Selection Guide

I must say that I am super-excited about this headphone. In the past, you either had to accept poorer sound-quality to some extent if you were looking for a headphone that isolates well, or you had to be willing to shell out over a thousand dollars for some of Ultrasone's higher-end offerings. This headphone bridges the gap between the two, providing AKG's characteristically awesome mids, with an equally awesome tight and controlled bass that, for the first time in AKG's recent history, actually has some real body and presence to it! The treble in my opinion isn't quite as good as on the AKG K701 (sometimes it can sound just a tad indistinct, but never bright or harsh), but on the whole, I actually prefer the sound of these cans to even the K or Q 701 series! These have a much better bass, giving a richer quality and better overall "roundness" to the sound, without sounding uncontrolled or bass-heavy at all, while at the same time maintaining the awesome mids we've all come to expect from AKG, and correcting the slightly bright tilt of AKGs to some extent on the high end. I'm also happy to report that these headphones amazingly don't require burn-in either, and are some of the most comfortable things I've ever put on my head. AKG has truly taken the three biggest customer complaints of the past to heart (lack of bass presence, annoying bumps on the headband, and ludicrous burn-in time requirments), and fixed them all with this headphone! Definitely a very well-balanced headphone, and a solid new contender from AKG. In fact, I like these headphones so much that I'm planning on selling all my other AKG headphones (namely, the K701 and the K272HD). Any takers?

Edit: Review part 2

I sold the Beyers, returned the HRT DAC, I've had these headphones now for a few months and have had more time to swap components around and do some A/B. I still love them. I don't think it would be as useful to review them without an explanation of what I'm playing them through. I ended up buying an M-Audio Profire 610 for doing amateur audio recordings and because it's also a 24/192 DAC via Firewire 400 and dual headphone amp. I bought an Audioquest Carbon Firewire 400-800 cable and I use this all on my MacBook Pro through Audirvana Plus. I rip CDs in Apple Lossless and buy music online in FLAC from 16/44 up to 24/192.

Okay, I have listened to all kinds of music at all kinds of file quality through this rig. Everything sounds good, for one thing and nothing sounds terrible, which is nice. I've used my wife's Denon AH-D2000's and they sound better through this highly revealing amp/dac than they did through the old system, but never as lively and musical as the AKG's. I've had the K550's on now for about 4-5 hours and my ears are just starting to get a little "warm". They are amazingly comfortable in both the physical and auditory senses. I never get tired of listening. They just make me want to find other tracks to hear all those things I haven't noticed before. The detail in these headphones can naturally reveal weaknesses in recordings or sound files, but I haven't found that the cans ruin imperfect tracks. They do a good job of focusing you on the music and not the flaws. They reveal all those echo spacial cues in tracks and nearly transport you to the location of the recording. They have a really great low bass response, but it only seems to be there when it really is there on the track. Very few songs that I listen to have a lot of low bass but when they do! Sometimes a recording track or mic will have picked up a low frequency bump or something and I often take the headphones off to see if something is going on at home. Nope, it's just that realistic and it fools me every time. That's the key to my opinion here. These headphones are so comfortable, so realistic, so natural that I can wear them for hours and enjoy all kinds of music, often hearing things that it would be nearly impossible to pick up any other way except in a perfectly sound deadened custom listening room with a great stereo. Sometimes things are so realistic that I think I'm hearing a sound from outside the headphones. System performance will vary of course depending on what you're using. I compared this set up to the HRT/Creek over and over and this amp/dac was never the loser. The sound was always close but the resolution always won me over. If you can get 24/192 DAC you should. If you have a firewire output, I'd recommend this amp/dac used online. I'm sure the Creek is a better amp, but getting 24/192 to it costs way too much in my configuration. I'd say the weakness in my little system is the headphone amplifier inside the 610 but it's minor. Since I got it for under two hundred on the big auction site, I can't complain. I just keep the volume below the distortion level and it's amazing.

One last thing, I just ordered a pair of Denon AH-D5000s to compare. This whole headphone bug can be an addiction.

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Original review - edited

I recently called Headroom to ask about the headphones in the $300 price range as I think that's the sweet spot for price and performance. At the time I was using my wife's Denon AH-D2000's with a Total Bithead. I have since purchased a slightly used pair of Beyerdynamic DT 880's (250 ohm) and I like them both. I think I like the sound of the DT 880's more but, this is obvious, I like the fact that the K550's are closed and they don't let much sound pass through. I like that the K550's keep me and the outside world separate. Since I bought these I've been so impressed that I bought a Creek headphone amp, Kimber Kable 1/8 to RCA cable, upgraded to Audirvana Plus on my MacBookPro, and have just ordered an HRT Music Streamer with audiophile USB and new Audioquest King Cobra cables. So, really, this is my pre-review. Mostly, I just wanted to lay a foundation and let people know that my initial impressions between these, the DT 880's, and the AH-D2000's is very favorable. They're all good, and I would have a hard time picking between the AKGs and the Beyerdynamics. The biggest difference to me is the most obvious one, closed vs. open. If you use them in an otherwise quiet environment, I do like the openness of the Beyers. If you are wanting to keep your sound in or "their" sound out, the K550's are great. Sound wise, all I can say is the Beyers seem a little more laid back with a more delicate and wide sound stage. Maybe the Beyerdynamics have a little more "air", but I need to do more A/B, which I'll do once I get all my new stuff running. If nothing else, I want to let people know that these headphones have propelled me forward into all this other gear and re-uploading all my CDs in a better format and finding a better playback option than iTunes. Thanks and I hope someone finds this useful.