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Review 1 of 2
Price Paid:
$120.00
from quain radio, argenti Summary:
I purchased this to replace my broken Sennheiser HD-330 (expression line). I was looking for a country of manufacture in Europa or Japan, trying to avoid chinese procedence. My HD-330 was made in Ireland, and IMHO the quality was excellent, and the sound was very clear and without coloration. Perhaps today this means nothing (chinese facility could operate with european trasducers and so on) but, well, it was one of my search constraints.
So, when I saw this K-100 made in Austria, I thougt "I cannot go wrong'. I already purchased an AKG K-55 last week, but I found this model more focused on mass market of consumer electronics, MP3 and other compressed media reproduction, with lot of coloration in the bass and treble section. However, the K-55 performed quite well for a PC system.
On the other hand, this K-100 looks great (the K-55 has a cheap appeareance), the leather headband is a nice detail, and the silver-inked AKG logo printed on this band adds elegance to the set. Because it's a closed - semiopen model, perhaps the ergonomics could be a little bit enhanced, (the earpads doesn't surround competely your ear unless you have a small one), and the first impression I had is that these ones are not as comfortable as the Sennheiser.
I tested these ones with Pink Floyd's "Dark side of the moon", perhaps the most outstanding rock-n-roll recording work of all time, a remastered version, hybrid SACD edition. Unfortunately, I haven't a SACD player (so far), so I had to play the regular CD layer. Using a Yamaha RXV-557 and its digital-optical entry, letting the PCM converter at the Yammy do the work (I set the digital output at the DVD-player as 'raw bitstream'), and setting the tone control as flat (defeated), I could compare this AKG K-100 with the K-55 and the Sennheiser.
And I have to admit the K-100 has a flat response curve, like the sennheiser. In fact, they sounded similarly, with great respect to the recorded material. Excelling in medium tones, the voices were very well reproduced. IMHO, the K-100 compares very well to the HD-330, and this is all an accomplishment. Please don't get my wrong, these ones are not full-fledged audiophile-grade phones, but I think it behaves like one.
The K-55 showed a noticeable bass and treble reinforcements. Anyway, in Pink Floyd's first track, the hearthbeat effect yielded an incredible bass beat without distortion. I think the K-55 easily adds 2 or more decibels, acting like a "contour" or "loudness" control. The K-100, OTOH, outputs a flat, realistic, sound, perhaps well suited to act as a monitor headphone. High tones are soft , bass is detailed, chorus voices and stage image are very good (you can "locate" inside your head the different voices singing).
For the audiophile enthusiast, AKG added a pair of plastic pieces, intended to be located onto the drivers, by removing the earpads. These ones act like a mechanical filter for high frequencies. AKG states that some digital sources could output more level in high frequencies than the real, recorded sound, thus adding an artificial "brilliance" to the music. These plastic pieces tend to restore the equilibrium on the high frequency side of the spectrum. I didn't tested it because in fact I found the treble sound very equilibrated and with enough accuracy. Strengths:
Nice design, leather detail adds elegance. AKG logo and "made in austria" inprints remarks the audiophile inheritance of these ones. Detailed sound, almost flat, without noticeable coloration, these ones can be used as a monitor pair of headphones. Weaknesses:
None so far (considering the price). Similar Products Used:
AKG K-55
Sennheiser HD-330
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