[m00hk00h]

Hi head-fi.

Unfortunately it took me quite a while to organise some time to post this.
I also decided to split my planned thread into several different threads because I would exceed the image limit.

So here are my experiences I made in the "Harman Internation" hall where I visited AKG (of course!) and had a nice little conversation with "someone" important (damn it, I should've noted the names...).

But let's start with some pics:

This is what the Harman hall looked like. They were -along with sony- the only company having a complete hall for themselves.
The color on the ceiling slowly changed in the colors of the rainbow:

Here you can see the transformation from white to red. The AKG display was from (this perspective) on the opposite side of the hall, on the right. Just behind that bridge. I made an overview shot of AKG's presentation but it got lost together with the camera. I bought a new one but I didn't rember making a new photo.

This is one of some very comfy listening stations where you could just relax your feet and listen to some tunes, live-mixed by a DJ. K181 was also available.

Also displayed were some "oldies" like the "K 180"...

...or the "K 50"...:

Sorry, no description. I remember beeing interrupted by the AKG hostess who recognized me from the day before...what ever.

...or the "Audimir":

Let's come to the new cans:
This is what AKGs re-designed entry class will look like:

Sorry, there was no description. But as you will see these weren't any helpful at all, so...

One big surprise for me was the K 530 Ltd.

This headphone hits the market in October but as far as I understood it is limitted to Europe. The limitation is 5000 pieces and the "Ltd." version will costs exactly what the normal costs. I wasn't able to find out if these velour pads will be available as normal accessorie for the K530. I think they sound better because they "purge" the bass and bring out the mids a bit which makes the headphone less "nasal".

Continue in the next post!

m00h

 

[m00hk00h]

So let's come to the new AKG studio line. The headphones on the following pics were actually the first prototypes produced. They were set together by hand but no one wanted to tell me if these displayed phones would actually work when plugged in or not. I am sure that the guy I talked to knew but he didn't tell me.

Let's have some pics:
K 142 HD:

K 242 HD

K 172 HD

K 272 HD

Actually...I am not sure which color is correct. The ones without flash look a bit too darf and the ones with look a bit too bright. The phones were lit from underneath. Maybe that disturbed my cam + I had no experience with all the options I had with the new camera and no experience how they would influence the result.

AKG also presented two new in-car entertainment headphones.
Forget the L3000 or R10. The MaAybach headphone by AKG will most likely be the most exclusive headphone available. Rumors say they are going to sell this for around 20.000€ (together with the infotainment system). But what are 20.000€ for a car that costs half a million...?
No further info on the Amphora...but I definitely like the design. The whole phones seems to screem out "70s are back!" but with it's buttons it looks so futuristic. I like it (for a wireless phone...)!

Of course K601 and K701 were also present:

And before I forget it: I also talked about the future plans of AKG. With the strong winds from Harman in their sails they have big plans.
AKG is going to redesign their complete array of products to fit into the new color scheme. They also noticed that the K81/518 is often used as a protable headphone and they think about releasing a portable edition with a shorter cord and an extension cable.
I also complained about the K1000 beeing out of production. His answer was "Hmm...maybe we make a new one. And maybe even a limited edition". There are a lot of "may be"s, I know, but look at what AKG already achieved after beeing nearly bankrupt!
They are also working on cunsumer products that are planned to be in the price range up to 3000 (threethousand!) Euro...
I think we can expect quite a few new hi end cans from AKG.

Hav fun with this. I hope I find the time to put up more pics from Senn, audio-tehnica, beyer etc.

m00h

 

[devin_mm]

Curse you Germany for having two awesome shows at once, the Frankfurt Auto Show is on at this moment as well.

 

[m00hk00h]

IFA is over though. But you are very welcome to visit it next year, I have a guestbed.

m00h

 

[devin_mm]

I would love to visit Germany (well all of Europe) more than anything.

 

[Fitz]

Did you get the guy to tell you who was responsible for staging the coup within AKG that resulted in this light grey mess?

(I so would've stolen that Audimir though. Security ain't gonna catch me!)

 

[Jon118]

That's a pretty good description actually. Nice pictures, I kind of want to try the Amphora things. I'm not sure what they are or even why something like that would exist, but they have my interest if nothing else.

 

[thrice]

nice pics, thanks for the report!

 

[Hi-Finthen]

Nice photos and captions, m00hk00h, thanks!