AKG K240 55 Ohm Review (Headphone)

[Helicopter]

These are fit for the home studio of a twelve year old, though the $9 Sony would be better.

 

[PuX]

The sample I have has thicker velour pads as you see. Owner was kind enough to also supply the original, thin pads but they were severely degraded so I did not use them. There were also a couple of filters included. I am not sure if they were part of the original design and not used when the pads were swapped or what. No, I am not going to measure this headphone twice. Not everything needs to be a science a project.

why measure it at all with completely different pads from original?

these are K240S by the way, and original pads have always been pleather.

there was a special edition with 2 pads K242 - pleather and velvet? or velour?

but this isn't it obviously.



and also if you ever get the chance to review K240M or K240DF - please do, they have nothing in common with K240S besides looking the same.

 

[NoteMakoti]

I think these are the cans Anthony Fantano uses in his reviews, which explains:

 

[amirm]

why measure it at all with completely different pads from original?

"Completely different?" You make it sound like the drivers are different or the whole headphone is different. The thing that makes sound is the driver. Variations in pad are natural, happen in use, and wear. There is no exact representation of any pad in any measurement.

I measure and report it because it is highly representative of the headphone seeing how other measurements are similar to mine and they were supposedly made with the original pad.

 

[amirm]

Yeah, that's right, the age of the pads will also affect the frequency response as well as whether or not it's a stock or aftermarket pad....

That level of difference and then some shows up in differences between left and right channel. How you wear the headphone is liable to be different than how it fits on the fixture as well. I can't believe you all put so much stock in such minor differences that may or may not be real or representative of actual use.

Seems like no matter how strong I make the disclaimer at the start of these reviews, I can't unhook you guys from the attachment to graphs to this degree. I give you a yardstick graded in inches and you all keep focusing on a fraction of an inch. Never mind that each yardstick is different then others by +-1 inches if not more, and so are the items under test.

I am going to suggest that such complaints be taken to headphone complaint thread.

 

[Vini darko]

Micron lives matter

 

[GWolfman]

Thanks for the time investment in providing more data.

 

[milosz]

How are these marketed? Does AKG say "the kind of sound you want in the studio?" or do they just say "great sounding headphones?"

I "get" how different headphones, with tailored response, can be intended for different uses. But were these actually designed to this target or did they just sort of come out that way?

 

[PeteL]

The sales channel includes consumer where 7000+ people left reviews indicating probably 100,000 sold through Amazon alone. They are not enticed to do so based on the criteria you mention. They are enticed based on what AKG says:

View attachment 135238

Mixing and mastering? Doesn't sound like what you are talking about. Impressive accuracy? Doesn't sound like what you are talking about.

Simple truth is that it is entirely too common to claim any and all headphones are "professional studio headphones." This is misleading and entices customers to think, "if it is good for professionals, it is good for me." There is no defense for this and certainly not what you put forward.

I understand your point, sure, but isn't it a bit naive, have you ever seen any marketing material being objective? I'm not saying it's OK to make these claims, It's not... But we... as "professionals" know better as to give relevance to this kind of self praise. I've never seen a manufacturer say something in the line of what I'm saying. Like "buy these if fidelity is not really important but you have limited budget". I was not commenting on their marketing material, I was simply stating that these are for professionals, they are sold to professionals, they are used by professionals, technically they indeed are professional studio monitors, I did not analyse past that.

 

[Robbo99999]

That level of difference and then some shows up in differences between left and right channel. How you wear the headphone is liable to be different than how it fits on the fixture as well. I can't believe you all put so much stock in such minor differences that may or may not be real or representative of actual use.

Seems like no matter how strong I make the disclaimer at the start of these reviews, I can't unhook you guys from the attachment to graphs to this degree. I give you a yardstick graded in inches and you all keep focusing on a fraction of an inch. Never mind that each yardstick is different then others by +-1 inches if not more, and so are the items under test.

I am going to suggest that such complaints be taken to headphone complaint thread.

I think it's a bit blind of you to think that it's ok to measure a headphone with aftermarket pads and automatically expect it to be representing something close to how it would perform with the proper stock pad. For instance I've gone through some of Oratory's measurements where he's measured many headphones with different pads so that it can be compared to stock pads....sometimes the results are very similar between stock and aftermarket pads, but more often than not the results are significantly different.

Following are some examples of differences between stock & aftermarket pads:

K240 Sextett:

K601:

K712:

Audioquest Nighthawk:

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And following is an example where there is not much difference between stock & aftermarket pads:
Audeze Sine:

So it can be seen that often there are massive differences in frequency response caused by changing the pads from stock to aftermarket, whereas sometimes there is not much difference.....but to take the stance that testing a headphone with aftermarket pads means it's automatically representative of how the stock headphone would behave as sold is incorrect and is not a "fair" representation of the headphone. I did note in my original post that your measurement was quite close to Oratory's so in this case you have been lucky that the aftermarket pads have not influenced the measured headphone greatly, but you can see it's not good practice to test headphones with aftermarket pads.

(I won't make further posts on this topic in this thread as I appreciate you don't want review threads to be cluttered up with methodology "complaints", however it is relevant to this particular review...but yes I won't comment further in this thread on this topic as I've said & shown everything I want to)

 

[solderdude]

Oratory with stock pads

 

[oversky]

Even using the same pad, the result may vary.


https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-4/graph#387/4007

 

[solderdude]

Even when re-positioned on the same head/test fixture there are variances.

I hope that doesn't stop anyone from measuring headphones if only to find substantial errors and to get some idea of how to apply some EQ.
A convolution, for those exact same reasons, (basing 'exact' EQ on one particular measurement) is equally flawed as any measurement out there.
Regardless who makes the measurements of a particular model they have at hand.

Measurements here and elsewhere are merely a data point, not exact science, and is what Amir states repeatedly. Don't see headphone measurements in the same absolute sense of accuracy as electrical measurements. They are not comparable in any way.
It is an indication of how that particular headphone measures on a specific (in this case industry standard) test fixture and presented in specific ways.

The K240 Studio clearly is nothing special, with stock pads nor with aftermarket pads. But then again some will adore it others won't like it.
It is what it is and seeing that Amir mentioned non stock pads being used that doesn't mean the measurement is worthless nor not representative.

 

[PeteL]

Depends on the genre and the producer, and typically a little leakage from open cans is completely irrelevant and sometimes even favorable to add a some "life".
Occasionally even speakers are use for the monitor playback as some artists really feel uncomfortable with headphones (for example, pitch perception is compromised with headphones), especially with closed back ones. Heaphones can cause cancelling with bone conduction when the wrong polarity is used, a very annoying phenomenon. Often you see artists uncovering one ear to hear their own voice better or making other moves showing discomfort and then a good producer/engineer should take measures and not be shy to use speakers as monitors as a last resort. Artistic performance is much more relevant than a little bleed.

Yep, that's why I said "most", not all, and "normally not", not never

 

[Chyżwar]

A friend of mine works in the studio and uses the K271 which I think have an even worse frequency response. I asked him why he wouldn't buy better headphones and he told me he knows the K271 very well, he knows how they sound compared to his monitors. And if he buys new headphones, he will need hundreds of hours to learn how they sound.
In fact, you can use any headphones in the studio as long as you have comparisons to the reference monitors. And you always have to learn how your headphones sound because there is no such thing as truly neutral headphones.

I had the K240S, K240MKII, and I think they are not that bad and have a rather wide soundstage, like most AKG. So I was a bit surprised how critical this review is. However, you can pay a little more and buy much better headphones, so there's probably no reason to buy the K240.

I'd love to see the measurements of the Etymotic ER4XR, which I think are great studio headphones.

 

[Thomas_A]

A friend of mine works in the studio and uses the K271 which I think have an even worse frequency response. I asked him why he wouldn't buy better headphones and he told me he knows the K271 very well, he knows how they sound compared to his monitors. And if he buys new headphones, he will need hundreds of hours to learn how they sound.
In fact, you can use any headphones in the studio as long as you have comparisons to the reference monitors. And you always have to learn how your headphones sound because there is no such thing as truly neutral headphones.

I had the K240S, K240MKII, and I think they are not that bad and have a rather wide soundstage, like most AKG. So I was a bit surprised how critical this review is. However, you can pay a little more and buy much better headphones, so there's probably no reason to buy the K240.

I'd love to see the measurements of the Etymotic ER4XR, which I think are great studio headphones.

The K271 have measured very differently over time.

Later ones show a severe peaking in treble and low bass.

The measurements made by the Swedish Audio Technical Society in 2003 looked more like the upper one; the one I bought a few years later sounded more like the one in the lower graph.

So I don't know what AKG is doing with their headphones.

 

[PuX]

"Completely different?" You make it sound like the drivers are different or the whole headphone is different. The thing that makes sound is the driver. Variations in pad are natural, happen in use, and wear. There is no exact representation of any pad in any measurement.

I am not saying it's as drastic as changing the drivers. (btw K240M, K240DF have different drivers and sound a lot better).
but as for the pads, it is a completely different material - pleather vs velour pads always measure differently. no amount of wear will make pleather sound like velour.
in some cases the change is quite large - for example there were measurements of HD650 where they sound very different with Dekoni replacement pads (I think they use leather and fenestrated leather).
I have personally experienced this with HD595 - aftermarket pads of same material sounded completely different from the original ones, probably because of the foam used inside the pads.

I measure and report it because it is highly representative of the headphone seeing how other measurements are similar to mine and they were supposedly made with the original pad.

that's good. I just feel like since it's such a popular model, it could wait and eventually someone would send a stock version for review.



oh and I realised that there was also a K240 MKII model, which included velour pads like K242. but they looked different and the ring was silver, not gold.
the ones in this review are aftermarket most likely.

 

[Chyżwar]

The K271 have measured very differently over time.

Yes, but I'm talking about the current models. I'm not a big fan of buying 20 year old headphones. Some time ago I bought an old K271 made in Austria and they sounded very strange, without bass and treble. Maybe they were just damaged, I don't know. I had a similar problem with the HD580, I bought two pairs and the first sounded great, the second very bad. And there is a problem with the pads, for example the HD580 with Chinese pads sounds very dark and muddy. Too many problems for me
Maybe some old versions of the K271 were better, but nowadays I prefer to buy something else

 

[sarumbear]

Seems like no matter how strong I make the disclaimer at the start of these reviews, I can't unhook you guys from the attachment to graphs to this degree. I give you a yardstick graded in inches and you all keep focusing on a fraction of an inch. Never mind that each yardstick is different then others by +-1 inches if not more, and so are the items under test.

The best (only?) option for you is to ignore those posters. There is always someone to argue for the sake of argument.

 

[DualTriode]

Something that may be important to take into consideration for studio monitoring (not mixing) headphones in general.
Having flat or Harman FR is not paramount, they may well be colored in a certain way, roll-off in the extremes and have an emphasis or dip in certain parts of the FR.

The K240 are not meant to be used as a headphone to enjoy music but rather in a studio to monitor recordings.
In such case it is not about accuracy at all but hearing instruments and voices usually at higher SPL than average and comfort, easy to change pads and occasionally sitting on one or have it drop or janked of your head. You don't want high amounts of lows muddying up the sound nor excessive 2-4kHz range (shout).
Tonal accuracy in the final mix is done afterwards with EQ/effects to get the desired sound. It is not determined by the musician based on what he hears.

It is a studio monitor and sold as such. Some folks assume because they are used in studios (just like many Beyers) they can thus be used for enjoying music as well. A very common 'mistake'. It's akin to folks claiming the DT48 is such a great headphone because it was used for testing hearing.

The elastic bands regulating the headband height loose tension pretty quickly. A horrible construction that AKG should have changed by now.
There are many different K240 iterations by the way. As well as DT770/DT880/DT990's. These are cheap 'throw away' consumables to studios.

Thanks for measuring them. I haven't had the pleasure yet and won't buy them because I am sure I won't be using them to enjoy music.

Solderdude you make this headphone sound like a cheep piece of junk purchased by the studio in hopes that no one will want to steal it.

Thanks DT