AKG K44

Sarita Coshaa

New Head-Fier
Pros: Lightweight, Cheap, Expendable
Cons: Godawful stiff earpads, Muffled echoey sound, VERY long cable
These went out of production several years ago, but whatever.

First, the earpads are made from an awful stiff leathery plastic material that is uncomfortable and doesn't seal whatsoever, feels like hard plastic on your ears.

Sound is kind of muffled, echoey, mids pushed forward, lacks bass (as someone mentioned, it rather feels like some unnatural bloated bass, and even so it's not prominent) they are closed but it lets a lot of sound in, even with different earpads.

Onto that, I did replace the earpads so fit, comfort and isolation improved significantly, but sound did not change much.

If it tells you anything, I much prefer my KZ EDX Pro IEMs that I got for 10 USD. Of course, not considering that the K44 are discontinued and probably hard to find brand new.

-Overall: Equalization and earpad replacement is a must. Cheaply built, VERY poorly tuned. Probably okayish back in 2007, but nowadays it's a complete waste of money.
Even so, I still use them from time to time because why the heck not. I love music.
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Rhino73

Head-Fier
Pros: Very inexspensive nowadays, rich bass.
Cons: Plasticky. But hey for £15.... meh
Great for the price. I use mine with a Muse TU-20 HP amp and they sound great together.:)

Matt3799

New Head-Fier
Pros: Comfy fit, Overall volume gain is good
Cons: Bass response is inaccurate and overcompensated
I literally just picked a pair of these up from guitar center about an hour ago. I brought them home and compared them with my Rokit 6 monitors and cheap Senhieser HD 201 headphones. Immediately I noticed the bass response is too high and inaccurate, which is disappointing from a studio mixing point of view. Due to this I'd imagine these get a lot of good reviews based off the pyschoacoustic effect that louder is better. Overall, these would be great consumer headphones at a phenomenal price break, but clearly these are not for the true studio mixing engineer. 
Headzone
Headzone
They don't even have real bass. Just a fakish upper bass hump. Mids have some resolution, but sound a bit resonant and muffled at the same time. Agree otherwise on your review.

audiobobby

New Head-Fier
Pros: Price, sensitivity, REALLY closed
Cons: hard plastic on your ears, cheap feel
Bought this one on a budget for home vocal and overall recording monitoring. Does a perfect job: decent clarity and dynamics, and even at volumes higher than any performer would ask for, they could sleep next to any large-diaphragm condenser without feedback. Also: very good audio quality on Ipods&pans or laptops, without any disturbance for your surroundings. Quite large for portable use though, and not really the best for long continuous use: hard plastic pads don't exactly cuddle your ears. Not for H-fi, but that was never the design intention... Does the job, and is better built than it looks. 

UpWaiting

Head-Fier
Pros: Good Midrange, Cheap, Seems Durable
Cons: Horrible Ear Pads, Feels Cheap
A good studio headphone for the person with a small budget. 

BigMikeBass

New Head-Fier
Pros: In the right setting, these headphones are champs.
Cons: in the wrong setting, these headphones are chumps.
I have a set of AKG K240'a and a set of AKG K271's (originals) and I'm looking into buying 6 sets of AKG K44's. I run a home based studio where I record and mix indie bands. In a studio setting there are 3 general uses for headphones and, ideally, you want 3 different types for those uses. Mixing/listening // Vocal booth monitoring // live room monitoring. For mixing and listening you want true hi fidelity, an accurate non-fatiguing sound you can reference from and enjoy. I'd never mix on K44's and that's not what they're for... I'd rarely listen to music with them either... they hold their own for their price point, but they are not really hi fidelity cans and to review as such is a little unfare. I use my K240's for that.

In the vocal booth you need 2 things... high fidelity to get the singer feeling great and in turn sounding great, and closed backs... the k44's are closed back and could be used here, but the fidelity will be a little lacking... I use K271's for the booth... they even have a cool little switch that turns off the speakers when you remove the headphones, eliminating any accidental feedback from being so close to a sensitive mic.

In the live room K44's shine! You need multiple sets of loud headphones to allow drummers and guitars to work in their naturally loud environment without struggling to hear their cans... k-44's are among the loudest studio headphones out there and IMo can not be beat in this setting... they're cheap so you can afford a set for everyone in the band. They're loud as f^@k so your bassist isn't going to be constantly asking for more... and all that considered, they actually sound pretty damn good for the price.

My 2 cents. :)

Cheers

sodium1

New Head-Fier
Pros: Good bass, fit very well, quite comfortable, extremely affordable.
Cons: Not very adjustable, large.
Got these quite a while ago and never really used these since I have always liked speakers more. When I started using them again I noticed how good they sound, even when playing 128kbps sound. The bass is very good, and pretty much sounds warm and nice.
They are very comfortable and the band that automatically adjusts works very well. The one thing I would've liked is the part that connects each earphone to be adjustable because these earphones are pretty big like that. Although they look big, they are very light and easy on the ears. They are even better when you have small ears so the earphones don't squeeze your ears so much.
I would recommend these headphones if you're looking for an affordable pair that sounds good. I'm not very smart about sound and that sort of thing, so I can't really compare these earphones to any other.

zeroemission

New Head-Fier
Pros: reasonably flat with great treble detail
Cons: a little light in the bass & can get uncomfortable
i bought these to replace sennheiser HD25s i bought for a reduced $94 price and actually like the sound of these BETTER. they have deeper bass with less midrange brightness and aren't shabby in the detail department. their 2 greatest weaknesses are bass politeness and a little bit of treble enthusiasm that emphasizes siblants on some tracks. it isn't a bright sound unless you pair it with something like a bright sansa player, but it can really make extreme treble sounds piercing like on some techno tracks. if anything, i'd say they're closer to "ruthless revealing" in the treble than bright. most of the time they sound relaxed and un until you come across that one track with a really bright hi-hat sound you never heard before that all of a sudden jumps out of a track front and center.
 
the bass that is there is fast and detailed though like a really good pair of bookshelf speakers where i'd say the HD25s i bought sound more like minimonitors.
 
they are reasonably comfortable with a nice soft headband, but after a couple hours, the harder earcups start to hurt a little.
 
i really like the well rounded, reasonably flat EQed sound and really only wish for a little more bass and a little less treble on my sansa clip+, but they sound nice on a warmer cube C30 or my semi-pro ART UST dual-pre external soundcard.
 
the sound is pretty similar to $40 sampson SR-850 (AKG clone) phones overall though there's probably differences if tested side by side as the sampsons are semi-open vs closed designs. both phones have plenty of detail with neutral EQs other than some bass lightness making them great for critical listening and catching details obscured by other phones and both can play very loud without distorting at all.
 
for the price, i'd say the K44s are great overall and have a nice "fun factor" to their sound. give them some bass boost and they're downright satisfying to listen to.
ostewart
ostewart
have you tried Panasonic RP-HTX7 as you will probably like them.

I personally love the HD25-1 II and it has very good bass punch, did you check you didnt get the SP version as they are different.

Also test AKG K518 DJ, good fast bass, great mids but lacking highs a bit.

Regards
zeroemission
zeroemission
yes, i just checked, they were the HD 25-SP II versions designed for DJs. i only bought them because they were $94. i'm not going over $150 for anything, so i won't be getting the others, but i didn't like the tiny ear cups or swivels anyways. i wasn't aware that there were 2 versions. my cheap sennheiser HD-202s had pretty decent bass and larger ear cups even if they had brain squeezing headbands.
i REALLY wish i could audition the sony megabass mdr-xb700 cans as i really like the looks of them, particularly the metal, that they have flat kink free cables, and that they have plush velour pads, but it seems that audiophiles hate them.
i was going to go back to the shop i bought the K44s (originally i wanted to trade up, but it's been over 30 days and they're already showing signs of wear) and check out their higher end stuff. they don't carry audio technica, but they have beyers besides the AKGs and some other brand that had a "reggae themed" design.
thanks for the heads up on the different HD 25s. i'll have to make a note of that. i don't think i can edit my review, but maybe i can delete it and re-post it or get a mod to do that. i'd hate to mislead anyone with the wrong info.
ostewart
ostewart
good, the XB700 are plastic and have pleather (fake leather) not velour, check out reviews for more info

Yes the HD25-1 II SP is not good, it is quite a bit inferior to the HD25-1 II.

I suggest you check out the K518 DJ, they are like the HD25 but with less highs and less refined overall sound.

Regards

Headzone

500+ Head-Fier
Pros: price, non-fatiguing
The K44 Perception headphones include comfortable leatherette ear pads and a self-adjusting headband that allow extended wear without discomfort. They come with a 2.5m (8ft), fixed, straight cable including convertible jack plug.
 
Sound has little bit of headcup resonance. Too much low-mids. Bass and treble not extended.
Parall3l
Parall3l
Thanks for the review, I've been seeing people walking around with these a few times now and always wondered how they sound.
tdockweiler
tdockweiler
The muffled sound is caused by the poor bass. If you EQ down the bass these are pretty impressive for the $30 I paid. I actually think that the bass on these is severely bloated. I think once you EQ down the crappy bass they're similar to a K240 Studio.
Saying these are not worth $15 is crazy. You should have spent more than 10 minutes with them.
dabtpa
dabtpa
Your English is great. Better than allot of bloggers who were born and raised here.

Prog Rock Man

Headphoneus Supremus
Pros: Midrange detail and clarity.
Cons: Large, plastic and sweaty pads.
I wanted some cheap cans for a bit of fun and got the K44s. I am delighted with them.
 
They are very plastic, very light, fit very well around the ear with the clever AKG self adjusting band. The leatherette pads are sweaty and I keep lifting them to air out my ears.
 
They are good for classical and jazz and retain that AKG strength of detail. The bass is tuned quite high and can be muddy and dull. Kick drums are a thud with little detail and the dynamics are OK. But that means they can also be considered for dance and heavy rock and they can rock when required. The midrange is lovely and clear with a nice dynamic to it. I would guess some would find them a bit too forward, but I like that. Single cymbal strikes are clear, but other cymbals can become one big tizz. If something is well recorded in the first place, it will shine through thee headphones. So they are all rounders with no major weaknesses and a nice midrange strength. I find them very musical and tap my foot and get goosebumps when listening to my favourite tracks.
 
For the £11 I paid off ebay they are great. I would rate them over the Sennheiser HD201 and 202 which are also over ear, closed back and cheap.
 
It is a shame they are quite large as they work really well unamped out of an ipod. Sensitivity is high at 32ohms and 115 dbV SPL. Add a FiiO and if anything they can be too much and the FiiO needs to be turned right down, losing some of its dynamic. Out of a X-CANV8P they really sing, again majoring on clarity. Their isolation from outside noise is OK and they do not leak much sound at all.
 
So for sound they are the best cheap cans I have heard. They are mainly let down by the sweaty ears problem.
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