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Auver, I'm still not 100 percent happy with the AKG 240MKII and the piano.

I have to honestly say I've listened to classical music through them and the music sounds great. Here's an interesting thing, I listened to the demo of the N3 through the AKG and it sounded great.

At this moment I think I'm expecting to hear what I've always heard (from the Sony MDR V600) and am hearing something I'm not used to. I'm hoping this gets better in time. For me, the area starting E below middle C going down an octave seems a bit too bassy.

I've also ordered new ear cushions for the Sony (from the Sony in the US), almost $10 per cushion plus shipping to a friend in the US who will bring them on her next trip.

A good rule of thumb - which I didn't follow - try before you buy.

Something a lot of people don't consider is that the signal that goes to the speakers on a digital piano is equalized to compensate for the shortcomings of the digital piano's speakers. Therefore, when you use the line-out on the digital piano and use speakers or headphones with flatter response, it will often sound wrong(er than what came out of the digital piano).

If I'm reading what you're saying correctly, you're talking about the frequencies between 166 and 85 and there is some pronounced bass from these cans in that range. You can see a frequency curve here:

http://www.headphone.com/headphones/akg-k-240-mk-ii.php

Can you adjust the EQ on your piano to compensate for what you'd like to hear?

Can you adjust the EQ on your piano to compensate for what you'd like to hear?

Nope. I'll see if I can get used to it.

This is interesting, after having used the AKG's all day, I went back and used my trusty Sony's. They now sounded thin and tinny.

I'm going to have to give these new headphones some time to get used to. I still think they're a tad too pronounced in the bass but I will give this more of an adjustment period.

No, Pianos have a huge amount of bass. Normally you can't hear it because few speakers go below about 50Hz. The K240 headphones are flat to 18Hz and you are not used to hearing that.

Chris, the sound built in sound system in the N3 is excellent. I run my wife's laptop through it for music at parties. The sound through the AKG's is definitely bassier than the sound I hear of the piano through the piano's sound system.

If the N3 had an EQ I'd adjust the bass response for the AKG's.

Yes, unfortunately there is little that is absolute in human perception. We adapt. Similar things occur in vision, as anyone who knows anything about photography knows.

A few years ago we had a bad dust storm here - everything had turned a rustic red colour. People were ringing up the radio stations asking why the sun had turned blue........

Greg.

I asked an old friend of mine who owns a recording studio what he would recommend and he suggested the Beyer 770. (He owns a well known studio in Philadelphia and as far as I know he's always been an audio engineer.)

I did a quick Google and saw they have a 250 ohm impedance, they'll need an headphone amplifier though.

What is ohm impendance? I tried googling it, didn't understand a thing. Also, doesn't headphone amplifiers cost a lot?

Would you say the K240's are not worth the money spent? In Norway they cost 300$. The Beyers are a little more expensive, but they do not have detachable cables... I don't like the thought of that.

They're also closed, shouldn't they not be as good then?

So many possibilities. Anyone got any experience with Audio-Technica? Also, when the description says for "studio and stage use", they should be alright for a piano, right?

Edit: I can EQ the sound on my NP, so I guess too much bass wouldn't actually be a problem with the K240's. But please continue to report.

Sorry for all the lame questions. Thanks for your precious time folks!

Impedance is resistance, and with more impedance, the quieter the headphones would be, if you could get sound out of them at all. Such is the case with better headphones. In that case, you need to use a headphone amp to increase the gain of the signal you're sending to the headphones.

That's really not a problem. Detachable cables are an extra point of failure. I think it's better not to have it.

Do you need that because you want to detach the cable when you walk away, and plug in again when you return? Or some other reason?

Lefty Chev,
That's sensitivity. Impedance has a complicated relationship with sound quality. Look at the sensitivity first.

"impedance" is a the ratio that relates current to voltage. The units are Ohms. If you really get into it you find that impedance is a complex number and for many people it was way to many years ago last time they studied ratios of complex numbers.

Unless you are an electrical engineer you can ignore all that and simply remember that "impedance" impedes the flow of sound. So a low impedance lets signal flow un-impeded. Low impedance (about 32) headphones require a good amp that can supply more current. The higher 600 Ohm headphones draw less current. But with headphones "more current" is still a very low amount and most consumer electronics can drive it. a 1/4 watt amp is more then enough for headphones

Are headphone amps expensive? They might be if you live in a place where $99 headphones sell for $300. If you do then see if Sweetwater.com will ship to your location. They also sell a pretty good quality headphone amp, the Presonus HP-4 for $130 that I know will drive a pair of K240 to uncomfortable volume levels. This amp has four channels and will drive four pair of headphones.

I don't think current is much of an issue regardless of headphone impedance. But higher impedance phones need more more voltage swing to develop Watts, and many battery powered MP3 players and such can only kick out a Volt or so peak.


The Presonus HP-4 is really nice. A bit too much gain though, which forces me to keep the volume control rather low, where the stereo pots don't match so well (left & right). You can really blow your ears out with it if you aren't careful, too bad it doesn't have an internal limiter of some sort. I don't use the mono switch much, but the lighted monitor mute switch is super useful.

Sensitivity will have more to do with the speaker itself. I understand that ohms are more complicated than what I explained, but I thought it was sufficient for the discussion at hand. If your source isn't designed for the higher impedance of the headphones, you will get little or no current, hence the need for an amp.

Just to put the math out there, if you're talking about a device that is generating 1 volt and your impedance is 55Ω, your current is 0.01818 amps. If you have the same voltage and an impedance of 100Ω, your current is 0.01.

CABLES are a point of failure. Detachable ones enable replacement. And when you yank them, with any luck the olug will come out rather than a wire breaking.

Would you say the K240's are not worth the money spent?

I'd put it this way, if I would have had the opportunity to try the headphones with my N3 I probably would not have bought them. Had I simply tried the AKG's in a store listening to music I would have liked them, I'm just not thrilled with them and the N3 yet.

I've listened to classical music with them and they sounded just fine; I've listened to the N3 demos through them and they sounded fine as well. I'm still not used to them ... and at this point I'm not really thrilled with my old Sony's either.

Try before you buy.

This may or may not be a help but I already had these very cheap headphones when I bought my Casio piano and use them with it because they are comfortable and have such great sound that I sometimes have to take them off to make sure I've not forgotten to plug them in and are inadvertently bothering my neighbours with repeated scales at 2 in the morning! The sound is crystal clear and the cord doesn't seem to be sensitive to touch like some - I mean when you brush the cord you don't get any noise - the cable is also quite long which is useful.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-XD..._4?ie=UTF8&qid=1304031543&sr=8-4

That's a UK site but I'm sure they are available elsewhere.