Hey everyone,
Today we are introducing a unique twist on one of our most popular headphones, the AKG K7XX Pulse headphones. Previously, with the AKG K7XX Red Edition, we decided to introduce an additional colorway based on community feedback. We are now rolling out a new colorway to coordinate with the newly announced MiTo GMK Pulse keycap set. This is our first cross-interest headphone collaboration, bringing together mechanical keyboards and audiophile. For those wanting to step up their color coordination game or for someone wanting an electric blue AKG colorway, we hope the K7XX Pulse will please.
The K7XX FAQ
As audiophiles ourselves, we believe that headphone choice and sound perception are deeply personal.
With over 16K posts in Red and Black K7XX discussions, you can imagine that almost every question has been both asked and answered by the community. A big thank you goes out to all of the community members who have answered questions and cleared up misconceptions. Below are a few of the most common ones asked.
What’s the quick summary of the K7XX Collaboration? The idea and goal of the K7XX was to take the very best from across the AKG 700-series and create a definitive version designed by and for audiophiles. Additionally, we wanted to offer this version at an incredible price to performance ratio.
The following are a few of the key design features:
1. K702 65th Anniversary Edition Drivers: The K702 65th Anniversary Edition (“Annies”) drivers are considered by the audiophile community to be the best sounding driver in the 700-series family, which was the reason it was selected for the K7XX.
2. Memory Foam Padding: Absent in the K701 and K702, the K7XX uses memory foam padding which was first introduced in the K702 65th Anniversary Edition. The impact of this choice is that the Annies and the K7XX maintain the same performance in the highs and mids that the 700-series are known for but with an improved 3dB bass increase.
3. Pulse Blue Colorway: This one is new and the first cross-interest collaboration, tying in the longtime favorite AKG K7XX and one of the Mechanical Keyboard group’s favorite designers, Mito.
4. Same Build Quality & Manufacturing Process: The K7XX is built with the same quality and under the same manufacturing process as the rest of the 700-family. It’s made for audiophiles, and we know that everyone would expect no less.
These seem to have a great price to performance ratio. Is it because the K7XX uses cheaper materials?
No.
Where are these manufactured? How is the quality?
A common question that is asked is “where are these made?” The entire 700-series family, including the K7XX, are produced in China. There is a misconception that AKG manufacturers their headphones in Austria and that there are still Austrian made 700-series available. As an additional point, even the K812 were made in Slovakia (not Austria).
But the broader point is around production processes, quality control, and manufacturing tolerances. These are all principles and concepts that are geographically agnostic and instead depend on the manufacturer and the factory who are the ones who make the decision either to be detailed-oriented or to cut corners. AKG has a history of being the former and has consistently delivered. And, there is a 2-year warranty on the K7XX.
Do you need an amp?
The K7XX will work fine without an amp.
That said, an amplifier, in general, serves to provide clean power and control of the headphone drivers to deliver sound. A supplemental amplifier may sound better than the one bundled in your phone, which is designed for long battery life or earbuds, for example. The AKG K7XX is not a headphone that is known for being especially "difficult to drive" (as they say). You may, however, find benefits in the characteristics of certain amplifiers and how they interact with your source and headphones.
How do these compare to the other headphones?This has been a hard question for us to answer. Although we have collectively tried and tested hundreds of headphones, it's a challenge to provide an objective opinion (an oxymoron when talking about a hearing experience) as any answer will inevitably include subjective views. We do recommend checking out the comparisons in this discussion and in others (for example on Head-Fi: https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/the-akg-k7xx-massdrop-first-edition-thread.743280/) to get a sense of how the K7XX compares. What we will say though is, as mentioned, one of the goals was to offer this version at an incredible price to performance ratio and we are proud of the result.
— Thomas Fernandez
Collaborations Team, Audiophile
Maybe instead of different colors, have your manufacturer fix the design flaw with the plastic tension strap pieces breaking. Or I dunno... give us some type of warranty past 30 days. Cool colors though...
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You should have them fix this before you sell more of them. There are tons of people on this website with this issue. Fix it, please.
nick_tMine broke in the left channel, so it's been a while so take it with a grain of salt. Very even tonally. Slight elevation in the bottom making the bass hard but not obnoxious. Great Soundstage. Between this and Sennheiser 5xx to 6xx series cans, it's more versatile. Music, movies, gaming, it was the most versatile. Very comfortable. A great go to, all arounder. I don't know whether to buy another color or fix my old ones.
Interesting color choice. But can’t see to find it anywhere in the store. Is there a time window for this? I have always been on the fence on trying the 7xx as I own a Q701 and a Sennheiser HD6XX that I custom painted but this may change my mind.
Though it's tiny, it manages to power even high ohm headsets with amazing accuracy. It works great with the drop usb-c to usb-c and my Phillips shp-9600. Soon enough I'll be using the Akoustyx...
I have an external amplifier with no integrated DAC and I only have an xduo xa10 as a dac/amp can I use the xduo xa10 as a dac only with an external amplifier?
So I bought the HD6xx a few weeks back and when I finally got the packages i got some Noir 99. ever happened to any of u guys and how did it get resolved
What’s the quick summary of the K7XX Collaboration? The idea and goal of the K7XX was to take the very best from across the AKG 700-series and create a definitive version designed by and for audiophiles. Additionally, we wanted to offer this version at an incredible price to performance ratio. The following are a few of the key design features: 1. K702 65th Anniversary Edition Drivers: The K702 65th Anniversary Edition (“Annies”) drivers are considered by the audiophile community to be the best sounding driver in the 700-series family, which was the reason it was selected for the K7XX. 2. Memory Foam Padding: Absent in the K701 and K702, the K7XX uses memory foam padding which was first introduced in the K702 65th Anniversary Edition. The impact of this choice is that the Annies and the K7XX maintain the same performance in the highs and mids that the 700-series are known for but with an improved 3dB bass increase. 3. Pulse Blue Colorway: This one is new and the first cross-interest collaboration, tying in the longtime favorite AKG K7XX and one of the Mechanical Keyboard group’s favorite designers, Mito. 4. Same Build Quality & Manufacturing Process: The K7XX is built with the same quality and under the same manufacturing process as the rest of the 700-family. It’s made for audiophiles, and we know that everyone would expect no less.
These seem to have a great price to performance ratio. Is it because the K7XX uses cheaper materials? No.
Where are these manufactured? How is the quality? A common question that is asked is “where are these made?” The entire 700-series family, including the K7XX, are produced in China. There is a misconception that AKG manufacturers their headphones in Austria and that there are still Austrian made 700-series available. As an additional point, even the K812 were made in Slovakia (not Austria). But the broader point is around production processes, quality control, and manufacturing tolerances. These are all principles and concepts that are geographically agnostic and instead depend on the manufacturer and the factory who are the ones who make the decision either to be detailed-oriented or to cut corners. AKG has a history of being the former and has consistently delivered. And, there is a 2-year warranty on the K7XX.
Do you need an amp? The K7XX will work fine without an amp. That said, an amplifier, in general, serves to provide clean power and control of the headphone drivers to deliver sound. A supplemental amplifier may sound better than the one bundled in your phone, which is designed for long battery life or earbuds, for example. The AKG K7XX is not a headphone that is known for being especially "difficult to drive" (as they say). You may, however, find benefits in the characteristics of certain amplifiers and how they interact with your source and headphones.
How do these compare to the other headphones? This has been a hard question for us to answer. Although we have collectively tried and tested hundreds of headphones, it's a challenge to provide an objective opinion (an oxymoron when talking about a hearing experience) as any answer will inevitably include subjective views. We do recommend checking out the comparisons in this discussion and in others (for example on Head-Fi: https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/the-akg-k7xx-massdrop-first-edition-thread.743280/) to get a sense of how the K7XX compares. What we will say though is, as mentioned, one of the goals was to offer this version at an incredible price to performance ratio and we are proud of the result. — Thomas Fernandez Collaborations Team, Audiophile