The AKG K 250 (history, pictures, and a review of this forgotten dynamic K 340/K 241 hybrid)

[RexAeterna]

interesting. i usually found fluffing out the pads with cotton improve overall performance.

 

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[RexAeterna]

the swiveling comes from the little protector over the driver. the wiring on the 250's looks like the same as the sextetts using 4-core wiring. you could actually easily cut the 1/4'' jack off and solder a 4-pin xlr jack to it if you wanted to. also even though it's not listed i would defiantly experiment and try some foam or maybe thin layer of fiberglass cause the 240 series and 250 are only semi-open meaning there is still high possibility of enclosure resonance and standing wave build-up.

fiberglass of good density is great replacement for both the 240 series and probably 250 as well. i have thick rolled out fiberglass in both my sextetts and DF's to replace it's rotted foam inside. works very well inside. i noticed a bigger affect though with my sextetts than my DF's though. my sextetts had some acoustic junk in there that actually made them too relaxed and slightly warm sounding. soon i ripped that sticky acoustic foam crap out they actually cleaned right up and the sextetts high frequency was restored.

also that can explain your finding on better separation believe it or not, is the 250's are naturally balanced with 4-core wiring. lot of people don't believe in balancing but all the headphones i heard naturally balanced, especially older studio headphones they had very good separation. even the big closed pioneer monitor 10's i use to have, had insanely good separation that sounded more open than most open headphones. that's another reason why i balanced my DF's besides being able to drive them from speaker outputs of power amps.

 

[Deep Funk]

You have just convinced me to build a balanced audio set up. It will take some time but given my headphone collection right now is more than agreeable I can focus on my set up and wiring.  

 

[RexAeterna]

You have just convinced me to build a balanced audio set up. It will take some time but given my headphone collection right now is more than agreeable I can focus on my set up and wiring.  

wish you luck! since you already have a balanced dac, you just need to make the headphones itself balanced. can either use your audio interface/dac directly or use a power amp/integrated amp or even a receiver speaker outs. speaker amps usually have separate driver boards for the left and right channel already so technically they're already considered balanced and the common ground is just there for protection and completely different when comparing common ground of a headphone cause the negative outputs of a power amp acts as a separate ground as well. only way a power amp does not use a common ground at all, which is uncommon, is if it's meant to be bridged together with other power amps. usually some mono power amps don't have a common ground.

interconnects, don't really have to worry too much cause just about any form of connector can be balanced, even rca jacks, cause balanced just means each channel having a separate ground. biggest difference would probably most likely making the headphones balanced itself though. the channels will no longer be split and will mirror each other like speakers do. like each channel plays the same thing on both left and right but forms an image when both are played at the same time. headphones with a common ground don't do that and they split the stereo image apart with a shared common ground.

 

[stv014]

The mls.zip link in this post no longer works, the file has been removed by mediafire.com. It is now available here instead.

 

[phaenius]

I don't know if this is the right thread to post, I hope it is. I found someone who is selling a pair of AKG K-250 in good condition (he says) for about 56 euros (converted from local currency). I looked at hi-res pictures of the headphones, they look indeed very good, but I am asking you if it's worth it. Currently I have a pair of Sennheiser HD-598, brought new from the store. I am not quite please of the sound, it's hard to describe, but I don't find the sound that much refined. Don't know if it's the source or not, but tested on everything I have they sound the same. I tested on my Denon amplifier, Denon CD-player, Creative X-Fi Platinum front header with Headphone Amp included, heck, I even tested them on my Technics deck and Samsung phone. So, out of curiosity, I wonder if this AKG will sound better. Now, I know it's hard to define "better", but to sound clear and crisp and not sound coming from all places, mixed and altogether, like I am getting from Sennheiser. Another thing I took into consideration is that I never had a such high impedance phones, only up to 50 ohms so far and those AKG's are 600 ohms, so I wonder if they are more sensible and more precise in sound. I know that this is an old model and don't know how much of the quality was preserved, but the seller (from where I bought other things in the past) says they do sound great. And no, I can't listen to them, seller lives in another town from me. So, I am welcome any kind of advice. Is it worth the price ? Will they sound better ? Was AKG K-250 considered a good model or a flop ? And how much did it cost when new ?
 
Thanks a lot.

 

[ChopperCharles]

They're a very, very good model. I'm listening to my pair now (Realistic Pro-50 branding), and really enjoying their openness, clarity, and detail. 
 
Charles.