All right folks, it's time to give this pair of small transducers
some credit. After some second hand hifi trading I found myself owning a
pair of AKG K271 MKII headphones. "Affordable 2nd hand price and hey
it's AKG so it can't be all that bad" I remember thinking. In the past I
briefly owned the smaller AKG K171 MKII - but since they were on-ear I
couldn't wear them comfortably with glasses... or at all for that matter
thanks to my big head and their strong clamping force. Plus their sound
quality didn't raise any remarkably positive feelings, and after a
while it was easy to part with them.
With the K271 MKIIs I immediately noticed that they were much more
comfortable to wear, having with still quite strong or even stark
clamping force. They go nicely over the ears and the velour pads (I believe you also get leather pads) do not
draw much attention after a while. They are closed-back headphones so
sure your ears can become somewhat warm after long sessions, and I find
myself taking small breaks to "cool" my ear pinnae. But this happens
only when I'm using the headphones for many like an hour straight. Which
I do quite often since these are the ones I've been using at my office
for some time now. AKG states them as "professional over-ear headphones for studio and live use" and " Universal genius for monitoring, mastering, studio and live sound mixing" - these are some demanding tasks.
On with the show.
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| Plug and Play. Picture AKG.com |
I remember at first the K271 MKII did not surprise me, "another pair
of boring flat sounding studio 'phones with no life". But still they
were adequate in every aspect as one would expect, the sound quality was not disturbing but
also not exiting. They were comfortable to wear and they blocked sound
nicely from the outside world. So they found a place from my collection,
even if they were highly underused for quite some time.
At some point I began to think if I should just sell them and be
done with AKG's studio headphones. But before that I wondered if there
was any way to mod them, or get more exciting sound out of them. Without
much thinking I took pliers and pulled the inner foams that protect the
drivers out because hey - it can't be there to improve the sound
right?... and oh boy. "Are these even the same headphones?", the shock
was instant and real. Suddenly the K271 MKIIs were much more dynamic,
the bass was deep, fast and the general feel was something it was not
before: fun, foot-tapping fun. The overall presentation was so much
better and clearer, but most importantly to me, the music was now alive -
an enjoyment through these headphones. Truly a veil had been lifted, or
in this case pulled, while still maintaining the positive qualities of
studio headphones. At that point I began to take them seriously.
My office rig surely is nothing special - trying to keep a low
profile with FiiO E10 USB DAC connected to Firestone Audio's Cute Beyond
headphone amplifier. The amp deserved a review of its own but let me
just say that the sound it produces is far from "cute". It's super fast,
snappy, aggressive from bottom to top and brings even the most boring
and soft headphones to a whole new level. Brings them alive. A true
bargain of a headphone amp. The combination is seriously good
considering that all three, the cans, DAC and amp were together cheaper
than the average pair of nice RCA interconnects.
Few words about sound quality of the K271 MKIIs on this rig. Yes
they are fast, and slightly bass heavy so that music genres like
electronic, metal and hip hop can be enjoyed easily. They do not make
much of a 3D sound but more in the manner of in your face, or rather in
your ears. Still the separation of instruments is decent but everything
happens in a two dimensional field. They might lack the absolute
resolution, refinement and delicacy of more expensive headphones but
their strength lies in their versatility - everything sounds equally
good and exciting. Certainly not a "Grado sound" that's for sure. Is
this some kind of budget flat earth sound in the footsteps of Linn or
Naim? Maybe not, but then again maybe not too far from it either. I
realize that this type of sound signature may not appeal to everyone but
I find it somewhat of an achievement to end up with this kind of sound
as opposed to what I remember hearing the first time I wore K271 MKIIs.
The K271 MKIIs are definitely not a new model but as of time of
writing this, they are still widely available at a price of little over
100 euros. Sure there is a fierce competition at this price range and if
I were looking for a new pair of phones I don't know how likely I would
have chosen this model. I prefer them to the AKG's K550 but a
top-of-mind competitor could be Audio-Technica's ATH-M50x. It was by
chance that I got these in the first place and, well, as they say,
everything happens for a reason. I have a feeling that the K271 MKIIs
are not going away any time soon and considering the fact that these are
indeed AKG's studio headphones, I have feeling that they won't be
falling apart any time soon either.
So there you have it. I don't know whether this article was a weird
review, a poor mod guide or just idle mindflow but I hope that you got
something out of it, and remember it the next time you bump into AKG's K271 MKII. I have been bumping into one daily and I really
don't mind if it remains that way!
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