[Andreas_D]

Quote:

Chinese version has stiffer headband leather and uses different kind of plastic for black twist off caps (the ones with Q logos on them). Earpads are made from slightly different plastic & foam as well.  
Sound-wise, I'm pretty sure they are about 98-99% the same.
 
I miss the soft leather from my Austrian model. 

 
 
Somebody wrote this about Q models on other thread and definitely I've noticed these symptoms on my K612. After a few days I am sure that they feels cheaper than my ex k601, sound-wise at least should be same quality, just profits are more consistent.

 

[Punnisher]

Are there any K612 owners here that live in or near Ohio? I'd very much like to try a pair before I buy them.
 
My favorite headphone at the moment is my K601 minus the foam ring plus 702 pads. If the K612 sounds the same or similar with that configuration, I'll buy one.

 

[Change is Good]

  Are there any K612 owners here that live in or near Ohio? I'd very much like to try a pair before I buy them.
 
My favorite headphone at the moment is my K601 minus the foam ring plus 702 pads. If the K612 sounds the same or similar with that configuration, I'll buy one.

 
I had someone reterminate my K612 cable, and he had the K601 on hand to compare. The only difference he noticed was that the K612 had slightly more bass than the K601.

 

[motorwayne]

Well, I listened to the K612 and K712 side by side today, swapping them between a Woo Audio WA7 while listening to various stuff and I have to say this, I'm a gamer btw not a music dude.
 
I liked the extra bass in the K712
I disliked the more forward Mids in the K712
 
I think EQ'd, the K612 is quite good value when comparing to the K712 for a gamer.
 
Cheers

 

[Punnisher]

   
I had someone reterminate my K612 cable, and he had the K601 on hand to compare. The only difference he noticed was that the K612 had slightly more bass than the K601.

That's good to hear. Did you compare them using the same pads? Or stock pads vs stock pads?

 

[Change is Good]

  That's good to hear. Did you compare them using the same pads? Or stock pads vs stock pads?

 
He compared stock vs stock

 

[Change is Good]

Been walkin round the crib with these, as of late.,,
 

 

[tdockweiler]

Are the K612 pads harder than those of the K601?
That might explain the extra bass over the K601 (if it really exists).
 
The K702 pads are bassier than K601 pads to my ears, but this is mostly due to foam that's a little harder and perhaps a different type of fabric.
 
It LOOKS like the black K612 pads are made of the same material as the harder K702 pads but are flat.
 
Someone should try K712 pads on the K612. I bet it'd be as warm sounding as the HD-650.

 

[Change is Good]

Those are K702 pads on my K612s. 
 
When I sent them in to get the cable modded, the guy had a K601 on hand to compare. The stock pads are the same between the K612 and K601, just different colors. The improvement in bass over the K601 (which he confirmed is true) is in the actual tuning in the K612... from what I was told.

 

[Change is Good]

Deleted

 

[Saraya]

After a month now, fairly happy with the K612 paired with a O2 am on high gain.
I did notice though that when wearing the cans, if I pull them away from my ear on each side about a 1/4 of inch, the sound stage becomes better and overall the audio is more clear.
It's subtle yet at the same time, I really like it. 
 
What would be a way to replicate this with different pads? Angled?

 

[Mad Max]

... I know that service documentation http://www.akg.com/media/media/download/9352 suggests that these cans can be disassembled from behind, but I have no idea how ... 

 
Stick safety pins into the grills and twist them clockwise to unlock in order to remove.  Or that's what you do with K70x, anyway.
I'm unable to do that with K601.  The grills don't twist far enough to unlock on mine, it is very difficult.

 

[Rafal Obarski]

Hi, I'm a fresh new owner of K612 Pro, bought them in a really good price of 133 Euro as B-Stock (no signs of use at all- I did it to check refurbished option first time and I'm pretty happy). I was going to buy K240 Studio, but when I saw price on K612 I've decided to go for open, reference headphones instead K240. I have one concern though- and it's the bass amount in K612. I'm comparing them with K242 HD which I have used in my work for years(I work in postproduction studio) and with my monitors in my private home studio- KRK RP8 G2. The thing is- according to my knowledge- the K242 are not very bass heavy cans, and compared to them, my K612 have much less low frequencies in proportion to mids and highs. I mean it's not an audiofile nueance- the difference is like night and day, K242 are booming like crazy compared to K612. Comparision to my monitors is much more shocking, but that's because my room have bassy acoustics (despite some room treatment- problem is my KRK's are a bit too close to back wall). Look, I know that big monitors and k242 are totally different thing than open reference headphones like K612, but I've never had occasion to listen to open phones like these, and I want to be sure that they sound light on bass because they are meant to be like that, and It's effect of really flat response, and not because I have not driven them well or something like that. So- I'm using Mackie Onyx Blackbird headphone out- It is a studio grade audio interface so I think it should be enough- phones are pretty loud- gain half the way up is really enough for pretty loud listening. I will notice that K242 on the same output are much louder (but maybe that's because of lower impedance). I was also listening to my K612 on my laptop- much much lower level than on Mackie, but I must say that I don't feel much difference in frequency responce on K612 between laptop and Mackie. Wich leads me to a question: are my phones not driven enough by the output, or do K612 really have so different bass responce than other phones (like K242). I also did some bass tests with sweeping sinewaves- the bass goes all the way down, I can hear ultra low frequencies like 20Hz- the problem is proportion of bass to the rest of frequency spectrum. And don't get me wrong- I'm not expecting reference flat cans to go bass crazy- at the moment I just feel either they're underdriven or that they are very (very!) different from the ones I've used to. On more thing- are all K612 Pro made in Austria- mine don't have Made In Austria sticker. Sorry for a long post

 

[kman1211]

  Hi, I'm a fresh new owner of K612 Pro, bought them in a really good price of 133 Euro as B-Stock (no signs of use at all- I did it to check refurbished option first time and I'm pretty happy). I was going to buy K240 Studio, but when I saw price on K612 I've decided to go for open, reference headphones instead K240. I have one concern though- and it's the bass amount in K612. I'm comparing them with K242 HD which I have used in my work for years(I work in postproduction studio) and with my monitors in my private home studio- KRK RP8 G2. The thing is- according to my knowledge- the K242 are not very bass heavy cans, and compared to them, my K612 have much less low frequencies in proportion to mids and highs. I mean it's not an audiofile nueance- the difference is like night and day, K242 are booming like crazy compared to K612. Comparision to my monitors is much more shocking, but that's because my room have bassy acoustics (despite some room treatment- problem is my KRK's are a bit too close to back wall). Look, I know that big monitors and k242 are totally different thing than open reference headphones like K612, but I've never had occasion to listen to open phones like these, and I want to be sure that they sound light on bass because they are meant to be like that, and It's effect of really flat response, and not because I have not driven them well or something like that. So- I'm using Mackie Onyx Blackbird headphone out- It is a studio grade audio interface so I think it should be enough- phones are pretty loud- gain half the way up is really enough for pretty loud listening. I will notice that K242 on the same output are much louder (but maybe that's because of lower impedance). I was also listening to my K612 on my laptop- much much lower level than on Mackie, but I must say that I don't feel much difference in frequency responce on K612 between laptop and Mackie. Wich leads me to a question: are my phones not driven enough by the output, or do K612 really have so different bass responce than other phones (like K242). I also did some bass tests with sweeping sinewaves- the bass goes all the way down, I can hear ultra low frequencies like 20Hz- the problem is proportion of bass to the rest of frequency spectrum. And don't get me wrong- I'm not expecting reference flat cans to go bass crazy- at the moment I just feel either they're underdriven or that they are very (very!) different from the ones I've used to. On more thing- are all K612 Pro made in Austria- mine don't have Made In Austria sticker. Sorry for a long post

The K612 needs an amplifier to sound it's best, otherwise it will sound bass light, the amplifier also needs to have good synergy with the headphone. The K612 is made in both Austria and China, it seems like at the same time. Mine is made in Austria, but others with a lower serial number are made in China. The box will tell you if it is made in Austria or not if the sticker isn't on the headphones.

 

[mikeaj]

Try to normalize volume when doing comparisons. Lower volume means bass is harder to hear relative to other frequencies (see: equal-loudness contours). I don't think it's so much the amp as much as keeping volume consistent, especially if you're just talking about perceived overall balance between frequencies.
 
Yes, sensitivity is fairly low for a dynamic, and the impedance is mid-high too, so you don't get much volume.
 
Note that there are some differences based on pads, model-to-model variation, testing inconsistencies, etc., but for a general idea it seems (current) K240 series including K242 have higher midbass in particular compared to say K601, so there is something to be said there (and maybe K612 to some extent):

 
So actual differences exist too, not just nuisance factors you need to account and control for.