[music_man]

I am trying to decide on one of these. I have had both but not nearly at the same time. I figure it goes like this. The Sony is forward and intimate with punchy bass, albeit hyped. The AKG is much more spacious, distant and balanced but of course than somewhat more boring but of course less fatiguing Comfort probably to the AKG. My fear is people are going to tellI me the Sony is in a different league. Is this true or just my poor memory? I personally do not feel they are vastly different product offerings. Both of them are Pro studio monitors and marketed as such. I am not sure if my statement about the sony's holds water or not. Quite frankly I want the AKG's but I am now only allowed to have one full system. O course I do not wish to sell myself short being able to only keep one system. I have at least narrowed o two contendors. True that I have terrible OCDso I really hope this gets replies. This is my final deal so please do not offer other suggestons. I shall power this with an IDSD Pro Signature.

 

[sacguy231]

Never had a K872, but I will say that both myself and a friend had issues with our K812 and durability (very similar build/design to the closed K872). In contrast, the Sony to me feels so much more robust. Also, do you have a tendency to keep cans for a long time? Resale might be easier on the Sony as it seems to have a much larger fan base, so something to consider. The asteroid might hit tomorrow so you have to go with your heart. I like the AKG sound signature but LOVE the Sony so there's my bias

 

[music_man]

What broke? I want the AKG so I can lay on my side on the cup. The Sony is more robust for certain, but you cannot but good luck pulling that stunt comfortably If the AKG is going to snap though that is no good. Did AKG sell out? If so the warranty could be a nightmare as well? Myself, I give the sound signature to the AKG. I figure if this is a poll the Sony would win by about exactly 30%. That is a heck of a huge margin though. Like you ssid I must go with my heart. I wish someone with actual product knowledge could tell me if they are not even comparable as being in the same class though. I think the Sony is supposed to outclass the Akg. I mean as in a DT990 VS. A HD650. Hands down In reality, yes competitors but the HD650 is supposed to before a completely different animal. I really do not know this. Truthfully now you have more concerned they will snap on mee. A Pro headphone should stand up to all manner of abuse. The AKG should be much more comfortable in general Personally I am going to be weaaring these 20+ hours a day so I rally ned to hand that 30% of the ccore to the comfort issue. Now, the Sony is perhaps in a different realm of build quality too. I sure hope neither the build durability nor the sound take a backseat. I hop this gets some replies from others. I kind of am guessing not as it has been discussed to death. the thing is it is all over the place. I could be searching for weeks on this one. Mainly right now I guess I am needing to search on the AKG's durability. $1500.00 aint $1800.00(WW2) but still that is some change to me regrdless.

Edit: I can put that notion to rest. They are in fact direct market competitors. Wich is the actual question I was asking. The sound then is solely subjective. I would still like people's opinions on which is mostly preferred though. I am jsut guessing as a real retired sound engineer of 35+ years I would instantly prefer the AKG if I could listen to them back to back. Furthermore, I did not read an overt amount of unprovoked breakage. Everything can break. Laying the cup as I said would be super uncomfortable with the Soy. Although if that is the AKG's Achillies heel just great for me. Quite frankly that is considered abuse of a headphone though. The sound I suppose boils down to preference and I figure it remains most people would go for the Sony. My ears are trained a bit differently. I already know I would find way more of the K872 than the Z1R in music studios.

Edit2: I am correct. I will prefer the analytical AKG over the more musical Sony One reviewer was using $5000.00 of DAC/AMP ith the AKG. When an iPhone can power them with authority. That speaks volumes abut them perhaps as well. I guess they are most certainly reference headphones for critical listening by any standards. There are in fact some build quality duds but I fear not with Amazon.

 

[music_man]

My take on the AKG K872.

I got both at once. It took me 45 minutes. The Sony is full, lush and robust. It has a distinct signature. It is somewhat holographic, and everything is focused in the middle. It is not compact or veiled or congested however.

The AKG is highly analytical and resolving. It is designed obviously for critical listening and engineering. It is super resolving. I will say more so than the SR009. It does not give a window into the music but rather an electron scanning microscope. With the AKG one can hear the source exactly as it is recorded. Speaking of which, here you are really going to hear your DAC,AMP, source. That stuff will really have to jive well. An issue is this needs $5,000++ ahead of it.

I simply adore the K872. It is my end game. The Sony is much more musical, but the AKG provides accuracy like I have not witnessed before. I want to hear my music exactly as it was recorded, and these provide that opportunity as I have never thought headphones could. I always figured that this level of resolution was reserved to near field monitors, to me, AKG has here revolutionized an age old engineering tool. Headphones have finally come into their own as far as my feeling goes.

The mechanical seal and resultant level of isolation is superb. Probably implementing the best solution to this ever utilized with headphones.

Furthermore, comfort goes to AKG hands down. They are the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. Which is in line with the entire package that they present. AKG has finally developed the ultimate monitoring device in my opinion. I do not doubt that his is showing up in front of SSL mixing consoles everywhere.

 

[music_man]

I wanted to add the following: In case it helps anyone with a decision. They are now broken in. With a Forza Balanced rewire. I had the wires made of pure Silver and Pure Gold from Mundorf. My dedicated laptop is feeding a MSB Select DAC II, into a Woo Audio WA33 Elite/JPS. It seems that the k872 will scale to anything. The higher quality the frontend the better they sound. If there was better equipment to be had currently, I would not hesitate to provide it for the headphones. This is coincidently the best I have ever heard. I like it much better than the HE90,Shangri-LA,SR009. This is a fair comparison now I feel because even the headphones are only $1665.00, the electronics and all cabling comes to about $168,000 in my "little" system. Other than the K872 is dynamic and the others just mentioned are all electrostatic or planar-magnetic. That says a lot about the K872 right there.

More about the sound
:
Given the above circumstances, They went from a Mercedes to a Rolls Royce. The level of refinement and polish is true refence class. These could be used without second guessing to master any genre of multi platinum music. These are that versatile of a Chameleon as to offer accolades of justice to any music. Be it Tchaikovsky or Ted Nugent.
The background is ink black. Adding to this and helping tremendously is their very superior mechanical seal that has been implemented. The isolation is spectacular. The soundstage is now exactly as it is recorded. The dynamic range is exactly as recorded as well. Nothing is hyped or veiled. they are ruler flat. They do measure very well but they sound even more correct,natural,organic and polite. They are now very fast, however they never step on themselves or get ahead of themselves. They keep outstanding timing. The resolution opened up even more. These are precise in the manner of a surgeon's scalpel. Moreover, With a robust enough front end these will allow one to hear music exactly as it has been recorded. Be it great or poor recordings. These can and wills show you the Good, Bad and Ugly. Which is why many people dismiss these as rubbish. Either they find them too clinical and sterile. Well, that is one way of explaining heir sound signature. The proper explanation in that regard would be, that they do not beautify anything. What you have is what you get.

I know of no other headphones or loudspeakers for that matter that are this true to the source. They are highly resoling and exceptionally accurate. The other reason people may discount these headphones is not having enough of a front-end ahead of them. These were designed to be plugged into the finest Pro Audio equipment, such as Apogee, SSL and Avalone. Granted, them being so efficient they will play out of an Iphone. They will also sound considerably worse than DRE's Beats in that scenario. Quite frankly the finest DAPs could not possibly power them correctly. I would say as a rule of thumb, as a very entry level system with these it is really adamant that one invest in about a $2,500 DAC and $3-4K headphone amplifier for these. Otherwise they are just going to waste and you will most likely be another statistic complaining how much you despise them. I kept the Sony as well. A completely different animal. Very hyped and tuned. Does not care a lot about electronics. If you are reading this thinking gee those AKG's are truly horrible, the Sony may be right up your alley. I personally think the K872 with $168,000 of electronics ahead of it is the best I have ever heard. No one needs to spend that much but it will make usage of it indeed. It just keeps getting better up the food chain. I have tried so much electronics and headphones too. This was just my personal favorite. YMMV of course. At least I hope this provides a lot of information about the K872 in case anyone is researching it.