AKG K812 Reference Headphones - Perfect Sound Five Years In The Making

[Sin]

HARMAN's AKG proudly announces its new K812 reference headphones - the completely new open-back design optimized for pristine and natural sound. The K812 offers an oversized 53mm driver for the highest dynamic range ever in an AKG headphone. Its copper-covered aluminum voice coil extends sounds beyond the limits of human hearing, hitting a full spectrum of frequencies. Each K812 is built for comfort with a fast, adjustable headband and extremely soft ear pads to ensure comfort in any application, for extended periods of time.

"The AKG K812's are not only our newest reference headphones, but they are the very pinnacle of technological innovation to which we've aspired in our 65 years of innovation," stated Kent Iverson, Director of Marketing and Product Development, AKG. "K812 is the result of an intensive 5-year research and development program to achieve, as near as possible, the perfect headphone. The level of technology and engineering invested in K812 exceeds the industry standard, resulting in truly the best sounding headphones AKG has ever released."



AKG's long-standing tenure in the headphones industry has delivered numerous world-renowned professional pieces, from the original K120 in 1949, and iconic K1000 head speaker system for advanced, binaural reproduction for the hi-fi purist and studio pros, to the revolutionary flat-wire technology K701's for studio professionals.

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[Zakin]

Looks like yet another AKG rebrand, hopefully this is actually different and not yet another K500 reiteration. The K/Q700s have gotten enough of that abuse these last few years.

 

[Frederik S]

A rebrand? It has absolutely nothing to do with the design of the K500s and it is made by AKG themselves.

 

[SupaSerious]

AKG makes my genitals feel funny.... in a good way

 

[stupido]

any idea on the (expected) price?

 

[Frederik S]

Price is going to be around $1600 based on internet rumors. AKG have not released the official price yet.

 

[stupido]

Then I guess I better win the lottery...

 

[Zakin]

A rebrand? It has absolutely nothing to do with the design of the K500s and it is made by AKG themselves.

Most of the Head-fi chatter was in the early days a few weeks ago that this was really smelling of rebrand, just was giving my honest opinion, no reason to get all mad at me.

It appears that it does compete quite well against the HD800 right now, it is an extremely neutral headphone, the only thing it loses to with the HD800 seems to be the same thing everything loses to it, soundstage. The MSRP is currently looking to hit US around 1,500 or so. Looks like AKG is really aiming for the HD800.

One big thing to keep in mind though, so far AKG never has been reinforcing their MSRPs like Grados and Sennheiser tend to do, won't be surprised if these drop like a rock after a couple of months on the market. AKG headphones notoriously drop from MSRP by a good 25% to even 50% after some time. Beautiful thing what the market does to prices.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Hmmz, leather pads. I don't like leather pads.

My current K601 has really soft fabric pads which i prefer.

 

[acerace]

Hmmz, leather pads. I don't like leather pads.

My current K601 has really soft fabric pads which i prefer.

Velour pad FTW!

 

[AsRock]

Lather OMG and open backed YUK. Probably 20-20 to on top of that.

 

[Ra97oR]

Posted my impression over Head-Fi for those that are interested:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/685339/new-akg-flagship-k812-first-impression#post_9877645