AKG K361BT Bluetooth Wireless Over Ear Headphones with Mic (Black)

Okay so I have used this product for 1 month now, so let me share my experience in brief. Actually I was searching for headphones which sound good but also at the same time is comfortable. I purchased this product after a lot of research. Let me be honest, the ear cups and top cushioning is so awesome and comfortable, full points over there. The built quality is also sturdy. The feel of the product is premium. It gets folded and consume less space in your bags. Don't worry about the hinge system it is good too. Now talking about the sound quality, it is a studio headphones and it works as expected. Great balance between high tones, mid tones, vocals and bass. In starting it sounded a bit pale, but slowly after listening a lot in it the drivers got burned and this sound so good that I can't describe. The bluetooth connectivity is good too. I have taken calls in this in wfh and never got any complaints from the other side. The battery life is also very good, it last long really long, it has micro usb charging, no complaints over there. You will also get aux cable to use it if battery gets discharged. I have played games in this and you can easily identify footsteps approaching and from which direction. Surprisingly it is better gaming headphones too. So it is an overall feature packed really performing headphones. I will definitely prescribe this to all the people out there. Kudos.(Will update this review time to time accordingly)

Update: 17th June 2020 (I am returning these disappointments)I received a defective unit in replacement and was told to communicate with the Harman Customer Support for replacement and repair. They totally ignored the loose hinge issue (video attached and mind you, it's within a week of use of the headphones) and termed the disconnection of headphones as a feature (I mean don't become a Software Engineer here).I will start with the cons, as there's no pros.0. The most important thing, the sound. From the brief period of me owning them I had following things noticed:The frequency response as advertised from 5Hz to 22KHz+ is deceptive. They sound pretty avg from 20Hz to 30Hz, the bass from 30Hz - 70Hz is very heavy, but still good for casual listening. The most common range of around 8kHz is where the things start to get pretty messy. Some amount of Shrill is heard at this range and can become harsh sounding in extended use case. The Highs on these headphones are painfully spiked and might cause fatigue in prolonged use.But yeah, for some songs, they sound excellent, eg being most of the songs of 20syl's new album 36 (give it a listen, nice set of music there). Again, as I said in title, it's a hit or miss.Conclusion: They are NOT Studio Headphones and should not be used for referencing or mixing. They are just good for vocals and some casual listening. Some people who bought won't even notice the difference, but for audiophiles, they are a big let down.Now some more shortcomings of these headphones. I may sound like I am nitpicking them, but once you start to face issues and start getting technically bad explanation for them, yes, they need to be considered:1. The device will disconnect if it is paired and kept idle for more than 10 minutes. You have to switch OFF and ON again to pair the device again (this is what I received as a communication from the company's senior technical person). Bluetooth 5+, this was the major upgrade to the BT devices, as it switched from legacy Bluetooth Radio to Bluetooth Low Energy even for the audio devices. Explained in layman terms: it is far more efficient in terms of battery for the continuously paired device. To be honest, I have not seen any device, even using the BT4.2 BLE turn off when not played for a certain interval of time. Some devices handle it by making the device go into standby mode, by keeping it paired and awakening the device with some gesture or invoke if the sounds start playing. Being price originally at Rs. 23,999/- at the time of writing this (though selling it for 10,500/-) is just a gimmick for this sole reason as many other brands offer much better at Rs. 23,000/- and more (Sony WH1000XM3, Bose QC 3.0 to name a few which obviously offer the above bluetooth behavior).2. One more major caveat of this device is: it is marketed as "Professional Studio Headphones/ Monitors" and still uses the bluetooth codec "AAC" and "SBC", when a more advanced and efficient "APT-X" and "APTX-HD" exist and are even more prominent for the people who use "Hi-Fi" or Lossless Audios. Though AAC gets the job done, it is not available for all the devices in the market and can be useless on such devices for HiFi listening.3. You cannot pair these device to 2 devices at once. Bluetooth 4.1 BLE and above (including 5.0 and 5.1) support being connected to 2 devices simultaneously and can switch the audio source according to the priority, like incoming or outgoing call will redirect the sound through headphones, while simultaneously being connected to the other device (native feature). Also, most devices don't go on standby/ or get disconnected even if it is inactive because of the sound being played on the other device.4. The Bluetooth headphone comes with the mic, which works only when the device is connected in wireless mode, not wired mode. Reason: funny enough, though the device has 4-Pin Mini XLR port, all the 3 cables provided in the box are having "3.5mm TRS" instead of "3.5mm TRRS", rendering the mic useless on most of the mobile devices including Cellphones and Laptops. Please let me know if there are any cables to solve this, though I don't see any point in buying the cable after investing a substantial amount of budget in headphones.5. Coming to the build, from my initial impression of these headphones, which was limited to less than 5 days in total due to defective pieces, the cushion on these pairs is really shallow, such that the ear touches the driver's plastic, making it unbearable to wear after an hour long use.6. The clamping force for the headphones is more on the top, making the seal loose from the bottom side of the ear-cups. You can literally feel the difference in the sound if you press a bit on the bottom while using them. Changing of pads is recommended if you are still willing to and live with these headphones (Brainwavz has perforated Ear Pads for AudioTechnica Ovals, these will be a good replacement).7. Also, it is way too backward to be still using MicroUSB when the world is moving towards USB Type C & wireless. The headphone doesn't have NFC Pairing and nor any app to manage the equalizer on this headphones.Also, you cannot use these headphones in wired mode while charging them.Well, to be honest, I knew only a couple of issues - MicroUSB and inability to Pair to 2 devices at a same time, before buying because these were the only ones which are available easily on the product listing and Spec Sheet available on AKG International website. And these were fine for me, because I had some other priorities to look for, and no product is perfect for any given price range.But to be honest, I was not satisfied with any of the claims made by the brand and chose to return them for good as the price I paid not even justifies half of the things. The customer service is also very orthodox and feel disrespected when raised concerns with the product.Better options are available for headphones within this range, go for Sony or AT as they are much better in terms of quality. Bluetooth is just an added thing, not worth the money to be spent on if you are an audiophile. For general and casual listening, they might suit you.Not at all worth the Studio Monitors, nor do use them for Studio Monitoring.Review (10 June 2020, post replacement, again faulty, contacted the Harman for resolution)To my utter disappointment, these pairs also had Quality Issue:1. The left hinge is pretty loose and doesn't stay stiff enough to be even held on head.2. The bluetooth connectivity is terrible: the headphones keep disconnecting automatically, the mic doesn't capture the sound and needs restart of the headphones to make it work (sometimes, not always), and the side gesture control is not responsive at times.Being a mid-high range headphones, being marketed as Studio Quality Headphones, I didn't expect this from AKG. At first I though that it must be a batch issue, but seems like even the predecessor non Bluetooth K371 had these issues and were addressed 4 months after the release. I actually think that they are not worth the money to be spent on just due to the terrible quality control issues.The comfort is okay, though the pads feel bit shallow and my ears can feel the touch of the plastic panel at the back of earcups. They sound good for mid ranges, but the sound goes muddy for lower frequencies and some terrible peaks in the high frequency ranges (not that noticeable, unless you listen to some flac audios)I have written to the AKG Harman India for the issue and will write a followup review once I get my resolution.Review (6th June 2020, replacing them as they are faulty units)To my disappointment, the pair I received had couple of major issue:1. The right ear had rattling noise while listening to any kind of music,especially in the range of 25Hz to 65Hz.2. The hinge mechanism looked damaged and was quite shaky.

I have the AKG K361BT Model .Before the actual review I would like to mention I tried the headphones as a Casual User for playing games ,movies ,video editing and I'm no professional soundguy.This headphones is made up of good quality plastic ,so little to no creaking sounds .As you can see the band adjustment has very little support its doing fine but I do worry a little bitThe wired mode is 2x times better than the Bluetooth mode in terms of sound , Bluetooth sounds little better than Bluetooth headphones which cost 4k , But I'm totally impressed with the wired sound . Bluetooth doesn't have the latest aptex codec but AAC does the job and there is little to no lag in watching videos and playing games .The ear cushions are comfortable you can use them for 3 hours full sessions and then a 2-3 min brake will again get you the same comfort.The cushions provide good passive noise cancellation.In Bluetooth mode ,after 10-15 min of inactivity the headphones turn off which is a little bummer but not a deal breaker for most of us .Speaking of sound quality it don't have heavy bass as it's an studio headphones,but everything is balanced !I was able to hear some sounds which I was unable to hear in my old cheaper headphones.Mic is decent,but you can use it only in Bluetooth mode,when wired you can't use your mic !Overall the product is nice ,it'll definitely be a upgrade if you come from cheaper headphones or new to headphones!I absolutely love it , but some of you might be experiencing that your left ear is touching the driver of headphones (if you have big ears ) so in that case I suggest you to change the stock pads to something more thicker like brainwavez ear pads !I give it only 4 stars cause at first I got an refurbished product and was little sad ,then I asked for a replacement and got a new product in 2 days and absolutely loving it !I'm speaking all these with one week of daily use for atleast 6-10 hours everyday ,will post an update later a full month of use !