AKG K240 55 Ohm Review (Headphone)

[Competetive_Radio]

This is my two cents about AKG K240 series.

Thing is they don't tolerate lack power (Sextetts, DF and early Monitors especially), forget phones, laptops, only with high end motherboards they begin to open, non Sextett type drivers (they lack six passive diaphragms) first thing that can barely drive them efficiently is Sound BlasterX G6, Mojo 2 is behaving little better but still can't handle Sextetts, DF and early Monitor well, Atom+ is when you don't need to fear for driving both non Sextett and Sextett type drivers. Whoever talk that can be driving by MP3 player is troller or have problem with listening and hearing.

Sextett Middle Production and Early Monitor have best sound quality but today they can be impossible to find and if you find them there is a chance that drivers are dead or condition is bad and you need to restore them. If you want to use K240 for listening music EQ is must and don't expect you to get ultimate headphone, they are many headphones that can outperform them like: DT-770/880/990,HD 598/9, HD-600/650, AKG K701/702/712, AKG K371, KSC75,... even K260 Professional (another AKG from bygone era) is better for music enjoyment then K240. Is K240 better than any "gaming headphones" the answer is yes, but gaming headphones is last thing on my mind when I compare headphones.

They pure purpose is monitoring nothing more nothing less, later K240 (still 600 ohm you will recognise them by white paper dampers) began to be much worse and avoid them even for monitoring (if you want to monitor anything more than casual talk and playing). K240 Studio is the same story, K240MK II tries to be more music listening (tunning bass and highs) but still would take Superlux HD-681/B and SR850 over MKII (both are cheaper and better).

This is my story I still love to collect them, if you disagree that's okay.

 

[StrongTowel]

I was being rushed when I bought them, literally "cmon buy buy gotta go". Jesus christ. Yep, they are for monitoring and throwing around -- these 240 MK2s.

My decades old, different model AKGs are starting to cut out at the connection to the headset and they've gone through so much, have been my best pair and aren't manufactured anymore. The ancient pair still work if I tilt my head, do a handstand and point at Saturn so I don't want to try any goblin engineering on them yet.

 

[Competetive_Radio]

I was being rushed when I bought them, literally "cmon buy buy gotta go". Jesus christ. Yep, they are for monitoring and throwing around -- these 240 MK2s.

My decades old, different model AKGs are starting to cut out at the connection to the headset and they've gone through so much, have been my best pair and aren't manufactured anymore. The ancient pair still work if I tilt my head, do a handstand and point at Saturn so I don't want to try any goblin engineering on them yet.

Your cable that connect to drivers (solder that connect these two) are failing, if you are good with soldering you can fix itself.

 

[StrongTowel]

Your cable that connect to drivers (solder that connect these two) are failing, if you are good with soldering you can fix itself.

I think the soldering wouldn't be too difficult, but much less than taking the old pair apart -- much more glue and not modular design of the current era, like the 240 MKIIs. The MKIIs even say "Studio" on them, the specs also say "HiFi Listening: Yes".

Decent throw around pair in a studio with a refrigerater-stored pair of tube headphones.

I'm thinking about getting a pair of Rode NTH-100. Reading all of Solderdude's review, as well as the low end Audiotechnicas, Sennheisers available to me, they seem flat and wise enough, lower price, just up the road and come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[StrongTowel]

It was an odd moment for me to hear these being not so neutral because I love and trust so much German (and Austrian) audio hardware and software, but looking back I seem to have just misread the schpiel in a rush. My mistake.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

I'm late to the party, but here is my first post here!
First of all, these headphones are not used to listen to music while sitting back and sipping a Martini. Studio headphones with a 'wow' factor is a bad headphone, just like speakers that are used for mixing (not mastering, as that is another story). The NS-10s that were used in the seventies by some smaller studios were probably some of the worst sounding speakers in the universe. So why did people use them? I'm glad you asked! Because when you're mixing, you tend to do the OPPOSITE of what you are hearing. When you have raw (untreated) tracks while mixing, the first thing you notice is that there is always way too much bass that tends to overpower everything. So if your headphones (or speakers) have a lot of bass, you'll tend to cut them out to hear all the other instruments clearly, but you will have cut out way too much, resulting in a song that is thin with no bass. I have mixed a lot of instrumental music with the K240s and they have all consistently come out just the way I wanted them and ready for a final mastering in another room, using entirely different equipment. The most important requirement in studio work is knowing your equipment inside out, because you need to know what and how much to compensate for.

 

[solderdude]

Yep...
Either knowing your monitors and knowing what the outcome will be (for the consumer) or correct the response of the monitoring gear to match that of the consumer and ensure it already sounds correct (consumer viewpoint) on the monitors.
Today the latter is easy to do when you know how to achieve that but also has a learning curve.

One can use crappy gear (crappy in tonality) by knowing what is crappy about it and using that knowledge or use excellent gear in the same way.

The funny thing is that the vast majority of people think that what they hear should be the same (or imagine is the same) as what the final producer heard.
This, in a lot (most cases for popular music) is hardly the case as control rooms and living rooms are not the same and the 'target' is different as well.

A good recording engineer wants to capture everything as good as possible. The mixing engineer is supposed to adjust everything so it sounds good 'as a whole' and has a plethora of options to achieve that goal. Then there are 'demands' that have to be met (desired loudness) which determines how, that was once recorded 'dry' and dynamic all fits in a product that sells well and consumers can enjoy in the homes/on the go/in the car/on the radio/as background etc.

Not many consumers realize how recorded sounds are manipulated (less so with live recordings) and engineered towards being a product.
Also many people mistakenly assume that what is used in a studio is also good to reproduce on... this does not have to be the case.

In the end, audio reproduction consist of the recording -> product part and reproducing ->consuming part which are not the same thing, nor gear nor people nor goals nor will the sound (tonality) of what is heard and loudness be the same. All the recording side has to do is know how to create something consumers like.

For the latter this consists of 2 things that may or may not have to happen at the same time. The creative part (music) and recording/reproduction quality.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

Very well said! However, it's not that easy as you mentioned in the first part. The sound of the equipment can be matched, but the difficulties lie in the sculpting of each instrument, and then balancing them into a cohesive whole, which is a completely different discipline. The 'demands' of the industry happen mainly in the mastering stage - level of loudness, brighter or darker, age group, etc. But to make things more complicated - as far as forums go - we all hear things differently and have audio biases. For instance, I can't stand bright recordings; but are they really bright or am I extremely sensitive to bright sounds? This is why it's also important to have reference recordings played back with your own equipment so that you have a precise sound target so that you can keep your biases in check.

 

[bennybbbx]

I'm late to the party, but here is my first post here!
First of all, these headphones are not used to listen to music while sitting back and sipping a Martini. Studio headphones with a 'wow' factor is a bad headphone, just like speakers that are used for mixing (not mastering, as that is another story). The NS-10s that were used in the seventies by some smaller studios were probably some of the worst sounding speakers in the universe. So why did people use them? I'm glad you asked! Because when you're mixing, you tend to do the OPPOSITE of what you are hearing. When you have raw (untreated) tracks while mixing, the first thing you notice is that there is always way too much bass that tends to overpower everything. So if your headphones (or speakers) have a lot of bass, you'll tend to cut them out to hear all the other instruments clearly, but you will have cut out way too much, resulting in a song that is thin with no bass. I have mixed a lot of instrumental music with the K240s and they have all consistently come out just the way I wanted them and ready for a final mastering in another room, using entirely different equipment. The most important requirement in studio work is knowing your equipment inside out, because you need to know what and how much to compensate for.

it happen mostly that some songs that give on HIFI Headphones with own "Character" a WOW sound feeling that many other songs sound worser. I hear that on youtube songs too. When use a headphone or speaker that is linear much more songs you think sound great.
It is always good to have a headphone that is measure so you can correct to linear.

When you think a song sound worse on other headphone or speaker which is not measure compare it with a measured headphone. when it on the measured headphone then sound good, then can correct with EQ your headphone slightly so it sound good. this way i do also for room corrections on speakers because measure seem not work good . after time i find this way less and less music that sound worse on my speakers but good on a measured headphone. To compare better switch to mono when play the song.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

it happen mostly that some songs that give on HIFI Headphones with own "Character" a WOW sound feeling that many other songs sound worser. I hear that on youtube songs too. When use a headphone or speaker that is linear much more songs you think sound great.
It is always good to have a headphone that is measure so you can correct to linear.

When you think a song sound worse on other headphone or speaker which is not measure compare it with a measured headphone. when it on the measured headphone then sound good, then can correct with EQ your headphone slightly so it sound good. this way i do also for room corrections on speakers because measure seem not work good . after time i find this way less and less music that sound worse on my speakers but good on a measured headphone. To compare better switch to mono when play the song.

The reality is that different types of music are recorded (and produced) differently. In general, jazz and classical - and similar types of music - have the purest recordings (there are exceptions of course), but we can't have separate headphones or speakers for every genre, or even sub-genre we listen to. But we shouldn't put studio headphones in the same box as enjoyment headphones. One is a screwdriver and the other one is a smartwatch. When I listen to music purely for pleasure, whether it's Rammstein or Max Richter, I still try to use the flattest transducers possible, but that's me. There's nothing wrong with using something with more 'oomph' or 'wow', as long as we enjoy the music, which in the end is the goal. However, I do find that transducers with a high frequency roll-off to be more forgiving across different genres of music.

 

[robertom]

Completely agree with mr. vinyl and solderdude. Tools like the NS10 or the K240 are sort of magnifying glasses for medium frequencies, for the mixing engineer. Medium frequencies is where most of the music is, and is crucial for the engineer to nail the balance in that area. Auratone is an even more extreme application of this principle. A lot of mixing engineers just put an EQ on the master buss, and when they want to focus on the mids, they low cut everything below 150Hz (and eventually hi cut, too), it's a cheap alternative to dedicate speakers for mid frequencies.

Also totally agree with solderdude when he says that "Not many consumers realize how recorded sounds are manipulated ". Exactly, my experience as well. If you are a mixing engineer on a professional or even amateurish level, you realize how foolish are a lot of claims of the general public about tonality, naturalness, dynamics... If they only could suspect 1/10 of the manipulations rutinely done by a mixing engineer they would be very cautious in doing any statement on this subjects.
"Vocals"... don't mention it... "How good is this headphone for vocals?" is one of the most senseless requests in human history, in my opinion, since you almost have the entire range of hearable frequencies there. And: Recorded with a Schoeps, a Rode NT1-A, a AEA ribbon, a U87? compressed 2db, 5db, 15db? and how? Transient shaped? Equalized how, where, how much in amplitude? how many filters? saturated? distorted? using what? Reverb what? Delay how? Doublers any? Exciters? and Melodyne?
And where and how the mixing engineer listened all of this? And the mastering engineer? And the producer, with his tastes and bizarre ideas about succesfull sound? And how much the mandatory target loudness affects the whole process? (hint: more than aesthetics). Maybe, just maybe, an average listener is trying to judge dynamics and "punch" and "slam" of an headphone by listening some recordings with just 6 db of Dynamic range left after the whole recording-mixing-mastering process?

 

[Marioshata]

@solderdude

bold is my emphasis

Of course you do know I am all for experiments so I already did those tests

K240 Studio with stock pleather pads vs. K240 velour pads vs DT990 pads.

View attachment 208434

versus Amir's measurements (Harman Corrected)

Very similar to my measurements (below) so quite representative despite the not original pads in this case.

View attachment 208442

Hello,
I have K240 MKII with DT990 pads and I am wondering how can I generate a Harman preference score EQ based on your test? Tried the EQ from Oratory1990 for the MKII but maybe, because of the pads it didn't sound right to me. My MKII is Austrian made, but I don't think they differ from the ones made in China used in Oratory1990's test. How should I go about EQ in this situation if I want to keep the DT990 pads? Thank you for your time!

 

[solderdude]

The test was done using K240 Studio which (as far as I know) differs from K240-mkII.

The differences between the pads (red and green trace) will still be the same. So you could just change Oratory's EQ with the difference between the traces.

 

[Marioshata]

The test was done using K240 Studio which (as far as I know) differs from K240-mkII.

The differences between the pads (red and green trace) will still be the same. So you could just change Oratory's EQ with the difference between the traces.

Something similar?

 

[solderdude]

A complicating factor is that any EQ by Oratory above 6kHz is kind of suspect. That does comply to a standard but it is just a standard and not absolute correct which means EQ is likely incorrect for frequencies above 6kHz or so.

Also it is not clear to me how 'the same' the mkII is compared to the Studio. Afterall AKG sells both models and it would be silly to sell the same headphone under different suffix numbers.

It all looks scientific but is not as accurate as most hope/believe/think it is. Add to that personal preferences/references, product variances, pad conditions, seal etc.
Best would be to compare the results to a known 'standard' headphone or calibrated speakers.