AKG K361 Studio Headphones, Over-Ear Closed-Back Design for Professional Performance, Lightweight and Foldable with 3 position hinges, Premium Isolating Earpads, Reinforced for AKG Durability

Product Information

The ear cups swivel vertically up into the headband void for travel, making these a relatively portable option that took up residence in our laptop bag without a hitch, with the option to transport them sans cable making things even easier. As a bonus, the swivel mechanism also makes it easy to slip one can off for DJ headphone duties if that’s your thing. We’re reviewing the AKG K371-BT primarily as a headphone proposition for the hi-fi enthusiast and music-lover, rather than a dedicated tool for professional recording and mixing. That said, both parties want similar things: transparency, neutrality, a sound that’s open, detailed, faithful and uncoloured by stylised tuning, lag or poor integration. In Sia’s Chandelier, meanwhile, the intentional compression, noise and grainy texture that helps dirty up Sia’s range later on is revealed, as the K371-BT continue to dig up more detail than you’d expect for the money. The treble is clear, sparkling and never harsh. While they could be a bit more upbeat in terms of timing, it’s a minor shortfall at this level.

With the AKG K361, users can be sure to have quality sounding audio regardless of use. The headphone delivers a really nice audio quality when listening to vocals, or even when connected with instruments. It produces clear sound with outstanding detail. The AKG K361 has a low treble and produces an unstrained sound that allows users to be able to hear sub-bass frequencies very well though it might not exactly deliver as much quality with mid-range as sound is not balanced at that level. It does, however, deliver quality highs and lows when in use and provides a sort of light sound feel.

Over-ear, closed-back, foldable studio headphones with Bluetooth

Perhaps a feature that many would feel might be attributed to the price in the absence of a noise-canceling feature that would help to accurately isolate sounds at different levels. However, the AKG K361 is still capable of isolating sound even though at a minimal level as compared with a headphone that would be having the noise-canceling feature. This, it is able to do, because of the design of the headphone. The oval ear design is pretty much a reasonable addition from AKG and surely makes up for a noise-canceling attribute, even though that can be said to be at about a really low level as the ear pads are only capable of sealing the ear, and that way you don't get to hear surrounding noise especially when it is low. You surely can expect to have your audio disrupted when you have a really loud surrounding noise. This is also similar to the AKG K361's ability to leak sounds from the headphone. With low or moderate level volume, you can expect to have no issues of sound leakage, though, with high volume, it doesn't turn out the same way.

The included microphone means you can take hands-free calls. And the hugely impressive claim of 40 hours of wireless listening rings true; we only have to charge the K371-BT once during our extensive wire-free listening. In our tests, it turned out that our 2019 Apple MacBook Pro communicated just fine with the K361-BT over AAC, although with a noticeable deficit in quality when compared with the sound achieved when used with one of the supplied cables. In wireless mode, the sound had a one-dimensional feel to our ears, not particularly forward-sounding, with a frequency response that was seemingly quite flat with a bit of a bump in the mids. Initial impressions were of a good stereo image but not too much high-end detail, with a bottom end that’s decent and not overdone. The impedance on these is only 38 ohms, but unusually for a low-impedance design they seem to respond better when driven quite hard.

Conclusion

If your budget currently maxes out at around the price of the K371-BT, know that they do offer compellingly good sound for the money. However, we cannot heartily recommend a product that is frustrating to use or could break before its time. The AKG K361 headphone is among the cheapest that you'd find, well that's if you're looking for something that offers quite as much as the AKG K361 does. Choosing the right headphones by different professionals certainly depends on quite a number of things, one of which is how well the sound quality appeals to the ears. With the AKG K361, potential users can surely expect to enjoy full benefits as they want and while the headphone doesn't exactly have everything or does as well as most high budget and expensive headphones, it does make a suitable option especially for studio or casual listening. You might not get the best of experiences with outdoor use if it's something you're expecting to use it for but professionals like podcasters, vloggers, or audio engineers would enjoy it as long as surrounding noise is at a minimal level around the recording space. Brilliant all-rounder studio reference headphone with a gentle but satisfying bass boost and added Bluetooth features. I bought these headphones as my old Audiotechnica M30X's broke after years of use and abuse, and I had recently bought an AKG microphone which had become my favorite, so I gave this brand a go.