[nixternal]

HAHA, yeah. That actually happened with me just a few weeks ago when I got the Schiit stack

 

[393699]

I bet you got the headphones by now, nixternal. How do you like them so far ?

 

[nixternal]

I got them right when you hit "post reply". Went through the headphone tests I purchased from that online site. Binaural knocking, once again scared the ever living crap out of me. Guess the UPS truck was cold. The ear pads were hard as heck, but after wearing them for the past 30+ minutes, they are stupid comfortable. I just finished A/B'ing them with my K240s. Yeah, K240's are good cans, but they do not hold a candle to these.

With that, I don't know all of the crazy technical terms, but I do know soundstange & so do the K712's. The soundstage is ridiculous. Right now I am listening to Patsy Cline, South of the Border. The Mariachi band is about 15 feet to my right singing & playing. One thing these cans will show you is just how bad a lot of new recordings are compared to recordings 15 or more years ago. Also showed me the recording of the Beatles "1" CD wasn't good, or at least the version of the CD I have was way over mastered. Let's talk ear sex, yeah I said it. OK, the K712's can make love to your ears. Listening to Chris Stapleton's traveler (I think 24/96), my god it is insane. Another thing I noticed is you can tell some albums are mastered to make it sound like you are in front of the performance. There are some recordings where you feel like you are right on stage. Dwight Yoakam is a perfect example of this as is George Jones. I close my eyes, I see the crowd, not the band. Sammy Hagar, I see the performance & not the crowd. Metallica...well whoever produces them is not good (albums say the past 15 years, their stuff from the 90s is pure magic). Elvis, I can't stand his voice nor his songs, but come on, the recordings are pure butter.

More butter, Haley Reinhart with Postmodern Jukebox, 7 Nation Army. Oh man, how could someone so young sound timeless? Her soul is nuts. I read that female singers sounded muddy. The only one who sounded muddy to me thus far was Amy Winehouse. Reba, Patsy Cline, Dolly, Loretta Lynn all sound amazing. One thing I am finding out, country music artists tend to have the best recordings. Seems they were mastered very well. I just went through some Brubeck & John Hammond, damn near perfection. There were a couple of times I felt I was listening to speakers & not the cans.

I'm about 45 minutes in & I can hear my ears "burning in". The bass is there no doubt. It is there to the point that I didn't like it at first. I was used to my K240's for 4 years w/o bass. But as I listen, oh man I can feel the drums. Not as bright as many made it out. Now, that is to me, and of course my many years aboard a US Navy ship as a Gunner's Mate firing off the big guns & the explosions, haven't treated my ears well, but I was tested recently up to almost 18k which they tested me twice to make sure I wasn't BS'ing them Cranked up the gain on the Vali 2 to give a bit more control over the volume. I'm wondering if the tube pre is taming the highs a little for me?

2 bad things. 1) there was no "premium carrying bag", and 2) the sheet of paper attached, quite a bit of Chinese on it for something that says "Made in Slovakia". Serial starts with 029.

 

[393699]

If you give my EQ a try, you will see why I created it. It makes the headphone extremely balanced, including the bass response.

 

[nixternal]

If you give my EQ a try, you will see why I created it. It makes the headphone extremely balanced, including the bass response.

Yeah, going to let them burn in a bit & then rock the EQ to check it out. I can't believe how big the & comfortable these pads are. There is absolutely no part of my ear even close to touching anything.

 

[393699]

The K712 Pro offers a great experience for the money. It just can't be beat for the price.

 

[nixternal]

Hey DW, worked in your EQ into Foobar2k. That's a pretty damn good EQ setup. Had to grab a different EQ plugin to get all of the frequencies, but it definitely smoothed it right now. I can't believe I am going to say this, but it took the bass to where I used to like it It made Amy Winehouse sound better even with what I think are bad rips of her albums.

I think testing wise from now on I am using Dwight Yoakam and John Hammond albums. 2 of the better sounding recordings I have heard.

 

[393699]

All my friends always tell me "you just seem to know how things are supposed to sound". They have said this to me ever since I was a kid. It does trip people out though how I am able to EQ any headphone so well just by ear alone. I am glad you are happy with it though, cheers.

 

[nixternal]

Thank you sir, very much appreciated with all of the help, even though y'all didn't have to twist my arm much to pull the trigger Is it bad I am looking at yet another set of AKG's? Maybe a closed back just to have a pair I have open & semi-open, so now might as well just go fully closed We have a foot of snow coming tomorrow, so I am already planning on watching Dunkirk with the 712's just to see how that works out.

 

[393699]

You will find the headphone will continue to improve in sound quality during the burn in. Even after only 8-12 hours, you will notice changes in the detail retrieval, soundstage depth, and bass extension.

 

[zhoyufengsdo]

I just want the new flagship of akg. K812 is old.

 

[MrPanda]

I'm really enjoying the K712's with Sonarworks... I'm stunned at how good these phones can sound

 

[jagardaniel]

Hi! I wrote here earlier and asked about the comfort for us with smaller/more narrow heads. I managed to find a K612 in a shop that I tried and they fit very good. Much more comfortable than I expected, very lightweight. I'm wondering if they use the same "headband mechanism" as the K712 does, and if I can expect them to fit as well. I have also looked a K702 since I'm not a big fan of bass but people are telling horror stories about the headband with bumps.

 

[491838]

I'm really enjoying the K712's with Sonarworks... I'm stunned at how good these phones can sound

I tried their recommended preset for the K712 and it turned them into Beats headphones. They sounded like absolute garbage. Completely ruined the dynamics of the sound. I strongly do not recommend using any sort of EQ on headphones (let alone commercial software when free stuff is just as good) because it can severely impact the performance of the headphones. The K712s are not the flattest headphones ever but they sound better in stock form (albeit a bit warm in the upper bass region).

Hi! I wrote here earlier and asked about the comfort for us with smaller/more narrow heads. I managed to find a K612 in a shop that I tried and they fit very good. Much more comfortable than I expected, very lightweight. I'm wondering if they use the same "headband mechanism" as the K712 does, and if I can expect them to fit as well. I have also looked a K702 since I'm not a big fan of bass but people are telling horror stories about the headband with bumps.

It's more or less the same design. They even use some of the same parts according to an official parts manual I've seen (they have identical or almost identical drivers, which is strange given the sound difference). I strongly recommend getting the K712 since they are the flagship model from AKG (some reputable reviewers are saying the K812 is not as good sound wise but comfort is better). You will be impressed if you're upgrading from something cheaper and they are very comfortable. They feel like someone is gently holding their hands over your ears and fit well on most heads. Headband may get uncomfortable at times but if you move it slightly the discomfort goes away, so it's probably just a matter of getting the position right.

Edit: If you live in the EU, the cheapest price for this headphone can be found on Muziker. The second cheapest is on Thomann. Don't buy from Amazon.

 

[MrPanda]

Applying Sonarworks to K712's doesn't make them sound like Beats -- that is really overstated, and just false. You may or many not like what Sonarworks does, but it's kind of amusing that you say, if indirectly and maybe with some shade of hyperbole, that Beats sound like a headphone that's tuned "flat". It is important though to reduce a little bit of gain in Sonarworks to avoid clipping, there is an option for that. But to say that completely ruins the dynamics is kind of a severe exaggeration IMHO.