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AKG K371 Review (closed back headphone)

solderdude said:
I have measured it pretty much the same and can 'confirm' Amir's measurements and findings.

View attachment 107884

fr-stock.png


The kink one sees at 100Hz (most obvious in the GD) is caused by the pads. It loves to absorb and release 'energy' at that frequency. Most pads do b.t.w. it is not a driver thing. When changing pads on headphone I often see it shift higher or lower.

CSD shows the 5kHz part to be a resonance.
For those that want to address the small treble peak passively:
k371-filter-schematic.png


fr-filter-1.gif


It is a good sounding headphone. Too bad about the mechanical issues and comfort of the pads as well as the microphonic cable. Otherwise I would have kept it.
Click to expand...


@solderdude and ALL,

You have your “measurement” plus bass compensation plot posted next to @amirm’s Measurement minus Target plot indicating that they are in some way equivalent. They are not.

For the AKG K371 I am trying to sort the difference between the flat plate, without an artificial ear, measurement and 45CA, including the GRAS artificial ear, measurement.

First blush, it appears that the acoustics of the GRAS artificial ear are largely responsible for the shape of the “Target Curve”.

It also appears that many of the AKG K371 wiggles and squiggles are consistent with the headphones alone and not dependent on the GRAS artificial ear to measure them. To think of it another way, flat plane measurements can tell us a lot about the performance and comparisons of headphones. Notice I did not say a word about how the headphones sound, that will come later.

Thanks DT
 
DualTriode said:
First blush, it appears that the acoustics of the GRAS artificial ear are largely responsible for the shape of the “Target Curve”.

It also appears that many of the AKG K371 wiggles and squiggles are consistent with the headphones alone and not dependent on the GRAS artificial ear to measure them. To think of it another way, flat plane measurements can tell us a lot about the performance and comparisons of headphones. Notice I did not say a word about how the headphones sound, that will come later.

Thanks DT
Click to expand...
Of course this is the case, since the GRAS ear is based on averaged HRTF's of numerous people and the ear resonance emulation alone creates the need for compensation w/ headphones, also the angle of attack (I don't know which one Harman used for the curve) matters for the resultant HRTF. So, headphones can emulate various angles of attack from speakers & different environments by mangling the HRTF. Flat plate is pretty much like the anechoic chamber for speakers, since it considers only the pure driver's characteristics. A lot like Klippel, I think.

I wonder whether some people suffer or not from the 4k dip, since for some it might be the ear-canal resonance region. I don't actually feel thise to lack in 4k, especially when compared with any other pairs EQ'd to Harman, but it'd be far-fetched to consider myself trained.

Also, since I don't know where to post this: I wonder whether the headphones drivers' directivity matters?

Dealux said:
K612 is significantly more balanced and cheaper.
Click to expand...
If you mean the relative brightness, keep in mind that it is different from person to person.
 
Justin Maynard said:
@amirm Would you say that out of all headphones you have reviewed, the HD800S is the best (allowing for EQ of course) ?
Click to expand...
"Best" is not the right word. I would say the 800s is the most fun in the way it opens of layers of music. I don't think what it is doing is truthful to the original sound so in that regard, the K371 is more "accurate."
 
MickeyBoy said:
Could an Android phone supply enough power to make a big noise?
Click to expand...
It "should" but I have not tried it so don't want to say for sure. Anyone have experience they can share?
 
amirm said:
It "should" but I have not tried it so don't want to say for sure. Anyone have experience they can share?
Click to expand...
From XZ1 Compact, I have to set the volume to 2/3 of full output, and believe me, it ain't a powerhouse, it has problems driving low-impedance IEMs, so I guess most smartphones will do just fine. I barely use less than 100% when using anything with 3.5mm here, and K371s play just great.
 
amirm said:
It "should" but I have not tried it so don't want to say for sure. Anyone have experience they can share?
Click to expand...
Plenty of volume and bass on my cheap Moto smartphone, the output of my [really cheap] Acer Aspire 5 laptop and my Fiio M3K DAP. The output of the Fiio DAP is 25mW @ 32 ohms, 42mW @ 16 ohms.

[edit] The K371s are the only headphones that can get too loud on my low-budget Android smartphone.
 
Last edited:
Felt abit bummed about Harman US not being willing to ship the $299 a90q to the U.K so picked up the last pair of K371s on UK Amazon for £106.50 with shipping. Feeling better now. After 20 years of complaining to my wife about the credit card bill I finally get retail therapy.
 
Frank Dernie said:
I bought some soon after they came out.
They work well and are exquisitely made but were not in production long so I would imagine not repairable if they went wrong and they don't have a direct way to use them bypassing the DSP so if they -do- go wrong they can't be used without repair.
Click to expand...
A bridge too far this time round Frank, but my interest in active headphones with sophisticated eq has been piqued...
 
I wanted to like the K245 but they had a dark, overly polite sound to them, I thought (bassy and flat, but tilting downwards to the right*). I wasn't sure how detailed they were. That range was well built though, the foldable studio ones they did before it became Samsung owned (K175/K245/K275). All metal hinge design, nice pads. They go for clearance prices now. I wonder how close they were to the Harman target? but it's an example of an "open back" that is bassy (however it doesn't sound very open).

Some more information:
https://hporz.blogspot.com/2019/05/akg-k245.html
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/akg-k275-k371
https://www.headphonecheck.com/test/akg-k245/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-akg-headphones-k175-k245-k275.844842/
 
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Tks said:
When I saw the subbass in the FR plot. I would have wagered my life thesr were going to have bass distortion through the roof. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw how low the bass distortions are for a headphone this cheap with a boost of that kind and virtually no roll off.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is quite a trick. An easy to drive headphone with a ton of clean bass and low distortion. Is this only possible with closed-back headphones and IEMs?
 
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