AKG K550 Review (Long, With Eye Candy)

[silentanarchy]

AKG K550

Review

The PreReview

I got these for christmas, I asked “santa” for them. And I requested that “santa” bought them used. So I've had these for a little over 3 months. Now if your wondering why I wanted them used, i'll tell you. I prefer used headphones because they are already broken in, in the sound department. I currently own 5 pairs of headphones including these.

Strap in it's going to be a long one

Enjoy the review

 

The Unboxing Experience

When I got the box for the AKG K550 I was surprised with how sturdy the box is. It feels like its made of plywood and acrylic. Even though it's made of cardboard and plastic. With that said, the box was damaged upon arrival, this may be due to the fact that I bought it used. So your box should arrive in pristine condition. Inside I got warranty info that was not applicable to me, I also got a 3.5mm to 6.3 mm adapter that is threaded. And that is it

The Design

 

This thing is a work of art. From the golden ring around the ear cups, to the finely brushed, slightly golden headband.

The design team in Austria clearly know a thing or two about design. The design team thought out every little detail.

 

They have a nice to the touch, soft touch plastic on the ear cups, very plush foe leather ear cups, with memory foam padding. My favorite part about the ear cups are the metal circles on the side, they always manage to catch the light beautifully.

The joint connecting the headband to the ear cups are made of Aluminum. The joint also allows the ear cups to swivel, so you can set them flat on the desk. And the headband as I said before is beautiful.

But where these really show the design teams attention to detail is in the small things. Everything down to the hinge pin was made to look beautiful. The cable is thick yet very flexible. And the 3.5 mm jack at the end is gold plated and has an Aluminum housing, and it's also threaded so if you want to use the included 6.3mm adapter you can be confident it will never come off by accident.

If you are worried you won't be able to tell Left from Right then AKG has you covered. There is a very large L and R in the Left and Right ear cup. However if your in the dark just remember the cable goes on the left. Also AKG numbered the notches on the headband so if you let someone use them you can no what notch to set it to, for me this was 3 for my left and 4 for my right.

 

The Build

 

But all look and no play makes jack a dull boy. And when it comes to throwing these around. I would be confident that they would not break, however I wouldn't want to throw them. So Even though these say they were designed in Austria, they were not built there. They were made in China, but today that doesn't mean they have crappy build quality. In fact they are very well built. During the 3 months I have owned them I have not questioned the quality once. If I had one complaint it would be that the glue holding on the top cushion is visible just a little on the side. But that is all I can think of. These are an incredibly well built pair of headphones.

 

Comfort

 

With my previous description of the ear cups you would expect them to be like a cloud on your head. However I never mentioned how heavy these are. They weight a ton almost 2 ½ times the amount of my Sennheiser HD 448. These are comfortable up to a certain time, For me this was about 4 hours. After 4 hours they give me a slight headache. Also if you are worried about them making you sweat, then you're right to be worried, I'm not the type of person to sweat a lot, but these headphones make me sweat after about 2 hours.

The Sound

 

I will break this one up into sub categories. Brace yourself this will be long.

Bass

 

If you want bass cannons then these are not for you. However if you like very tight and accurate bass then these are what you want in this price range. The bass drops off the slightest bit at the 20 to 40hz which is a good thing, because if you have a perfectly flat frequency response curve the sub bass actually sounds louder than the rest of the bass tones. So by pushing the sub bass down a little you get what sounds like a flat curve. As far as mid and high bass go they are clean and controlled with great detail at even low volume, which is a hard thing to accomplish. And when you decide to crank the volume up, which you should never do, but if you do decide to you will be pleased to hear no distortion in the bass. The one complaint I have with the bass is on rare occasions I would get a little pressure, mainly when it was turned up to loud.

Mid Range

 

The mid range, to me is one of the most important parts of the overall sound quality, and is the most important in the frequency response department. Because it's so easy to ruin the sound by messing up the mids. So thankfully the mid range on these were very good, not muddy or overpowered. So this means vocals came through with great clarity. And also every sound in the mid range was clear and undistorted. At no point in the 3 months I've owned these was I dissapointed in their ability to reproduce accurate and crystal clear vocals.

Treble

 

The Treble on the AKG's are great as well. They aren't to loud to where they're discomforting, nor are they to quiet. However they are not perfect, they don't have distortion but they are a tad bit sibilant. I only found this a slight issue because it's on rare occasion, but it's worth mentioning. The treble really shines when acoustic music is playing and you can all the detail when the guitarist moves his hand up the frets. And even when he plucks the strings, there's an accurate and satisfying “click”. Overall I was impressed with their high range performance. It sounds like the highest range is turned down a slight bit, which like with the sub bass, is a good thing. Because those high frequency's can be overpowering. Which can cause fatigue and sibilance.

what I said is backed up by these graphs I found from Golden Ears

 

Soundstage

 

These are closed headphones, which closed headphones are generally associated with small soundstage. However these are the best closed headphones for soundstage. With that said they still don't have the same openness as an open pair of headphones would. But they truly do give you a sense of placement and awareness. If you really want the soundstage to shine on these then use some high quality Live albums.

Music I Based My Thoughts On

 

I listen to music at least 5 hours a day, most of the time 9 hours a day. So I really listened to a bunch of music with these, ranging from Beethoven to Frank Sinatra to Pink Floyd, and everything in between. All my files are high quality FLAC files. Some are MP3's, I used an amp a few times but mostly I used my computers audio. When listening to Pink Floyd Time I really got a sense of how much time Allen Parson took when mastering that song, and album. In the intro you are surround by the noise of clocks, going up/down back/forth, The whole song is just beautiful on these headphones. For my Live testing I mostly used Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged, WOW! That is how I immediately felt, this album sounds better than their studio recorded stuff. Their is a strong sense that your their in the audience. And just for some nice Soul/Jazz. So I listened to Norah Jones, I loved how clean and close the music sounded, ironically the closeness of the music gave it so much depth. And these headphones handled her vocals so incredibly well.

Other Sound

 

So this is where I put the stuff I couldn't make into their own sub categories. These are not forgiving to crappy mastering, Some of my music was just horrible to listen to. Not that the file was a low quality copy, but the people who mastered it thought that it would sound good if everything was playing in center. Which if you didn't know overcrowds the drivers, so it sounds like mush. These headphones are very easy to drive I plug them into my phone and get similar volume as when in the amp, however the amp does open the sound up a lot. I would not recommend them for portable use though because they are heavy, and isolation is only good, not great.

Conclusion

 

So if you read all of this I applaud you. But what do I think about the AKG K550. Well they are an excellent headphone for those concerned about design, and build quality. They are not a good headphone to wear all day, and they are great headphones for indoor isolation, maybe if you want to drown out the sound of the city, or your kids these headphones are great. And if your someone who just wants a nice flat response and decent isolation with a good soundstage then these were made for you.

 

If You Liked this Please check out my other reviews of the ducky legend, Moto G, and Vortex PBT Keycaps.

I'm trying to improve my skills as a reviewer so if you have any advice in ways I could improve please comment.

P.S Sorry for All the dust, my room is always extremely dusty.

[HmmR]

nice review

but the quality of these since u bought it has reduced a lot as their main manufacturing hub is chain 

 

i strongly recommend to look for other companies like audio tecnica ,sennheiser,beyerdynamic

[silentanarchy]

nice review

but the quality of these since u bought it has reduced a lot as their main manufacturing hub is chain 

 

i strongly recommend to look for other companies like audio tecnica ,sennheiser,beyerdynamic

I have Some sennheisers, and I've been planning on getting the beyerdynamic T1, and the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 Well I can't confirm what you are saying, So I would say buy them used like I did. if you really want them. AKG was the top headphone company for 20 years, I think roughly from 1975 to 1995. But once harmon bought them they did loose some quality, however these are still great headphones. I've also been wanting to buy some vintage AKG K180.

[GamerDude]

Very nice review there! B)  I've been toying with the idea of reviewing some cans I have in my collection, but shudder at the time and effort needed.....I'm an overworked working stiff. :blink:  Enjoyed reading your review, I have a friend who'd just gotten the K550 as well, he loves it but said that the burn-in period is quite substantial though.

[HmmR]

I have Some sennheisers, and I've been planning on getting the beyerdynamic T1, and the Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 Well I can't confirm what you are saying, So I would say buy them used like I did. if you really want them. AKG was the top headphone company for 20 years, I think roughly from 1975 to 1995. But once harmon bought them they did loose some quality, however these are still great headphones. I've also been wanting to buy some vintage AKG K180.

thx for the advice ik akg is amazing company but the they have reduced the build quality it feels like cheap (compared to when it was made in austria)

and the sound signature is different i realised this when i went to a head phone shop and heard both of it .until i asked the shopkeeper the models i dint know it was the same company same models of headphones 

 

made in Austria once sounds amazing and heavier 

[silentanarchy]

Very nice review there! B)  I've been toying with the idea of reviewing some cans I have in my collection, but shudder at the time and effort needed.....I'm an overworked working stiff. :blink:  Enjoyed reading your review, I have a friend who'd just gotten the K550 as well, he loves it but said that the burn-in period is quite substantial though.

Thanks. It does take along time to write, I spent about 1 hour taking pics, 30 minutes editing them, then 4 to 6 hours writing and thinking.  As for the burn in period I wouldn't know, That's why I buy my headphones used. What headphones do you have?

[GamerDude]

Thanks. It does take along time to write, I spent about 1 hour taking pics, 30 minutes editing them, then 4 to 6 hours writing and thinking. As for the burn in period I wouldn't know, That's why I buy my headphones used. What headphones do you have?

Yep, I buy used cans as well. As for cans I have, I have a rather eclectic collect of entry to mid to flagship cans: Sennheiser HD800, HD700, HD555 (foam mod), Audio Technica ATH-AD2000, ATH-AD700X, AKG K812, Grado GS1000i, Audeze LCD2.2, HiFiMan HE400i, MrSpeakers Alpha Dog, Philips Fidelio X1, Byerdynamic DT990/600.....with mix of on the go cans like V-Moda Crossfade M100, Klipsch Mode M40, Klipsch Image One BT. The cans I'm presently NOT using.....I put them on my hifi rack. Can that I'm using would be on my desk.

I will try to find time t focus on one of my cans (the 'problem' with having so many good cans is the lack of focus on any one for a period of time)  and perhaps write an impression rather then a full review like yours, which is very nicely done (I don't thinik I'm capable of such a thorough review). BTW, do you see a couple of strips of foam on the stand with the ATH-AD2000? Those are the foam from the HD555 which I'd removed. I put the foam strips there because the headband on the ATH-AD2000 is metal, and without the foam strips, they would rub and scratch the metal band when I move them.

[silentanarchy]

Yep, I buy used cans as well. As for cans I have, I have a rather eclectic collect of entry to mid to flagship cans: Sennheiser HD800, HD700, HD555 (foam mod), Audio Technica ATH-AD2000, ATH-AD700X, AKG K812, Grado GS1000i, Audeze LCD2.2, HiFiMan HE400i, MrSpeakers Alpha Dog, Philips Fidelio X1, Byerdynamic DT990/600.....with mix of on the go cans like V-Moda Crossfade M100, Klipsch Mode M40, Klipsch Image One BT. The cans I'm presently NOT using.....I put them on my hifi rack. Can that I'm using would be on my desk.

I will try to find time t focus on one of my cans (the 'problem' with having so many good cans is the lack of focus on any one for a period of time) and perhaps write an impression rather then a full review like yours, which is very nicely done (I don't thinik I'm capable of such a thorough review). BTW, do you see a couple of strips of foam on the stand with the ATH-AD2000? Those are the foam from the HD555 which I'd removed. I put the foam strips there because the headband on the ATH-AD2000 is metal, and without the foam strips, they would rub and scratch the metal band when I move them.

That is a massive collection. I've been thinking about getting some Hd700's and 600's. But I need to wait a while. What headphone stands are those. One looks like a svieking wood headphone stand, one looks like a woo audio, but I can't tell what the rest are.

[GamerDude]

That is a massive collection. I've been thinking about getting some Hd700's and 600's. But I need to wait a while. What headphone stands are those. One looks like a svieking wood headphone stand, one looks like a woo audio, but I can't tell what the rest are.

That nice wooden Omega stand that my AKG K812 is mounted on actually came with the headphones. It looks to be of very high quality, I've stuck a plastic hook on the inside to hang the wound up cable so it'd be neater and easier to move.

In the pic below, on the left is a cheap China made Omega stand, note that it has some imperfections like minor irregularities on the edges of the stand, not perfect like the AKG one, but good enough. The surface of the stand itself is smooth with no unevenness, I put my HD800 and HD700 on them and have not come across any problem.The stand on which hangs my Grado is a Copper Colour metal headphone stand, cost me about 17USD which is fine since they're high enough to prevent the headphone cable connectors from coming into contact with the table surface, been told it cost about 40-50USD, not sure about that though.

 

Anyway, the Grado GS1000i is my latest acquisition and I'm loving it. Nice treble energy, not ear piercing to me, very good vocals (2nd only to the ATH-AD2000), with very good natural sounding (for want of a better word/phrase) bass that somehow sounds different from the bass on my HD800 and K812.

[silentanarchy]

I've been looking at the woo audio headphone stands. The one that holds 2 headphones. They are about $70 but that are made of literally solid aluminum. Right now all I have for a headphone stand is one I made from 1/8" aluminum that mounts on the wall, I'll take a pic later

[silentanarchy]

 

This is what is looks like.

 

 

 

You should do a review of your HD 700's I've been wanting to get some, because I have been finding them for good prices used.

[GamerDude]

Very nice DIY headphone wall mount! :wub:  Would fit my Grado GS1000i too since the cups can rotate like the K550 to fit flush against the wall.SilverStone has a headphone stand made of aluminum that would fit two cans as well. I'd recently gotten a JustMobile headphone stand which, imo, has a few design flaws. Firstly, in the pic below, my Beyerdynamic DT990 barely fits on it, note that the cable connectors on the can is just about touching the base plate of the headphone stand, cans like a Fidelio X1 and AKG K812 wouldn't fit as the bottem of the cups or cable connectors would prevent the cans from resting properly on the 'hook' on top of the stand. Secondly, the base of the stand has two separate plates where you're supposed to wound the headphone cables around, but this proves impractical as where you first wound the cable onto the plate becomes a bottleneck. Other than these glaring faults, it does look rather nice with a full rubber base combines with its weight make for a rather sturdy headphone stand.

 

As for reviewing the HD700, I believe Lays had written an impression of it. I'll try to find time tomorrow to sit down and listen with the HD700 on my Geek Pulse Standard, and perhaps write an impression of it....can't do it today as my 2nd rig in sig cannot power up, gotta do some trouble shooting today.

[silentanarchy]

Very nice DIY headphone wall mount! :wub:  Would fit my Grado GS1000i too since the cups can rotate like the K550 to fit flush against the wall.SilverStone has a headphone stand made of aluminum that would fit two cans as well. I'd recently gotten a JustMobile headphone stand which, imo, has a few design flaws. Firstly, in the pic below, my Beyerdynamic DT990 barely fits on it, note that the cable connectors on the can is just about touching the base plate of the headphone stand, cans like a Fidelio X1 and AKG K812 wouldn't fit as the bottem of the cups or cable connectors would prevent the cans from resting properly on the 'hook' on top of the stand. Secondly, the base of the stand has two separate plates where you're supposed to wound the headphone cables around, but this proves impractical as where you first wound the cable onto the plate becomes a bottleneck. Other than these glaring faults, it does look rather nice with a full rubber base combines with its weight make for a rather sturdy headphone stand.

 

 

As for reviewing the HD700, I believe Lays had written an impression of it. I'll try to find time tomorrow to sit down and listen with the HD700 on my Geek Pulse Standard, and perhaps write an impression of it....can't do it today as my 2nd rig in sig cannot power up, gotta do some trouble shooting today.

Did you get your rig back up and running. I have a new review up of the Moto G, if you're intrested. I tried a new method of pictures. I built a soft box to see how it would look not sure if I like it.

[GamerDude]

Did you get your rig back up and running. I have a new review up of the Moto G, if you're intrested. I tried a new method of pictures. I built a soft box to see how it would look not sure if I like it.

My 2nd rig's still outta action, tried everything I know to see if I could find the cause.......I'm beginning to suspect that the root cause is the AIO WC for the CPU, it'd been acting wonky previously, so I suspect it's kaput. Spent so much time and effort on it, didn't quite got around to doing what I'd said I would, sorry. Anyway, I'd be getting a couple of sets of cheap 1.5m custom cables, one for my K812 and the other's for the HD700, will run it on the HD700 for a full 24 hours before I'm gonna give them a listen. Meanwhile, I'd also be getting a crapload of DSD64 tracks, in a few days' time, so the timing's working out nicely. But in all honesty, I've been spending a lot of time with my Grado GS1000i, sparkly (treble energy is close to the ATH-AD2000) but very detailed and transparent sounding. I may actually write a mini-review or impression on it instead since I've been using it as my go to can for the past couple of weeks.

[That Norwegian Guy]

nice review

but the quality of these since u bought it has reduced a lot as their main manufacturing hub is chain 

 

i strongly recommend to look for other companies like audio tecnica ,sennheiser,beyerdynamic

 

BS, China is the best place in the world for competence in manufacturing, even Fender started making guitars there, the days when China was associated with only low quality are long gone. A company like AKG wouldn't source out to China if they didn't find the right partner factory, which they did, as all reviews show lately. And anything that makes top audio more accessible to the general public is good.

[silentanarchy]

My 2nd rig's still outta action, tried everything I know to see if I could find the cause.......I'm beginning to suspect that the root cause is the AIO WC for the CPU, it'd been acting wonky previously, so I suspect it's kaput. Spent so much time and effort on it, didn't quite got around to doing what I'd said I would, sorry. Anyway, I'd be getting a couple of sets of cheap 1.5m custom cables, one for my K812 and the other's for the HD700, will run it on the HD700 for a full 24 hours before I'm gonna give them a listen. Meanwhile, I'd also be getting a crapload of DSD64 tracks, in a few days' time, so the timing's working out nicely. But in all honesty, I've been spending a lot of time with my Grado GS1000i, sparkly (treble energy is close to the ATH-AD2000) but very detailed and transparent sounding. I may actually write a mini-review or impression on it instead since I've been using it as my go to can for the past couple of weeks.

 That sucks, about your rig. I would try to find a cheap cooler to replace the AIO, just to see if that's the problem, hopefully your CPU isn't fried. You should definitely write an impression of the Grado, i'm curious to see if them being made in brooklyn is good or not.

 

BS, China is the best place in the world for competence in manufacturing, even Fender started making guitars there, the days when China was associated with only low quality are long gone. A company like AKG wouldn't source out to China if they didn't find the right partner factory, which they did, as all reviews show lately. And anything that makes top audio more accessible to the general public is good.

China is a good place to manufacture, and the quality is good depending on the manufacturer, However I wish companies would stop outsourcing, because it's economically wrecking our country. but the quality of stuff produced in china is still very competent. Sennheiser and Audio Technica make their stuff in china if i'm not mistaken, excluding their high end stuff.

[alphaproject]

I'm hearing some funny things about popular manufacturers now. Basically head on over to Headfi.org and you'll see what I mean.

 

Ever since the housing crash a lot of products have gone down the crapper. Quality control has been all over the place.

 

So is what I'm finding out is that places will use even better materials in lesser name headphones.

 

I'm simply talking about a few brands here....  Look up Takstar and the clones like Brainwaves.

 

Guys that review a lot of these sometimes sub $50 headphones are amazed at how comfortable they are and just how good they sound

compared to some of the higher end stuff. I own the DT 770's and apparently there are cans that are just as good if not better at $99 or below.

 

Certain headphones now are so easy to swap the earphone pads they just twist right off. I wish mine did that, they are beat....

 

So the headphones I've used in the past were KOSS, Sennheiser HD 280 pros. CAD audio 510. AKG 240. Sony 7506.

 

Most of these I couldn't wear for longer than 30 minutes...some less. The ones that lasted me the longest were the HD 280's after the clamp wore down a bit but they aged badly cracking in spots. Still work though. DT 770's don't have deep enough cups for my preference so as the pads wear down, my ears rub the inside.

 

I have a pair of Gemini HSR-1000 coming this week. I've heard they best the DT 770 from many people because it's oval design is more comfortable and they can swap earpads to use the brainwaves memory foam pads.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/361193511781

 

I was looking at these as well but they weren't closed. Takstar HI2050  heard this guy on youtube review them. LOVED them. Z reviews.

[silentanarchy]

I'm hearing some funny things about popular manufacturers now. Basically head on over to Headfi.org and you'll see what I mean.

 

Ever since the housing crash a lot of products have gone down the crapper. Quality control has been all over the place.

 

So is what I'm finding out is that places will use even better materials in lesser name headphones.

 

I'm simply talking about a few brands here....  Look up Takstar and the clones like Brainwaves.

 

Guys that review a lot of these sometimes sub $50 headphones are amazed at how comfortable they are and just how good they sound

compared to some of the higher end stuff. I own the DT 770's and apparently there are cans that are just as good if not better at $99 or below.

 

Certain headphones now are so easy to swap the earphone pads they just twist right off. I wish mine did that, they are beat....

 

So the headphones I've used in the past were KOSS, Sennheiser HD 280 pros. CAD audio 510. AKG 240. Sony 7506.

 

Most of these I couldn't wear for longer than 30 minutes...some less. The ones that lasted me the longest were the HD 280's after the clamp wore down a bit but they aged badly cracking in spots. Still work though. DT 770's don't have deep enough cups for my preference so as the pads wear down, my ears rub the inside.

 

I have a pair of Gemini HSR-1000 coming this week. I've heard they best the DT 770 from many people because it's oval design is more comfortable and they can swap earpads to use the brainwaves memory foam pads.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/361193511781

 

I was looking at these as well but they weren't closed. Takstar HI2050  heard this guy on youtube review them. LOVED them. Z reviews.

There are nice headphones available for cheap now. My most comfortable pair are my sennheiser hd 448, not the cheapest but still not too expensive. I haven't tried many super cheap headphones, but I do have a korean computer monitor (Achieva Shimian). and the quality is equivalent to a monitor three times the price. and from what I can tell the reason there are great cheap products available since the housing crash is because since then most all companies have outsourced to china, so now china is able to have better quality control and still pay there workers next to nothing. 

[NateGSR117]

Thanks for the review, I'm actually getting these in the mail this week to use as my travel cans. I really looking forward to listen to them myself.

[silentanarchy]

Thanks for the review, I'm actually getting these in the mail this week to use as my travel cans. I really looking forward to listen to them myself.

you're welcome. They don't have the best isolation, people will be able to hear your music if your at 75% volume.  But it won't be too audible to people around you so you shouldn't be asked to turn it down or anything.

[NateGSR117]

you're welcome. They don't have the best isolation, people will be able to hear your music if your at 75% volume.  But it won't be too audible to people around you so you shouldn't be asked to turn it down or anything.

Okay, I don't really place my music that loud to begin with unless I'm by myself trying really hard listening to the sound range. But thanks for the heads up.