AKG K712 PRO Open Over-Ear Reference Studio Headphones

Customer Ratings:
List Price: Price Unavailable
Sale Price: $479.00
Today's Bonus:

• Made in Vienna, Austria hand-crafted with the highest attention to detail
• Over-ear design maximum wearing comfort for long work sessions
• Sophisticated open technology for spacious and airy sound without compromise
• Improved low-end performance by 3dB for more powerful sound imaging
• Revolutionary flat wire voice coil for incredible impulse and treble response

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Pros: Neutral sounding from bass to treble, sounds good from a portable player, added bass and comfort

Cons: A tad large and loose fitting, additional cost compared to the AKG K701, not super easy to drive

A big thanks to Headphone.com for loaning me the AKG K712 Pro and HD650 for this review.

A hearty thanks to Tyll Hertsens from Innerfidelity.com for loaning me a pair of AKG Q701 also used in this review.

Specs:

http://www.akg.com/K712+PRO-827.html?pid=1408&techspecs

Frequency Response Charts:

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=853&graphID[]=4163&scale=30

GEAR

Initial testing on an iPod touch ( 3rd Gen )

The idea with the iPod is to ensure that it can drive the headphone to loud listening levels and still remain under 100% volume. The K712 Pro did that and sounded great through the iPod touch.

Full review conducted on my home rig:

Source: PC playing 256kbps AAC or better files

DAC: Grace Design m903 ( 24 bit mode )

AMP: HeadRoom BUDA in single ended mode

Interconnects: Kimber PBJ RCA and Seismic Audio Balanced patch cables

INITIAL TEST TRACKS

Check Corea: Three Ghouls, Part 1

Karsh Kales: Longing

Maroon 5: Won't Go Home Without You

Michael Jacskon: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

Patricia Barber: Dansons la Gigue

The Beach Boys: Surfin' USA

They Might Be Giants: Spiraling Shape

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A quick inspection reveals some much appreciated updates. The headband no longer has bumps on the inside and is made of leather, the cable is detachable, and the earcups are extremely comfortable. From my iPod the test tracks were very involving and the improved bass was noticed. I gave the K712 Pro an initial listen in my laser lab where things become quite noisy. With my head deep inside the confines of my flow booth I had to set the volume to 70% which seemed pretty high for the advertised sensitivity and impedance. Even on my home rig the BUDA remained on high gain and about set to 1/3 output. That in mind they did sound quite good at this volume. Things sounded great and the comfort improvements are huge in my book as I hardly noticed I was wearing headphones while working.

LET'S TEST THIS THING

Check Corea's Three Ghouls, Part 1: This track tests quickness, realism, and treble. It also tests how up-front sounding a headphone can be. The K712 Pro sounded full, quick, and perhaps a tad lean on the piano. They lacked a little of the rough attack the headphones like the HD650 deliver with this track. Then again the kick drum was much more realistic with the K712 Pro than the HD650.

Karsh Kale's Longing is a track I use for general imaging and engagement. As Tyll will tell you sometimes how a headphone makes you feel tells a lot about the headphone itself. The separation and sense of space is just awesome with the K712 Pro. From the bass to treble there is a very nice cohesion and fluidity making this track very enjoyable. The K712 Pro sounds less tinny than the HD650 here and revealing to the sound image.

Maroon 5's Won't Go Home Without You: This is a track I typically use to test crossover issues with speakers and IEMs. It also gives rise to issues with male vocals and too up-front sounding headphones. Most AKG K7xx headphones have some issues with up-front sounding drums and vocals. I would say the K712 Pro is very similar sounding as the HD650 in this regard, but the airy bass on the K712 Pro is just awesome. The K712 Pro is smoother than the HD650 on the vocals removing the edginess.

Michael Jacskon's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin': Another track testing the up-front nature of headphones. It also tests treble and vocals as with some headphones like the AH-D2000 and K701 can be harsh. No doubt here even though the K712 Pro sounds nice with this track they are bright and up-front for my ears. The HD650 removes the harshness at the cost of some realism in the bass guitar. If you are an engineer looking to find issues with treble these are good headphones for that. As for home listening the treble may find itself EQed down a bit. Dropping 315Hz, 400Hz, as well as 3150Hz and 6kHz tamed the K712 Pro a bit. No surprises here as this is what I typically view the sound signature of most AKG headphones.

Patricia Barber's Dansons la Gigue: A great tack to test separation, bass, and female vocals. A headphone like the Grado RS-1i struggles here as things become too even sounding. The bass blurs into the mids and further into the treble. The richness of the guitar sounds spectacular with the K712 Pro. It is possible the best sounding dynamic headphone in this regard. The HD650 begins to blur the guitar into the mids and there is a strange blurring of the vocals with the HD650 that I simply do not hear with the K712 Pro. The K712 Pro is definitely a soft jazz headphone.

The Beack Boys' Surfin' USA is a track I use to test how even a headphone may sound. Much like using Pink Noise it reveals any glaring issues like a lack of midrange smoothness, imaging, and even quickness. The AKG K712 Pro removed the excess hiss on the letter "s" heard on the HD650. Again here it was more about what headphone signature works well with the given track. I liked the K712 Pro more as it sounded less colored and perhaps even laid back to that signature of the HD650.

They Might Be Giant's Spiraling Shape is a track I use to test male vocals in detail, how the kick drum resonates, as well as test the metallic splash of the crash cymbal. Here the HD650 sounded really colored compared to the AKG K712 Pro. The Pro sounds much more even from the kick drum through the vocals. The HD650 blurs the vocals into the bass.

If your music collection or production work consists more of acoustic guitar, drum, and vocals the K712 Pro scores excellently and would be my preference over the HD650. For music like hard rock the Pro may wield a bit too much bite and up-front sounding midrange compared to the HD650. As with many AKG headphones this will diminish slightly over time.

CONCLUSION

The AKG K712 Pro is a headphone that sounds very good and speaker-like. The added bass is actually very impressive on particular tracks like Dream by Kroke. Bass not found in the other AKG headphones that I have heard. It is a headphone I find myself listening to over the HD650 at times because with certain tracks is sounds more full and pleasant. In the end it is really about preference, but rest assured the AKG K712 Pro is an excellent and amazing sounding headphone.

At $499 I cannot help but feel that this headphone is on the expensive side. In some areas it improves upon the sound of the HD650, but in other areas it remains hard to listen to due to the peaks at 2kHz, 7kHz, and 8kHz. The build quality is really good and the headphone will look great with any home or production setup. As others have mentioned if the price drops to $350 I think others including myself would be all over the K712 Pro, but at $499 you start looking at the Q701 and Momentum. It definitely looks like AKG is targeting the somewhat lean $399 $499 market, but I would like to see this headphone around $299-$399.

I also want to comment on the fit. The K712 Pro is very comfortable and can be worn for hours without fatigue on the outer ear or top of the head. The earcups rest a bit low on my head making me wish I could further adjust the headband. The somewhat common issue with the elastic on the auto adjusting headband may wear out like their other headphones, but keeping good care of your cans should prevent that from happening.

My brief experience with the K712 Pro has been a good one and with more listening I imagine it will only improve.

To see my full review go here:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/akg-k712-pro/reviews/9482