AKG K361/K371
Jul 15, 2020 at 12:15 PM Post #391 of 1,294
I really like them! At first they sounded boring, and I really felt that high mid is shouty, but after a brain burn-in - wow, they're good! They're good to the point that in some compositions I hear acoustic guitars and toms and get the "what the heck" feeling about how well they fool my brain, because that's exactly how they sound IRL (even though compression artifacts are noticable, it doesn't affect). And the coolest thing is that I get this feeling when listening through Bluetooth AAC! So they definitely cost their 100€ (I bought them for something near this price in Russia). Definitely there're better monitoring headphones, but hey, they're cheap and they have BT!

Hmmm. Perhaps if I like the K361 I will also try the bt Version.. Are the pads crinkling when you push them to your head and more importantly, do you hear any driver flex when doing so?

Perhaps the other driver Design allows them to Sound better in bt mode compared to the k371 bt.. Thanks in advance!
 
Jul 15, 2020 at 12:49 PM Post #392 of 1,294
I love these headphones. They get more clear and fun to listen to by the hour it seems. I especially love how everything just seems so balanced and natural, the individual parts like Lows, Mids and Highs seems to not take too much space if that makes sense, and it just sounds like everything is in right proportion, besides the higher mids as mentioned a few times before, which is really something I am already used to - heck, may make them that enjoyable!
You know a headphone is good when they seem to just get better :)

Some headphones I’ve tried in the past (all closed backs) would have days where they sounded great, and days where they didn’t, or certain songs/albums would sound odd, but I havent been having this issue with the K371. Just about everything sounds good, and I never feel fatigue when I use them.
 
Jul 15, 2020 at 3:11 PM Post #393 of 1,294
They're definitely a grower, at first I really hated them; they had this odd hollowness to them, but as time has gone on, I've definitely gotten more attuned to what they do and that has become a lot less pronounced. The bass is fantastic, the isolation and leak protection is fairly solid. I'm not huge on the oval shape of the earcups, but the build in general feels very sturdy, albeit not as tank-like as say, the DT770's. If they ever make something that sounds a bit more like the K240's (plus the better earcup shape) but with the bass, build quality and isolation of these, I'd have my dream pair.
 
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Jul 16, 2020 at 3:42 AM Post #394 of 1,294
Ugh, I'm so hyped again - I have the K361 arriving a bit later and I'm just so excited to compare them. Perhaps they'll both have their own place for different genres let's see.. and IF I'd like them even more than the K371, I'll have to look at the BT version too - now I'll have 4 of these AKG phones and I remember swearing myself I won't get into buying headphones again.. but hey, these are really affordable gems it seems. :D
 
Jul 16, 2020 at 5:10 AM Post #395 of 1,294
Ugh, I'm so hyped again - I have the K361 arriving a bit later and I'm just so excited to compare them. Perhaps they'll both have their own place for different genres let's see.. and IF I'd like them even more than the K371, I'll have to look at the BT version too - now I'll have 4 of these AKG phones and I remember swearing myself I won't get into buying headphones again.. but hey, these are really affordable gems it seems. :D

I certainly know that feeling... but at least its a price range where the value/price ration can be quite high,
Waiting for an ATH-M50xBT...
 
Jul 16, 2020 at 5:56 AM Post #396 of 1,294
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Jul 16, 2020 at 6:05 AM Post #397 of 1,294
Does anyone have any cable reccomendations when it comes to the K371? My lovely cat just bit straight through the shortest provided (mobile usage) cable. ._. Guess I won't be returning them either now.... :D

I think they use the same connector layout as the K702, so there should be many aftermarket cables be available.

I once bought a cheap one from Amazon, braided Worked just fine, but it was rather stiff.

you might even want to make one yourself, mini XLR is not that hard to solder.
 
Jul 16, 2020 at 6:50 AM Post #398 of 1,294
I think they use the same connector layout as the K702, so there should be many aftermarket cables be available.

I once bought a cheap one from Amazon, braided Worked just fine, but it was rather stiff.

you might even want to make one yourself, mini XLR is not that hard to solder.

Thanks!


Just got the K361, first impressions, immediately great - less sub bass but they're also smoother up top it seems? I thought that the K361 actually have more highs, maybe just more extended? I like what I hear... What stands out are the Mids to me. They actually remind me of my 58x a bit, and they seem quite a bit smoother compared to the K371, let's see if I fall in love. What AKG has produced there is just crazy given that the K371 is 100€ and the K361 can be had for 70€ here in Germany...

Also, and that is a huge surprise, they seem lighter and more comfortable? I also thought they'd basically have no padding on the headband, but it's more than enough and doesn't really feel different to the K371 headband, maybe it's a bit more shallow, but this provides my head better fit overall actually!

Just by judging these the first 15 minutes it feels like they have both have their place, and the K371 is not necessarily but, but just different.

To me this difference mostly boils down to the driver material used - the K371 are coated with titanium, the K361 are using "standard" plastic drivers, although I'm sure they have their own driver design of course - but, and I experienced that with basically any metal coated driver in headphones, the bass gets tigther, but it's harder to avoid sibiliance and/or sharp highs (or at least bordering), in return plastic drivers do usually sound less harsh if tuned right, but the bass can be more loose. I'm no expert in this, but that is what I've heard so far in past headphones as well.
 
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Jul 16, 2020 at 7:00 AM Post #399 of 1,294
Thanks!


Just got the K361, first impressions, immediately great - less sub bass but they're also smoother up top it seems? I thought that the K361 actually have more highs, maybe just more extended? I like what I hear... What stands out are the Mids to me. They actually remind me of my 58x a bit, and they seem quite a bit smoother compared to the K371, let's see if I fall in love. What AKG has produced there is just crazy given that the K371 is 100€ and the K361 can be had for 70€ here in Germany...

Also, and that is a huge surprise, they seem lighter and more comfortable? I also thought they'd basically have no padding on the headband, but it's more than enough and doesn't really feel different to the K371 headband, maybe it's a bit more shallow, but this provides my head better fit overall actually!

Just by judging these the first 15 minutes it feels like they have both have their place, and the K371 is not necessarily but, but just different.

To me this difference mostly boils down to the driver material used - the K371 are coated with titanium, the K361 are using "standard" plastic drivers, although I'm sure they have their own driver design of course - but, and I experienced that with basically any metal coated driver in headphones, the bass gets tigther, but it's harder to avoid sibiliance and/or sharp highs. I'm no expert in this, but that is what I've heard so far, and I have owned quite a few. :D

that’s my impression with metal coated drivers as well: a slight tendency to sibilance, although the K371 does not have any major prpblems in that regard for me.

and yes, unbelievable quality given the price point of these two... never heard the K361 myself, but getting interested...
 
Jul 16, 2020 at 7:11 AM Post #400 of 1,294
that’s my impression with metal coated drivers as well: a slight tendency to sibilance, although the K371 does not have any major prpblems in that regard for me.

and yes, unbelievable quality given the price point of these two... never heard the K361 myself, but getting interested...

Not at all that is true, the K371 are also still smooth enough for my ears.

Give the K361 a try if you basically want a smoother version of the K371 with more focus on the kick or mid-bass compared to sub. :) I am also confident that many would argue that the K361 has the more natural mids, even though the mids of the K371 might be more exciting, especially for female vocals, but I always hear just a touch of sibilance, or rather, just a touch of pronunciation on the S sounds and such, which the K361 just doesn't show, in some tracks I'd say perhaps again just a touch, but about 75% less compared to the K371. I'm not so good with words today, the Music takes over my focus. hope it all makes sense to you. :) :D

EDIT: Oh wow, another surprise, the K361 actually has MORE padding, I got confused because of the mechanism, but the faux leather is missing, which I really just don't mind at all...
 
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Jul 17, 2020 at 11:02 AM Post #401 of 1,294
I had the K371, returned, got the BT version, returned. Yes, the BT pads did allow my ear to press against drivers more, where the non BT had barely enough space so mostly it did not touch. The newest I've gotten, that is, just yesterday again (non BT K371). I plan to use them in studio recording mainly, where the extra sub bass helps find issues, and slightly less true mids (800 hz to 2 khz) has me poked less in the ear if monitoring a singer being recorded than the AKG K361 would (which has more of those true mids). I use them fully extended due to my large head so maybe seal and fit issues are less common that way. I notice sound change in how my ear is centered, but in normal wearing positions it's fine.

These have replaced what was to be my studio only use pair, the ATH-M50X BT. It has the same issues as the non BT and non X original versions, too much treble for me. The K371 and K361 in my memory did not have this issue. The only issue I have now is finding a really compact hard case to fit them, some soft cases will work but the few that would that I tried with those ATH-M50X BT's had incredibly strong burnt rubber smells that didn't go away with time so I returned them. The ear pads and headband padding on both of these AKG's have a lesser but still noticeable rubber smell. I'm airing them out to see what happens, but overnight, I noticed it drop 10 - 20% in how much it smells. I'll give it more time.

If I can get rid of it and if the soft case on its way to me is going to fit and work for these (and all those cables) then I will keep them this time. No other ear pad I swap on it works, without destroying the sound. Wrinkles on pads are caused by how they sit. Mainly at the bottom of the pads, as by default, that area pushes together - whether fully extended, or fully folded up. If you do this you can get it to stop. Click one arm and earpad all the way up, as if ready for storage, then just slide the other one up to its least extended setting. It won't be as portable but enough for a smaller bag or case. In that setting the ear pads will not touch each other at all and can fully spread back out and stop the crinkling you see.
 
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Jul 19, 2020 at 1:29 PM Post #402 of 1,294
Hi guys, been using a samson sr950 and soundmagic e10c for a while now which sounds pretty good. Now i'm looking for an upgrade and confused between akg 371 or beyer dt770 80 or hd 599? (massdrop is available in my country) I prefer a little warm neutral signature with clear vocal and airy sweet treble. Not a basshead al all, but it just have to be adequate, both in quality and quantity. Open to other suggestion as well around that price range. Thanks, looking for your suggestions.
 
Jul 19, 2020 at 3:57 PM Post #403 of 1,294
Just got the K361, first impressions, immediately great - less sub bass but they're also smoother up top it seems? I thought that the K361 actually have more highs, maybe just more extended? I like what I hear... What stands out are the Mids to me. They actually remind me of my 58x a bit, and they seem quite a bit smoother compared to the K371, let's see if I fall in love. What AKG has produced there is just crazy given that the K371 is 100€ and the K361 can be had for 70€ here in Germany...

Also, and that is a huge surprise, they seem lighter and more comfortable? I also thought they'd basically have no padding on the headband, but it's more than enough and doesn't really feel different to the K371 headband, maybe it's a bit more shallow, but this provides my head better fit overall actually!

Just by judging these the first 15 minutes it feels like they have both have their place, and the K371 is not necessarily but, but just different.

To me this difference mostly boils down to the driver material used - the K371 are coated with titanium, the K361 are using "standard" plastic drivers, although I'm sure they have their own driver design of course - but, and I experienced that with basically any metal coated driver in headphones, the bass gets tigther, but it's harder to avoid sibiliance and/or sharp highs (or at least bordering), in return plastic drivers do usually sound less harsh if tuned right, but the bass can be more loose. I'm no expert in this, but that is what I've heard so far in past headphones as well.

If it's correct that the K371 uses titanium drivers, and the K361 does not, then I think you may have hit on one of the main differences between the two headphones. The K361 had a very different sound to me than its more expensive siblings, the K371 and K553 MkII, which both use low-frequency titanium drivers I believe. To my ears, the K361 sounded duller and less articulate than the other two headphones when I recently compared the three at Guitar Center. I definitely preferred the sound of the titanium to the non. Though I agree they can get a bit shiny or harsh sounding if not well-balanced or damped in the higher frequencies.

Fww, this is my attempt at a compensated plot of the K371...



Imo, the K371 had some noticeable bright spots in the treble (which I did not particularly like). And a bit of a depression in the mid bass, which made them a little lacking in some warmth to my ears. Based on the above plot, the bright spot in the treble appears to be mainly in the 8-10 kHz region. Though there is some uneveness in other spots around that as well, in the upper midrange and upper treble. Aside from that, these headphones are pretty neutral sounding. They are just a little punchy at the ends imho.

The graph above is actually the difference between the K371 and the average response of 19 neutral-ish headphone measurements from the Rtings website. This is shown below, along with the 2004 Olive-Welti preferred loudspeaker curve (measured in the ear), and current Harman over-ear headphone target...

19HPS HARMAN OLIVEWELTI WITH DESC.jpg


To compute the difference curve for the K371, I first averaged the right and left channels together...

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-4/graph#1671/4011
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-4/graph#1671/4012

And then subtracted the average of 19 HPs shown above from the combined K371 curve. Here are Rtings compensated plots of the K371 for comparison...

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-4/graph#1671/3992

Imo, their target response curve is too bright in some spots in the treble. Hence, the deeper depressions in that area on their compensated K371 graph. Both graphs show a bright spot though at ~8-10 kHz in the treble, and some extra emphasis in the sub-bass, and a slight depression above that in the bass. Note that my difference curve extends all the way down to 10 Hz (which is below most people's hearing range), while the Rtings compensated plot ends at 20 Hz.
 
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Jul 19, 2020 at 10:32 PM Post #404 of 1,294
I love these things(K371), especially the sub-bass. It's so much fun and subwoofer like. I have been using the Wavelet Android app and the autoEQ, but the auto EQ profile lowers the sub-bass by 4dB, so today I modified and imported the K371 autoEQ profile but without the reduction in sub-bass. Don't let anyone say there is not much content below 50hz, cause there definitely can be and it makes a difference. Maybe the sub-bass is a bit above neutral, but I don't care and find it to be extremely fun when the music calls for it and it gives the K371 some character.
 
Jul 20, 2020 at 12:03 AM Post #405 of 1,294
Does anyone have any cable reccomendations when it comes to the K371? My lovely cat just bit straight through the shortest provided (mobile usage) cable. ._. Guess I won't be returning them either now.... :D

EDIT: Hope it's okay to share links, but I reckon this one would fit?
https://www.amazon.de/Ersatz-Audiokabel-K240MK-Pioneer-HDJ-2000-Kopfhörer/dp/B07P8WPV6Q/ref=bbp_recs_dp_dt_3/257-3223744-5073134?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07P8WPV6Q&pd_rd_r=6c84f5b4-1377-44e2-b346-994ee4670649&pd_rd_w=tA6EQ&pd_rd_wg=QS6im&pf_rd_p=68208731-dfa4-4184-b0dc-944f6ace005c&pf_rd_r=ZX37JG27341FFJGGCYP0&psc=1&refRID=ZX37JG27341FFJGGCYP0
This cable is high quality and very supple/ergonomic, problem is it might take forever to get to you:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32773720136.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dyimKxr
 

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