[brawl]

Hello,
 
I'm searching for information about AKG K450 and AKG K430.
 
About K 430 I have read a lot of very good stuff, but about K 450 the 
critic seems to be cut in two. 
 
About K430 I know that have clear mids and treble with decent bass sound 
stage, but about AKG 450 someone say that are fantastic some one other 
says bad, some one other says that are good only if  you do a very good burn-in,
because before that the sound is without good mids and treble...
 
So, I wish to ask you, to who owned the AKG K430 and AKG K450,  if you 
can compare those headphones after a very good burn in, please.
 
I wish very so much to know about mids, and treble after burn in in the 
K450 because I have no found articulated description into this forum and in 
the web about it (I looked for a lot of time).
 
Is it possible that are K430 better than K450? 
 
Today we are knowing much better this K450 for exemple we all was almost sure,
because of the same specifications, that K450 were the same of Q460,
but this recent topic dicovered that with surprisly for anyone that the Q460 are not the same thing of K450. 
"AKG Q460 anyone have experience with them?" (I put here only the title of the topic because
maybe "corss posting" is forbidden into this forum.  
 
Thanks you a lot for your help,
 
Daniel, Italy (sorry for my bad english, please).

 

[buffalowings]

i wouldn't pay more than $30 for the k430. anything more is highway robbery

 

[brawl]

Quote:

i wouldn't pay more than $30 for the k430. anything more is highway robbery

 
why they do not worth the money, please?
I ask this because k430 have higher cost than 30$ in the stores (double).
could you kindly articulate your disagreement, please?

 

[buffalowings]

Quote:

 
why they do not worth the money, please?
I ask this because have higher cost than 30$ in the stores.
could you kindly articulate your disagreement, please?

sure thing, the k430 suffers from extremely poor build quality, mine had uneven paint throughout, dust/dirt particles were actually stuck in the paint. the clear plastic badge on one earpiece arrived cracked resembling spider webs. the headband was bent making the headphone looked skewed to one side. (not apparent when worn). The ear pads looked and felt very cheap.and the cabling felt very short (even for a vertically challenged person such as myself). sound wise, I thought that they were very mid oriented, with the bass taking third place in relation to the treble and the mids. perhaps i was a bit too harsh, but I was not impressed with the customer service from akg, failing to reply to my emails asking for a replacement or at least a solution to my grievances with the piss ass poor build quality. 

 

[brawl]

Quote:

sure thing, the k430 suffers from extremely poor build quality, mine had uneven paint throughout, dust/dirt particles were actually stuck in the paint. the clear plastic badge on one earpiece arrived cracked resembling spider webs. the headband was bent making the headphone looked skewed to one side. (not apparent when worn). The ear pads looked and felt very cheap.and the cabling felt very short (even for a vertically challenged person such as myself). sound wise, I thought that they were very mid oriented, with the bass taking third place in relation to the treble and the mids. perhaps i was a bit too harsh, but I was not impressed with the customer service from akg, failing to reply to my emails asking for a replacement or at least a solution to my grievances with the piss ass poor build quality. 

 
I'm really sorry you had this experience. Thanks you for telling me your story!
 
I have to say that when I was at the electronic shop for looking from close the headphones the guy who wanted to sell me the AKG K430 couldn't open the headphones box to show me the stuff from close... but he had one pair of personal AKG K430 white for his self! 
He showed the pair of headphones, and the first thing I noticed  was this sort of ruined paint on the cups. 
I figured it was his fault in my mind, I thought maybe he hold the headphones into his pockets in contact with different type of cloth, objects, and at that the same time the time did the rest of the work.
p.s.
The ear pads looked like this "naturalistic example", the artificial leather was like defragmented.
 

 

[brawl]

 

I've found this "AKG forum" discussion and  I discouraged also about K450.
Now I have fear of the cables are too fragile on K450. 
Reading it all seems that these cables have been poorly designed, but I need some more source to be sure about it, I know.
http://www.akg.com/forum/index.php/topic,2136.0.html
 
 

 

[brawl]

 
I wish to ask you if this problems are -serious- or not. Is it so notorious 
and that dangerous?
 http://www.akg.com/forum/index.php/topic,2136.0.html
Thanks for help to uderstand it.

 

[CENTRAL]

You are right as far as opinions go… everybody has a different one, especially when it comes to sound equipment!!!
 
As far as the K330, I think they are worth the price. I got one 3 years ago (scarab) and I thought build quality was great. Nice cable, nice plastic, textile label on the chord… they broke down some months later.
 
Then I got a second pair (white). At the time the price has decreased and got those for 2/3 the price of the scarab.
Then I thought that the quality has deteriorated as well. Cheaper cable and plastics, cheaper case, no textile tag on the chord anymore. These have lasted for two years and still go strong. Go figure…
 
I think most IEMs at this price suffer from quality issues at some point.
 
As far as the sound goes I think the K330s are great for the price and very customizable by changing tips. I can get as much bass as I like by shifting the tips from these and my old scarab (more bass with those)…
 
I have no clue at all about the K450s…

 

[buffalowings]

 
Quote:

You are right as far as opinions go… everybody has a different one, especially when it comes to sound equipment!!!
 
As far as the K330, I think they are worth the price. I got one 3 years ago (scarab) and I thought build quality was great. Nice cable, nice plastic, textile label on the chord… they broke down some months later.
 
Then I got a second pair (white). At the time the price has decreased and got those for 2/3 the price of the scarab.
Then I thought that the quality has deteriorated as well. Cheaper cable and plastics, cheaper case, no textile tag on the chord anymore. These have lasted for two years and still go strong. Go figure…
 
I think most IEMs at this price suffer from quality issues at some point.
 
As far as the sound goes I think the K330s are great for the price and very customizable by changing tips. I can get as much bass as I like by shifting the tips from these and my old scarab (more bass with those)…
 
I have no clue at all about the K450s…

the OP was comparing the K430 and the K450, K330's fetch for far more than either not to mention they are vintage

 

[brawl]

Good News I wrote a letter to AKG Italy. I'm from Italy.
 
Previously I had already written them to find out if buying a product from UK I could have some warranty problems.
 
Well I post also the answer from them (I used google translate and edited some text lines to figure better the sense of the words).
 
 
From me:
Quote:

Hello, 

Thank you for your kind attention and for helping me to better understand how 
does the warranty works, the consumer magazine 
which I have subscribed said the same thigs of yours and I thank you 
to have been very honest, and extremely courteous with me. 

Now I am interested in buying these headphones in Italy. 

Only a problem that has arisen of a different nature, which stops me to 
buy headphones model AKG K450: surfing the net I read 
this web page links on the official forum of AKG, and the model 
that I wanted unfortunately has a serious structural defect. the 
connecting cables "headphone ---> MP3 players" are detachable 
unlike other headsets and replaceable, they are actually - 
very fragile, in fact if you read the discussion of two pages that I
link to you you can also understand that this is a very serious defect 
  for considering the purchase of a new model of headphones. 

Since these cables have a "proprietary form" and are not 
around figures if not frankly uninviting price, I wanted to ask if the 
Italian warranty covers free, the referral of a new cable 
if it were to fail for the duration of two years of 
receipt. 

Link: http://www.akg.com/forum/index.php/topic, 2136.0.html 

Thank you very much for your kind, 

Your client, 

Daniele Saini

 
 
Their answer:
 
 
 
Quote:

Dear Mr. xxxxxxxx
respond to his request for direct jurisdiction. 

In Italy we have never had problems with the K450 model which are 
reported in the forum of AKG, and even some of our colleagues in Corporate 
have the K450 until 2008 and the cable in recent years has always 
worked perfectly. I assume then you can possibly handle 
problems of limited to a specific production lot. 

Moreover, if a cable problem should really be shown during 
European two-year warranty, its replacement would obviously 
free (bring your headset at a ns. Service Center, which 
must determine whether the cable has not been torn, even 
inadvertently, because in this case it would obviously 
a manufacturing defect). 

If, however, go buy the cable, the price charged by ns. 
service network will be 8.50 Euro for the version 0.5 and 10.30€ for the version 1.1 mt (VAT included). 

Thank you for your attention and kind regards. 

xxxx

 

 
 
 
 
what do you think about it?
 
 
thanks a lot for the replies!
 
Bye bye!