Contents
AKG K240 Review
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Price
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Sound Quality
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Build Quality
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Design
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Mixing/Mastering Purposes
Summary
From their surprising mini XLR to their exceptional sound quality and good looks the K240 are definitely a rare find in today’s bass focused headphone industry.
Full Review
If you have landed on our article you are probably a music producer or an audiophile who wants to know if the AKG K-240 are any good.
From our 1 year experience with them, we can already tell you that the AKG K240 are perfect for some and horrible for others. Find out on which camp you are on below!
Sound quality
AKG is probably one of the most well-known headphone manufacturers in the world and for a good reason.
Their headphones’ iconic mids and highs surprise us every time and we genuinely believe AKG exceeded themselves with the AKG K240!
We have tested the AKG K240 in our studio mixing genres ranging from EDM all the way to jazz and orchestral music.
We also casually listened to artists ranging from Eric Clapton all the way to artists such as the Chainsmokers and Justin Bieber.
However, if you are looking for budget-friendly headphones that can squeeze out every bit of emotion out of songs than the K 240 (check price) are the perfect choice for you!
We feel most modern headphone manufacturers today focus on achieving the most impressive bass and leave the mids and highs behind.
That’s definitely not the case with the K-240 which have a natural bass and some very impressive mids and highs.
We can all still clearly remember the first track we have played on the akg K 240 it was Santana’s the game of love and elements which we previously ignored suddenly came to life!
From Santana’s phenomenal guitar playing to the beautiful vocals by Michelle Branch, the track sounded better than how it sounded with some of our 200$+ headphones!
The soundstage felt as if it floated around our head and we can’t stress enough how pure and natural the K240’s sound. they really do justice with almost all bass light genres.
In our opinion, the K-240 are one of the best budget-friendly studio headphones in the world in terms of sound quality.
Design/Build quality
When we first opened the box and seen the K 240 for the first time we were struck by how impressive looking they were. From their beautiful golden finish to their iconic AKG headband, the K-240 look more expensive than they cost. And in our opinion, they are one of the most beautiful headphones in their respective price category.
Looks can be deceiving though as the build quality of the k240’s is not as great as their stunning looks, the k240 are mostly composed of plastic and they do feel cheap to touch.
AKG is known for their super light headphones and even their most expensive
headphones feature some plastic in their build. The use of plastic in AKG’s headphones is for a good reason though.
Some refer to AKG’s headphones as the most comfortable headphones in the world, we share that opinion and can definitely tell you the akg K240 are one of the most comfortable headphones we have ever worn!
To achieve such incredible comfort the K-240 had to be very lightweight and that’s why akg used a lot of plastic in the K240’s build.
Apart from the exceptional comfort the K 240 also features a mini XLR input (picture to the right) which you don’t really see until you cross the 150$ mark with most other open back headphones.
Isolation
Featuring a semi-open design the AKG K 240 have little isolation.
And we do not recommend the K 240 for those of you who are looking to enjoy music in public as people around you will probably be able to hear what you are listening to and you will be able to hear them.
Despite the relative lack of isolation, the k240’s isolation is still much better than the isolation you would get with almost all other open-back headphones.
The unique semi-open design makes music listening in public a much better experience than with full-on open back headphones. Although we do not recommend the K-240 for public music listening, we can’t deny the fact that they are much better suited for that task than almost all other open back headphones.
In summary, the AKG K240 are in our opinion the best solution for those of you who want some isolation for public music listening but still want to enjoy the AKG K240 in the studio.
Studio use
Of course, the K 240 aren’t as impressive sounding as some of your other high-end consumer headphones.
But an impressive sound is not what you are looking for in a pair of studio headphones.
When you mix you want the most natural, uncolored sound you can get and the akg K240 are probably the most honest, natural sounding studio headphones you will find in this price category.
We mixed dozens of genres on the K 240 and we can tell you that they mirror the performance of some of our high end headphones in terms of their honesty and how uncolored they are.
We feel like the K-240 particularly shine when mixing mids/highs intensive genres, vocal mixing/treatment is particularly easy with them.
We also feel that the K-240 stereo image is crystal clear and we personally manage to quickly pan different mix elements with ease.
Whether you want to achieve an intimate or big sounding mix the crystal clear stereo image on the K-240 will greatly help you when panning or adding other stereo effects.
In our opinion, the K 240 are probably the most capable studio headphones in the world for their respective price category! and we definitely recommend them the most for singer/songwriters and acoustic, jazz, orchestral, melodic pop producers.
Bottom Line
Many headphones manufacturers tried to build a quality pair of studio headphones for an affordable price but most of them failed.
In our eyes, the only two companies that successfully achieved this are Audio Technica with their iconic ATH-M30X and AKG with the incredibly honest K 240.
Pick these if
1. You are a singer/songwriter or a music producer of genres such as Jazz, Film, Orchestral, Pop, Classic Rock, Acoustic and are looking for an incredibly honest sound and comfort for a great price (see lowest price).
2. You want to use the headphones for music listening and are looking for an honest sound that will squeeze every bit of emotion out of your music.
Don’t pick these if
1. You are producing bass intensive genres such as EDM or Hip-hop.
2. You are a self-proclaimed “bass head” 🙂 and are looking for a boomy bass.
Final words
Thank you for reading our AKG K240 review! We hope we have helped you reach a decision and encourage you to check out other customer reviews on Amazon before you buy!
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