AKG K812PRO Superior Open-Back Over-Ear Reference Headphones

My first serious headphone was an AKG and I have always had a bit of nostalgia for the brand. However, through endless iterations, and since the early days of K1000, AKG produced more of the same. I was therefore intrigued when a new flagship was announced, however due to mixed reviews I held off until was able to get this for a competitive price.Straight out of the box, and based on looks and build quality alone, this is my new favourite. Sturdy, classy, understated but at the same time quite comfortable (I say "quite" because it is not exactly lightweight).I read a lot of talk about the cable. While I am a believer in cables and spent thousands on expensive experiments, I believe that a cable can not change the fundamental sound on a system, but rather add subtle finishing touches to a well tuned sound. In other words, yes, it is a rather thin and cheap looking cable but it does the job, it is virtually invisible, no microphonics, no thick heavy ropes hanging from my neck, I have no problem with it.As far as sound is concerned I am primarily a speaker user and my headphones are rather a hobby. In the past I tried many and owned plenty of the flagships - Denon D7000, Beyer T1, Senn HD800, Grado GS1000, several Ultrasone Editions but also played with much cheaper products - including the usual suspects HD6XX, K70X etc. I am not ashamed to admit that I even have a couple of Bose products in my collection for their noise cancellation prowess, a JH13 Pro and other various bits and bobs.Now this AKG - how to put it. I understand the love and I understand the hate. I understand the waxing and the bashing. And the funny thing is - they are all right. If I would have to give a personal verdict I would say: I love it. So you know what to expect from the beginning. After having all of the above headphones I absolutely unconditionally love this one. It is by no means perfect, pleasurable, "audiophile", it doesn't wow me but there is so much right in this headphone that I don't even know where to begin.A lot of people mentioned the balance and yes, it is expertly balanced. There is low range, an exquisite midrange, there is plenty of treble. Now if you have ever heard an Audeze or like the heft of a closed woody headphone, K812 will not cut the mustard for you. But if you think HD800 has a good low end and you are happy with it's overall reproduction of bass, you have to hear this one. Although it doesn't have a lot of low end, it doesn't "hit you hard", it doesn't shake your temples, it is the kind of bass you get, in quantity as well as quality, from a near field monitor in an average room.Also a lot has been said about the distortion below 40Hz. I don't have a problem with this, I don't hear it, I don't think that much can be heard below 40Hz as at that frequency you rather feel than hear. But here's my two cents. In my early days with Dirac on my multichannel setup, I was trying to achieve this perfect curve and the sound was lean and was missing body and true colours. At some point I discovered that by setting up a high pass filter at about 60Hz and allowing some distortion below, I was getting a much more realistic sound. So if there is distortion below 40Hz, I don't have a problem with it, I can't hear it and, to my ears, the low end is just about the best approximation I have heard in a headphone of a near field monitor.The midrange of this headphone is epic. I can go on and on and on about how beautifully voices come through but much has been said about it so I will not repeat it. Plenty of reviews, nobody is denying it. If you like female vocals, you have to give this headphone a try. Krall, Bremnes - bliss. Which is no surprise since AKG have always been masters of the midrange - think for instance K501.Now the treble which plenty of critics describe as harsh, unrefined, raw, bright. My position is that it is all of that. And it isn't. If you come from the "audiophile", mellow, ethereal HD800 or lush T1, it is. And there is certainly a drop in micro detail, resolution, air compared to a HD800. But I always found that HD800 paints a romanticised landscape because in the concert hall or in front of my monitors I hear none of that. Yes, HD800 can dig deeper into the recording. But that stuff I can not hear on K812 (although an exceptional achiever in its own right) was never meant to be heard. You will not hear it in the concert hall unless you are on stage, in the middle of the live performance, you will not hear it on your speakers unless you listen with your ear pressed against the speaker, on a highly resolving system.The word that comes to mind again is: realism. AKG K812 equals near field monitoring. Are the Yamaha's and the Genelec's and the Mackie's sweet and delicate and ethereal? Do they paint a pretty, sugar coated picture? Are they soft, silky, velvety? Is that the sound you are after? Then this K812 is not for you. But if you want the sound of your Yamaha's and Genelec's and Mackie's in a headphone, this is the closest I have heard so far to the real thing. At the right volume (which is not too low but neither too high), AKG K812 sounds pretty much indistinguishable from my speaker setup.I went over and over again over the same recordings, played on many speakers over the years and plenty of headphones, heard in concerts. K812 is not a concert hall experience. For that you have HD800 and HD650. It is not a floor standing speaker experience on some massive class A mono blocks either.K812 is the bookshelf, near field monitor experience. And if you value this rather intimate audition versus the massive concert hall, the big floor stander in the big open space, K812 is stunning. It takes you there, it has no musical preferences, it works equally well with classical, acoustic, jazz, rock, electronic. And it does all this plugged straight into an iPod Classic because it is also the first AKG flagship that does not need massive power to shine, although it will benefit from a beefier and more resolving system.It is a bit bright but near field monitoring is bright. It is a bit unrefined but electrical guitars are not refined and try to play Metallica on HD800! However, having said this, listen to Bremnes' voice on HD812 and tell me if you have ever heard a headphone, any headphone near this price range, that can do a better job at bringing her to life.It might work for you or it might not. If you think Benchmark sounds lean and harsh, if you can't stand a Mackie or a Yamaha near field monitor, if you are a Berilium tweeter fan, it's probably best to skip this headphone for the high end Focals or Stax 009.But if you value near field monitoring, if you want to hear it true rather than pleasurable, K812 might be a revelation. I can only hope, with all the rumours going around, that this is not AKG's last flagship.

Ok, some will say I am just a AKG fanboy but I also own Grado RS2i's & the 'legendary' Sennheiser HD600's but the K812's are a really worthwhile upgrade over my AKG K702 65th Anniversary headphones. So they should be at £938.I have read every online & magazine review around on the K812's and ended up somewhat confused, the first lesson is to trust your favourite headphone manufacturer to produce a fabulous flagship headphone and not to get to get bogged down with the minutiae within some of the reviews.The headphones arrive in a simple but attractive box and AKG provide a lovely wooden headphone stand which is more useful to me than an aluminium box (I bought two sturdy but light headphone boxes from Amazon for £15 each and they accommodate any of my headphones for when I travel abroad).The materials used in the construction of the K812's are of great quality, they look prestigious and are very comfortable. I particularly like the larger than average earpieces which provide plenty of room for your ears and seal the earpieces to your head really well.I don't need a 3m cable so I will be ordering a 3ft cable from Double Helix Cables who make very high quality headphone cables. Lot's of headphone porn on their website...I resisted listening until the K812's had had 24hrs listening to songs on their own via my laptop, yes, I do believe that things like headphones & loudspeakers need running in but let's not get into that debate please!I only use headphones with my two digital audio players, Cowan Plenue 1 & Colorfly C4 Pro, so I welcomed the easier to drive K812's compared to my K702/65's although I chose both my DAP's because they have healthy power outputs, I'm using noticebly less than I was.The K702/65's produced enough bass for me but the K812's produce a much better quality of bass, better defined, more tuneful, doesn'tbecome befuddled when put under pressure, goes nicely deeper so a real improvement in the bass.I started listening to Emeli Sande's wonderful 'Live at the Albert Hall' CD/DVD and the K812's reproduced her voice beautifully providing more clarity and detail to her voice than the K702/65's, more emotion was conveyed.I have written about the K702/65's that I would have liked a bit more treble bite & intensity & I'm delighted that the K812's provide this, I am listening to Arena's new album 'The Unquiet Sky' as I type this review and I am hearing more of Mick Pointer's cymbals and a more vividversion of John Mitchell's fantastic solo guitar work.Some of the reviews have talked about a treble bite as bad as a pit bull terrier's but I haven't found this but equipment partnering is very important and the Cowan Plenue 1 is described as an 'analogue' type of sound so isn't going to provoke an excessive treble bite from the K812's. I find the Colorfly C4 Pro less good with the K812's but it is an earlier generation of DAP & £200 less expensive than the Plenue 1.The other thing is that I'm in the 50-70 age group and my ears are less sensitive than The Child's (in her twenties) so I know she would have a different point of view but as most 18-30's either couldn't afford the K812's or are simply not nearly interested in music to spend substantial sums on music equipment, perhaps AKG tuned the K812's for the average buyer?Last year I visited Hi Fi Lounge, the top notch hi fi dealership run by Paul & Wendy Clark who have one of the very few dedicated headphone rooms, in fact it's not a dedicated headphone room nowadays, it is a dedicated headphone building adjacent to their hi fi building. I visited before the dedicated building was opened but I was able to listen to a variety of headphones in the £800-£1,700 range (good thing The Wifedoesn't read my Amazon reviews!) and whilst one had nicer bass than my K702/65's, I didn't like its treble, another was more open in the midrange but lacked bass, another had too much bass but a lovely midrange & treble! On it went, sadly Paul wasn't an AKG dealer.So it ain't quite as easy as it might seem, regardless of budget, to find a 'perfect' pair of headphones anymore than my very substantial Hi Fi system is perfect either. The £££££ speakers are fabulously clear (a bit too so with some recordings), have beautifully defined and very quick bass (but could do with a bit more with most recordings). My last speakers (PMC) had lots of transmission line produced bass but on mostrecordings I could hear the bass lagging behind the rest of the music notwithstanding the high quality amplifiers powering each speaker separately.So as Arena's great new album demonstrates, the K812's give me what I personally wish from a flagship pair of headphones so I would encourage you to buy the AKG K812's if you are a music lover as I am. They give what my K702/65's were unable to produce and more besides, can't ask for more than that.September 2015 Update: My K812's are now well run in and sounding worth every penny (I see the Amazon price has gone up by £130!), I have listened to many of the albums on my Cowan Plenue 1 and I really love the sound. I have upgraded my USB headphone amplifier to an Audioquest Dragonfly v 1.2 with an Audioquest Jitterbug and this has made a useful difference to all laptop listening.The quality of the K812's has resulted in my listening to music far more than I did using my K702/65's which is a testimonial in itself.The 10ft cable supplied is annoyance and I am delighted my Double Helix Cables 3ft cable is now on its way from the States (DHC Elite 4 wire Fusion hybrid silver/copper OCC Litz). A cable of comparable quality to the K812's, can't arrive soon enough, why can't AKG also provide a 3ft cable?