, better to try find it locally and just try it

If a am doing a lot of jaw movement I can tell the seal is lessened at points but generally speaking music is not my focus at those moments. Otherwise other than gently bending the band a bit I haven't done anything else to these but I may try the elastic band or stuff mod just to hear what happens.

Still enjoying the sound of these very much.

I was about to post this in the MDR-1R thread but feel it is more appropriate here.

I thought I was done when I got the 1R especially because they really are so comfortable and portable. But as I used them I missed something. I thought it was bass and treble so "upgraded" to the NC model only to find while I liked it's bass (in NC mode) I was not fond of the treble and also found the NC mode was horrible in wind.

Then I decided to try something new and went Momentum. They only lasted 2 days due to comfort issues and lack of detail in their sound. To be honest I liked them sonically less than the 1R. They had more bass but it was mostly mid-bass and I found the treble less enjoyable than the 1R as well. But they sure did have a nice build to them and a really nice case.

The K550 has some issues with fit that cause people issues but I haven't had much problem and interestingly enough one of my coworkers who has a much smaller head than me as we'll as being more angular also had no issue. But sound wise shows why I wasn't happy with the 1R or Momentum. It is just that much more detailed and clear sounding with sharper contrasts and clearer image separation. While it's similar bass wise (with a good seal I think it's got at least as much sub-bass as the 1R if not a bit more). It's ability to contrast the bass against the mids and highs just makes it sound better. The K550 is also a faster headphone without sacrificing decay and timbre to achieve the speed.

Dweaver(and other 550 owners too),I had two small issues with build quality of my 550's,the first is that the headband pad was not so nice glued to the metal headband,leaving some kind of small gaps(basically at the two edges of the pad) between the headband and the pad,where you could also notice some glue.The second issue was that the left adjustment didn't click properly on the numbers,compared to the right one (both feeling and "click" sound).So I returned them and got money back,but I'm thinking of buying them again some time due to their great sound.

Did anyone else noticed the headband pad not so good glued to the headband,and with the adjustments to feel different one from the other?