AKG K553 Pro Studio Headphones Discussions | Drop

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AKG K553 Pro Studio Headphones

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

Thuddacleese

Apr 23, 2015

Arrived yesterday. Nicely packaged for shipping, arrived in perfect shape. The box itself is pretty minimalist but acceptable. Already burned-in ~12 hours, and I have already noticed a slight boost in bass response compared to out-of-the-box (but they will likely never be a bass-head's favorite cans). I'm using these with a well-loved Bottlehead Crack amp and Schitt Modi DAC. My nominal set of phones with this setup are my Senn HD650's, so I have a very nice (albeit open-backed) reference set to compare them with. I fully aware that these 553's aren't expected to or designed to compete directly with my Senns, so the following impressions/opinions I give here are hopefully both realistic and in context.
Impressions? Su-perb overall sound, and these appear to have more bottom-end than the 550's I auditioned about 4 months ago. Very nice mid and high-end, although these do have less bass than the HD650's; couple that with their clear mid and top, and I have to be careful of running these at too high a volume as they don't distort at (what are to me ) too-high volume levels. These don't have the fine spatial imaging of the HD650's, but are quite satisfactory nevertheless.
Comfort: These feel like they have more clamping pressure and slightly softer ear pads than the 550's I sampled previously; I am getting better sealing which is giving better isolation and probably has helped the bass response. However, the higher-clamping/softer pads are also letting the drivers sit a smidgeon closer to my ears, I can feel the top-outer edges of my ears hitting the inside of the cans, we'll see if this presents a discomfort issue with extended use.
Overall, these are definitely a keeper, they won't replace my HD650's but are a very good closed-back set of cans, and the best I've heard at this price-point, hands down.
Oh yeah, BTW - I play around with and use a lot of different headphones; to augment low-bass-output headphones, I use a Buttkicker LFE exciter, clamped to my office chair:
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=108&cp_id=10823&cs_id=1082706&p_id=10010&seq=1&format=2
Used appropriately, this thing is a huge add that can transform almost any headphone and takes gaming to another level of immersion... for example, large-caliber gunfire and explosions are a new experience. I use them with my Senns every day, for gaming specifically and general music (Jazz, EDM, Electronica, and Chillout) while working, but obviously not when evaluating a headphone objectively. IMHO a totally excellent accessory for almost any headphone user...and used with these 553's, there is now *plenty* of (more than enough!) bass to be had. ;-)

Apr 23, 2015