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AKG K712 Pro Review (Headphone)

xaviescacs

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The competition is strong in the area; unless you really want this particular AKG, there are better headphones at same/similar prices... IMO, DCA, Sennheiser, HiFiMan comes to mind.
Peace
The 701/702 are hard to beat however as they cost 129 € at Thomann. The 712 is 222 €, a difference which is hard to justify IMHO.
 

tifune

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Oh, my sample must have had that conversion done. I was wondering why the stock cable would not fit it.
The K712 uses a 3pin Mini XLR jack, so unfortunately balanced operation is impossible out of the box.
You can however replace that with a 4pin jack to make it compatible with balanced Amps.
If done correctly, this mod is 100% seamless.
Photos:
View attachment 166602View attachment 166603
Aside from not fitting (pin 4 preventing that) the pinning is also very different. (picture from Hart cables)

These are mine; yes, that's correct. Somewhere along the way I've become a bit of a basshead but also I only use headphones mulling about the house. I couldn't find any unbalanced dongles that could hit adequate volume after applying Harman AutoEQ (-6dB preamp) + a 5dB 105Hz low shelf.

I got a crazy post-xmas open box bundle deal on these and the HD650's, suffice to say even with no ear training at all I preferred the 650's by a wide margin. Since I barely used these, I took it as a low-risk excuse to see what's actually inside headphones and had a close friend with soldering experience talk me through what he was doing as he added the extra wire + 4 pin jack.

If you already own these, it's worth the effort. If not, there are many better options even in this price bracket so I wouldn't bother.
 
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Zensō

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It seems the terms “pro” and “reference” have little to no meaning in headphones. In fact, many of the so-called reference headphones have terribly wonky frequency response. These AKGs would be worthless for checking mixes.
 

Yasuo

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Too problematic for that price, I've always wanted to buy one, now I'm happy about skipping it.
 

thrash

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I have the old "Made in Austria" K712's purchased 10 years ago, at a quite higher price. They are selling for 220€ here and i bought them for 340. They got cheaper but as everyone wrote before me, not on the spare parts. The pads are selling for 48€ per piece, that is 96€ for a pair.
I like them eq'd for vocals and choir and when i do not want pronounced bass. Without eq they just sound muffled. My big objection is, that even though they are super comfortable, the headband adjustment does not lock in the adjustment position and the phones are gradually slipping from the ears especially when you are moving -like "moving the faders on the console in front of you" type of moving-. I would not buy them today, due to the cost of pads and the headband issue, but if anyone looks for a headphone that shouts "fashionably smart" and "studio pro", at the same time, then look no further (poser! :p ).
 

Severian

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I own a pair of these. They are absolutely EQ-required; I use oratory1990's filters with a couple of minor adjustments. With EQ, I think they sound excellent. I really like these as daily driver general purpose headphones for sitting at a computer. The spatial qualities make them good for relaxed, slightly lower SPL listening when I want to focus on something else, and also excellent for gaming. I find them extremely comfortable over long periods of time (although I do use rubber bands to add tension to the comfort strap). I tend to reach for other headphones when I want to do higher SPL critical listening. They do take a tremendous amount of power to drive after a negative preamp gain to accommodate EQ.

Much as I like them, I always downplay them as a recommendation to others because of the fuss required to get them to perform.
 

ernesternest

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AKG also closed its manufactury in Vienna, Austria four years back, new batch of K712 Pro is manufactured in Slovakia now.
Hi Krumpol, I am aware of this - mine are from Slovakia. So they should be the same as the newer ones.
 

Billy Budapest

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AKG also closed its manufactury in Vienna, Austria four years back, new batch of K712 Pro is manufactured in Slovakia now.
About 10 years ago, AKG shifted production of the K701 from Austria to China. I did not know the Austrian factory remained in operation after that.
 

pozz

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@amirm No voting? I like seeing the member reaction/interpretations of measurements. It's pretty informative.
 

Robbo99999

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I would have voted this a "Fine" Happy Panther - the frequency response looks easy to EQ with no horribly sharp dips or peaks, so it would be easy to get a close Harman Curve hug post EQ. I own the K702 which is quite similar in overall physical design to this K712 so I can understand Amir's impressions of good spatial qualities when EQ'd - however the K712 doesn't have angled pads, whereas the K702 does have angled pads, so I would expect the K702 to have even better spatial soundstage qualities than the K712 reviewed here.
 
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peniku8

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One curiosity with the K712 is the insane price for replacement ear pads.
The headphone itself is 222€ in Germany right now and a new pair of pads will set you back another 100€.
Still not as ridiculous as Hifiman. HE400i 2020 is 170$ and the replacement cable is 130$
 

Robbo99999

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zepplock

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I still have K701 (Austria) somewhere but I remember I had to open them and remove a thin film/sticker from the bass port, otherwise, they had virtually no bass. After that, they sounded decent. It was before I started using measurements/EQ.
 

Robbo99999

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I still have K701 (Austria) somewhere but I remember I had to open them and remove a thin film/sticker from the bass port, otherwise, they had virtually no bass. After that, they sounded decent. It was before I started using measurements/EQ.
Yes, apparently that mod increases distortion too....it was proven by measurements done by solderdude that software bass boost EQ introduced less distortion than the physical bass mod.
 

solderdude

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Engineers from AKG founded Austrian Audio. They have a few headphones to offer, their top model being the open-back HI-X65.

Would be curious how those measure. https://austrian.audio/hi-x65/



 

PuX

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AKG K712 Pro open back (gaming?) headphone
not gaming, orange is just an accent color on this model.

So I have to think the AKG folks were not on board with it in development of K712 Pro as it doesn't remotely comply with their preference curve.
this can be easily explained - it's just an evolution of K701 and K702 models. (and K7XX later).
drivers may have changed, pads are different (memory foam on K712, regular foam on older models), but the general idea is close.
so I don't think they they would start tuning to a completely new target on a sort of already existing model when Harman bought AKG.

by the way the pads definitely affect the sound a lot in this lineup, maybe you can test to confirm that if you ever get K702 or K701.
 

Berwhale

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I gave my K712Pro's to my brother (along with a JDS Labs Atom amp). Unfortunately, he has no way of EQing them :rolleyes:

I actually quite liked the the K712 Pro, the fenestrated sheepskin pads I bought from China made them very comfortable to wear. They were no competition for my HD660s though.
 
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