[Omega17TheTrue]

How so? After the mod, I heard more detail and the upper mid range and treble were more refined. Although I put too much polyfill at first and it killed the sound.
 

It depend of how you do it but after i did mine (and after re-soldering the internal cables because its a PITA to do it with the wires and cause them to detach) the sound was muffled with no more high end extension and without that "magic" midrange sound although there was a little more bass but overall the sound was easily worst, its not a suprise that the OP blutack mod said its was a mistake and its not worth it.

 

[Ishcabible]

Huh, weird... I wonder if I've been hearing them wrong then. I'll undo the mod and report back when I get a new mini XLR.

 

[dbbloke]

Coloured, Nasal hollow midrange with extra mid-mid, bright, Confused bass I think overdamped. Are these cans damaging my hearing even.
Perhaps it's my recordings, but perhaps my recordings are no good these days because people use AKG phones. Honest review ahead.
 
Phones just arrived, do I need to run them in or just sell?
Let me explain...
 
Currently the majority of my decent hifi is in storage but have the CDP and the cables but only a half decent pair of accurate if very bass light speakers and average but neutral amp. Also my CDP has a pretty excellent built in dedicated isolated valve headphone amp, but seems to only drive these phones into distortion if I try and crank em, solid state amp  not as transparant but goes louder. Of course phones listening are different to hifi setup.
 
 
Only other phones I have (apart from skype ones and some in ear sony 30 quid jobs which have really terrible sound) is a paid of senheiser 414sl. Always kind of liked the 420sl but they seemed a little bass heavy. No chance to audition phones and thought the 240/271 might be a bit like the 420/414 comparison with one being neutral and the other giving a bit more bass and forgiving. Headphones have gone back in sound quality a lot? The scruffy 414s sound amazingly lifelike, I hear nuances and expression in vocals the 701s dont even detect. For that matter, my spare speakers and amp sound much more real (presuming you haven't been exposed the the mid/trable of the AKG before)
 
Anyway, I think the problem with these cans is some strange lack of bass which buggers up the other areas.
 
 
They are So bright, yes this is partly due to additional detail you get with cans and my head does seem to adjust but when it does, there are still huge other parts of the recording with unbearable problem areas. Also, when I take the cans off, it's like I've had the treble control turned to 11 and life around me sounds flat. I am running fairly quietly, although I've tried driving them hard as well and surely killing my hearing. BTW, (only one of my 4 amps other than mixing desks have tone).
 
 
The midrange, it's nasal and very thin, there are fundamental fleshy bits missing, people sound like they are coming out of a 3 inch speaker not a 7 inch one. reminds me of small center channel speakers in surround. People don't sound like this in real life. You can mostly adjust but then again, take om off and midrange in real life sounds thick.
 
 
Speed - My speakers have more bite and edge and seem more coherently faster, cans I don't think of as fast, perhaps they are just transparent, remind me of the problems with electrostatic speakers.. So thin.
 
Bass - Quiet bits of bass very low down let you hear it's there but it's too quiet, and the midbass is coloured (not lifelike) although the bright treble makes drums sound interesting. Just listening to track2 elbow seldon kid, which is way too strong in the bas dept, in the cans I get the low end, but not the nuances you get around a bass guitar through my usher monitors. It's all missing between (hello the bass is here and well, just a pure lack of the other low end spectrum i'm used to hearing) as well as the levels being down. I think it's really the presence and timbre of instruments, the air in a live concert... all seems missing. So detailed in one way but way not so in another. Like the midrange, it's seems to lack body, flesh. It's irritating as hell. Really, I'm not a huge bass fan although my home cinema bass is eq's from 10-30hz flat and can probebly hit 140db in the car if i ever want. Also, been to 10s of thousands of gigs all over the world and even when loud, don't seem to suffer the same after effects when listening with these cans.
 
You know those fake hand clap samples you get that sound fake...? Well, listening to music through these phones 50% of the time reminds me of this fake but unnatural sound, probably because of the messed up mid.
That said, there are some detail things I like about em.
 
Can someone who actually knows a LOT about hifi / recording confirm or help.
I'm finding I'm listening to my music on speakers which defeats the point of buying the things. But it's a worry if professionals use these to make music.
 
Plus points - Imaging for headphones seems very good. Made well, nice cable choice options.
Almost forgot.. headband only just fits my head, not sure if it will be comfortable in the long run. As well as a little leakage, reason I bought is to go with a new phone with my first attempt to commute music listening. Thought they would be better than open back for noise leakage / entry.
 
OK, gonna try and use the other non pleather pads to see if this can fix. Run em in for 1 week 24x7 and report back...
 
Can someone explain why I'm not happy please. Perhaps I need to adapt, or perhaps they are just bad phones that kill your hearing. 

 

[Moonwalker]

Hi dbbloke!
 
The K271 sound also nasal to me, with weird suckouts at midbass and lower mid range.
Definitely long way from real , natural world sounds.
 
just my 2 cents
 
Moonwalker

 

[dbbloke]

Leakage ?? I have a QN.
 
OK, so I've changed the plastic for felt cup. Also, íf I squeeze the things to my head nice and tight I get bass and if I'm lucky they stay in a half decent position, so badd is better than at first, lets wait and see on that one.
 
But after pressing, I notice that the can on the right if I cup with my hand (to simulate my head) and push air seems to escape and it's not so hard to push. With the one on the left (where the cable goes in) you have to push very firmly to make any air escape (from somewhere not in the cup but out the back of the sealed unit) and not much comes out. Is this normal. Thing is, doesn'tmake much difference to when you've got them on.
 
As for mid, yep, it's still all wrong - coloured and unnatural as I said before, but if I can fix the bass, I might be able to live with them.
TIA.

 

[dbbloke]

Conclusion - really average headphones (imo).
 
I've been playing with these headphones all day. Playing different sources and now and again they seem OK if you get them to seal. But... I just switched back to my temporary hifi and it blew the headphones away. With the setup (speakers just on the floor even) I can hear the skin on the kick drum, I can actually hear there is a bass guitar playing on the track (rather than just wondering what the dull noise is).
Bottom line, There are huge parts of the frequency range missing on these cans, what is there is coloured and often unpleasant.
 
Maybe I'm expecting too much from headphones, took me a while to figure out good speakers. Hopefully not going to take too much of a loss on ebay assuming some fool will buy and not read this.
If you are considering these phones, then DONT. I'm quite astounded they can sell and get away with it, I can see that if you get used to them as an only source then perhaps second hand might be OK but you will miss so much of the music.
Sure they look robust but the sound is wrong in so many areas, they are not hi-fi at all. Anyone disagrees you are wrong without experience or reference or in need of a decent source. But as I said, perhaps I just expect headphones to sound remotely half as good as loudspeakers.
Replacement ideas anyone??

 

[svyr]

Conclusion - really average headphones (imo).
 
I've been playing with these headphones all day. Playing different sources and now and again they seem OK if you get them to seal. But... I just switched back to my temporary hifi and it blew the headphones away. With the setup (speakers just on the floor even) I can hear the skin on the kick drum, I can actually hear there is a bass guitar playing on the track (rather than just wondering what the dull noise is).
Bottom line, There are huge parts of the frequency range missing on these cans, what is there is coloured and often unpleasant.
 
Maybe I'm expecting too much from headphones, took me a while to figure out good speakers. Hopefully not going to take too much of a loss on ebay assuming some fool will buy and not read this.
If you are considering these phones, then DONT. I'm quite astounded they can sell and get away with it, I can see that if you get used to them as an only source then perhaps second hand might be OK but you will miss so much of the music.
Sure they look robust but the sound is wrong in so many areas, they are not hi-fi at all. Anyone disagrees you are wrong without experience or reference or in need of a decent source. But as I said, perhaps I just expect headphones to sound remotely half as good as loudspeakers.
Replacement ideas anyone??

you're quite right with the assessment, but I've met a lot of people that like the sound . It's quite amazing really. Either they like the perceived detail in the mids/upper mids, or just don't notice the gaps because of a lack of a point of reference. I've sold my pair within a week of buying it with similar sentiments.

 

[electropop]

I don't agree with the assessments at all. They are not in the least bright. They're very linear and let me hear what's played on the recording. But really don't listen to colorations, unless there's a significant and obvious one that messes up the accuracy. 
 
I'm really thinking you have gotten used to a specific signature provided by your speakers (which you have not named yet) and find it difficult to adjust. Quite usual. Of course no headphone comes close to good speaker presentation/quality, but these trump many even expensive ones in terms of musical accuracy. 
 
Bass might be light, but at least I hear the notes. Not many headphones do this as good. The lack of thumping action lets me hear the music much more coherently actually. I don't understand how "lack" of bass would ruin a headphone; I have the opposite experience.
 
I actually sold my LCD-2's based on how good these performed next to them. 

 

[electropop]

Quote:

you're quite right with the assessment, but I've met a lot of people that like the sound

. It's quite amazing really. Either they like the perceived detail in the mids/upper mids, or just don't notice the gaps because of a lack of a point of reference. I've sold my pair within a week of buying it with similar sentiments.

It's not about liking the sound, it's about hearing the music. Two completely different things.

 

[svyr]

It's not about liking the sound, it's about hearing the music. Two completely different things.

=) i disagree. and quite the opposite,

>I'm really thinking you have gotten used to a specific signature provided by your speakers (which you have not named yet)

It's all in the profile mate, just open and look . On the go I listen to IEMs (SM3 or reshelled customs), at work - GMP450pro, at home - SR507, they all sound very differently, but none have the problems K271 has.
There are HP out there with a lot better balance between lower mids and bass and upper mids. E.g. lots of 3BA IEMs or customs can do that no problem. After you hear those and electrostatics you look at K271 and go, meh mushy, meh, bright, meh bass light.
Bass need not be boomy or exaggerated to be well defined, but K271 clearly lose definition and depth.
Mids clarity wise, there's weird sounding distortion/coloration in the mids for K271 as well, that you can somewhat easily detect by A/Bing or looking at the measurements (THD+N)

 

[Ishcabible]

You think they're...bright? I think mine are smooth more than anything. It may be the production differences (Mine are like 5-6 years old), but mine aren't bright...And the mids aren't the best, but they have a weird character to them that just works for acoustic and metal. Obviously, they can't hold a candle to my DT48, but I like them. I don't care if it makes me wrong and inexperienced. 

 

[drez]

I used to own a pair also - but back then I didn't really have much of a reference of how music should be reproduced.  At a recent meet I tried a k240 (ones with gold cover - i don't know) as well as the k271 mkii.  K240 sounded much more natural by a country mile, but now I'm used to LCD-2.  I could live with the k240, but not the k271.

 

[electropop]

Quote:

=) i disagree. and quite the opposite,

>I'm really thinking you have gotten used to a specific signature provided by your speakers (which you have not named yet)

It's all in the profile mate, just open and look

. On the go I listen to IEMs (SM3 or reshelled customs), at work - GMP450pro, at home - SR507, they all sound very differently, but none have the problems K271 has.
There are HP out there with a lot better balance between lower mids and bass and upper mids. E.g. lots of 3BA IEMs or customs can do that no problem. After you hear those and electrostatics you look at K271 and go, meh mushy, meh, bright, meh bass light.
Bass need not be boomy or exaggerated to be well defined, but K271 clearly lose definition and depth.
Mids clarity wise, there's weird sounding distortion/coloration in the mids for K271 as well, that you can somewhat easily detect by A/Bing or looking at the measurements (THD+N)

Sorry, that was towards dbbloke. 
 
But you disagree that liking a sound is the same as hearing the music? Would you care to explicit?
 
Regardless how a headphone measures, it may or may not have the ability to play every note to their pitch accurately. The LCD-2 did not have this quality (though not the worst) and the HD800 for instance trumps them completely in this regard. 
 
Ability to tab notes absolutely always goes before a specific sound one likes. The way you present yourself with your terminology tells that you listen to sound instead of music, or maybe just use it as a tool... I don't think this is the case however  
 
But, would you be able to really explicit on those adjectives with real life examples, ie. music. How do you mean "mushy" or "bright"? with which instruments do you hear these bumps that make them so incoherent? I'm interested, since they're very close in musical coherence with my speakers, the Linn Akurate 212's. 

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

s the k271 mkii.  K240 sounded much more natural by a country mile,

Maybe because its semi-open unlike the K271 which sound very "closed", i understand "dbblocke" point of view as it is not far from mine when i first received it just give the headphone a long burn-in and try a different amp, like everything you need to have your ears "adjust" to the sound.

The K271 have a very involving sound with nice mids.

 

[dbbloke]

Hi Electropop, thanks for the reply, excuse the writing style, stream of consciousness piece,

ooh yeah, linn is hype, even the lp12, but I don't understand people who don't use hackintoshes either ;p Are the hifimans better than stax (e.g. lambada pros, not the interesting record company)

I completely understand what you say about getting used to speakers, done this many years ago, you just readjust or hear much and become wiser. I'm objective though.

 e.g. Used to judge car stereos SQ comps, personally I prefer Morel drivers, but lots of people like the sounds made by focal or dynaudio. Personally I find focal berillium drivers very clinical and too precise (focal grand utopia spring to mind) - although amazing for clarity, as for dynaudio they just make everything sound boring to me. BUT I would still mark them not for colouration but all the other aspects that make speakers good - integrations. I've heard MANY speakers, like many hundreds, driven by many hundreds of power, integrated, hybrid, mixing desks, sources. Have tons of musician friends, know quite a fair bit about PA (where I certainly have my personal favourites and hates but I don't air my hates). Like why does meyer sound almost always sound rubbish.

 Back to the probloems - I was playing... Rainy day music by the jayhawks, I forget which track... sounded quite ok on the cans cause I'd had em on for a while been tinkering with the cups and sealing and not sealing etc... but i took them off to go to the loo and came back and cause i unplugged, the secondary valve section to power my amp took over (realizing the headphones had been unplugged) And now I heard a DIFFERENT SONG. With the headphones I could not even make out a bass guitar playing and suddenly there was one !! Really.. I should find the track, quite simple well recorded album, was using the CD BTW as I've a good reference. Also, at the beginning the kick drum sounds quite balanced in the mix, you hear it being struck (and a skin) and it has a certain amount of reverberation. On the AKG you just got a very short bump noise (not a drum, just a bump noise) and that was it instead of a few tenths decay which gives you an indication of the room it was recorded in. AKG showed none of this and of course, there is no bass guitar playing.

I compare music equipment with thousands of live rock, acoustic, electro, dance, dubstep, jazz, classical, organ concerts I attend all the time. Best place for a reference, ideally they have a good PA or else you just need to listen live. The akg's make voices sound fake as well.

As for Dance / synthesised music... They don't sound so bad, i mean how does a sample sound (unless you are some kind of sample nerd - yeah I know a few korg fanatics, some guy who used to work for fairlight in nz, few internationally famous djs... sigh, name drop...) but really, dance is hard to know for sure if that is all you listen to, it's not a real thing, synthesized! That said, I've got a couple of calibrated measurement microphones, unfortunately in storage.

BTW, the reference speakers (which are far from reference but I've found them quite natural) are Usher Audio S520's (Actually prefer to the berilium ones they make). Much prefer then to 2000$ dynaudios. But if you were spending 2k, you could get aurum cantus or something like that with ribbons, pmc are interesting but had 3 or 4 pair of transmission speakers and they are so slow.
Also, I think my signature / profile goes on a little about my gear.

Sorry, these cans are not accurate, it's not a personal thing, just a fact, they have bits of the frequency range missing, and seriously impact your understanding and for me knowing better enjoyment of the recording. I try and hear new things in recordings each time I buy, not less. Although if it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up then hey, lucky you to get it done so easily.

 Now wondering if ATH-M50 is any good. This time it looks like I'll have to go to a shop and hope the source is decent. And advice appreciated.