Anyone have any information regarding how these size up against the AKG K7XX? I bought the AKG K7XX headphones and was extremely disappointed in them, but they were in high demand so I was able to get all of my money back in reselling them. I really like the look of the k553s, but I am now wary of the AKG brand because of my bad experience with the K7XXs. The AKG K7XXs sounded good at low volumes, but sounded garbled at medium and high volumes. And before you ask, they were hooked up to very, very good equipment and the source files were very high quality. If I swapped out my K7XXs with my Sennheiser HD650s, I got perfect sound. Not sure if I got a dud or what. Anyways, wondering what peoples' thoughts are on these K553s? I own Sennheser HD650s, Grado RS2s, and Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones if anyone can offer direct comparisons to those that would be great.
theupandcomingcoreyIt sounds like you got a dud, sounding garbled is not something I could ever imagine associating an AKG K700-series headphones with. I actually don't own the K7xx from here, but with reports of rattling issues, it's wouldn't be far-fetched to assume your pair was defective as well.
The K553's are actually featured in Head-Fi's 2015 Summer Guide if you want to read up on their quality. I think the ATH-M50-series headphones sound like garbage once you've dipped your toes further into the hi-fi world, and so by comparison, the K553's sound wonderful to me.
http://www.head-fi.org/a/head-fi-buying-guide-over-ear-headphones-3