4 replies to this topic

[Michael_Mcr]

I have been looking for some high quality, lightweight, on-ear travel headphones to use on the train and on planes with my HTC Sensation.

The main requirements were a compact size for storage, comfort for long periods of wear and a closed back design to shut out background noise. I also looked for reasonably low impedance drivers which could easily be powered by the modest audio output from a Smartphone such as the Sensation.

I do have a pair of high quality in-ear monitors, the Sure E4c’s, but these can be hot and tiring to wear plugged into your ears for long periods. I also have a pair of Sennheiser PX-200’s on-ear phones which have done good service for a few years now.

The AKG 450’s interested me as they get good reviews, being What Hi-Fi magazines headphones of the year for 2011 and have recently had a major price reduction from a retail of over £100 down to around half that.  I purchased mine from Richer Sounds for £49.50.

The AKG 450’s have a clever design that fold flat and in on themselves to create a smaller package for travelling and come with a small rigid carrying case for protection. They come supplied with both a short (60cm) and a long cable (110cm) and adapters for both 2.5mm jack plugs and the larger 6.3mm hi-fi plugs.

They are very comfortable on-ear for long periods and isolate you from the noise of the outside world quite well.  

Like all headphones, the sound does mature once they have been used for 10 hours or more and i did deliberately leave them to “burn-in” connected to my home hi-fi for a full day before using them.

When it comes to evaluating the sound, i will try to keep it short and to the point, as hi-fi is such a subjective area.

Some people like headphone with large amounts of Bass, for dance music – this often comes at a price of masking finer details. Other people like very clear and detailed treble, which often comes at a price of having little or no bass which gives a thin, weedy sound.

I particularly like these AKG’s as the sound is somewhere between the two extremes, with a fairly full bass, but also a clear, detailed midrange and sweet treble. Music does sound “musical” with them. In the short time I have had them i find them good for a variety of music and, perhaps more importantly, they are physically and sonically comfortable for long periods. The Sensation is able to drive them easily to loud, undistorted volumes using no more than 75% volume.

I like these and think they would compliment any portable device well.

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[tonybro]

My son has just picked up a pair of Dr Dre Beats Monster cans this morning (2nd hand) and although funky and comfortable they are too bass heavy - what ever happened to quality?

These young uns nowadays just don't seem to understand the concept! They will rip off music and listen to some awful quality stuff and think its brilliant. I shake my head!

[Michael_Mcr]

Yes - if a speaker is designed to give massive bass extension in the lower frequencies then you often end up with this muddy sound that is all too frequent nowadays.

I too dont get this obsession with artificially forced bass on music

[Bassey]

They look excellent - very much like my favourite Sennheiser folding headphones (P200s, I think).  I love on-ear phones.  Very comfortable but allow me to hear what is going on around me.

[Michael_Mcr]

Bassey, on 26 November 2011 - 01:34 PM, said:

They look excellent - very much like my favourite Sennheiser folding headphones (P200s, I think).  I love on-ear phones.  Very comfortable but allow me to hear what is going on around me.

I have a pair of the PX-200's which have served me very well for a number of years now and did consider the PX-200 mk2 which are an updated and improved version , but i have to say that these AKG's seem to sound a lot more natural and musical. The AKG's have a surprisingly detailed sound at this price - i am really pleased with them.  I should add that these AKG's are really, really comfortable to wear - better than my PX-200's, which in themselves seemed very comfy for long periods.

I have been a bit of a HI-FI head for more years than i care to remember and my view is that what you get in your ears is very much a combination of : Recording + playback device + speakers. You cant put in what isnt there, so i like speakers and headphones which have some half-decent bass without being overpowering + have a reasonably clear midrange and treble.

If you have that then usually you can tweak the tone controls or equaliser to give you the sound you want overall. I use my headphones with PowerAmp on the Sensation, which is a really good music player that sounds great.