AKG K 702 Headphones

I have had these for several weeks now. I find them amazing. 
 
Comfort:
A bunch of people have mentioned the bumps on the head band. These drove me mad to the point of wrapping a cloth around the band! But, it is leather, they break in and then are very comfortable. I guess you are expected to own a pair of these for a long time. Now they are broken in, I can spend (and do spend) entire days listening to them whilst coding.
 
Sound In General:
The stage is amazing. They are reference, so the sound is clinical. I can see why some people would find them fatiguing; I drive mine from a little dot mkiii value amp. If I drive them from a solid state amp then the sound is not so easy to listen to. My guess is that these headphones make no effort to improve the sound supplied at all. That is exactly what you want with reference cans!
 
Sound Stage:
It is big, but not stupid. Sometimes you get the idea that you are listening it loudspeakers on your ears, which is slightly annoying. I suspect this is due to the big size of the drivers. Most of the time, it is very much like listening to infinitely accurate speakers in the room. Actually, I use a digital effects unit to add a tiny bit of reverb' quite often, this really makes the listening experience like sitting in a living room listening to top end speakers.
 
Bass:
This is completely accurate. If you want a _lot_ of bass you are going to have to add this yourself, the headphones will not do that. They are reference, boosting the bass would be stupid. I use a sound processor to add bass if I want a lot. They take a lot of bass, but that does need a lot of drive. The amazing thing is that even with stupid quantities of bass, the middle and top remain unaffected (if you use a really good amp).
 
3Wires:
Yes - these do not have balanced input. Do I care - no! Balanced for the steps between processors are a good idea but for these I don't see the point.
 
Build:
These are not beautiful. The are not shiny. If you want to take pictures of yourself holding them and looking cool - you will be disappointed. They are are quite sturdy. I would not take them on the road. If I compare them to the my Sony monitors - they Sony's are much much stronger. 
 
Sound Isolation:
Do not use these as monitors! The leak like nothing else ( apart from maybe K1000s but I don't have that sort of money).
 
 

Admittedly, I may be a bit overawed by these; they reproduce sound so much better than what I had been using; seems I can hear more with these than with the other headphones I had. I must further admit that I enjoy listening critically and the music is only sometimes incidental to me. Very pleased, of course, with my purchase; wouldn't have bought them otherwise.

After burning in the K702 sounds me very similar to my K701
I had a K702 for test 2009

I like the AKG k702, they are pleasant to listen to, do a good job of positioning, very airy and open.  Sound is very balanced for the most part, but could use a little more bass (might also be my amp, I don't think my littledot has enough power for these or the hd800s)
 
I like them 99.7% as much as my HD800s (out of this source) if that gives you any hint!

And yet, of every headphone I've ever owned, heard, lived with, worked with...you name it at a sane price range, these are the ones that time and time and again I come back to when I'm testing out new gear.  That should basically say it all.  When I want to know what, on average, a new DAC or amp (especially a new amp) is worth, these are the first cans I run through them.  Because if it can do these justice, it's looking good for pretty much every other hard-to-drive can in my inventory (and there are a few).  I also use these pretty much exclusively for tracking and mobile editing. 
 
And as much as I want to malign their lack of apparent musicality, I nevertheless end up using them for my own personal listening pleasure more often then I'd like to admit (which may just have something to do with my being used to how they sound, but we'll leave that aside for the moment).  I'm the kind of person who likes neutrality, detail retrieval and subtlety.  Given that I lack a solid tube HPA at the moment, it may well be there that there is warmth and musicality lurking in these yet, but given that, on average, my choice for high-end listening is usually between these and HD-650s, I usually end up choosing these because at the end of the day I feel like I'm being hoodwinked, bamboozled by the Senns.  So many of the tracks I know and love I've heard as studio masters running through studio monitors.  I know what they were, for all intents and purposes "supposed" to sound like.  And, with that context, they never sound the way they "should" for me quite like they do with K702s.  For 200 bucks street, all other qualms aside, that's a mighty huge achievement. 

After putting these headphones on and listening to music on them for the first time all I could do was listen and smile. These were absolutely stunning in terms of sound quality everything sounded just right natural and real. every frequency from bass to highs sounded so detailed and proper not too much of anything just the right amount of bass and the right highs and mids. I have never heard music with such an amazing sound stage or unbiased sound. I have heard the HD595s and did not like them but have not compared these to the HD 600 or 650s yet.

Can you have too much of a good thing? Going by the various threads and reviews of the K702s, yes. These cans give you so much detail it is not true. Sounds appear that have never been heard before in the background of familiar tracks. That satisfies some and manages to irritate others. i did not understand that until recently.
 
When I first got my K702s I only had open backed headphones. But the demands of family life and travel meant that my next few purchases were closed backed to limit noise leakage, of which the K702s have loads.
 
I then got used to the deeper more bloomy bass, in your head sound and echo like resonance of closed backed cans.
 
Returning one day after a few months of no use, when home alone to the K702s, I realised how dry then can sound. The lush sound had gone, replaced instead with 'put you in the recording studio' levels of detail and clarity. I kept taking them off because I thought I could hear noises in the house. That was caused by the big sound stage and that detail flooding back again.
 
For me that is superb, But I can understand why for others it is too much.
 

I've owned these for the best part of a month now and have done some extensive listening with them both in extended listening sessions of several albums and of comparative listening sessions with with my HD650. I feel I am ready to comment on the qualities of these phones.
 
I had always intended to put these and the HD650 against each other and sell one, as I had thought it would be an indulgence to keep two expensive open circumaural home-listening phones. The problem I have found (and it's a good problem to have) is that the are fantastic companions. Any type of music the HD650 does not do so well with, the K702 shines with and where the K702 seems a bit too formal and cold, the HD650s warmth is a perfect tonic. I'm keeping both.
 
Formality is really the term I would use to describe these phones. They are polite, analytical and are certainly revealing of a track, with details not just presented but presented with a crispness and accuracy that is a joy to hear. Don't bother listening with anything but high quality encodings though, as it will show up the wrong kind of detail just as clearly.
 
The AKG K702 have less bass than most of my other phones, but still presents more low end than, say my Phonak PFE or MS2i with bowls rather than flats. The bass is of an exceptional quality, impact and speed. The mid range is beautiful and airy, especially where it comes to female vocals which sound sometimes unnervingly real and the treble is crisp, if a little cold.
 
The real star of the show when it comes to the K702 package is the sound stage. I was worried I would be put off by its size as many complain of it being unrealistic. Well, it's really not that big, but it does offer the space you need to really delve into a song, picking up on this and that instrument and then mentally stepping back to hear the whole track as one.
 
It's sound stage and level of detail really make these phones perfectly suited for my classical music and my jazz and my electronica and works very well with layered rock/alternative music such as Radiohead, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Frank Zappa, the last two Joanna Newsom albums and that sort of thing. That isn't to say it doesn't do a great job of presenting rock, pop, reggea and simpler folk as well as it is certainly pleasant, but for these warmer and simpler types of music I find myself switching to the funner HD650 with its more intimate sound stage.
 
Comfort with the K702, for me, is a major plus. I understand a lot of people have big problems with the bumps on the bottom of the headband. Pressing them with my fingers I can feel they aren't comfortable, but I have plenty of hair and do not really feel them. The 3D form cut velour pads seem to have been designed for the shape of my skull and compared to the HD650 the lack of clamp is quite a relaxing experience. I can wear these for hours on end and often forget I am wearing them. 
 
If the AKG K702 were my only headphones, I might find their genre range a bit limiting, I might find myself wanting a bit more bass with my reggae and hiphop and a more intimate sound stage with my rock and folk. But as a part of a varied collection with the HD650 and MS2i as the other two main home phones I find I have a great set of options to cater for every mood and genre.
 
The AKG K702 has filled in some gaps for me; has given me a classical and jazz listening option that can seriously compete with speakers, a natural home for aphex twin and a sound stage that brings the best out of some of my more complex rock music as well. Add to this it's almost unnervingly realistic reproduction of female vocals and it really does justify its price.

Just trying to pull the average up.
can't believe someone would give reference headphones of this quality a 1.5 star rating overall.
but, that, i suppose is the love/hate nature of the k701/k702.
 
personally, i feel they are wonderful headphones.  and, at $260 street price at time of this posting, you'd be hard pressed to find a better sounding pair for the money.
 
they are a little light in bass impact, and a little strong in the upper mid (female vocal range).  harmony vocals can get a little shouty sometimes. 
 
but, what they do well is render acoustic instruments with startling realism, and produce a spacious sound that is perfect for listening to concert hall recordings. 
 
ideal headphones for unplugged recordings, or live jazz, or classical, etc.
 
not ideal for hard rock, electronica, etc.

I used this out of a USB Pico DAC -> Dynalo (Sheer Audio HA-006+) -> K702 using well ripped FLAC files
 
I really thought this was going to be better, but I really just do not like these headphones much at all. Probably my biggest complaint is the airyness and tone of the vocals. I also have a pair of Grado HF2 and the HF2 just absolutely completely super duper destroys the K702 in tonality, especially the vocals.
 
It's also very fatiguing for my ears for some reason, even at quiet-medium listening levels. I've read this is because it has a high frequency spike or something. Oh well. I learned a valuable lesson with these K702, the best and only way to know if a headphone sounds good to you, is to listen to it yourself.
 
addendum: I suppose this could've been good for me had I a different amp or source or whatever. A Pico DAC -> Dynalo setup is a pretty standard and good setup. To me, a standard dynamic headphone like the K702 is, that doesn't sound good on my setup, is not a headphone worth paying for.

I loved them while I had them, recabled them with DHC Nucleotide cable and liked them even more. There is a but, I was not able to pony up the cash to power them properly so I had to let them go. I thought I could make them work with the rig i had (uDAC->Indeed hyrbid) but it ended up just frustrating me. They were awesome with female vocals and any acoustic recordings! Every once and a while I get phantom memories of those mids and cry a bit inside because they are gone...  Someday I'll own them again!    

Beautiful detailed and analytical sound provide a well balanced and easy listening experience. This, coupled with a huge soundstage, put these headphones at the top of my list. 

Airy soundstage, sparkling detail, and a slightly cool presentation, with accurate and detailed bass response, lighter bass than others I've owned but not bass-light.  Paired with my WA6se, Sovtek rectifier (to fill out the bottom end) and Sylavania 6DE7, they sounded wonderful.