[Captain Magenta]

I recently got a pair of these and was very surprised to find them very neutral sounding contrary to views on here of them being bassy.  I find the bass to be well integrated with the rest of the frequencies and not emphisised at all though maybe with some more burn in the bass will come out. (this happend quite dramatically with my 141's and they really DO have emphisised bass in my opinion).   I actually find the neutrality in the K240S to be a good thing and am very pleased with the overall sound. The mids are very nice though I think the SR80i bet them for detail and my HD668b and even the closed Superlux HD660 had better imaging/soundstage.  I have now ordered some K601's to try and get the best of all these headphones.  Damn this website!   I feel I have a devil sitting on one shoulder and an angel on the other sometimes!
 
Anyway just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience with the K240S?  I have read that newer K701's now have more bass and maybe AKG have done the opposite with these following consumer feedback?  I noticed that many of the bassy descriptions are from older threads.
 

 

[nsx280ps]

I had the K240s about 2 months ago and found that they were fairly bassy compared to the headphones I have.. especially a mid bass hump.... To me the bass was also a little slow and overall sounded a bit syrupy and too laid back and dark sounding, the treble was recessed and i ended up returning them..

 

[Kerry56]

I have the K240 Mk II (same headphone as the K240s, just with more accessories).  I have to agree with your assessment that they don't have that much of an emphasis on the bass.  Bass extension is better than my SR60i's, but that is true of many sets.  In my opinion, the K240's are fairly well balanced and laid back. 
 
Haven't noticed any change in sound signature with use, but I'm not a big believer in burn-in with headphones anyway.

 

[kilibrium]

Just got my k240s today. So still in the process of burn-in(5 hours so far).
 
Concerning the bass, I'd have to say there seems to be a bit of mid bass hump. Nothing over-the-top but it's somewhat noticeable compared to the highs and mids. I would agree on the headphone itself being fairly neutral though.
 
I also have a question regarding the k240s mkii for anyone who has them. How do the velour pads vs pleather/leather pads sound? The velour seems to make the overall sound of the 240s much more laid back then the stock pads, while not changing much else.

 

[lejaz]

My 240S has a big hump in the mid-upper bass. And that's comparing them to some phones that are considered neutral in that area. They have more upper bass than the hd580 and way more than the k240DF. Around 160-200hz is the area that sounds really exaggerated on mine.

 

[Kerry56]

Quote:

Just got my k240s today. So still in the process of burn-in(5 hours so far).
 
Concerning the bass, I'd have to say there seems to be a bit of mid bass hump. Nothing over-the-top but it's somewhat noticeable compared to the highs and mids. I would agree on the headphone itself being fairly neutral though.
 
I also have a question regarding the k240s mkii for anyone who has them. How do the velour pads vs pleather/leather pads sound? The velour seems to make the overall sound of the 240s much more laid back then the stock pads, while not changing much else.

I've been using the velour pads since I got them, but just now tried out the pleathor pads on a couple of Black Keys songs, and I'd say there is slightly more bass impact with the pleathor pads.  That's a little surprising.
 
Maybe the velours don't seal as well?
 
Lots more room in the pleathor pads for your ears, but don't like the feel of them nearly as well.  I started sweating with them after two songs. 
 
 

 

[wilyodysseus]

The K240s has a notable but not huge mid-bass hump, and somewhat warmed-up, forward mids. It's certainly more neutral than some of the descriptions on this site would lead one to expect. I like the K240s a lot. It's the kind of comfortable, laid-back headphone you can wear for hours while working.

Let us know what you think of the K601. I've been curious about them.

 

[Captain Magenta]

I've been giving them some more juice through my E9 this afternoon and the bass is coming out now.  I was using my E7 till now since I have found the E9 fatiguing with every headphone I've tried with it.  It had been gathering dust till now.  Interestingly the K240s seems to be one headphone that work well with this amp.  The highs are not piercing at all.  It's a nice smooth sound and the bass is definitely more pronounced though not overly so. 
 
Quote:

Let us know what you think of the K601. I've been curious about them.

 
 
I will.  I'm looking forward to them.  Interestingly they seem to be discontinued since they are no longer on any AKG websites.  Must only be limited stock left now.  Can anyone confirm this?

 

[bendodge]

I'm fairly new to the headphone world, but I think my K240 studios have a neutral sound. I've had them for almost two years, and I use them almost every day (audio engineering student). If there is a bump around 200Hz, it doesn't bother me at all. I tend to bump up 31.5-63Hz on an equalizer for casual, classical listening (organs ought to rumble ), but boosting 200Hz sounds overdone. Perhaps there is a bump that I only notice if I boost that area.
 
I've used them for hundreds (maybe approaching thousands) of hours since purchasing them, and I have not noticed a burn-in effect. Oddly enough, my pleathor pads have become brittle, not soft. It's mostly at the bottom of the cirlce, under my earlobes, so I assume it's a sweat thing, although I don't sweat much while wearing them.
 
I'm totally in love with them, and I've mentioned to several people that I they are far and away the most satisfying purchase I have ever made (including everything, not just electronics). The K240s are overlooked a bit around here in favor of the $400+ cans. Supposedly Sweetwater uses them in their studios, and my school uses a bunch of them in our (admittedly small) studio. Perhaps someday I'll get a super-expensive set, but I think these are good enough for professional use.
 
I tried them with the FiiO E5, but I returned the E5. I was trying to improve my HTC G2 phone, which has a much better audio chip than my previous HTC MyTouch 3G but is still not as good as my computer's soundcard. It was louder, true, but at high volumes I could also hear some sort of internal clock/tick noise that was very annoying. (The tick could have come from the phone and been amplified by the E5.) The bass boost switch was ok on faithfully mastered classical recordings, but it was too much on anything mainstream. I really wanted to like the amp, but it made the soundstage smaller and muddied everything a bit.
 
Anyway, I don't think the K240 Studios have too much bass. I also wonder if that "hump" isn't from modern, junky mastering trends.

 

[matrim]

In my experience, I found k240MKII fairly bassy, maybe not overwhelmingly so, but quite noticeable. It has warm mids and rolled-off highs (which attributes to its unfatiguing character) but the emphasized bass does interfere with clarity. I bought it a couple of months ago so I don't think AKG has changed it according to customer feedback. I'd call it neutral sounding but definitely not balanced. 
 
K601 is a much better cans compared with k240s. More refined, balanced, better sound stage, lows/highs extension, almost everything.  
 
 

 

[lejaz]

Quote:

In my experience, I found k240MKII fairly bassy, maybe not overwhelmingly so, but quite noticeable. It has warm mids and rolled-off highs (which attributes to its unfatiguing character) but the emphasized bass does interfere with clarity. I bought it a couple of months ago so I don't think AKG has changed it according to customer feedback. I'd call it neutral sounding but definitely not balanced. 
 
K601 is a much better cans compared with k240s. More refined, balanced, better sound stage, lows/highs extension, almost everything.  
 
 

 
This. The big bump in the upper bass can interfere in the midrange clarity...especially noticeable with some material....not so noticeable on acoustic music without much bass. When you compare it to better phones like the hd580 or the k240DF that are more 'flat', it's somewhat muddy. But it's also much cheaper than what the 580 cost when it was in production....and much less than the 601. The 240S represents very good value for the money, imo....one of the best I've heard in it's price range because of its great smooth mids.