AKG K612PRO Open-Back Over-Ear Premium Reference Studio Headphones

Product Information

The Q701 is the outlier here and clearly does have more low-end impact, sounding the least neutral out of them all because of it. To sum up, A helpful article I put together for choosing would be The Best Headphone Amp for the AKG K701 & K702. Final Word

AKG K612 Pro Studio Wired without Mic Headset - Flipkart AKG K612 Pro Studio Wired without Mic Headset - Flipkart

I have had fairly good results with damping the treble on some headphones using felt in front of the driver and it appears as though this headphone reacts well to this treatment as well. Wow. These cans have absolutely blown me away. The treble has settled down completely and now sits perfectly with the bass and mids. The entire spectrum is wonderfully blended without sounding messy or lost, and the imaging seems to have improved as well; the sense of space is more natural and the separation remains consistent without isolating instruments completely from one another. In respect of comfort; there are no issues at all, not for me anyway. The headphone is very light and the clamping force of the earpieces is fairly gentle, the leather headband sits gently on the head too, and the cushions which are soft and pliant don't cause (me) any irritation. I’m loving the fact that I can listen indefinitely without feeling like someone’s holding me down on the ground while vigorously rubbing sandpaper all over my ears. I will say that again, the 612 may be a hair better for stuff like Jazz and Classical (for some), but it’s still pretty close at the end of the day.

There’s no sibilance, essiness, or peakiness to speak of, and the high end never sounds artificial or metallic. The K612 suffers from a similar sentiment but is definitely the flattest across the board out of all these. Okay, now that my rant is aside, that IS a tough decision. I would lean towards K702 only because the 400i has a somewhat essy treble and can get fatiguing while I don’t experience any fatigue with the 702. Both are very comfortable. What you’ll find is that a planar does tend to have slightly better timbre than a dynamic, and the differences, while subtle, are still there. So yeah, HIFIMAN outperforms by a smidgen, but the essy treble at times may turn you off. This CAN be EQ’d down a bit. Poor adaptiveness – the failing of delivering the same perceived frequency response to a wide range of listeners – is the number one reason why we usually recommend headphones from other manufacturers over AKG offerings for use with SoundID Reference. K612 Pro manages to reverse this trend, as they deliver superb adaptiveness and are among the best in this regard, not only among AKG models! How much do they differ pair to pair in terms of frequency response?

K612 PRO | Reference studio headphones - AKG

The K701’s bass rolls off slightly more than the 702’s, but at the end of the day, all three (701/702/612) are very similar. Hi only just seen your post, but have seen & responded to your Inbox message to me on the same topic, but figured I'd copy & paste my response into this thread too, for the possible benefit of anyone reading. So although the stage size is bigger on the K702 and their sense of detail is slightly better – I prefer the K612 – they’re simply more natural sounding. The ‘sharp’ and detailed but otherwise neutral tonal character is visible. Also the resonance are visible. Even though the horizontal part is somewhat sloping the bass extension is very good. Just not at the desired level.

Below the phase response of the K612. Above 6kHz the phase shifts are steeper and thus potentially more audible. Still, one of the main reasons I use the 702 every day is because it handles everything really well and sounds fantastic to boot.

AKG K702 (The Classic) vs. K612 Pro (The Upstart) – Review AKG K702 (The Classic) vs. K612 Pro (The Upstart) – Review

Before I start – I’ll preamble with a bit about myself (to give you all a baseline of my preferences) – then I’ll give you my personal thoughts on the K612. Unfortunately I can’t find a frequency graph for the K612 (at the time of writing) – so I’ve used the K702 and K601 graphs – mainly because it fairly closely matches what I think I’m hearing. When they eventually do graph the 612 I’ll update the chart. eH250, SRH840, MS1i, AD700, DT880 Pro, SRH940, HD600, HM5, K701, DT880 600 ohm, SR325i (woody) SRH840 (again), Q701, SRH1840, Mad Dogs 3.2, K702, HD600 (again), K612 – and the very soon to arrive RS1. To start off, the K612 is the most neutral and flat out of the entire line, to my ears and in looking at graphs.I stopped listening to music regularly and for a long time I didn't realize that the X1 was to blame! Although every time I used it I would be impressed by its abilities, the sound was ultimately just too bass orientated for me; and also the treble tended towards a glassy tone in some music. So after some research, in steps the K612 Pro. Now this headphone is quite different. Less bass but better proportioned, the sound is more natural with a pleasing delicacy to the sound, particularly the treble, that although a little dry, is open, articulate, never harsh or sibilant and only very slightly rolled off at the top. The mid-band is detailed, expressive and free of any nasty colourations, however the upper mid-band does have a tendency towards the already mentioned dryness of tone, but that's really a minor quibble. Soundstage: The K612 has improvements to the bass, but there will be inevitable trade offs made. One of these to a minor aspect is the soundstage. The K612s just cannot compete with the soundstage on the K701, K702 and Q701. They do however have a more open soundstage than the K240s. Despite not having as wide as soundstage as the leaner K7s, I do find the K612 soundstage more natural due to not having the tendency to pan extremely left and right with mono recordings, causing the center stage to go dead like the K701/K702/Q701s do.

AKG K612 Pro - Review : r/headphones - Reddit AKG K612 Pro - Review : r/headphones - Reddit

I almost never find myself wanting to listen to it (outside of doing this A/B/C), and do plan to either give it away or sell it.

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The K612, K712, and K702 represent the most significant discrepancies between the entire line of K600 and 700 headphones. I’ve gamed with both – and no real preference at the moment. I certainly don’t feel the K612 are diminished in any way for directional queues in FPS gaming, and the slightly warmer tone actually adds to the enjoyment. Treble: These headphones have no particular spike in the treble. It's quite linear across the board, with roll off happening towards the 8-10,000 Hz range. You have to play REALLY badly mastered music for these headphones to sound sibilant. The treble is there, but it isn't forward, harsh or glarey. The K612s are't as dark as the K702 Annies, but are definitely are more forgiving than the K240s, which I find are rolled off in the lower treble but abruptly have a HUGE spike at the sibilance range that makes them piercingly painful with badly mastered music lest I EQ the treble down.