[inthere]

How do they sound compared to the ether c and ether flow ?

Bigger soundstage, a bit smoother treble, a bit more bass (while still being a bit bass light), and a more magical musical overall feel than Ether C. I haven't heard the Flow yet.

 

[zolkis]

Bigger soundstage, a bit smoother treble, a bit more bass (while still being a bit bass light), and a more magical musical overall feel than Ether C. I haven't heard the Flow yet.

 
If it has more bass than the K812, that would be fine for me, I'd rather go with better musicality, so it's still a contender it seems, especially if it beats the Ether C on that account. What about sound stage width, height, depth, imaging?

 

[LajostheHun]

Don't worry, the forces of Natural Selection are still very much a real thing. 

Not nearly enough in San Francisco!

 

[Jobbing]

Amazing headphones. Within a 3 meters distance it's scary how close the AKG K872's sound matches the audio playback coming from my Dynaudio Acoustics professional NFM speakers. Hats off to AKG for creating this new fabulous closed back flagship

 

[FritzS]

   
If it has more bass than the K812, that would be fine for me, I'd rather go with better musicality, 

 
my experience:
K872 have more bass than K812 - and
K872 sounds more 'musicality' 
 
But I don't have an Ether C to compare both.
 
K872 offers more relaxed enjoyment of music. 
The K812 ist the Swiss Army Knife for sound engineers and offers each peace of cake of blotchiness in the music stream.

 

[inthere]

 

If it has more bass than the K812, that would be fine for me, I'd rather go with better musicality, 

my experience:
K872 have more bass than K812 - and
K872 sounds more 'musicality' 

But I don't have an Ether C to compare both.

K872 offers more relaxed enjoyment of music. 
The K812 ist the Swiss Army Knife for sound engineers and offers each peace of cake of blotchiness in the music stream.

I find the K872 completely useless for sound engineering because of the rolled off bass. It was tuned for audiophiles to compete with other high end headphones

 

[qazxsw80]

I find the K872 completely useless for sound engineering because of the rolled off bass. It was tuned for audiophiles to compete with other high end headphones

They tuned the K872 to have the rolled off bass, because audiophiles like it? I wonder what sound engineers did back then when all headphones had the rolled off bass and they all were "completely useless". 

 

[inthere]

For decades now it's been common knowledge that you can't mix with headphones.

K872 has rolled off bass not just because " audiophiles like it" but because rolled off bass expands the soundstage and spotlights treble and mid detail, which makes the headphone sound more expensive. This is almost mandatory if you want to charge $1000+ for headphone. Either roll off the bass or boost the treble. A lot of times both are incorporated.

So roll off the bass in your tuning and it sounds more detailed with a better soundstage.

Many of us have been guided in the direction of rolled off bass that removes bass bloat. However, if that bass bloat is in the recording and the headphone removes it, as a professional engineer I look upon that as missing data.

I have a database of headphones recorded through a binaural microphone that I built and I compare each with the original recording for accuracy:

 

[DoctaCosmos]

what do the k872 go for price wise?

 

[DoctaCosmos]

edit  oooooops wrong forum sorry

 

[akg fanboy]

For decades now it's been common knowledge that you can't mix with headphones.

K872 has rolled off bass not just because " audiophiles like it" but because rolled off bass expands the soundstage and spotlights treble and mid detail, which makes the headphone sound more expensive. This is almost mandatory if you want to charge $1000+ for headphone. Either roll off the bass or boost the treble. A lot of times both are incorporated.

So roll off the bass in your tuning and it sounds more detailed with a better soundstage.

Many of us have been guided in the direction of rolled off bass that removes bass bloat. However, if that bass bloat is in the recording and the headphone removes it, as a professional engineer I look upon that as missing data.

I have a database of headphones recorded through a binaural microphone that I built and I compare each with the original recording for accuracy:

Interesting to hear your perspective as a sound engineer. Is there a way we can hear the recordings of each headphone?

 

[inthere]

  Interesting to hear your perspective as a sound engineer. Is there a way we can hear the recordings of each headphone?

 
 I've pm'd you a link of 3 headphones+the original recording. i'm not at home so they're not level matched, but I'm pretty sure you'll hear the differences between each headphone. I haven't released them publicly because of obvious copyright issues that i don't want to deal with. Of course a simple solution is to re-record everything with my own music, but I'm not sure I want to submit my music for critique/criticism.
 
The headphones are Focal Utopia, Beats 1.0, and K872. I actually used those examples to prove that my Focal utopia was defective, because the bass was breaking up.

 

[akg fanboy]

   
 I've pm'd you a link of 3 headphones+the original recording. i'm not at home so they're not level matched, but I'm pretty sure you'll hear the differences between each headphone. I haven't released them publicly because of obvious copyright issues that i don't want to deal with. Of course a simple solution is to re-record everything with my own music, but I'm not sure I want to submit my music for critique/criticism.
 
The headphones are Focal Utopia, Beats 1.0, and K872. I actually used those examples to prove that my Focal utopia was defective, because the bass was breaking up.

Wow I think I can tell I will really like the k872/k812. I just don't really know how the soundstage is because I'm using the hd800s to listen to them. The utopia was on a different level and sounded great even for a defective model, it was getting to the point where it didn't sound like a headphone recording, but I don't know how the original of that song sounds like. Thanks for the samples

 

[inthere]

The original recording was included so you can directly compare them. The main goal of my testing is frequency response. Soundstage is not really the focus but you can get a rough idea of things like clarity and soundstage.
 
*edit*
 
I recommend that you always compare the headphone to the original audio file for reference of how accurate it is; of course you still can compare each headphone to another to see which one is more enjoyable

 

[akg fanboy]

  The original recording was included so you can directly compare them. The main goal of my testing is frequency response. Soundstage is not really the focus but you can get a rough idea of things like clarity and soundstage.

The utopia had a different song from the rest but I can tell it is a superb headphone.