Coop
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2008
- Posts
- 622
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- 67
I'm not really a big fan of wireless audio, but recently I had an interesting talk with someone about the subject. With him trying to convince me that portable wireless headphones are just as good as wired and me being the skeptic that I am and not taking his word for it, some proof was required. So when I had the chance to buy a new-in-box 2nd hand AKG K830bt at a good price, I bought it.
After playing around with it for a bit, I decided to do a write-up of my experiences so far...
Equipment used:
- AKG K830bt
- AKG K430
- Jabra Halo2
- Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 (voice calls / Music using Poweramp2)
- Asus Transformer Prime TF201 (Youtube Android App / Music using Poweramp2 / Songpop / MX Player)
- Acer Travelmate 5760 w. Sitecom CN-512 Bluetooth dongle (Foobar 2000, VLC, Trillian, Skype, X-Lite)
The AKG K830bt with the supplied baggy.
Pairing
Initial pairing the K830bt to a device is quite easy. Press the multifunction 'phone' button for about 4 seconds, have your device scan for the headphone and tell it to pair. Even though the manual mentions a passcode, I didn't need it.
The trouble starts when you want to use it with multiple sources. While the lack of Multiconnect is a bit disappointing, the fact that it can only be paired with one device is something AKG should be ashamed about. Basicly it means that whenever you want to use it with another device, you have to go through the whole pairing thing again. That's unacceptable for a €100+ Bluetooth headphone. Even my €35 BT handsfree set has a memory for 16 devices.
What does that mean in the real world? While testing I initially paired the headphones with my phone and all was well, later, I paired it with my tablet, so far, so good... But then I wanted to use it with my phone again. The phone remembered the headphones, but not the other way around, so it didn't work. I unpaired it on my phone, re-paired it, now the control buttons were working, but not the audiostream. Unpaired again, re-paired again, same result. After fiddling around a little longer without any success, I ended up rebooting the phone and doing a full reset on the headphones. After that everything was ok and pairing was as easy as it had been the first time.
Now I was planning on using these headphones with multiple devices, phone for headset & headphone use, tablet for multimedia, laptop for VOIP headset and PS3 for (in game) voice chat. But with the hassle I've had with pairing when switching devices, I think it will only be paireded with my phone.
Use
The headset is easy to use, the control buttons are easy to find (after a little getting used to their layout as I found it difficult to distinguish them just by the raised icons. There is a bit of lag in them though, on more than one occasion I was about to re-press the button as I thought it didn't register when the confirmation beep from my device came. Lag seems to be the biggest problem with this headphone. While paired with my Asus Transformer Prime (TF201) tablet, I found that the lag is enough to be annoying while watching videos and makes it completely unusable for games like Songpop. Which is kind of a shame, I really wanted that to work well as the headphone connection of the Asus being on the 'wrong' side for Songpops' forced screen orientation.
While paired to my laptop running Windows 7 Pro (32bit), I was unable to get the control buttons to work with any application. I tried multiple media players, Skype, Trillian & X-Lite, but no luck. But it might have something to do with the cheaper than dirt USB bluetoothdongle I use on my laptop. Audio & microphone worked just fine though.
So the lag makes pretty much only suitable for audio, listening to music and handling voicecalls worked as expected (the only exception being the control buttons on Windows), without any problems.
Soundquality
The soundquality is pretty much what I expected from an AKG mini portable, although I did notice a loss of soundquality compared to my wired headphones. With MP3 up to 320kbps it's pretty much a draw, but anything over that (and most of my music collection is in FLAC) and you'll start to notice the shortcomings of Bluetooth. Not a big issue though, as these headphones wouldn't be my first choice for really listening to music. The situations I want to use these for usually have enough environmental noise to make me not notice the differences. I haven't heard much interference or lost packets in normal use, but I did notice some when getting to the borders of the BT connections range or when the headphones are low on power.
I won't even try to describe the sound, I simply suck at that, so I'll just say that it has a sound signature pretty much on par with the rest of the AKG minis that I heard.
So, how does it stack up to other Bluetooth headphones? Well, I only had access to a Jabra Halo2 for a comparison and it really shows that Jabra is a phone headset manufacturer and AKG is a headphone manufacturer. Jabra did everything right when it comes to the connectivity part, it has Multiconnect and memory for multiple devices. Pretty much anything you'd expect from a bluetooth headset, the sound on the other hand, was... how to put this politely... 'pretty f-in horrible', I must say that it was a learning experience for me, as I finally understand what people mean when they say a headphone sounds veiled and muddy. So basicly the Jabra is exact opposite of the AKG, which has the soundquality but lacks the connectivity features. The lag issues were there with the Jabra too, so I guess that's just the limitation of Bluetooth.
Comfort
Being a on-ear, comfort can be an issue. It doesn't clamp down very hard, but strong enough to stay in place. I did notice that it doesn't mix with glasses very well. I picked out my glasses with headphone use in mind, so the frame is really thin and still the K830bt caused some discomfort in the areas where thet are close to the frames. Something I don't have with othe on-ear models.
Adjustment is simple, just the headbandlength to set, the double hinged swiveling earcups do the rest. The pad are a nice soft pleather, while it is still pleather, it is one of the nicer pleathers I've seen on headphones. There's not much of a seal, but enough to keep sound from leaking and still get some input from your surroundings (road pizza prevention feature).
Build
Again, very similar to other AKG minis, the headband is nearly identical to that of my K430, the only differences being color and a little added padding. You can twist and bend it quite a bit without feeling like it is going to break on you. Ofcourse it is a little heavier than a regular headphone, but it is quite nicely balanced weight wise. The electronics are in the left earcup, while the right earcup houses the battery (which is a tiny 300-something mAh btw). The shiny plastic does make it look a little cheaper than the matte materials used on for example, my K430, not to mention the fingerprint sensitivity, but it is still a nice headphone to look at. The 3D-axis folding mechanism doesn't work as well as on the K430. The earcups are a little larger, but the headband is the same, causing the earcups to rub together with quite a bit of pressure when folded.
Accesories
Most people who buy €100+ headphones have gotten used to them coming with a few nice accesories, like spare pads or a storage case. There are not many accesories that come with the K830bt, just a little cloth baggy and a 'charge only' micro USB cable. The cable is quite thin and looks a little flimsy, but it is nice and flexible and doesn't take up a lot of space in your pocket. But as it is charge only, it can't be used for anything but charging, and not even for charging any device, as my (Samsung) phones won't even charge on it. What I did find a bit strange, is the label on the cable, which says 5V 0,3A, while a USB port can supply up to 5V 0,5A. That being said, I used a 5V 1,2A car charger on it without any problems.
The baggy while looking nice as far as baggies go, is a bit of a disappointment. Even with the K430 which was about half the price of the K830bts MSRP, I got a nice little semi-hardcase. And while the baggy will probably offer some scratch protection, it wont do anything more other than keeping the parts together if the headphones break.
Conclusion
I bought these headphones second hand, and I'm glad I did. Had I paid full retail price I would have gotten very mad at AKG and would probably have ended up in my car on my way to AKG HQ with the K830bt tied to a brick. In my opinion, it is very much not worth its full retail price, but if you can find a good deal secondhand or on sale, by all means go for it. The sound is good, and it works flawlessly when used with a single device and for audio purposes only. If you intend to use it with multiple devices or for multimedia/gaming, there are probably better options.
I guess it has quite a few flaws as a headphone, but it makes one kickass bluetooth headset for your phone, given that you have just one phone you use it on, with the ability to play nice sounding stereo music to boot.
Update: I'm putting them up for sale: http://www.head-fi.org/t/627292/akg-k830bt-bluetooth-headphones
After playing around with it for a bit, I decided to do a write-up of my experiences so far...
Equipment used:
- AKG K830bt
- AKG K430
- Jabra Halo2
- Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100 (voice calls / Music using Poweramp2)
- Asus Transformer Prime TF201 (Youtube Android App / Music using Poweramp2 / Songpop / MX Player)
- Acer Travelmate 5760 w. Sitecom CN-512 Bluetooth dongle (Foobar 2000, VLC, Trillian, Skype, X-Lite)
The AKG K830bt with the supplied baggy.
Pairing
Initial pairing the K830bt to a device is quite easy. Press the multifunction 'phone' button for about 4 seconds, have your device scan for the headphone and tell it to pair. Even though the manual mentions a passcode, I didn't need it.
The trouble starts when you want to use it with multiple sources. While the lack of Multiconnect is a bit disappointing, the fact that it can only be paired with one device is something AKG should be ashamed about. Basicly it means that whenever you want to use it with another device, you have to go through the whole pairing thing again. That's unacceptable for a €100+ Bluetooth headphone. Even my €35 BT handsfree set has a memory for 16 devices.
What does that mean in the real world? While testing I initially paired the headphones with my phone and all was well, later, I paired it with my tablet, so far, so good... But then I wanted to use it with my phone again. The phone remembered the headphones, but not the other way around, so it didn't work. I unpaired it on my phone, re-paired it, now the control buttons were working, but not the audiostream. Unpaired again, re-paired again, same result. After fiddling around a little longer without any success, I ended up rebooting the phone and doing a full reset on the headphones. After that everything was ok and pairing was as easy as it had been the first time.
Now I was planning on using these headphones with multiple devices, phone for headset & headphone use, tablet for multimedia, laptop for VOIP headset and PS3 for (in game) voice chat. But with the hassle I've had with pairing when switching devices, I think it will only be paireded with my phone.
Use
The headset is easy to use, the control buttons are easy to find (after a little getting used to their layout as I found it difficult to distinguish them just by the raised icons. There is a bit of lag in them though, on more than one occasion I was about to re-press the button as I thought it didn't register when the confirmation beep from my device came. Lag seems to be the biggest problem with this headphone. While paired with my Asus Transformer Prime (TF201) tablet, I found that the lag is enough to be annoying while watching videos and makes it completely unusable for games like Songpop. Which is kind of a shame, I really wanted that to work well as the headphone connection of the Asus being on the 'wrong' side for Songpops' forced screen orientation.
While paired to my laptop running Windows 7 Pro (32bit), I was unable to get the control buttons to work with any application. I tried multiple media players, Skype, Trillian & X-Lite, but no luck. But it might have something to do with the cheaper than dirt USB bluetoothdongle I use on my laptop. Audio & microphone worked just fine though.
So the lag makes pretty much only suitable for audio, listening to music and handling voicecalls worked as expected (the only exception being the control buttons on Windows), without any problems.
Soundquality
The soundquality is pretty much what I expected from an AKG mini portable, although I did notice a loss of soundquality compared to my wired headphones. With MP3 up to 320kbps it's pretty much a draw, but anything over that (and most of my music collection is in FLAC) and you'll start to notice the shortcomings of Bluetooth. Not a big issue though, as these headphones wouldn't be my first choice for really listening to music. The situations I want to use these for usually have enough environmental noise to make me not notice the differences. I haven't heard much interference or lost packets in normal use, but I did notice some when getting to the borders of the BT connections range or when the headphones are low on power.
I won't even try to describe the sound, I simply suck at that, so I'll just say that it has a sound signature pretty much on par with the rest of the AKG minis that I heard.
So, how does it stack up to other Bluetooth headphones? Well, I only had access to a Jabra Halo2 for a comparison and it really shows that Jabra is a phone headset manufacturer and AKG is a headphone manufacturer. Jabra did everything right when it comes to the connectivity part, it has Multiconnect and memory for multiple devices. Pretty much anything you'd expect from a bluetooth headset, the sound on the other hand, was... how to put this politely... 'pretty f-in horrible', I must say that it was a learning experience for me, as I finally understand what people mean when they say a headphone sounds veiled and muddy. So basicly the Jabra is exact opposite of the AKG, which has the soundquality but lacks the connectivity features. The lag issues were there with the Jabra too, so I guess that's just the limitation of Bluetooth.
Comfort
Being a on-ear, comfort can be an issue. It doesn't clamp down very hard, but strong enough to stay in place. I did notice that it doesn't mix with glasses very well. I picked out my glasses with headphone use in mind, so the frame is really thin and still the K830bt caused some discomfort in the areas where thet are close to the frames. Something I don't have with othe on-ear models.
Adjustment is simple, just the headbandlength to set, the double hinged swiveling earcups do the rest. The pad are a nice soft pleather, while it is still pleather, it is one of the nicer pleathers I've seen on headphones. There's not much of a seal, but enough to keep sound from leaking and still get some input from your surroundings (road pizza prevention feature).
Build
Again, very similar to other AKG minis, the headband is nearly identical to that of my K430, the only differences being color and a little added padding. You can twist and bend it quite a bit without feeling like it is going to break on you. Ofcourse it is a little heavier than a regular headphone, but it is quite nicely balanced weight wise. The electronics are in the left earcup, while the right earcup houses the battery (which is a tiny 300-something mAh btw). The shiny plastic does make it look a little cheaper than the matte materials used on for example, my K430, not to mention the fingerprint sensitivity, but it is still a nice headphone to look at. The 3D-axis folding mechanism doesn't work as well as on the K430. The earcups are a little larger, but the headband is the same, causing the earcups to rub together with quite a bit of pressure when folded.
Accesories
Most people who buy €100+ headphones have gotten used to them coming with a few nice accesories, like spare pads or a storage case. There are not many accesories that come with the K830bt, just a little cloth baggy and a 'charge only' micro USB cable. The cable is quite thin and looks a little flimsy, but it is nice and flexible and doesn't take up a lot of space in your pocket. But as it is charge only, it can't be used for anything but charging, and not even for charging any device, as my (Samsung) phones won't even charge on it. What I did find a bit strange, is the label on the cable, which says 5V 0,3A, while a USB port can supply up to 5V 0,5A. That being said, I used a 5V 1,2A car charger on it without any problems.
The baggy while looking nice as far as baggies go, is a bit of a disappointment. Even with the K430 which was about half the price of the K830bts MSRP, I got a nice little semi-hardcase. And while the baggy will probably offer some scratch protection, it wont do anything more other than keeping the parts together if the headphones break.
Conclusion
I bought these headphones second hand, and I'm glad I did. Had I paid full retail price I would have gotten very mad at AKG and would probably have ended up in my car on my way to AKG HQ with the K830bt tied to a brick. In my opinion, it is very much not worth its full retail price, but if you can find a good deal secondhand or on sale, by all means go for it. The sound is good, and it works flawlessly when used with a single device and for audio purposes only. If you intend to use it with multiple devices or for multimedia/gaming, there are probably better options.
I guess it has quite a few flaws as a headphone, but it makes one kickass bluetooth headset for your phone, given that you have just one phone you use it on, with the ability to play nice sounding stereo music to boot.
Update: I'm putting them up for sale: http://www.head-fi.org/t/627292/akg-k830bt-bluetooth-headphones
