Oh my God. After I read this, “I really like the idea of planars, but from what I read they have bad imaging and soundstage.”, I’m not even lying to you, my head started to hurt. Lol. Brain cells melting. Who the h*ll are these people who say outlandish stupid crap like that? Like I’m not even kidding. I’ve gamed with both – and no real preference at the moment. I certainly don’t feel the K612 are diminished in any way for directional queues in FPS gaming, and the slightly warmer tone actually adds to the enjoyment. Aside from a small correction of the microphone itself also some correction in the lowest frequencies is applied to the plots to compensate for the perceived loss of bass when using headphones. This is described HERE in more detail.

AKG K612PRO Open-Back Over-Ear Premium Reference Studio

It is very wide, but I really enjoy that aspect of it because I can hear everything going on. In other words, the K702 absolutely never sounds muddy or congested in any way. I almost never find myself wanting to listen to it (outside of doing this A/B/C), and do plan to either give it away or sell it. Imaging: The imaging of this headphone is very accurate and precise, this headphone excels imaging. You have a very good idea where the instruments are located and there is good separation. It doesn’t always manifest, but can be problematic at times. A minor flaw in an otherwise amazing headphone.

Gaming & Film

Right channel only. The felt only lowers the peaks in amplitude and the rest remains exactly the same. Soundstage: I personally find the soundstage on the large side on this headphone, while it's not huge, it's not really what I call medium sized either, just simply large. The soundstage has good width and the depth and height aren't bad either. i dont know if it depends by quality or power of amp but they are special with EF2A and they sound more better with a good dac ( dac of matherboard are not suitable) . Sonically - the two are very similar (to my ears) - with the K612 being slightly warmer - and actually sounds a little more 'natural'.

AKG K612 Pro Open Back Reference Headphones

The K702 also has a tad more extension than the 701, but it’s very, very close. Again, DON’T OVERTHINK IT! K-612 sounds absolutely incredible. Just as good as M-50 in response, even in bass range, but with slightly different scene. Really no complaints here whatsoever. The K612 being 120 Ω doesn’t mean it should be driven from a 120 Ω amplifier but it does change its sonic signature slightly on a higher output resistance. In my opinion slightly for the better. The output level drops about 6dB when a 120Ω adapter is used so it won’t play loud enough on portable players any more though. An amplifier with a 100Ω to 120Ω output R will bump up the sound quality. The increased upper treble (clarity is not affected, it resides lower in the frequency band) can be lowered quite simply. Both are reasonably detailed headphones – that sound wonderfully clear and articulate. The main difference is that the K702 have slightly more air and upper detail. I am guessing (if the K601 graph is indeed similar to the K612) that this is the larger peaks between 5-8 kHz on the K702, and also seems to be attributable to the pads. I tried the angled 702 pads on the K612 – and the impression I got was a slight increase in both air and treble. I did this several times and each time (though subtle to me), the difference was the same.

Which one of these are you going to purchase? I would love to hear from you. Until next time…

Unfortunately I can’t find a frequency graph for the K612 (at the time of writing) – so I’ve used the K702 and K601 graphs – mainly because it fairly closely matches what I think I’m hearing. When they eventually do graph the 612 I’ll update the chart. The K612, K712, and K702 represent the most significant discrepancies between the entire line of K600 and 700 headphones. The 702’s 2kHz bump gives it much-needed energy and the treble sounds crisp and fantastic without overdoing it.

K612 PRO | Reference studio headphones - AKG K612 PRO | Reference studio headphones - AKG

I will say that I do think the 612 works slightly better for Jazz and Classical as it kind of helps to mellow out the volatile nature of Classical specifically. Soundstage: The K612 has improvements to the bass, but there will be inevitable trade offs made. One of these to a minor aspect is the soundstage. The K612s just cannot compete with the soundstage on the K701, K702 and Q701. They do however have a more open soundstage than the K240s. Despite not having as wide as soundstage as the leaner K7s, I do find the K612 soundstage more natural due to not having the tendency to pan extremely left and right with mono recordings, causing the center stage to go dead like the K701/K702/Q701s do.In this article, I will primarily be comparing 3 headphones that I have here currently (612, 712, 702), and also throwing in the K701/Q701 comparison. Hi only just seen your post, but have seen & responded to your Inbox message to me on the same topic, but figured I'd copy & paste my response into this thread too, for the possible benefit of anyone reading. Below the CSD of the ‘felt treated’ K612. The 2-3kHz resonance is much smaller and resonance around 12kHz is almost completely removed.