Customer Reviews

AKG Acoustics K240 Monitoring Headphones

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I received a pair of these as a gift about 18 years ago, and they are fabulous. I finally had to replace them this year because the cord near the jack was having issues and I could only hear one ear. The headset is in excellent shape and should work fine once I replace the jack end of the cord. The new one has a flexible, rubber covering over the area where the cord connects to the jack, so it should not develop the same problem. Here is what I like about them.

COMFORT. The earpieces are padded and sit on your head, not your ears. I share an office so I wear them all day long, and I have never had any problems with comfort (most regular headphones give me a headache or earache after a while). Since they are semi-closed, they breathe a little, so my ears do not get hot. The headband is attached with elastic pieces so there is no adjusting - just put them on and they fit. The cord comes out of the left earpiece, so there is no annoying "Y" under your chin.

SOUND LEAKAGE. My office mate cannot hear my music at all (although I don't listen to music loudly). It blocks enough external noise to help me concentrate, but I can still hear what's going on around me and carry on a conversation while wearing them. (They may leak more sound if you have a heavy beard or sideburns.)

SOUND QUALITY. The quality is amazing. I have read that it is very hard to get good quality sound with closed headphones, so the semi-closed are a good balance between quality sound and preventing sound leakage. I listen to them plugged into my computer speakers, and sometimes I have to skip a song because the non-music noises are so clear (lip smacking, breathing, guitar string squeaks, chimes, etc.).

SUMMARY: Extremely comfortable, quality construction and quality sound

I bought my first K 240 M in early 1986 for my sound studio connected to a music conservatory. These phones impressed all who used them. In 2005 I ordered a new pair and was very pleased to find that only the phone plug has been changed. There was no change in sound. This model has been replaced with the 240 S studio monitor.


AKG K240 MKII Headphones, ¹


The good news is that although the sound is different, it is clearly better. Bass response is now full down to at least 40 Hz and possibly lower. midrange is slightly boosted, compared to the 240 monitor, which I got used to quite quickly. Over time it became clear that the new midrange sound was correct. Distortion is much lower in the new K 240 studio, and like the old monitor, can be found in many Europeon studios.


Finally, In my opinion, these phones outperform all speaker systems on operatic voices. I never judge any vocal recording,or a singers voice, without using these phones. Although the new model does not sound quite the same, the spacial sense is the same. The ear pads are softer, and interchangeble with the 240 M, hence the feel is even better.

The 240 studio is available now with a spare cord and ear pads. Listed as AKG K 240 studio MK II, this package is a best buy. REVIEW UPDATED JULY 19, 2010

I'm not an audiophile like the other reviewers of these headphones, so I won't dispute their claims or contest their ratings. However, if you are considering the AKG K240M for use with an iPod, dream on. Although I also have the wonderful, lightweight, collapsable Sennheiser PX 100 and am very pleased with their sound with my iPod Video, I had hoped to get even better sound with the AKGs. Unfortunately, even at full volume, the iPod cannot drive these headphones; same result using iTunes. I guess the problem is the 600 Ohm impedance which I did not notice before I purchased them. I probably should have bought the Sennheiser HD-280. If any of you audiophiles can suggest the perfect iPod phones in the $100 range, I'd love to hear from you at phones at kensall dot com. Thanks!

I use AKG 240 headphones daily at work for editing digital audio. They are incredible. I don't know what else needs to be said. Previously, my standard for judging headphone quality was the Bose Tri-port or Quiet Comfort headsets. Not any longer.

On paper, the reproduction range is way beyond the 20 Hz - 20,000 KHz that is considered within the range of normal hearing. Rather than being overkill, I believe this is why these headphones sound so outstanding. With this dynamic range, the headphone reproduces the subtle harmonics that are lost by other headphones.

These are not noise canceling, so you will need a quieter environment to appreciate the sound. This does not mean you need an isolation booth for maximum enjoyment, but they are a poor choice for wearing on your daily commute. These are working headphones. They are comfortable enough to be worn for hours at a time while editing audio in a studio or office environment. They are also responsive enough you do not need to crank up the volume to hear nice bass or subtle tones. Your coworkers will appreciate the lack of noise bleed from the headphones. With an adapter to a mini-jack, you could even use these at work for non-editing purposes.

They are fairly priced for the quality they deliver. In fact, I consider them an outstanding value capable of being compared to exotic headphones costing many times more. They even surpass the audio quality of many high-end speaker systems. If the sound you hear is not good, it's in the recording, not the reproduction.

AKG K240 Monitor headphones

Pros:
+ Good sound
+ Low sound leakage from phones into environment.
+ Plenty of cable for out-of-reach receivers, etc.

Cons:
- 600-ohm design means headphone amp is *required* for anything except a silent environment.
- Substantial sound leakage from environment into phones.
- Materials and construction leave room for improvement.

I've owned a pair of these sine the mid-1990's and they've been my primary cans during that entire time. I've used them for casual listening, sound reinforcement, and some studio work. I like them a lot and have grown to trust what I hear through them, but they are not perfect.

First off, DO NOT purchase these phones for either sound reinforcement work or casual listening in noisy surroundings unless you are willing to buy a dedicated headphone amp that can drive a 600-ohm set of cans. If you just plug these cans into a mixing board or ipod, you will NOT be satisfied with the volume. Though the semi-closed design is a very good balance between misery-inducing sealed phones and open phones that do nothing to reduce background noise, the maximum volume of the K240M will not be high enough for serious work without a headphone amp. With that said, I have not used these cans with a dedicated headphone amp because I never could decide which amp to buy, so I've simply put up with the limited volume or used other cans for sound reinforcement where absolute neutrality wasn't terribly important.

I ran sweep tones through these headphones and found that they do not seem to have substantial bass until 40Hz or so. Bear in mind that I did not keep notes during my tests, so I'm just going on memory here, but I can say for sure that 20Hz was completely inaudible. With that said, bass response is quite impressive and I've enjoyed these cans with every style of music available. Bass is not boomy, but if the music contains low frequency content then it will come through on these headphones. Very few music selections contain content in the 20-40Hz octave and you really need to feel those notes rather than hear them, so I don't consider the K240's lack of 20Hz output to be a detriment. I've not yet experienced headphones that can provide useful output so low, but perhaps they exist. It may be worth noting that I hate the sound of every set of Sony bass-heavy cans that I've tried, so if you like boomy bass then look elsewhere. The K240M sounds great to my ear with hip-hop and other bass-heavy tracks, but they do not exaggerate the bass at the expense of muddy sound like Sonys seem to do.

Construction is a mixed bag with the K240M. The newer version of these headphones have slightly different construction details, so I can only assume that AKG has improved some of these foibles. The materials in my cans certainly did not like the heat of a closed vehicle and were permanently deformed when I forgot to remove them from my car for a few hours on a summer day. Afterward, the headband was warped and stiff, the elastic cords that keep the drivers from sagging down toward your neck were permanently stretched, and the leatherette/foam earcups were stiff and brittle. Perhaps these cans would last a lifetime if properly cared for, but this single event greatly reduced the lifetime and comfort of my headphones. I did not intentionally leave them in my car, but I would have expected the headphones to have survived in better shape. Perhaps this is not a design flaw, but it did disappoint me. Even without the heat damage, I consider the elastic cords that "automatically" adjust the headband to be a terrible design. They work well enough when new, but *all* stretch cords inevitably lose their elasticity and this makes them a poor choice for this usage, imo. The cords could possibly be replaced with something similar when it becomes necessary, but the construction makes this a tedious project. I think it would be better to offer some sort of manual height adjustment like other brands often use.

The original K240M seems to have a weakness with the cable entry. My headphones developed a short within the past year or two that caused the right driver to go out. I have repeatedly rewired the inside of the left driver where the cable enters the housing, but my repairs inevitably only fix the problem for a week or two. I have discarded about 2 feet of the original cable in an attempt to avoid stressed and shorted wiring, but nothing has completely solved the problem. The actual wiring inside the cable is consistently corroded even though the phones were never stored outdoors or in damp environments. The wires inside the cable are also "greasy" and difficult to work with for some reason. Perhaps there is a good reason for all of this, such as reducing friction and "lumping" in the cable, but I consider the cable and wiring to be poorly done. The wiring inside the housing is extremely cramped, making it tedious to repair the cable with home soldering equipment. The newer version of this headphone (240 MKII) has a different cable entry, so AKG may have improved this aspect at the cost of making it more fragile when dropped.

These phones are not large enough to completely enclose my rather small ears, so the cans rest partly on my earlobes and partly on my head. I've found that this makes them extremely uncomfortable when worn for many hours at a time. The foam earcups eventually collapsed at the top where pressure was the highest and the leatherette material chipped and became very uncomfortable, though this may have been partly my own fault for the abusive heat that I mentioned above. The earcups seem to be replaceable, but they are heat-stamped onto the plastic driver housing in such a way that you must cut them to remove them. I can't imagine how a new set of cushions could be installed without also cutting them, though I found that a slit or two in the cushion retaining ring caused no problems and the cushions never showed any tendency to come off on their own.

Sound quality is very good, but I think that AKG has a lot to learn in the materials and construction departments. Your mileage may vary. The 240 MKII model seems to have correctly some of the problems with the original 240M's, so I still recommend that you check them out before giving up on the 240's. I have not used the newer model myself, though.

these headphones deliver increadible sound at a professional level for a decent price. The only negative feature is that they are a bit to springy creating long wearing discomfort but still they are amazing

Clear crisp notes dipped in acoustic perfection. Listening to music on the AKG Acoustics Semi-Open Headphones is like falling in love for the first time. You may start to feel breathless as notes wash across soundscapes unveiled in moments of sheer amazement.

What beauty these headphones reveal. Every note is placed perfectly in a musical clarity revealing a perfect harmony and depth as sound swells and breaks and takes off in all directions like universes of sound.

This is not an exaggeration, but rather an admission of fact. Let's just say that if a friend gave you these, you would love them forever.

If headphones can make you feel weak in the knees...THESE WILL. The AKG headphones are also surprisingly comfortable and lightweight.

My personal favorite - K240 - Studio quality sound - Advanced Varimotion transducers -superior sound detail and especially high sensitivity

K271 - Studio quality with ambient noise isolation

K301 - Powerful bass and specially tuned drivers - circumaural ear cups

~The Rebecca Review
In some sort of dreamy music land from which I don't want to return...