What are your thoughts on the AKGs?Soundstage wise? Thanks
This probably isn't the correct thread for these observations, but, since you asked . . .
First of all, I'm not sure if you mean a particular one, so I'll give you my tuppence worth on all three.
TBH, I'm probably not the best person to ask, as after serving in the Falklands the hearing in my right ear is not as good as my left, especially the H.F.
And soundstage has never been particularly important to me, I'm much more into timbral accuracy and general musicality, and that indefinable
something, that makes you want to keep listening.
AKG K240 MkII
To me the soundstage is quite airy, probably helped by the fact that they are quite 'trebly' headphones. I'm listening to Yello's The Race from Flag and the sound of the race car going from one side to the other is actually palpable. Or in the brilliant Public Service Broadcasting's "GO!" from The Race to Space, when the flight director is calling out for a 'Go/No Go', each controller is (placed in the mix) on different sides of mission control and you can pick them out clearly. It definitely sounds out-of-the -head. Pretty much all on one plane though, not much three-dimensionality that I can hear, but definitely good lateral extension out-of-the-head.
(BTW, I disagree with people who say this headphone has too much treble; try standing in front of a real drum kit (as I have the pleasure of doing regularly) and listening to hi-hats and cymbals from three or four feet away).
AKG K701
701's have a reputation for having a very w-i-d-e soundstage and it's well deserved. The 701 is like the audio equivalent of 70mm Cinemascope, in glorious technicolour! Listening to Donald Fagen's Morph The Cat from the album of the same name, I get a clear image of the drums at 45 degrees front right, the bass is straight in front of me, lead guitar licks are way left, rhythm guitar is hard right, keyboards straight ahead and vocals high centre.
To me, there's a genuine feeling of height in most good recordings when listening with these cans, and it's really easy to pick different strands out of quite dense recordings and focus on them. BTW, what I said about the treble of the K240's applies equally well here.
AKG K240 SEXTETT
Soundstage on these incredible headphones is nothing special. They have many wonderful qualities, but soundstage is not one. Remember these are 1970's headphones (the last Sextett was built in 1979), and I don't think they bothered much with soundstage back then. That's not to say they have
no soundstage, or sound closed-in, because they absolutely don't. They simply present the instruments in a matter of fact manner as though they are pretty much in your head. Listening to Junior Wells' Good Morning Little Schoolgirl from the fabulous 1965 recording 'Hoodoo Man Blues' everything sounds so well balanced , so real, the headphones just melt away and leave the music.
Don't get me started on how listenable, and musical these headphones are. They've
definitely got that indefinable
something!!
As ever YMMV . . .
