Looking for a new pair of Headphones

kieran_read · 3 Mar 2020 at 21:22

Hi all!

My pair of AKG702's just packed in the left ear broke =( sad times had them for 2 years they were a nice pair.

Looking for a new pair don't really have a budget willing to spend £200+ on a pair if they are good quality, was thinking of juet getting another pair of 702's or going for the AKG712's though i don't think the significantly higher price will be worth it.

I just bought a pair of SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless but i'm sending them back as they are absolute garbage, i cannot stand the white noise of them if all wireless headsets/headphones are going to be like this then ill stick to a pair of nice wired ones.

Just looking for some good recommendations, I would prefer Open back but will be open to closed back to if they are good.

EDIT -
I should add i do have a Behringer U-Phoria UM2 Amp already and a XLR microphone so I already have the gear ready for most setups

Marsman · 5 Mar 2020 at 10:43

Sennheiser HD5** series or Beyerdynamic DT990 are good alternatives for open headphones.

HD5** will be more like the K702's in sound, as they are both more neutral sounding headphones. DT990 and 770 are more V shaped signature with elevated bass and treble. The treble can be a bit too much for some people who prefer treble that is less pronounced.

EsaT · 5 Mar 2020 at 18:24

K712 has mechanically exactly same construction for comfort/durability.

If you want similar neutral sound Audio Technica AD700 should be quite close, though likely with less bass.

kieran_read · 5 Mar 2020 at 19:31

Marsman said:
Sennheiser HD5** series or Beyerdynamic DT990 are good alternatives for open headphones.

HD5** will be more like the K702's in sound, as they are both more neutral sounding headphones. DT990 and 770 are more V shaped signature with elevated bass and treble. The treble can be a bit too much for some people who prefer treble that is less pronounced.

Yeh I have seen both of those coming up in comparrisons, I just want the best for the 150-250 range but the difficulty is sound is so subjective and everyone has a different preferance. I'm not to worried about super heavy bass, I was used to the K702's and they weren't exactly blowing my ears out even at max volume but the sound was very pure and easy to distinguish the multiple layers of lows in explosions etc when it comes to games.

EsaT said:
K712 has mechanically exactly same construction for comfort/durability.

If you want similar neutral sound Audio Technica AD700 should be quite close, though likely with less bass.

Is the difference in sound worth the difference in price they're about 185 atm so cheaper than the normal price. I tend to play FPS so most of the time im listening for footsteps that sort of thing, I don't know what frequency band that would tend to fall under, Rainbow 6 sounded amazing with the K702's but wouldn't mind an upgrade over them.

Didn't realise these had a 24month warranty bought mine 23 months ago a nice £113 refund XD

EsaT · 5 Mar 2020 at 20:35

kieran_read said:
Is the difference in sound worth the difference in price they're about 185 atm so cheaper than the normal price. I tend to play FPS so most of the time im listening for footsteps that sort of thing, I don't know what frequency band that would tend to fall under, Rainbow 6 sounded amazing with the K702's but wouldn't mind an upgrade over them.

Another difference is K712 replacement ear pads being insanely expensive.
As in pair costing same as whole K702...

Footsteps are area where bass neutral cans like K702 shine.
Stronger bass makes those harder to distinguish from simultaneous low frequency sounds.

kieran_read · 5 Mar 2020 at 22:41

EsaT said:
Another difference is K712 replacement ear pads being insanely expensive.
As in pair costing same as whole K702...

Footsteps are area where bass neutral cans like K702 shine.
Stronger bass makes those harder to distinguish from simultaneous low frequency sounds.

Ah might just get another pair of 702's then when i bought them they were up there with the best, now they are even cheaper so can't go wrong.

Minstadave · 5 Mar 2020 at 23:00

kieran_read said:
Ah might just get another pair of 702's then when i bought them they were up there with the best, now they are even cheaper so can't go wrong.

You can get refurbed k702s for £60. Seems a steal at that price.

EsaT · 6 Mar 2020 at 09:45

kieran_read said:
Ah might just get another pair of 702's then when i bought them they were up there with the best, now they are even cheaper so can't go wrong.

Most headphones simply aren't tuned for accurate neutral sound.
Neutral bass just isn't that much fun and most headphones avoid accurate treble in favour of "warm" sound meaning rolled off/dropping upper end.
So there are likely very few headphones which could match K702 in distinguishing foot steps etc.

kieran_read · 6 Mar 2020 at 18:08

Minstadave said:
You can get refurbed k702s for £60. Seems a steal at that price.

I just got a new pair for the 2 year warrenty only paid £100 and got a refund of £113 for my broken pair XD up £13 lol

EsaT said:
Most headphones simply aren't tuned for accurate neutral sound.
Neutral bass just isn't that much fun and most headphones avoid accurate treble in favour of "warm" sound meaning rolled off/dropping upper end.
So there are likely very few headphones which could match K702 in distinguishing foot steps etc.

Yeh I did like them, will probably get a good equiliser at some point in the future improve the sound better.