The AKG K550 Appreciation/Discussion Thread! - Page 6

Can help to suggest a better source than RocooP when matching with K550 ? So far I don't notice any hissing sound from this combination. I am currently exploring other source to get the maximum performance out of K550, some suggestion here would be great, thanks in advance.

Are you thinking of portable or non-portable?

 

From my PC I like it out of the Fiio E17 for musicality/enjoyable vibe.

Out of the AudioQuest Dragonfly it sounds more reference-like, more balanced and exact, but still enjoyable to listen to.

As for portable sources, I think the Rocoo P was the best pairing I found after going through some Apple sources and the Galaxy SIII.
(I do not have the higher end portable audio players 801/C4/iBasso.)

    Well, probably thinking of a higher end portable audio player like maybe the HiSoundAudio Studio V or others, but not sure whether it's bang for the buck to upgrade. I did explore the desktop option, but the investment will be quite significant.

The Fiio E17 is $200, The Audioquest Dragonfly is $300...

Most portable players that are an upgrade are more then that. =)

The Rocoo P is quite good with the AKG unless you want to pay about a grand.
The Studio V is probably not that much of an upgrade comparatively.

I haven't done a side-by side by comparison (no Studio V) but the biggest thing in the Sutdios favor is the greater output power and extended battery life. Yet I don't notice any hiss from the P and it drives the 550 with no issues. Any significant upgrades on the DAP front will be pricey I think.
 

I'm thinking about picking one of these up.  Do most of you feel you need to do the earpad mod for a better seal?

It really depends on the physical size of your head. If you have a larger head you'll probably be ok, from what I've read from others. I have a smallish (rounder) head and I feel I most definitely need the pads fluffed up more for a better seal.

They are great headphones but I literally have to fiddle with them for about 2 or 3 songs before my ears heat up and they finally seal. But once that happens they really sound great to me.

 

not really, before I bought them I read all the mods that exist on forums lol I thought the first thing I was going to do when I got them out of the box was bend the headband but I didn’t need to, when I tried them for the first time I got them to seal right away. And I don’t have a giant head or anything, maybe average but definitely not big.

So that, I didn’t mod them and they fit really well on my average sized, maybe fortunate morphology, human head

+1 I get a fine seal. Big head finally came in handy. Not huge noggin just not small.

. +1 ditto.. though my head is a bit on the larger side.

Hello there,  Akg k550 owners;. I have a couple of question and reques for all of you. I've tried to search them in the forum and posts but could not find anything. Just wrote the same post @http://www.head-fi.org/t/610298/akg-k550-review/195 but could not get direct answer. Or test result.

Anyway, I’ve recently bought k550 and love the sound, details etc. But the main problem is, I was feeling like the cans were little bit unbalanced at highs.  For me, the right can was little bit quitter. And sound was little more  panned to left side. At first, I suspected, it was because of seal, me or my ears (have flu nowadays).

So as soon as I reversed the channels so as the problem was reversed. Now the left can was little bit quiter.
 

Later I run a test called “driver matching” from  http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php  (4th one) and noticed that at high frequencies (almost at the end of the test last 2 secs) A panning was departing from its central position. I belive it was at 2khz-10 khz range.The sound was like shaking to left to right and finished at the middle.

So am i expecting too much from 300$ headphone or is it just for me? Are yours working well or failed  at this test?

If any other owners will do the same test, i'll be pleased...

Please share your thoughts and advice with me. Finally, thank you all before any of your replies.

Hi, I took this test and everything was fine. Unfortunately, it seems like there are some faulty K550s out there... It is also possible that the first revisions of this headphone were all flawed, there is some anecdotal evidence that points to this conclusion so far (look at the varying measurement results, as well as the varying subjective evaluations). First revision K550s seem to suffer more from the shouty upper-mid issue that some people have been reporting. All of this could have been caused by the fact that the K550 is not built in Austria, like most other AKG headphones. None of this has been confirmed by AKG so please keep this in mind.

With all this said, I think you should have your headphones replaced. If the drivers are so imbalanced that you can actually hear the difference, it is certain that they will replace the headphone for you without any problems.

 

Actually, some imbalance in the high frequencies is quite common even in high end headphones. It may not be audible during actual listening, but if you run test tones, then you will hear even small imbalances. Different sensitivities between left and right ears may also cause the imbalance, so one needs to try running the tone sweeps on several headphones to rule out unbalanced hearing.

Quoted for hilarity.

Saw this frequency graph today:

 

http://ko.goldenears.net/board/index.php?mid=GR_Headphones&document_srl=2553766

 

Looks kind of similar to this one of the KRK KNS-8400:

 

http://en.goldenears.net/9213

 

(8400 doesn't sound anything like it's graph though. At least not when it comes to it's bass)

Do you guys use the akg k550 as your main headphone?