[kid vic]

Of course you want to think that if your pair didn't have the sticker.
I got my info from a current businesses partner of a former AKG employee.

That's great that you have a friend of a of friend who used to work with AKG. Mine had the sticker, someone else said there's was missing the sticker. I remember posting about there being no quality difference somewhere when the furor over the K7XX was happening. Id really like to find that post now

 

[markanini]

That's great that you have a friend of a of friend who used to work with AKG. Mine had the sticker, someone else said there's was missing the sticker. I remember posting about there being no quality difference somewhere when the furor over the K7XX was happening. Id really like to find that post now

Well, saying that there's no difference is more crazy than saying there's a huge difference, right? If you want to know the story behind AKG moving production to China just google "AKG china oratory1990".

 

[kid vic]

Well, saying that there's no difference is more crazy than saying there's a huge difference, right? If you want to know the story behind AKG moving production to China just google "AKG china oratory1990".

I'm fully aware that AKG moved production to China, I'm also aware that I found no physical quality differences between my pairs. It was the Austrian K812s that died frequently not the Slovakian ones, so Austria origin doesn't automatically denote better build.
Realistic AKG was having build issues in both places, people just go after one place more than the other.

What do you mean by: "Well, saying that there's no difference is more crazy than saying there's a huge difference" it's entirely possible (and common) for manufacturing to switch countries without the market noticing quality changes.

If in a test with ten K612s, none having stickers you couldn't tell the physical difference would you label yourself crazy?

Head-fi is filled with people who say that AKG headphones feel like plastic toys regardless of there place of origin.

 

[kman1211]

I've owned two K612's side by side, one I knew for a fact was of Austrian origin and one of China. Sound was different, but the Chinese pair I had was poor sounding as a later Chinese pair I heard sounded better. There is a difference in materials, Austrian pairs are a bit higher quality in their plastics, the Austrian made pairs generally clamp more in both the K612 and K7xx. The easiest way to tell an Austrian vs Chinese K6xx or K7xx is to take off the pads and and look at the plastic on the baffle, especially in front of the drivers is how smooth the plastic is, the chinese pairs tend to have some plastic burrs as the plastic isn't fully smoothed and trimmed down, whereas the Austrian's are properly trimmed and smoothed, plus the plastic simply feels of higher quality.

 

[kid vic]

My point was that Austrian K612s might not be that rare and that most people probably cant tell the difference reliably through touch unless they break.

I've owned two K612's side by side, one I knew for a fact was of Austrian origin and one of China. Sound was different, but the Chinese pair I had was poor sounding as a later Chinese pair I heard sounded better. There is a difference in materials, Austrian pairs are a bit higher quality in their plastics, the Austrian made pairs generally clamp more. The easiest way to tell an Austrian vs Chinese K6xx or K7xx is to take off the pads and and look at the plastic on the baffle, especially in front of the drivers is how smooth the plastic is, the chinese pairs tend to have some plastic burrs to them, whereas the austrian's don't.

Interesting, I still have my Chinese build K7XX and cant recall them feeling any different. My vintage sextetts (Austria build) feel more brittle but that's age related.

 

[markanini]

I will make this clear. I love my chinese made K612. Of course there will be differences between Chinese and Austrian. I doubt theres a significant difference as I haven't heard any compelling reason to believe that.

 

[kman1211]

My point was that Austrian K612s might not be that rare and that most people probably cant tell the difference reliably through touch unless they break.


Interesting, I still have my Chinese build K7XX and cant recall them feeling any different. My vintage sextetts (Austria build) feel more brittle but that's age related.

If you inspect them side by side, there is a difference. I also owned a K712 and K7XX at the same time, similar differences. I also had an Austrian K240 Studio compared to an Chinese, similar impressions on plastics being a bit more robust. The K240 Sextett I had, felt much better quality than the modern K240s.

 

[kid vic]

Lets leave this one be; vcmusik might be able to check on the box to see if it has an origin, otherwise SOTL

 

[CADCAM]

I've had my K612's for a while now and always liked them, sometimes more sometimes less, relative to what I was listening to. I always thought they sounded excellent with classical but recently listed them for sale on ebay mainly due to my HE400i's that just click with me sound wise. I got a few low ballers on ebay but ended the auction early because I bought them new, kept them pristine, like the sound most of the time and didn't want to give them away after ebay and paypal fees!
Anyway... I have a LD MKIII, Maverick Audio DAC, Audio Control EQ, NAD source setup I use for my DT880's and threw the K612's on without defeating the EQ curve for the DT880's and man did they sound good. I'm glad I didn't give these away and with a little eq correction they sound so much better than the appearance and price would suggest. So if you have the K612 as I do and only use them sparingly try a little eq correction. I used the suggestions here on Head-Fi for the DT880 and not only did it work well for them but worked well for the K612 also.
Carry on.

 

[markanini]

I've been using my AKG K612 with this EQ setting to match the Harman target. Let me know if you try it, I've certainly enjoyed listening to mine this way.

 

[mwat]

Can anyone who has successfully got the silver cover off their K612's share a method that works..? I spotted a few people in this thread had tried... and succeeded? The cable on mine needs resoldering but I just can't get in.
The service manual recommends inserting needle nose pliers (and rotate anti-clockwise), but I've never seen pliers with tips that fine and mine certainly don't fit.
I've seen someone on YouTube achieve it with what looks like two pins and a lot of force. Tried it and have nothing but a small collection of bent and snapped pins/needles to show for it . And a fair few scratches and enlarged holes in the cover

 

[Headcasey MD]

Can anyone who has successfully got the silver cover off their K612's share a method that works..? I spotted a few people in this thread had tried... and succeeded? The cable on mine needs resoldering but I just can't get in.
The service manual recommends inserting needle nose pliers (and rotate anti-clockwise), but I've never seen pliers with tips that fine and mine certainly don't fit.
I've seen someone on YouTube achieve it with what looks like two pins and a lot of force. Tried it and have nothing but a small collection of bent and snapped pins/needles to show for it . And a fair few scratches and enlarged holes in the cover

Needle nose pliers work! But they have to be real needle nosed. You'll need something that is one piece. I think I remember getting a paper clip properly bent and firmly gripped to work. I referenced this YouTube video to do the repair:

 

[Headcasey MD]

Can anyone who has successfully got the silver cover off their K612's share a method that works..? I spotted a few people in this thread had tried... and succeeded? The cable on mine needs resoldering but I just can't get in.
The service manual recommends inserting needle nose pliers (and rotate anti-clockwise), but I've never seen pliers with tips that fine and mine certainly don't fit.
I've seen someone on YouTube achieve it with what looks like two pins and a lot of force. Tried it and have nothing but a small collection of bent and snapped pins/needles to show for it . And a fair few scratches and enlarged holes in the cover

Needle nose pliers work! But they have to be real needle nosed. You'll need something that is one piece. I think I remember getting a paper clip properly bent and firmly gripped to work. I referenced this YouTube video to do the repair:

Also try tweezers.

 

[Kukuk]

Can the stock K612 cable be reterminated to balanced? I had a K601 years ago that was terminated to 4-pin XLR, but I'm not sure if the wiring of the K612 was changed.

If it can be terminated to balanced without too much issue, I kind of want to commission someone to do it.

 

[mwat]

Needle nose pliers work! But they have to be real needle nosed. You'll need something that is one piece. I think I remember getting a paper clip properly bent and firmly gripped to work. I referenced this YouTube video to do the repair:

Also try tweezers.

Thanks guys. Finally managed to find a suitably needle nosed tool - a quality pair of needle nose tweezers in the end. They really do need to be properly needle nosed i.e. as pointy as a needle! Electronics stores are probably the best place to find them (chemist/pharmacies sell them too in the makeup/beauty section, but twice the price for the same thing).

Anyway, they did the trick. Easily removed the silver cover without any further damage... (right tool for the right job...). One of the white wires was completely snapped off the solder point - just a symptom of slight flexing of the wire over time as the ear cups are put on/taken off by the looks of it, so may well need doing again eventually. None of the soldering looked particularly good though - but mine isn't much better . So just a little melted plastic from fiddly soldering and all working well again.