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AKG 702 replacement

adolf hamster

adolf hamster

adolf hamster

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Joined
18 Oct 2012
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'evening gents

my akg 702's have started going on the fritz. been running them through a headphone amp and generally been happy enough with them.

frankly i'm tempted to order again but figure it'd be worth a quick shoutout to see if the hivemind has any other options i should be looking at?
 
I just soldered my K702 AGAIN, been through this same loop as you and honestly for around £200 I can't find better, my main use is gaming and I love them for that.

I asked in the gaming audio thread and had a few suggestions, I'm still looking but I just can't see past the 702 for now.
 
My K702's (owned between 2015-22) they did fail in one of the drivers. Turned out ir was just a case of the green (I think - was a long time ago), or one of the wires coming lose and needing to be re-solded. So was an easy fix.

I really liked the K702's but they aren't the most durable. The elastic went for me, one of the clips broke on the earpads and the loose wire incident. I remember writing a post here with my experience of trying to replace the elastic after realising AKG's had no real replacement parts in the UK at the time.

I think in terms of obvious replacements you're looking at researching under budget:

  • Audio-Technica R50X
  • Beyerdynamic DT900 Pro
  • Sennhesier HD 505/550
  • Sony Inzone H6 Air on the headset side - similar to the MDR-MV1

That said it's hard to know if any will be as well liked. In some ways it feels like a new AKG K702 might be the answer.
 
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adolf hamster said:
Figured cracking them open would be a destructive process that would reveal no easily distinguishable failure point to fix but this sounds like maybe not?
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Depending on the version you have it is either one wire on the left side or one wire in the right, my son has newer ones than me and his is on the jack side mine is the other.

Really easy if you can solder at all, I'm average at best and I find it a doddle. There are guides out there on what to look for too. I found his ones with the wire off at the jack was a bit harder to solder so I put an extra bit of wire on just to stop it happening again and give me more room to move with, fixed his once with the longer wire and they have been perfect since....apart from the main cable breaking, but that's just his being too lazy to hang them up.

Also worth making sure it isn't just the main cable, it was an easy check for me as I just stole my sons one, not as simple if you don't have one to hand.
 
BeeP said:
Depending on the version you have it is either one wire on the left side or one wire in the right, my son has newer ones than me and his is on the jack side mine is the other.
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Cable's coming in on the left.

I'll have a look and see if i can crack them open and do, well, something. Worst case i'm in the situation i'm in now best case i might still change them anyway as the headband tensioners have had better days.

BeeP said:
Also worth making sure it isn't just the main cable, it was an easy check for me as I just stole my sons one, not as simple if you don't have one to hand.
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Yeah, was actually pretty glad i had a second headphone amp to rule that out as it was my first suspect.
 
well, much easier to get into them than i thought. unfortunately all the wires seemed in good order, nothing screaming that it needed re-attatchment.

might be the cable, but suppose they've done me a good few years so i'll take a look at @Timber 's suggestions.
 
adolf hamster said:
Cable's coming in on the left.

I'll have a look and see if i can crack them open and do, well, something. Worst case i'm in the situation i'm in now best case i might still change them anyway as the headband tensioners have had better days.



Yeah, was actually pretty glad i had a second headphone amp to rule that out as it was my first suspect.
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Aye sorry the cable always comes in on the left, the defective wire is either on the left or the right, my sons is left mine is right. If you are getting intermittent signal then the wire is just loose, mine is usually dead so when I look it is fully popped off.

Agreed, I was looking a little while ago but got into my own head on 101 different pairs so gave up and fixed mine again. I know I can fix them....I just wanted something shiny lol.
 
BeeP said:
Aye sorry the cable always comes in on the left, the defective wire is either on the left or the right, my sons is left mine is right. If you are getting intermittent signal then the wire is just loose, mine is usually dead so when I look it is fully popped off.
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it is intermittent, moving around (even subtle movements) have the audio going in/out for both ears.

i did check both sides and the wires seemed to be holding ok, unless it's gone within the insulation/under the heatshrink. now i think about it i shoulda tried continuity testing, maybe a project for when i get bored.

meanwhile pulled the trigger on a set of set of DT900's they look like a very similar cable to the akg's so might even be able to test that.
 
adolf hamster said:
it is intermittent, moving around (even subtle movements) have the audio going in/out for both ears.

i did check both sides and the wires seemed to be holding ok, unless it's gone within the insulation/under the heatshrink. now i think about it i shoulda tried continuity testing, maybe a project for when i get bored.

meanwhile pulled the trigger on a set of set of DT900's they look like a very similar cable to the akg's so might even be able to test that.
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Please let me know your thoughts on those.
 
well, beyerdynamics have arrived and their cable is indeed the same connection as the akg's.

which means i can confirm that the akg's were in fact fine, the cable was the issue.

on the plus side that means i won't be as rushed next time.

even better the beyerdynamics came with a storage bag and a spare cable, so i'm even more set.

BeeP said:
Please let me know your thoughts on those.
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so with the disclaimer that i'm writing this with maybe 5 minutes of evaluation so this is very much an out of the box take:
  • construction seems nice and solid, very conventional design but i reckon these won't mechanically degrade like the akg's with their weird headband tensioning
  • cup diameter is tighter than the akg's that easily clear my ears. i don't think it's that bad but i won't know until wearing them for an extended period
  • headband tension is higher than the akg's (tbf the akg's are very light tension) but not too much at least i'm hoping once they wear in a bit the tension won't be so much of an issue.
  • bit more insulating for outside noise, but i can still hear myself typing
  • volume is a bit more than the akg's, but i suspect you'll still need an amp.
not noticing any great difference in audio quality, but that's as likely that the bottleneck is elsewhere in the system (like my ears if nothing else).
 
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Hopefully they are as good as the AKG in game, I absolutely love them. To get a spare cable is brilliant, back to two sets of headphones for the price of one....that's how I explain it to myself anyway lol.
 
BeeP said:
Hopefully they are as good as the AKG in game, I absolutely love them. To get a spare cable is brilliant, back to two sets of headphones for the price of one....that's how I explain it to myself anyway lol.
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had some game time with them now and still not telling a tremendous difference, good enough i can confuse noises in-game with noises irl which i guess is as good as you can hope for.
 
Late to the thread, but anyhoo. I am currently clearing out all my old headphones which have been mostly sat doing nothing and the cheap/fake leathers and foams have dissintergrated a bit.

For old times sake I listened to them again for a little, rather fun still! I decided to keep my K702's over the 990's. The K702 have a bigger soundstage, and a more laid back and darker sound signature. I recall in gaming that the K702 was perhaps slightly less revealing but had the bigger soundstage still.

I don't think you'll be disapointed with the 990's.
 
Interesting that you kept the K702 over the 990s. The wider soundstage sounds like a sensible reason to favour them, especially for gaming and anything where positional detail matters.
 
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