AKG K550 MKII Premium Foldable Closed Back Over-Ear Headphones - Black

The AKG550 MKII are big, bad and beautiful. Everything shouts out quality. From the box the AKG550 MKII are presented in, to the actual build and sound quality of the headphones.The headphones are beautifully put together, creating a smart impression. Looking stylish and attracting real admiration – subtle, refined and elegant. The build quality is of an exceptionally high standard, leaving competitors well behind.The sound is sharp, light, pure, in-depth and well balanced. Vocals are exceptionally clear. It’s a case of quality over quantity – base (boom, boom, and boom) is not deep as compared to some cheaper headphones. The AKG550 deploy an outstanding maturity and excellence in sound.The wire of the headphones is thick and durable. As other reviewers have mentioned, the cable is slightly long, but nothing you can't live and work around.The headphones fit comfortably on the head. Would prefer that they were, even more, ear-hugging, but not a major issue. The earpieces cover the ears well. Doing a good job of isolating external sounds. Separating the quality of the music and allowing space for the sounds to emerge naturally.Overall a quality long-term buy – would recommend storing in a protective case to protect the investment.The AKG550 MKII are quite chunky; you would not want to leave the headphones unattended, as they may get damaged.Would appreciate you award this review, and click on “was this review helpful to you?”: )

I've owned these headphones for almost a year, and so far I'm happy with them but also concerned about some quality issues especially with the headphone pads. So I'll get the bad stuff done with first.I've had numerous headphones over the years, some of which are priced in the £250 plus range, and the general finishing with the AKG's is actually pretty decent so far except for the leather coated ear pads, about 4 months in the left side (only the left so far) started to fall apart, I just sew it up. Then this week 29/8/18 they split again so I sew them up again. I've decided to get some new ear pads, velour ones this time hopefully they won't be as sweaty as leather ones, I wonder if the sweat rots the stitching?The leather so far is good still.I tend to abuse my headphones a lot, they're on my head for 4 hours or more every day. I've never had the finishing on the ear pads deteriorate quite as quick as these, though I've seen the finish degrade to a horrid sticky mess on some headphones before after 3 or 4 years.So with the unpleasantness out of the way we can move on to the good stuff. I really like these headphones, they sound great, better than a £250 pair I own, many reviews report a lack of bass, which is true up to a point., they do offer a very broad frequency response and reproduce sound in great detail, they can depending on your set up produce a lot more bass though.I'm using a PC/Laptop with VLC player set up running through a Denon AVR-X2400Hand they can produce plenty of bass if you tweak the low frequency up, but I prefer detail over boom. My musical tastes are pretty broad, and these headphones cope quite well with variety. So as far as sound reproduction goes I rather like the AKG 550s.Build quality wise they're OK, they're not as solid as my £250 pair but but except for the ear pads they've held up well for like 10 months of continuous use, barely a scratch on them. Seriously need better ear pads, what a sad way to let down a really decent product. I said rubbish ear pads in terms of quality, they are comfortable and do a very good job containing noise, so the noise canceling is good.The price is actually pretty decent considering the sound quality, way back in the past I'd go to HMV and get a pair for £30 or so, they'd last maybe two years and then one side would stop working, plus the sound quality could never compare to these. My last pair the £250 pair are still good, but after 7 years I just wanted to try something else. These beat that pair hands down especially in bass reproduction, but will these last 7 years? Maybe. One thing is certain, the ear pads wont.

I was looking for a pair of headphones capable of matching or at least getting close to my Sennheiser HD 650 but without all the sound leakage that open-back headphones generally have, so I could listen to music at a good volume without bothering my girlfriend while she studies and works.Now these AKG K550 MKII do the trick all right, but not only that: their sound is absolutely stunning! I've tried them with my Fiio E07K Andes DAC amp, playing large-scale choral and symphonic works, like Bruckner and Mahler symphonies, Bach cantatas, Mozart missae, etc, and also piano solo pieces and chamber music for different kind and number of instruments. The depth, clarity and accuracy of the sound is just absolutely brilliant, perfectly balanced treble and bass.They are really comfortable to wear too, and their desing is sleek and sturdy. An absolute bargain for their price.

Wow... This is a shocker.First things first. Headphones arrived with one of the side caps off (the cap that mentions "reference"). The glue did not manage to hold the cap during transport with UPS I guess. Never mind that though. Let's hook the pair up and check 'em out.OMFG. Tested with Hi-Res players from Fiio & Xduoo, as well as a desktop Yamaha system. I have 30 EUR DJ headphones from Sennheiser that sound better. I'm no bass freak, really. But the bass here is non-existent. And hey, I pressed them as best as I could to my ears - just a little before my skull would crush. Bland. Soulless.Even worse, it seemed as though the magnets are misplaced, sound on left ear was like the actual headphone speaker was a little in front of its actual position. Tested from CD to Hi-Res. If Ian Curtis was alive and listened to Shadowplay on these pairs, he'd probably kill himself again (rest his soul).WTF AKG? Is my pair broken or something? I can't believe What Hi-Fi has 5 stars for these.(Thank goodness I got the Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO (250 OHM) with the same purchase...)