[cel4145]

People complain about the fit, and the lack of clamp force and sadly I did not experience any of this, I put them to 4 on each side slapped em on, pressed them in ever so slightly and enjoyed. I will mention that they sound DRASTICALLY changes depending on how far from the front of the pads the front of your ears are. Essentially for me, the closer the back of my ears are to the back of the pad the Thicker the lower mids are, the closer the front of my ears are to the front of the pads, the thinner the entire can sounds!

Sounds like based on your experience, one really needs to try it in various front to back positions to see what works best. For me it's forward more. I bet it has to do both with the size of the cups/drivers, whatever imaging/soundstaging setup AKG has in their, and the fact that everyone's head and ear shape is different.

Now how do we get all the people that gave them mediocre or bad testimonials to back and try them

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

Sounds like based on your experience, one really needs to try it in various front to back positions to see what works best. For me it's forward more. I bet it has to do both with the size of the cups/drivers, whatever imaging/soundstaging setup AKG has in their, and the fact that everyone's head and ear shape is different.

Now how do we get all the people that gave them mediocre or bad testimonials to back and try them

Indeed what a shame though 

 

[Lorspeaker]

Conclusion- For $190 new and around $150, it's one of my favorite all time open cans! Great sound for almost all kinds of music and the bass lovers will enjoy it with everything! Good dynamics and fantastic build quality. A must have for any one getting into Audio Phila!
 
Yapppp its an OPEN can !!! 

 

[bonfirehay]

Quote:

Haha, you americans are pretty lucky. Paid AUD$300 for mine, and that's was one of the best deals from the local shops around here too.
 
Then again, headphones are just more expensive here in general.

 
Is anything cheaper there besides kanguru meat?

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

Conclusion- For $190 new and around $150, it's one of my favorite all time open cans! Great sound for almost all kinds of music and the bass lovers will enjoy it with everything! Good dynamics and fantastic build quality. A must have for any one getting into Audio Phila!
 
Yapppp its an OPEN can !!! 

Fixed lawl, thanks 

 

[westermac]

I've only had mine for two days now (burning in as we speak) and the ear pads definitely are on the soft/squishy side, resulting my my ears rubbing against the thin driver pad. I removed the pads and took out the inner foam rings, and they definitely seem to be an extra soft type of memory foam, holding their shape for a split second when pressed. I then traced and cut two rings out of some blue air filter foam I had lying around and placed them underneath the existing foam to firm up the earpads a bit. I can't comment on whether or not the sound has been affected yet, but the ear pads definitely feel nice and full now and seem to do a better job at sealing.

 

[shadowox8]

Quote:

[…] I then traced and cut two rings out of some blue air filter foam I had lying around and placed them underneath the existing foam to firm up the earpads a bit. […]

How thick is the foam you cut and inserted?

 

[westermac]

Quote:

How thick is the foam you cut and inserted?

It was just under one inch, and was pretty low density and spongey so it compressed very easily. Putting an inch of high density or stiff foam would probably turn your ear pads into rocks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Just won refurb AKG K550 off eBay (from Harmon/AKG, with full warranty), $166 (plus that @#$% California sales tax).
Now I get to compare my A900X to the K550s, see if my ears agree with everyone elses opinion about the K550 vs A900X.

 

[cel4145]

Just won refurb AKG K550 off eBay (from Harmon/AKG, with full warranty), $166 (plus that @#$% California sales tax).
Now I get to compare my A900X to the K550s, see if my ears agree with everyone elses opinion about the K550 vs A900X.

Hey. You got a good price. I got mine for $180 off head-fi used. I'll be curious to see which one you like better.

Just for fun, I'll predict your favorite:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

A900X

Don't look!

 

[gilsont]

Quote:

Be careful with the bending of the headband.  My issue with getting a good seal was the result of trying on a display model which had been bent at Best Buy.   I tried, unsuccessfully, to bend it back to its original shape, but no matter what I did (during two visits) I could not get a good seal.  I posted here that the headphone did not fit me no matter what I did.   When I pressed the cups against my head I could hear wonderful things though.   A couple of months later I went back to the store and they had an opened box on the shelve, so I put those on and I immediately noticed that I got a good seal.  
 
If you buy a used model, there might be a chance that headband is bent beyond repair.  I could not bend that display model back to its normal shape.   I bet that some of the people who are not happy with this headphone might be dealing with a "damaged" headband.

For me, I found the headphone unusable without bending the headband. Bending the headband gave me the exact seal I was looking for.
 
Without bending of the headband, the headphone didn't seal at all!

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

For me, I found the headphone unusable without bending the headband. Bending the headband gave me the exact seal I was looking for.
 
Without bending of the headband, the headphone didn't seal at all!

yea it's a little finnicky. I got really lucky I think mine came without any bends in it. 

 

[Makiah S]

Quote:

yea it's a little finnicky. I got really lucky I think mine came without any bends in it. 

She is really finicky. I Started on a lvl 4 extension with the headband sitting near back of my head, now I'm on lvl 2 with it more towards front and middle
 
The closer my ears are to the bottom rear of the can the more bass I get, that being said it is such a nice tight bass! Still it needs an EQ for Dub Step and EDM , how ever though my JDS C5 [my portable for the K550] is getting it's bass boost halfed so I'm not a BASS freak. I like it a little heavier in EDM but still towards the rear of the sound sig! 

 

[ricerocket]

Anyone use an FiiO E17/E09K combo with this? I've heard a few say that the E09K is unnecessary since the K550 is low impedence and I should just run the E17.

 

[cel4145]

The E17 will drive the K550 just fine