[TheGiantHogweed]

Well just over today, the creaks of these headphones have been getting much more noticeable. I constantly keep getting a very noticeable tick sound from the left side whenever I tilt my head just slightly to the left. It is really hard to avoid doing this occasionally! Then, the other side keeps making different sounds. There is noting wrong with the drivers. They still sound fantastic. But it is starting to be irritating now. As when I listen to music quietly, these annoying creaking/popping/ticking sounds are noticeable. Even when I have it louder and you just move around a little, I have noticed it several times. It is really putting me off. Is it just to do with what they are made from? They didn't do this when I first got them at all. I like to listen to music and hear every detail, but when I try to listen to the detail of the sound, you can't help but hear all these other annoying sounds and it drives me mad! I've contacted AKG and I hope they will allow me to return them for them to inspect and sort out. Or, hopefully they will replace them.

I do have very sensitive ears but If nobody else notices any obvious sounds when you move your head slightly with these, then hopefully it will just be an issue with mine. If they are all like this, then that is poor from AKG. You can't appreciate such incredible sound if the frame creaks and pops all the time.

 

[jaco61]

These cans are with little care to disasssemble easily. Have a look on youtube how to begin. Maybe there could be some cable defect or some dirt in it which could distort.. This little "operation" should be not an affair.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

I've since been given a replacement pair and they seem fine now. The process was great in the end but difficult to begin with.

I looked on the UK AKG site: https://uk.akg.com/

I looked for the contact details there and you needed to select the model number of your headphones. The K702 wasn't an option! I couldn't even find these headphones anywhere on the site. So I contacted the US site and asked about this and they said I would need to contact where i tried to in the first place. I did this but I just couldn't select any model. I got a reply pretty fast telling me I needed to contact the UK supplier of AKG products: http://www.akg.com/pro/international-representatives

I contacted them and guess what, They said I would need to contact amazon.co.uk. They said that Amazon make the returns details very tricky to find. They provided me a link so I managed to get in touch by phone and they said they would send me a new product the next day! I contacted them yesterday and my new K702s came today in under 20 hours. Very impressive. They also said I have up to 30 days to return the originals. I've sent them back already though.

Anyway, about the new ones. They are fine. They hardly make a sound when I move my head. I will just have to treat them incredibly carefully and hope this won't happen again. I still can't work out what the issue might have been. It was a really unusual sound that I kept hearing when I moved slightly.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

These cans are with little care to disasssemble easily. Have a look on youtube how to begin. Maybe there could be some cable defect or some dirt in it which could distort.. This little "operation" should be not an affair.

I would never want to risk taking them apart myself as it could effect the warranty. I'm pleased with what Amazon have offered which I mentioned in my post above. They made it very easy for me and saved a lot of time.

 

[Rompe]

I still can't work out what the issue might have been. It was a really unusual sound that I kept hearing when I moved slightly.

Only time when I notice bad creaking sound is when I have my glasses on while using these headphones and move/tilt my head. The large pads rub against the plastic frames of my glasses causing the creaking sound. So maybe your pads were a bit loose and were rubbing against the headphone frame (or you also wear glasses ).

 

[Dexter22]

I guess the 550's though not so portable, can still be taken to work everyday, so they have a reason to be tougher to handle a poor travel bag. They shouldbe swiveled everyday , and thus need to be stronger. There is no reason for the 702's to get out of the desk.

 

[TheGiantHogweed]

Only time when I notice bad creaking sound is when I have my glasses on while using these headphones and move/tilt my head. The large pads rub against the plastic frames of my glasses causing the creaking sound. So maybe your pads were a bit loose and were rubbing against the headphone frame (or you also wear glasses ).

I know it wasn't to do with the pads. I tried taking them off and they still creaked badly. That loud pop sound on the left was just so strange. I never wear glasses so that won't be to do with it. I do have quite a large head and I do seem to have to wear the K702s very nearly at there largest size. I wonder if it having to automatically adjust and stretch the elastic every time I took them on or off was related to this?... I never thought my head was huge but anyone with a bigger head than me would really struggle to get their ears in the cups comfortably I don't quite see why the leather strap cant go all the way to the top where the 2 bars go across to allow more space.

I guess the 550's though not so portable, can still be taken to work everyday, so they have a reason to be tougher to handle a poor travel bag. They shouldbe swiveled everyday , and thus need to be stronger. There is no reason for the 702's to get out of the desk.

The K550s I have seem to be doing very well. I've been using them every time I go anywhere on a bus and they have been in my laptop bad in a tight secure pocket. I had to put a piece of foam between the 2 ear cups when they were folder flat because otherwise they would bash together and dent the metal ring. But since I worked out I needed to do this, they have lasted for several years.

The K702s build quality although they are for desktop use do feel like quite a let down to me. Compared to my AT ATH-AD700s which were under £90, the build quality on these is pretty bad. I've had my AD700s for over 6 years now I think. They have survived a huge amount of use. Nothing on them feels like its going to break even if you are not very careful with them careful. Whereas on the K702s, the plastic just looks and feels so thin, cheap and fragile. There is also a lack of metal anywhere on them it seems. I really was expecting the grills on the outside to be metal considering what they looked like in the picture. Anyway, I've get over all this if they do last as they do sound fantastic.

 

[geoffroyi]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for EQ settings to tame the treble a bit in order to end up with a more relaxing yet natural presentation? Lately I've been using these settings in the 10 band equalizer provided by iTunes in order to get rid of what I'm experiencing as too piercing/forward highs. The settings could probably be further optimized but I'm a bit tired of experimenting.

The 2kHz band is set to -1.1 and 8kHz to -2.0. Any others using an EQ curve?

 

[jaco61]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for EQ settings to tame the treble a bit in order to end up with a more relaxing yet natural presentation? Lately I've been using these settings in the 10 band equalizer provided by iTunes in order to get rid of what I'm experiencing as too piercing/forward highs. The settings could probably be further optimized but I'm a bit tired of experimenting.

The 2kHz band is set to -1.1 and 8kHz to -2.0. Any others using an EQ curve?

I could suggest: EQ 2300 MHz minus 6dB, I did nothing else.

Free download: Equalizer APO

Besides I use it only when I hear from Computer. Compareable if a bit softer effect you get when you are damping the driver with a little thicker foam or some compareable.
Best effect was half a cleaning pad of my wife

 

[xxAMAROKxx]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for EQ settings to tame the treble a bit in order to end up with a more relaxing yet natural presentation?

Use custom foam disks. It is a good options and it is primarily intended for tamming treble.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fin...lgo_pvid=d4a66706-497c-4964-b031-d144c4ddf894

 

[Luca92]

hey this is my first post in head-fi, is there any difference in details retrieval and soundstage between old and new akg k702 models? I'm curious because i have bought k702 recently and its serial number is 152002; anyway its sound is changing a lot with the burn in (30 hours at the moment)

 

[Me x3]

hey this is my first post in head-fi, is there any difference in details retrieval and soundstage between old and new akg k702 models? I'm curious because i have bought k702 recently and its serial number is 152002; anyway its sound is changing a lot with the burn in (30 hours at the moment)

It's your hearing/brain getting used to the new sound signature, not the hedphone changing.
I've had two AKG K702, the later (129.xxx) was a little bit warmer. Could be due to a slight retuning or simple unit to unit variation.
Both had very good channel matching. Both very good in terms of clarity and soundstage.Very good headphones for natural recordings.

Happy Listening,
Me x3

 

[jaco61]

hey this is my first post in head-fi, is there any difference in details retrieval and soundstage between old and new akg k702 models? I'm curious because i have bought k702 recently and its serial number is 152002; anyway its sound is changing a lot with the burn in (30 hours at the moment)

+1 Same experience with k702 ser 144xxx early 2017 ... soundstage did change a tiny bit due to an hidden update but this was rumoured but not seen proofed. I like the AKGs a lot even more cause they were designed next to my place in vienna (even produced longer ago)
They started to improve more and more up to 80+ h
Definately messured was a burn in effect with an audioquest nighthawk and e.g the bassextension was even to hear for wooden ears like mine.
For further infos in german of this blog look here: http://blog.prof-x.de/2017/10/29/1-teil-break-in-von-kopfhoerern-wissenschaft-wunder-oder-wunsch/

 

[Me x3]

@jaco61
Each and everytime I've measured frequency response on any of my headphones (and I've measured them all many times) they measure the same.

 

[Luca92]

Thank you for your helpful replies. I think that sound changing, which is remarkable, is at least in part due to burn in, even if a "brain in" probably contributes to the final result. Anyway I'm really enjoying my k702