I’m a big fan of the AKG812 too.
It certainly doesn’t get the exposure the HD800 commands - but there are many reasons for that. The good thing is that this ‘low on the radar’ status hels keeps the price down
To say I love my HD650 and HD600 is putting it mildly. We go back a few years and I have never stopped enjoying what each of them do for my music listening pleasure – each in a different way – almost the same but enough difference to make it impossible for me to get rid of either. On a score level, I would say my connection with the HD650 is slightly stronger than with the HD600 – but even as I write that statement I find myself back-peddling and feeling more like a case of a dead draw.
The HD650 has a magical velvet sonic ingredient I haven’t found in that form anywhere. The HD600 just does crazy good stuff with the upper end and upper mids. Both have been eminently scalable.
As I developed by fondness and enjoyment with them both I naturally came across the HD800 and HD800S. I didn’t hear these two ‘flagships’ of the Sennheiser tribe – but read plenty and one day someone on The Headphone Experience dismissed the HD650 and HD600 and said I should simply get the HD800S. At the time it annoyed me because he was flippantly talking about spending between 800 1K euro on them. I paid 120 for my HD600 and 160 euro for my HD650. Add some more for different cables (that came a few years after the original purchase) and a bit more for some ZMF Sennheiser pads. And I felt great with the dynamic duo of HD650 and HD600.
Then around 2 years ago someone I respected (her eon The Headphone Experience) talked about the AKG812 being their favourite headphones. The discussion at that time had focused (again) on the HD650 and how someone had opted for the AKG712 – as alternatives – bringing in a wider soundstage and side-stepping the silly thing regarding an apparent Sennheiser ‘veil’.
The mention of the AKG812 pricked my curiosity. I wasn’t prepared to spend upwards of 800 euro but decided to check out secondhand options on eBay. Not much later I nabbed a pair for 440 euro. Great. Until they arrived in a cloth Sony bag and a bit of nervousness ensued – would these things even work. They did and that first experience was exceptional.
A terrific soundstage – expansive in all directions. And an ethereal quality that I was not familiar with. Extreme detail retrieval and a base sound signature that was neutral and analytical but in no way sterile dry or distant. As for bass – no problem – no problem at all. Not only in quantity but more importantly in quality. These were the real deal – the complete package.
These days I have a non-stock cable (the original is good but I have a bit of a thing for getting cables – in this case, an XLR termination and some other details). But for around a year my experience of the AKG812 were made with the stock cable and there wasn’t a music-listening session that was anything less than highly pleasurable. And it didn’t depend on the type of music.
We make a journey with our headphones – this involves different headphone amps and DACS.
Today I am enjoying a slight departure from my regular setup – I wanted to take the music into my Violectric V550 with the mojo2 this time. I fed that excellent DAC with Quobuz streamed music via Roon and a simple USB into mojo2 route.
For a good while I heard about the magical mojo and mojo2 – I was a happy user of the iFi Gryphon – and truly like the iFi sound. So I was a bit resistant to the mojo2 endless fan noise. Then I relented and a year later I am glad I did.
The mojo2 has something quite beautiful going on. There is a special weight to the notes, a musicality, a substance, and body to the music that is distinctly mojoesque. I don’t mess around much with the special DSP / EQ function – but when I do I am impressed.
And the synergy with the V550 is great – especially when paired with these AKG812 – their airiness and ethereal qualities are given a degree of down-to-earthiness – that weightiness of notes and substance enters the flavour and it sounds fantastic.
This is all a lot of blah blah talk about sonic qualities but as I write it I am listening to Sophie Zelmani – I finished listening to her debut album (of the same name as her name) and now it’s ‘Time to Kill’. It’s a terrific album and she is a superb singer-songwriter (from Sweden). The final piece on this album is called ‘Fire’ and it’s a great showcase for the myriad of qualities the AKG 812 have.
The opening keyboard notes have a beauty of attack and decay, there’s something mysterious and deep about the micro details (hi-hat strike, the sound – almost – of the microphone itself, the timbre throughout these opening seconds – guitar strings that are distinct and the texture, layering and imaging – a tinkle here, a piano line there – every ingredient and musical element weaving its way into the song and HER voice close to the mic and the bass guitar or is it a bass? Deep and resonant and HER voice getting closer to us and the mic – it’s a delicate wonderful balanced and integrated tapestry of sonic skill.
These headphones are exceptional. The song picks up tempo and drive and the AKG812 move effortlessly into this new tempo and show off their speed and punch and dynamic agility. They DO complexity, they DO musicality, they DO timbre and intimacy. These are certainly analytical headphones but they sure as hell are great for just losing oneself in the music. I personally really rate their upper end and the way they present brightness and sparkle.
The opening song of the album is called ‘My’ and this is staggeringly intimate – her lips almost kissing the mic and the AKG812 are often described (in contrast to the HD800S) as being very close, very upfront – and this piece illustrates these qualities well. There is warmth too and this is definitely being nuanced and fed by the Violectric V550 and the mojo 2. The guitar work in this piece is very treble energy-centric – and it's gorgeously bright and light and airy.
There’s a fabulous album released this year from the British group ‘Ezra Collective’ an eclectic mixture of music and references but essentially Jazz – and the opener here is wonderful on these AKG812 – ‘Life Goes On’ – horns and vocals, percussion that taps the deeper corners of bass – not sub-bass but certainly deep resonant bass – and it finds a warm punchy home in these AKG812 – joined by a soaring smooth horn that glides upwards with ease and delicacy and harshness and sibilance are in full exile here. I’d forgotten about this album and haven’t heard it on this set-up / on these AKG812 – now I know this is a priority.
But now it’s enough already and bed beckons but I have to get a taste of some Chamber music – so pop over to The Chiaroscuro Quartet and their take on Shubert’s String Quartet in D-Minor. I have loved ‘Death and the Maiden’ for decades and this time it’s as great and thrilling as ever – they use historical instruments and bows – and gut string. The fact is that the AKG812 are exceedingly good for Chamber music – all the lineup of sonic wishes: timbre, soundstage, imaging, the full gamut of the tonal spectrum presented with finesse and clarity – it's all happening with the AKG812 and these Schubert string quartet is the perfect showcase.
These are one of my best buys – for 440 euro I have a pair of amazing dynamic driver headphones. The stock cable is great and this 110-euro cable is even better.
The thing is - if someone likes the AKG thing - the natural development will be to get some AKG812. And for 500 euro this is usually possible - with some patience.
