AKG K52 Closed-Back Headphones With Professional Drivers

Most Liked Positive Review

Good Starter Monitors...

First off, it's been a long time since I've purchased a proper set of Monitor headphones, this is my first pair of AKG headphones and that I'm writing this review after using them for only a few hours. Saw these on sale and was wanting to change how I listen to music while I'm home, figured why not? I'm a DJ and somewhat of an audiophile. I use high quality when & where I can, with 320 mp3s for mobile use. They sound fantastic when I kick the volume up loud enough for the drivers to fully kick in, it makes me glad I have 24 bit audio as standard on my computer. The big advantage to these from AKG were the supposedly low power draw so they could be used with MP3 players & cell phones without being a major drain on the battery. But given the 9 foot cord, (I'm 6'3" and the cord folded up somewhat was almost to my foot) I'd say these are great for home & studio use instead, though not DJing purposes due to the size of ear cups. The isolation is strong. I walked through a big mall the day before Valentines and couldn't even hear all the noises associated with a large group of people in a small space the day before a major holiday. They're super comfortable, but I would say try to keep activity to a minimum. The leatherette pads are probably the biggest let down of these for me personally. I noticed that even in the few hours I've owned these, I have to take them off every so often to let the pads breathe and cool down. Which from my memory of these foam leatherette pads, is normal. The sound to me is truly flat, or probably about as flat as you can get at this price point. While this can feel like bass heavy genres like Drum & Bass and Dubstep are lacking with these, I'd say they fit right where they should in terms of the sound spectrum and shouldn't be fatiguing. The Congos, bass and constant grainy hi hat in Doc Scott's Blue Skies for instance can all be present without one overriding the others, while still showcasing their intricacies inherent in Drum and Bass.