AKG K702 Open-Back Over-Ear Premium Studio Headphones, Reference Grade Sound, Airy and Spacious Soundstage, Precision Crafted

PRESENTATION1. K702 arrive in a simple lightweight box that does not immediately convey the feeling of luxury, one would expect from a world-famous pair of expensive headphones (Picture 1). On the left-hand side there are six labels with praise by different online testing venues: all of them date back to 2009 and 2008.2. I do like the clever wording: “Expect” on the front of the box, “and discover” on the inner cover (Pictures 2 and 3).3. At long last, the box is fully opened and one can enjoy the view of the coveted headphones, sort of. They are inside a plastic bag that somewhat ruins the picture (Picture 4).4. I wish AKG had done a better job of presenting K702. Back in 2008 this frugal style may have been good enough, but now with the likes of Beats (investing heavily in the looks and marketing of their products) and the Philips Fidelio’s of the world, AKG K702’s presentation is something of a let-down. One could argue that they were never meant to be a hugely popular consumer product, and, therefore, they are not marketed as one. Still, I cannot help, but feel a bit underwhelmed.PROS1. Once out of the box and the cheap wrapping, AKG K702 look excellent in a reserved classical way. They are almost entirely made of dark blue plastic (Picture 5) with silver accents that emulate metal (Picture 6). The headband is made of real leather with blue stitching and adds a touch of luxury (Picture 7).2. Because they are mostly plastic, K702 are extremely lightweight and very comfortable. You can wear them for hours on end without experiencing any discomfort. In fact, these must be the most comfortable headphones I have ever tried, which is the result of them being so light, but also the fact that the ear cups are quite big with an outer diameter of 11 cm and an inner opening of 6,5 mm (Pictures 8 and 9). Unlike Sennheiser Urbanite XL or Audio-Technica ATH-M50X, K702 are true over-the-ear headphones. It is also worth noting that the ear cups are wrapped in breathable soft velour (Picture 10).3. Most importantly, K702 are hands down the best sounding headphones under £200. They are way better than any recent Beats of Sony model (for example, Beats by Dr. Dre Studio 2.0 or Sony MDR-1A Prestige); they best the very popular Audio-Technica ATH-M50X (although the latter have stronger bass), and are superior to the modern classic Philips X2 Fidelio:– To start with, K702 sound much clearer and more transparent than any of the models mentioned above. Their audio frequency bandwidth of 10 to 39,800 Hz is truly outstanding. Even the excellent Philips X2 Fidelio sound muffled in direct comparison.– K702’s stereo picture seems to extend further left and right than that of any of the other headphones I have tested. Not sure how AKG have achieved that, but the result is quite stunning.– Many have mentioned that K702 lack bass, but the truth is that their sound is simply true to the original, with no part of the audio spectrum being accentuated. As AKG’s description reads, K702 have been engineered “for precision listening, mixing and mastering. They combine an extremely accurate response with agility and spaciousness.” Why is that important? Most songs are recorded and mixed to perfection in multi-million dollar studios by professionals with many years of experience in the field and the notion that you can “improve” on a song’s sound by boosting the bass or applying a few DSP effects to skew the audio picture one way or another, cannot be correct. What you want is to hear the song the way its author and producer intended it to be heard and AKG K702 does exactly that, adding no spice or colour of its own.– Likewise, a lot has been written about how notoriously difficult K702 are to drive with their rated impedance of 62 Ohms supposedly not telling the whole story, but frankly, I am using them on my desktop with excellent results and even on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 they sound decent (although I do have to crank the volume up to 80% to get to a proper level of loudness). Would they sound even better with a good headphone amp? Sure. Do they absolutely need one? No.4. The ear pads are removable, so it is easy to clean or exchange them for new ones (Pictures 11 and 12).5. At £132 AKG K702 are very competitively priced, and are actually cheaper than all popular competing models.CONS1. Many prospective buyers seem to lose sleep over the issue of where these legendary headphones are actually made. Let me put everyone’s worst fears to rest… by confirming them. Welcome to the brave new world, ladies and gentlemen, where Austrian headphones are in fact made in China or the P.R.C. (Picture 13).2. K702 are exclusively produced from lightweight plastic. Compare this to the fact that Philips X2 Fidelio are entirely made of premium materials like metal and real leather (Pictures 14 and 15). Of course, steel is heavier than plastic, but it is also sturdier and does not necessarily make a pair of headphones less comfortable to wear.3. The system for attaching the ear pads to the cups looks like something made by school children with a pair of scissors from a sheet of thin black plastic (Pictures 11 and 12).4. The cups’ suspension system uses… thin elastics of the kind you can find in your mother’s sewing box (Picture 14). They will get slack with time.5. At 3 m of length, the cable is too long for most practical purposes and terminates with a proprietary “professional mini XLR connector” (Pictures 16, 17 and 18).6. These are open-back headphones (Picture 6) and everyone in the room will be perfectly aware of what you are listening to.7. With a width of 19 cm and height of 23.5 cm (Pictures 19 and 20), K702 are nothing short of enormous and because of their size, the fact that they are made of plastic, the 3 m cable and rated impedance of 62 Ohms, they are clearly not made with today’s mobile generation in mind. A single drop to the ground could break or scratch and ruin them.8. With some genres, artists and songs K702 tend to sound too lean. If you often listen to hard rock, heavy metal or are a fan of Rammstein, you may at times feel that these headphones are draining the life out of your music. They have been compared to the cold precision of a scalpel, cutting through the living flesh of your favourite song. It is not that the bass is completely missing, it has just lost its quality to excite…However, I do not subscribe to this opinion. To my ears K702 are clear and transparent, with an extended stereo image, perfect balance and enough bass to make for a competent and enjoyable listening experience.CONCLUSIONS+1. AKG K702 are the most comfortable and overall best sounding headphones in this price segment. I returned Audio-Technica ATH-M50X, once I had a chance to directly compare them to Philips X2 Fidelio, and sent the latter back after a few days of testing AKG K702. The bottom line is that music connoisseurs feel passionate about the pure, faithful reproduction of the source audio picture, and this is exactly what AKG K702 delivers.2. Please, note that there are more expensive and (allegedly) superior sounding headphones on the market if money is not an issue: Mr. Speakers Ether, Sennheiser HD800, HIFIMAN HE1000, STAX SR-009, or the Focal Elear and Utopia models, to just name a few, although some of these models will set you back with the price of a small car.3. AKG K702 are very competitively priced and unless you listen to most of your music on the go, they are a highly recommended buy.–4. If you are addicted to thundering bass, K702 should not be your first choice. Both Audio-Technica ATH-M50X and Philips X2 Fidelio deliver accentuated bass and may suit you better. However, be warned that Audio-Technica ATH-M50X feel heavy, rigid and are uncomfortable to wear, while Philips X2 Fidelio sound muffled in direct comparison and have a narrower stereo extension.5. K702 are, unfortunately, entirely made of fragile plastic (to the point of feeling toyish), and use proprietary cable connectors.UPDATE: I ordered a second pair of AKG K702 about a month after I bought the first one. However, the new pair was promptly sent back to Amazon. Why?1. There was a creaking sound when moving the ear cups.2. The right ear pad was thicker and visually bigger than the left one and also thicker and bigger than the ear pads of my “old” pair. Please, note that the thickness and size of the pads does affect sound quality.3. The new pair sounded differently in an unusual way. To my ears the stereo extension seemed narrower. The overall audio presentation was a bit off, when compared to my “older” pair, but this could have been the result of the “new” pair not having been properly burnt-in (although some do argue that burn-in is a myth).These differences are very unfortunate, and in my opinion could lower the overall rating by a ½ star to reflect the ineffective Quality Control, exercised by AKG’s Chinese or Korean production facility.

I chose to buy the AKG Q702 headphones after a lot of research. Headphones are a difficult purchase because it's hard to audition them due to the difficulty of finding a retailer who stocks a wide range and also because retailers are reluctant to let people try them due to health and safety concerns around cleanliness.My research was threefold. Firstly I looked at reviews by hifi magazines and websites. Then I consulted hifi forums and lastly I looked at product reviews on sites like Amazon from people who actually had purchased items. All opinions gathered in this way have to be treated with some caution because the views are subjective and, to be frank, some people do have favourite brands. The opinions I took the most notice of were from people who like the same type of music as me, which is mainly classical. These came out heavily in favour of AKG headphones and the Q702s in particular.I also took price into account. I was willing to spend rather more than the roughly £250 the AKGs cost but there is a law of diminishing returns in hifi and everything I read made me think that, whilst I could get better headphones, I would probably be satisfied with the AKGs.Ok so they come in a nice enough box. There is no case but that is not a concern for me as they will only be used at home and I have a convenient shelf for them to sit on. They have a tubular metal framework with a leather strap which goes on top of your head. The bodies are made of plastic and they have foam ear-surrounds. They are pretty light, 360g on my kitchen scales, including the cable, which is detachable. They are "open back" which means that they don't insulate you fully from external noise nor indeed do they protect others from your music. So they are for use in private!I have found them very comfortable. As mentioned, they are light so there is no problem there and I didn't find that my ears got hot even after a couple of hours of listening. Some reviewers have said that they found the ridges under the leather strap uncomfortable but to be frank I didn't really notice they were there. (I wonder if people have been pulling the phones hard down onto their scalp?)In terms of sound quality this is an early review. Some reviewers say that they need hundreds of hours to "run in" but I found them excellent straight out of the box. Some reviewers also say that they are much better with a dedicated headphone amp but I haven't tried that. In fact so far I have only tried them using the headphone socket on my Marantz CD6004. I will in due course try them using the socket on my Marantz PM6004.I've listened to a wide variety of music but the main ones to talk about are:* Grieg Lieder - Ann Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg - DG437 521-2* Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto - Kyung Wha Chung, LSO, Previn - Decca 475 7734* Allegri Miserere - Tallis Scholars - Gimell CDGIM 339* Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds - Columbia DPCD96000 (I think!)* Jennifer Warnes, Famous Blue Raincoat -20th anniversary edition - Shout 826663-10490* Prokofiev Symphony 5, SNO, Jarvi - Chandos 8450The Grieg is rather special, being a Penguin Guide Rosette winner and a former Gramophone "record of the year". The performances by both singer and accompanist are outstanding and the digital recording is demonstration quality. It is a tough test for any piece of equipment. The AKGs shone here. Von Otter's voice was captured in all its beauty and in some ways even better the piano was beautifully reproduced, all the notes perfectly represented to my ears. The sound staging was also excellent and by closing my eyes I could easily envisage a live performance.The Tchaikovsky is a much older (1970) analogue recording and I included it in the test not only because it is a wonderful performance but also I wanted to be see how the AKGs handed a non-digital recording (albeit a well-regarded one) and how they would integrate a soloist with a full orchestra. I'm pleased to say that all was well and indeed it was so good I played it through twice.The Allegri is also an old analogue recording but you wouldn't guess that. This is also a really tough test because the key thing is to be able to reproduce the acoustic of the venue, actually the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford, and to set the voices properly in perspective in it. This is hard because the solo group and the main choir are located at opposite ends of the Chapel, so to get it right you have to recreate a huge 3-dimensional sound stage. The distant and often hushed voices of the main choir have to live in harmony with the much closer solo group and Alison Stamp's wonderful treble has to soar above everything. I was quite stunned at how good the AKGs were at achieving this. My KEF Q500s do it better but you would expect that as they have the whole volume of a room to achieve it in. To make it realistic with headphones is excellent.The "War of the Worlds" is an old favourite and includes some excellent sound effects as well as some punchy popular music, with the added bonus of Richard Burton's wonderful narration. Burton really came alive through the AKGs and indeed everything sounded great. The "unscrewing" of the Martian canister sounded fantastic, I won't say realistic because that would be the wrong word, and it conveyed a wonderful impression of what was happening. It was so involving that I listened to the whole CD rather than the first 10 minutes as I had intended.Jennifer Warnes is one of "the" voices of the late 20th century in my opinion and her versions of Leonard Cohen's songs are highly prized. As Cohen himself said of her singing "I stand by my original astonishment". I won't go through the tracks but the AKGs didn't stumble and of particular note they handled with ease the rather difficult live version of "Joan of Arc", which can sound dreadful on cheap equipment.I chose the Prokofiev because it is highly percussive and I wanted to see if the AKGs could separate out all the various percussion instruments that are employed. In addition I wanted to know if they could convey the great excitement and drive of the final movement. They could! I could identify all the instruments and when I closed my eyes it took me back to a live performance I saw in the Albert Hall many years ago.To summarise, the AKGs performed well on all the music I tried. They were particularly good at presenting a realistic sound-stage; the performers seemed to be there in front of you. The Allegri was particularly impressive. I have read reviews that say the AKGs lack bass. I don't think that is right. I think they are neutral and reproduce what is there. If you want bass to be boosted these are not the headphones for you! They are rather analytical, i.e. everything is separated out and put into place, and people who like a smoother sound might find that wearing. I simply think it is realistic and I think the more you listen to these headphones the more you will appreciate the analysis.Overall I am very pleased with my purchase!