k712 arrived today.

Been testing them all day.
These will need lots of burning in. Compared to SR850s they are more neutral and balanced, tad better impulse response, not as trebbly as well, vocals seem to sit and sound better on them.
These arent your typical fun headphones, rather cold as they should be for serious work-
Although its quite funny what 30$ can buy today, the samsons are killer headphones, cheap materials but great sound stage, also very balanced, good instrument separation, a bit more hifi, trebbly, more airy and open with more detail.
Though i also borrowed my brothers sr850 with the velour pads ( i have the older pleather model) and mine sound better, more open with more detail, better instrument separation and less congested, with more natural bass, maybe its the pads.
All in all for those who are wondering if you can get a mix done with the samsons? Yep you can, i checked a mix i did on them on my k712 and it all sounds balanced, not harsh or trebbly.

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2026

Very neutral, no hype.
They need to open up more, the bass is there though definitely not bassy, very similar to Samsons bass which are quite good in this regard.
I think the 712`s shine a lot more with an expensive headphone amp.

 

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Its been a long time since i have had the k702 at home so id say if you are interested, borrow them from someone and check em out.
Yes, thats i what i meant although also for mixing and i suspect they are quite hungry and will then open up even more, have more detail with better, more focused bass.
Though headphones are headphones and you can get a more honest picture with a set of good monitors, even average monitors are mostly better than even the best headphones for mixing, unfortunately sometimes we are forced to use headphones.

 

@The_Disturbed
After 15 hours of burn in with several cds these are slowly opening up. These boys are very balanced and neutral, shitty mastered tracks are instantly revealed.
Bass is good, more punchy compared to SR850 which are not bad in this department at all.
All around lots of body in the instruments.
You can drive em loud and they really shine at louder volumes, real joy to listen to good mixed material. Soundstage is great.
Listening to something like Kavinsky`s Nightcall you get plenty of bass, same for Lorde Royals.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2017

+

Depends on your daw. And Interface. Check if your daw supports seperate (cue) mixes.

My main daw Cubase has "controll room" - seperate (cue) mix (clone of the master) just for the headphone out with the vst i want on that bus.
In Sonar you can do something simmilar.
In s1 which i use a lot lately i did not find a possibility to route the master with all effects to a Bus with correction and emulation vsts on it. But if i use the post Effect on the master and the monitor mute button on my interface i can switch easily too.

I use first correction software than the virtual speaker software. Seems to me the right order because first you try to make your headphones more flat and than you try to emulate the speaker. The other way around you would try to flatten the simulated speaker.

I am allways impressed by the soundstage and instrument seperation AKGs have. If i use my Beyerdynamics dt 990 which are open cans and they are not bad at all as soon i swap to open AKGs the sound stage seems to be huge and the seperation is superior.

 

Oh, yea the sound stage is great on AKGs.
If you need k701 clones get the samsons, they are dirt cheap, they need lots of burn in after that you can us them as a 3rd reference hp, great detail on those. Awesome for hard rock, heavy metal and pop.

 

Width on K701/702 is stellar, but not depth.

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2026

Or just get a headphone amp with a bass boost, i think fiio has that option in some of their amps, 3,5 bass boost in 60hz region, might be just what you need.

 

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Add some boost in sonarworks then, listen to some material with it, get used to it and work with it, or get additional headphones.

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2026

Still need to demo Ver. 3 if it really does anything for me, still feeding the k712 with different material, burning them in, they arent ready yet for work yet.

@The_Disturbed
Might wanna check this out, some guy tested both k712 and k812.
http://diyah.boards.net/thread/1005/akg-k712

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2026

Get good nearfields for that money. Dont put so much hope into headphones, with a decent set of monitors you will be able to hear more honest and work a lot faster, also mix will translate better on other systems vs if you choose to work with hp exclusively.

 

Testing toneboosters morphit and am very impressed. Would have to send my hp to sonarworks for calibration to be able to use it so this one is a no go.
Also tested redline monitor together with tb , pretty damn good, further testing needed.
I wonder if anyone compared the redline monitor with the spl phonitor.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 21, 2017

Never heared the spl phonitor.
You should "test" waves nx.
I prefer it over 112 db redlinemonitor. You got to get used to the webcam thing. I nearly never use it. But the Head modeling (measuring) really makes the speaker position (degree) works well.

 

they just think and believe that hw makes their shit to sound more expensive and polished.
old fashion
archaism
past
time that will never be back
and.. they rich - that makes them more faded from reality
and keep in mind "real stidio" doesnt't mean real music