Hi!
Welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing and see whether or not I like
it.
Now the thing we're looking at in this video is the AKG K612 Pro.
Yes finally I am making this headphone review.
So I've spent quite a long time with the K612 and I've gotten to a pretty good sense of
this headphone's strengths and weaknesses.
Firstly I should point out that I bought the K612 in a Massdrop deal and it was priced
at $159 dollars plus shipping to Australia, so very happy with that price - it was a really
good deal.
Though I have seen it go as low as about $200 in Australia.
It's also, my version of the K612 is marked as the Made In Austria version.
There are some units of this headphone apparently that are coming made in China.
I don't really think it makes much of a difference, but that's something to note.
So let's start with the design first of all.
The K612 is based on AKG's very simple, very classic kind of design.
It looks very old school but I think it works as something that's really light weight and
simple.
So the K612 weighs 235g which is quite light for a full size headphone.
Now most of the headphone is plastic but it's just based around these two curved headbands
here which means that the headphone feels very flexible and I really feel like, you
know, it's going to be quite durable in the long term.
So overall I think it's a really nice little design.
One thing to note is that I'm not a big fan of this silver chrome.
I know some people like it but to me I think it looks a little plasticky.
Other then that the aesthetic of this headphone are pretty nice.
We have this very austere grey, black colour.
In regards to the cable on the K612 we have a cable that's quite nice and thick and we
have quite a substantial strain relief on the plug.
The only thing I can say is that the rubber on the cable seems a little more prone to
memory than I would like.
So there's just a little bit of kinking in the cable.
It's not a huge deal but it is a little bit noticeable compared to something like the
Sony MA900.
Now in terms of comfort as I mentioned before the K612 weighs 235g which is quite light
weight for a full size headphone.
And thanks to the AKG's broad headband and the headband mechanism that doesn't require
any specific adjustment it's very easy to take off and put on.
On the head it's quite light weight, it's very comfortable, it's one of the more comfortable
full sized headphones I've had - up there with something like the Beyerdynamic DT880.
Now it's not quite as comfortable as the MA900.
No full sized headphone I have tried thus far is as comfortable as the MA900, just because
the MA900 weighs a lot less.
And because there's just a softer clamping force as compared to the K612 which has comparatively
a harder denser kind of earpads.
That said actually some people prefer to have, feel at least a bit of presence on their head
because the MA900 can be a little featherweight.
I keep referring to the MA900 because this is basically my favourite full sized headphone.
Now in terms of sound I have owned the K612 for a while now and I can say that the 612
is a very very competent headphone, especially for the price.
I should point out that the K612 has an impedance of 120 ohms and combined with its sensitivity
it's one of the few headphones where I've actually had to engage the 2.5x gain mode
on my Objective 2 amplifier.
So it does, it is probably best suited to work with an amplifier.
In terms of the actual overall sound balance it's a very linear, bordering on leaner or
dry sounding headphone.
So the bass on the headphone, on the K612 is really nicely well extended, down low,
it's very tight, it doesn't feel like it really intrudes on the signature but you definitely
get a sense of extension, and overall compared to the MA900 it's a flatter overall bass.
So I think it dips lower than the MA900 and it's a bit tighter in the bass.
It doesn't have that kind of mid-bass warmth to it.
In terms of soundstaging it's not quite as natural as the MA900 I think.
With the angled earcups on the MA900 you get a slightly more diffuse, slightly more natural
feeling soundstage.
With the K612 it's a bit more intimate in some ways.
Now the one really big characteristic of the K612's sound is that it has a kind of dry
texture, a grain to it.
And on some tracks this works really well.
So for stringed instruments, a lot of acoustic tracks, it's very atmospheric.
It has a really nicely textured and detailed sound.
Though on other tracks it can sound sometimes a little too forward and a bit splashy in
the lower treble.
And when I was making these comments on a Head Fi thread about the K612 someone pointed
out to me that it might be because the AKG K612 and a lot of other AKG headphones normally
have a bump in the frequency response around 2khz.
And I actually found that to be true because I went in and EQ'ed the frequency down at
2khz and I actually found that I enjoyed the sound more out of them for more genres of
music.
Just because at times I thought it could be a little splashy and a little forward.
Now a lot of people love this sound about the AKG headphones, I think it is the AKG
house sound.
It gives everything a bit more texture, it gives everything a heightened sense of detail.
For me personally I'm not so much of a big fan of that particular element of the AKG
house sound.
So you know, for long listening periods if you're not going to use EQ I'd still prefer
the MA900.
It's definitely more polite in the treble and in some ways it's a less detailed and
a less technical sounding headphone than the K612.
But for just hours of easy listening I, you know, this is still the headphone to beat
for me.
But that said I think the K612 is an amazing headphone, I think especially for the price
I paid for it, it's really well priced.
So If you want a comfortable headphone and you want a bit more of a kind of zest to the
sound I think the K612 is definitely one of the better options out there.
So I'm very very happy to recommend this headphone.
Anyway I know a lot of you regular subscribers have been waiting quite some time for this
review.
Thanks for your patience and I'm looking forward to your comments.
You can talk to me on Facebook at facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing or on twitter @lachlikesathing and as always
happy listening!