Whales Bite Back! (See my last review, the joke won't be funny, but you'll understand)
Written: Nov 19 '03 (Updated Nov 20 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good overall sound, great for laid back music, comfortable
Cons: a little too high sounding overall
The Bottom Line: For me, personally, I like my Beyers better, but it's really a subjective call based on the type of music you listen to.
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| zoogelsnof's Full Review: AKG K 501 Consumer Headphones |
I need to start with a small preface, I love sound, I’m obsessed with it, and I listen to sound all day and all night on all different speakers and TV’s and car systems. Due to my audiophile nature it is very possible there are things that would bother me in a set of headphones that most people wouldn’t notice, or care about.
Real World Experience:
I was talking to a friend of mine last night that works for a local recording studio. Whenever they show, “back stage” photos of an album being recorded, you always see the guy behind the glass wearing a pair of headphones and flicking little switches all over the place while tapping to the beat. He’s that guy. As far as headphone junkies go, he makes me look downright amateurish. Anyways, I was whining to him about the last two AKG’s I had tested, the K70’s and K100’s.
He informed he that the problem was I had been reviewing cheap AKG’s. According to him the AKG line really doesn’t get started until the $175 range. He let me borrow his K501’s, the cheapest AKG he likes, and now, the cheapest AKG that I like.
Testing Environment
The testing environment was slightly different here then for most of my reviews, I still tested it using my portable CD player, the Sony D-EJ2000 on the theory that a portable requires the headphones to sound good, instead of all the attached equipment; however I did also use a headphone amplifier. The smallest, cheapest headroom amp there is, “the headroom little.” Which he insisted I take for the test, and while I did attempt to listen to them without it it’s clear that it needs an amp, my portable simply isn’t powerful enough.
The listening experience
Also my music selection was changed for these headphones, as Aaron claims that they sound far better on, “relaxed” music. So we went with the “Empire Strikes Back” soundtrack, one of my favorites of all time, and 2 hours of quality music with plenty of mix between faster, more intense tracks, like the Imperial Death March, and more relaxed calming tracks, like Yoda’s Song. Once again, of course the almighty Aaron was right, they do sound better on the laid back tracks. I then, just for fun, listened to Paul Van Dykes, “Politics of Dance” which is a hour and a half long techno/trance mix which I am quite enamored of. Wow, what a difference the music choice makes. They didn’t sound bad for this, just, in some way, “less right.”
Sound Quality:
To most people, this is the most important element for obvious reasons. The sound that comes from these headphones is as tight and accurate as I’ve heard since I bought my Beyer Dynamic 250’s in fact, it is actually better on the more mellow pieces, but I would still prefer my Beyer’s for about half the music I listen to that isn’t slow and easy, and for the fact that I don’t need an amp for them.
The bass is very smooth, and very well done. It’s there when it should be, it’s not when it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t have a really ultra deep bass smack down, which hurts it a little bit, but it’s a minor complaint.
The mid range notes are very strong, like the bass they are well balanced with the system as a whole, and with each other. They propagate nicely, and it’s easy to pick apart each specific instrument in a piece and hear each individual note.
The highs are very nice, if not a little bit too high sometimes. When I say this I don’t mean it reproduces notes inaccurately, and out of their dimension, but rather the high portion is simply a bit louder then I’m used to. The system gives a feeling of light/airiness that I’m not used to, as I tend to purchase and listen to bass heavy headphones. I suppose if you want headphones that are a bit lighter and more aired out these would be nice, but it was somewhat annoying for a bass-heavy person like myself. They’re aren’t light to the point of distraction, but it’s defiantly noticeable over time.
Aesthetic:
The headphones feature a four-piece design consisting of the two earpieces, the headband, and a second, “overarching” headband. I don’t like auto-adjusting headphones such as these are, with a spring that automatically expands to fit your head. I don’t find them as comfortable, in general. Comfort wise the headband was okay (I believe, or at least it seems like, all the AKG “K” series uses the same headband.) The ear covers are large and well padded, very comfortable with plenty of room to fit your entire ear inside of them. I experienced no discomfort in the 3+ hours I was wearing them, hardly felt them at all.
They’re open, which means they don’t keep sound in at all (part of the reason they are high-heavy, open tends to be higher, closed, bassr.) The person sitting next to you in class will know exactly what you’re listening to.
Bottom Line:
**note, these are related to price, EG, it’s not sound quality related to the best sound in the world, it’s sound quality related to the other things in this price range.**
Sound Quality: A-
Portability: B
Comfort: A
Overall:A-
Other Recommendations:
I recommended the following headphones if you’re looking for something in this arena:
If you want something with a little bit more bass, and a little less in the highs, self-adjust headband, and can be run on a portable player then I suggest taking a look at the Beyer Dynamic 250’s:
http://www.epinions.com/content_112033304196
Edited to fix some spelling, clarify a point about the highs, and include some prettier formatting.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zoogelsnof
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Member: Zac Cramer
Location: Boston, Mass.
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 17 members
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