AKG K171 MKII Headphones

Initial impressions are good. They sound open, with great space between instruments. Listening to Bjork's Post Album, sounds brilliant, even through a slightly under powered IPod. The vocals have space to breath and are not overwhelmed with other instruments. The bass is tight and clean, but could probably do with more power to make it stand out more. High notes are subtle but there, not overly pronounced like some headphones will produce, this helps vocals and that mid high range, where they sit stand out. For closed back, they have plenty of overall space, around all instruments and a nice broad sound stage...

And as my set are second hand £15 uk pounds. Total bargain if you ask me.

Well, I just moved from a Genius GX Cavimanus (gaming headset) to an AKG K171 MKII recently. I am using it for nearly 3 months. My main use is to listen music on PC, gaming and watch some series.
 
My thoughts:
 
 
The AKG K171 MKII is VERY TIGHT, especially for fat guys (like me) or / and with big head.
 
It have GREAT Medium, Low and Highs but lacks an punching BASS. So, bassheads, run from this headphone.
 
 
The pros comparing with the gaming headset I owned, the AKG isolates much more because it is an closed headphone, it have much more fidelity in audio distribution than any gaming headset I've owned so far and it is very lightweight.
 
The cons are the low volume. I configured on my Sound Blaster Recon 3D, equalized the audio, but it lacks volume compared with gaming headsets. The bass don't exist on this headphone! It is noticeable but bassheads like me will NOT like it at all. and it is VERY TIGHT. As I said, I am a fat guy and have a big head and the pressure that this headphone puts in the head is very high, making it uncomfortable for many hours gaming or listening to music.
 
 
 
Conclusion:
 
What can I say? The headphone is very good for people who don't care about bass or don't like high volumes and don't care about the constant pression on the head (if you are a thin guy, you won't suffer / suffer less with thar problem). For people like me, who likes punching Bass, high volumes and comfortable Headphones, it is just another headphone which I bought and forgotten after a while.
 
 
Hope you enjoyed the review and sorry for my poor english grammar. I am from a country who haven't english as main language.

Very good headphones. The sound is good. Good idea for vocal reproduction.

They're not hard to drive, they isolate the environment well, and they are the best phones I've heard so far.
 
They are lean on bass until you plug them into a good amp. I tried them with a NuForce Icon HD and they sounded so unbelievably detailed and pleasant with strong bass, clarity through the entire range, spacious sound stage, and clear yet unhard trble. I was blown away at how good these things really are.
 
I usually just monitor voice-over straight from the monitor port and these are fantastic in that arrangement because without an amp, they are nearly perfect in the human vocal range already.
 
They have two earpad types in the box and two interchangable cables in the box. I switched the pads for the velour because they're more comfortable (less heat build-up) and I like the way they sound a little better. It's subtle, but the difference is real.
 
I don't understand why they are as inexpensive as they are. They used to cost more... much more. I think they're worth more but I'm glad I didn't pay more. Overall, these are tough and great souding cans.
 
UPDATE: I posted three blog article about these in great detail at http://akgk171.wordpress.com/ 

These are great headphones and I'm glad I bought them. My other headphones are HD 600s and they let you hear more of the spectrum than these guys but otherwise I like these much more.

These guys are well built. You can throw them across the room without worrying you're going to break them where as a lot more expensive phones would break if you threw them half way across the room. Why does that matter? If your wife finds out you spent the new laundry machine budget on another set of headphones then you may want that robustness.

The cable on these took a hell of a beating. I ran over it 800 times with my chair, I pulled on it hard many times in the process and it took about 1 to 1.5 years of that abuse before it died. I got a new coiled cable which I never run over.

The audio quality in these is great. They're not better than $500 audiophile cans but they're a lot better than skull candy, panasonic or other $100 phones. I don't have much to compare these to except Skull Candy headphones, HD 600s, Bose Triport and some misc < $100 ear buds/headphones.

You hear a good amount of detail in these guys. An example is listening to a piece with a violin in it. You can hear the bow rub the strings quite well. My other phones don't reproduce that violin bow sound and it's even hard to pick it out in my HD 600s. These guys don't need an amp and they don't have pounding bass. If you want something for permanently damaging your hearing then these can't help you.

These sounds very comfortable though. There isn't an uncomfortable pitch anywhere to be found. You won't get that thumping low airy bass that leaves your ear drums numb and the highs aren't so sharp that your delicate stereocilia fall out when you hear a piccolo.

I mainly used these for gaming and they're my take-with-me headphones when I go somewhere because they're tough and no amp required.