AKG K 26 P Headphones: Good Portable Headphones for Your MP3 Player
Written: Oct 19 '05 (Updated Oct 19 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent portability, good full range sound, fairly comfortable, attractive appearance
Cons: Bass response might be too strong for some people, Evil blister pack packaging.
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line is willing to wager that there are a lot of younger folks out there who would love these headphones for use with their MP3 players.
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| symbiosis's Full Review: AKG K 26 P Consumer Headphones |
When does an interest become an obsession? How many headphone reviews can one reviewer dare write without becoming known as "that headphone guy?" How can so many brands of headphones offer so many very different experiences?
All of these are questions that have been dancing around my head with my recent series of headphone reviews.
I have reviewed a number of headphones designed for portable devices, but none of these headphones were a satisfactory alternative for use with my Zen Sleek MP3 player. So my search for a good portable headphone choice continued...
At approximately $45, the AKG K 26 P headphones don't quite qualify for my Quest for Decent Cheap Headphones series. But this is a price that will still not put them out of the reach of the masses, as $45 does not seem like that much when people are willing to shell out $250+ for an iPod.
I ordered my K 26 Ps from Headroom at the same time as the previously reviewed Sennheiser HD201s, and received free shipping on my order since the total was over $50. And they arrived in less than a week, so I think it was a pretty good deal. Here are my impressions so far:
Construction
These AKG headphones feature acceptable construction. The transducers and the point where the transducers are connected to the headband are a rather durable black and silver plastic. The silver piece of plastic attached directly between the transducer housings and the headband seems like the most likely place for these to eventually break. I do think they will hold up for a few years if they are not treated roughly. The earpads are made of pleather, a soft, synthetic fabric that looks like thin leather. The K 26 Ps fold up, and come with a very cheap black fabric case.
Appearance
I think the AKG K 26 Ps are a pretty cool looking little headphone. I tested these with my aforementioned highly scientific and amazingly accurate Dorkiness meter (sometimes referred to as a Dorkometer*), and found that these had a reading of Minimally Dorky. This means that only the meanest siblings are likely to point at you and laugh while you are wearing these, and they are safe to wear in public without fear of shunning and/or exceptionally strange looks. The black and silver styling has a modern look, and the earpieces are not very large.
Noise Blocking
These headphones are a closed design, meaning they will not let much sound out, and they do provide some noise blocking. I do not think that they reduce outside noise very much.
Comfort
The K 26 Ps are moderately comfortable. They are a supra-aural design, which means they sit on the ears. The earpads are soft, and the headband does not exert a lot of pressure on the earpieces. There are two small black pieces of plastic on the top of the headband, which assist in adjusting the size of the headband. These two pieces do have padding on the bottom. The headband is very adjustable. I think these would fit on anyone from Mini Me to those with extremely large heads.
Sound
To put it simply, the kids would love these headphones. And by kids, I mean anyone from about 12-22. The first thing that I noticed is that they have a lot of bass response. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your personal preferences. Any teenage boy with 12” or 15” woofers in his trunk is going to love these cans.
So, with the heavy bass response, drums and bass guitar are very prominent. On bass heavy music, such as the heavy bass guitar sounds of Cathedral, this can be a bit overwhelming. On less bass heavy rock music, they sound pretty good. You are definitely not going to forget about the bass player or drummer though.
Vocals sound clean and accurate. Sometimes they can sound a tiny bit recessed, and sometimes the bass overshadows the vocals a bit.
Electric guitars have nice character and definition, although they do not receive as much emphasis as their bass guitar brethren.
Cymbals and other high treble sound accurate, but definitely seem recessed or somewhat lacking in volume overall.
I do not hear any significant distortion in any of the frequency ranges.
I felt that these headphones really benefited from a long burn-in period of around 30 hours. The sound became better defined overall, and the bass actually toned down a bit, even if it is still very solid.
These headphones are generally considered to be best suited to Rock music, and I would agree with that assessment. Acoustic music also sounds nice using these phones. Rap, R+B, Techno, and Industrial music fans will be pleased as long as they like their bass on the strong side.
I ended up docking the overall rating one star because the overall sound is not as well balanced as I would like, mainly because of the strong bass response.
Portability
The AKG K 26 Ps are particularly well suited to use with MP3 players or other portable devices. They have an impedance of 32 Ohms, which is pretty average, and a sensitivity of 125dB. With an average impedance and higher than average sensitivity, these cans are very easy to power with even the wimpiest portable devices. They also have an angled plug, which reduces the stress on the headphone jack of your favorite portable music player.
The cord length is a subject of some dissension. The packaging claims it is 1.5M, or about 5 feet. I have seen it listed as 4.5 feet on several websites. So I measured it myself, and the measurement I obtained was 4 feet 9 inches. This seems like a pretty good length for a use with a portable device.
Other Considerations
The AKG K 26 Ps are packaged in a blister pack, a method of packaging that I despise. Not only do you have to pretty much destroy the packaging to get the headphones out, but it is also unnecessarily difficult and sometimes even dangerous to open these annoying blister packs. I imagine that the blister pack was invented by the same evil inventor who came up with the idea of the super sticky tape that is wrapped around the top of CDs.
The included carrying bag is really cheap looking and provides little protection for the headphones. I am not sure why they bothered to include this.
The cord is terminated in a gold-plated 1/8 inch mini-plug, and the package did not include a 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter. I do think an adapter should have been included at this price point.
Overall
The AKG K 26 P headphones are a very solid contender in the sub-$50 price range. They offer good quality full range sound, with substantial bass response. They have an attractive appearance and fold up to take up less space. They are also well suited for portable devices. The construction is decently durable, and the earpads are comfortable enough to keep them on for several hours at a time.
I would recommend these for anybody who is looking for strong bass, good quality sound, and excellent portability. They would make good replacements for the cheap earbuds that come with most MP3 players, such as the iPod or Zen Sleek.
* Some people have suggested that a Dorkometer could possibly be something as extremely unscientific as the author looking at himself in a mirror with the headphones on and trying to subjectively decide how dorky he looks. Those people are probably just jealous because they don’t own a Dorkometer.
Recommended:
Yes
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symbiosis
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