AKG K 81 DJ Review
The AKG K 81 DJ was made with semi-professional DJs in mind—same kind of professional sound quality with cheaper but dependable equipment. Their closed-back style provide optimum isolation from ambient noise, and can take heavy usage, with high SPL capabilities to ensure excellent sound quality.
Out of the box, we could not help but marvel at the K 81 DJ’s build quality. For its price, it is definitely built like a tank. The headband is made of solid aluminum wrapped with think durable plastic, which is then wrapped by a sort of thin layer of rubber. The touches of brushed aluminum on the cups make them look sophisticated. The ear pads are pleather which we found ample thick.
The headband adjusts like a typical set of headphones, with that numbered “click” that indicates how far you’ve gone. The earcups rotate ala typical DJ headphones. The earcups cover the average man’s ears easily, and our tester, Rob, who considers his ears as on the big side, did not encounter any discomfort even after an hour of use.
We felt the the cord on the K 81 DJ was quite long for the typical media player user, and we felt that AKG addressed this issue with the club DJ in mind more. No worries, since “DJ” is part of its name to begin with.
The K 81 DJ’s sound signature is one where the uppermost highs remain “rolled-off,” but the lows are quite defined without sounding to “boomy.” The soundstage is quite impressive and wide, which is lacking on most DJ-styled headphones. We felt at times that the AKG needed some “eq-ing” but that was when we were in the audiophile state of mind.
The mids are not as “rolled-off” as the highs, but not as forward as the bass either. So if you would, you could imagine the overall frequency response of the K 81 as an inclined plane towards the lower frequencies. Some might consider the effect of this as “laid-back” especially when one deals with vocals. A little EQ would fix this. However, we could tell that the real true tonality was already there.
Again, the bass response on this thing might be a little to out there especially for those used to really balance, refined sound. We reckon that the bass impresses the younger generation apart from it being a DJ’s headphone, but even so, the bass was quite defined and textured which ears some respect for those very critical with the way frequencies are boosted.
The K 81 DJ does a very good job of blocking ambient noise, in this case, big party PA systems, while easily preventing leakage to the outside—this is especially useful for college dorm-dwelling users. It also has a very efficient impedance which makes it great to pair with iPods and other media players. However, a quality headphone amplifier, no matter what these cans’ impedance were designed for, would make a worthwhile improvement to the overall sound.
We love the K 81 DJ because it is not just “acceptable.” We found that for its price, we considered it “really good,” which meant it more than “delivered” for us.
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