AKG K 601

Oh, how hard life must be when you’re designed to be a major contender, but not to come in first place. The K601 is an absolutely marvelous headphone, well-controlled and dynamic, very evenly balanced with a nice sense of transparency and spaciousness in the presentation. But it falls just short of being totally first-class by lacking a bit in super-refined resolving power and nuanced detail resolution compared to its more spendy big-brother K-701 model. Though the highs remain quite clear and simple-sounding without being overly strident, they are also slightly recessed, lacking the supreme articulation of the finest, most nuanced low-level musical soundstage details as would be expected in full-on 'reference-class' headphones. This is actually only half-bad because when most cans fail in this region, they cover their shortcomings with harshly-rendered tonalities or over-bright, peaky highs. The K601 luckily seems to avoid this particularly troubling timbral signature. Frankly, we can’t think of a better way to fall slightly short of the mountaintop and still stay completely in the race. These cans are particularly recommended for those who seek a dynamic-sounding, well-priced headphone but want to avoid sharp, grainy scratchiness in the mid-ranges & upper treble frequencies. Keep in mind that a dedicated headphone amp is simply essential for properly powering the 120-ohm K601 when using portable audio sources like iPods, Mp3 players, and PCs/laptops ... A really inviting call-in HeadRoom price on these professional-looking cans, too!

These K601 cans have a number of unique features that create a pretty dramatic improvement over previous AKG 'best-of-breed' cans like the now-discontinued K501 model. The overall audio performance is nicely improved by a new AKG Varimotion™ diaphragm that is designed to provide better pistonic motion and acoustic control, and a revolutionary “flat wound” voice coil design allows for greater concentrations of the magnetic field in the voice coil thus driving the diaphragm with more authority and delivering a cleaner, more robustly articulate sound. Our experience with the K601 is that it requires a serious chunk of 'burn-in' time to fully relax and sound its very best, so please assume a minimum of about 300 hours of playtime before the full audio pleasure of these 601 cans is finally realized. The headphones are a conservative dark matte grey with chrome and lighter grey accents. If you like the color, you’ll love how amazingly light and comfortable these headphones are; great ergonomics & a supremely comfortable fit. An absolutely A-1 headphone and heartily recommended at the very nice price … excellent work, AKG geeks!