Yeah I don’t have high hopes for it either, it’s just to satisfy my curiosity.
Had those for a couple of years, they’re okay if you don’t mind very small cups. The FR’s a bit uneven though, to me it’s a bit funny that these would be called “studio” headphones. Also the heavy and coiled wire was very annoying to me.
IMO if someone’s open to EQing, a lot of gaming headsets deserves a closer look. I absolutely love the GSP600 (and the current version, H6 Pro). The spacial qualities are fantastic, with great bass extension and good imaging with the angled drivers. However they sound quite terrible without some EQ fine tuning so I can’t recommend that to anyone who wants to plug and play. I haven’t tried the Logitech G433 or the Astro A40, but both of those also have great extensions in the FR, with spacious cups and angled drivers as well.
The FT1 has good FR but felt terribly closed in for sound stage for my ears. Could be different for other people of course. I’m getting some angled pads for the K371 to see if that has any effect on sound stage vs the flat stock pads.
And that’s a great choice, I’ve heard that as well and really liked it. A few db less at select treble frequencies and I think I’d be very happy to live with a set of DT 770.
Plus it has good build quality and easily sourced replacement parts.
This is true. And it was a good choice when I bought, I think. It also has pros/cons though, like the other headphones imo. The biggest con is the frequency response imo, which has a few bumps and dips. This is compensated with Rtings new 5128 target response curve btw…
It is also not the most elegant-looking headphone. Though it is pretty comfortable for extended listening.
Another closed-back I have not heard yet btw is the newer Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X, which appears to have a somewhat more toned down response in the treble than the DT 770.
Tried the 770 and the 700 pro X back to back. I liked the 770 more. Looking at the FR graphs for both, the 700 have one fewer valley to fix in EQ. Neither of them are ideal. Requires some higher Q filters to fix. Personally it wouldn’t bother me too much.
Imo, there are design, ergonomic, sealing, symmetry, QC, and other considerations that would make the AKG K553 a hard headphone for me to recommend.
For starters, it seems to be designed for very large heads. And getting the large plushy earpads to seal reliably is probably goin to be difficult if you don’t have a pretty sizable noggin, or add more padding to the headband to raise the height of the earcups.
If you have a big head, and enjoy tinkering with your headphone’s design, then it might perhaps be worth considering. The symmetry/driver matching also did not seem terribly good though to me on the K553.
On the plus side, it has a pretty warm, open sound for a closed-back. And should be fairly EQ-able, if you can find some decent graphs.
Ora has a GRAS plot of this headphone. The response in the (sub)bass is very seal-dependent though. I have used this headphone extensively btw.
The Shure SRH840A is another headphone I have not heard, but have considered trying. And it is not as big as the K553. Here is Ora’s graph for comparison.
How open or spacey it would sound, I can’t really say, but it appears to have excellent extension in the bass and treble. And somewhat withdrawn mids. So a somewhat U-shaped response overall. So it might perhaps be especially good for lower volume listening, where that type of response can be more desirable.
That’s a fantastic FR graph. Well worth a look at the lower mid price range. Can’t imagine it’d be anything special for spaciousness since it’s just any other small cup flat driver design.
Personally I’m not a fan of those little tiny wires sticking out near the cup by the hinge, the Sony 7506 had those too and once in a while a finger or something gets caught in the wire and I’m always afraid I’d break the wire.
I’d like to see a review and some raw 5128 measurements on the new Focal Lensys Pro as well. Even though this is probably out of reach of my budget. Looks like a nice piece of gear though, with slightly angled 40mm aluminum-magnesium “M” drivers.
If you haven’t tried the Fiio FT1 I’d highly suggest it, I prefer it over the Hadenys and Azurys by a large margin, at less than half the price. I don’t know if it’s the cup design or what but those 2 and the Focal Bathys (same shell) have a peak in the upper mids or treble that can be harsh and grainy at times