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 going to be looking at in this video is the AKG K550 stereo headphones.
Now, the K550 is one of those headphones that, when I first saw the design, I wanted it since
day one, and recently I saw them go on sale on Amazon Germany so I snapped up a pair.
The K550s look fantastic, and also they're from AKG, which is a really famous name in
headphones and microphones.
So, you know, you get a good design, and a prestige Austrian brand, so what's not to
like?
One of the first things you notice about the K550 is that the build quality on these headphones
is fantastic, you get these really nice metal finishes on the headband, everything is really
well put together, you get a nice sense of resistance, and theres no squeaks or rattles
from any of the adjustments pivots, it is really nicely well put together, it has a
really nice premium feel to it.
The other thing that you notice about the K550 is that the ear-cups are massive on these
headphones, these are some of the biggest ear-cups that I've ever seen on a headphone.
To give you an idea,nthey sit like this on my head.
Now, without he K550, a lot of people have actually reported on the forums that the ear-cups
are actually too big for their heads.
They find it difficult to get a good seal with the ear-pads and they lose a lot of the
bass because it doesn't fit quite right.
Now I have an, I think, average-sized head, so I thought that the K550s sat relatively
well on my head.
But even then I found them quite sensitive to the seal on the ear-pads, so depending
on whether I was wearing glasses or not I could actually notice a difference in sound
because even the arms of the glasses would press against these ear-pads and change the
seal alittle.
That said, they are incredibly comfortable ear-pads, at least on my head, because the
ear-pads are very very soft and supple, they're very cushy, it's really pleasant to wear.
However, they are relatively heavy, and because of the relatively thin headband padding, I
found that, you know, for short periods of time they felt absolutely comfortable, but
for longer periods, because of that little hot-spot on the top of your head, I would
found that the top of my head would get a little sore after a couple of hours, probably
three or four with them on.
Now, a lot of people on the forums have tried to kind of fix this problem by bending the-
bending the headband in a little to increase the pressure, but some other people have reported
that when they tried to do that, the headband snapped, so I haven't reallly- I, you know
I'm not going to try that.
So, in terms of sound, one of the first things you notice about the K550 is that for a closed-back
headphone, they actually sound like an open-back headphone, or very very close to an open-back
headphone.
They sound very clean, very spacious, there's none of that congestion that you sometimes
find with closed-back headphones.
Apparently that's one of the things that AKG was trying to target with the K550, they were
trying to get an open-back headphone in a closed-back headphone design and I think that
they've succeeded quite admirably there.
One of the things I didn't like about the K550's sound is that the treble is quite dry
and actually on some tracks the treble has quite a peak to it, so, it- it can sound somewhat
tinny or fizzy at times.
And, I found that at times it could get a little irritating.
Now, in terms of the low end, I found that the bass of the K550, it extends very deep,
it's very tight, but overall it's not actually a very bassy headphone, at least on my head.
Overall it's not a warm-sounding headphone at all.
So, combined with the treble energy, overall, with the whole signature, the K550 is very
lean-sounding, it's clean, but it sounds a little dry.
Personally, I prefer a little bit of a warmer sound, but I imagine this kind of sound would
find fans with a lot of people who something want - want something a bit more analytical
and who want to hear a lot of detail in their music.
Compared to other monitoring headphones, like the M50, this definitely sounds less congested,
but at the same time it's not really as fun-sounding.
So with the K550s I think that they actually work with a pretty wide variety of music,
as long as the tracks you'e listening to aren't badly mastered, or the treble isn't already
sibilant because the K550s will add to that, but other than that I think that because-
because they're pretty neutral headphones I think that they sound quite capable with
a lot of different music.
Now in terms of 'would I recommend the K550's?', they're definitely a technically really good
headphone, they're well put together, and they're comfortable.
but I would kind of hesitate to recommend them to everyone, first of just because the
ear-pads may not fit your head properly, and the second thing is you may not be as much
of a fan of that kind of lean or dry signature.
Personally, I prefer darker, warmer signatures for these headphones.
But, I have friends who love, for instance the AKG 701, and apparently, the K550s sound
somewhat similar.
I'm going to try and figure out if that's actually true or not in the next few weeks.
Anyway, thanks for watching this video, thanks to everyone who's liked my other videos videos
and subscribed to my channel.
If you want to have a talk to me about gear, just hit me up on Twitter, I'm @lachlikesathing,
and happy listening.