AKG K612 Pro Studio Headphone Review

Despite the not-so-high impedance of 120Ω, with K612 Pro you’ll achieve lower volume levels from mobile devices than you might expect. Some work that doesn’t require massive headroom still could be done with the headphones plugged straight in the device’s built-in soundcard but you’ll be way better off using an audio interface or headphone amp to drive them.

At a glance, they’re very similar to K712 Pro. Both share the same Varimotion™ 2-layer diaphragm and also the weight of both units is identical at very low 235 g.

K612 Pro follows all classic AKG design traditions – it has the auto-adjusting “hammock” style headband that stems from the nearly cylindrical driver housings, that also host the large swiveling ear cups with thick, round ear pads attached to them. The nearly all-plastic build trades robustness for low weight and comfort. Few tiny components attaching the headband to the rails don’t inspire confidence to throw them carelessly in a backpack – better just keep these headphones in the studio. 

But all this is just nitpicking, the only major drawback is the rather thin, non-detachable cable, which already failed on one of our pairs.

Now to the best part – there aren’t many headphones out there that can compete in flatness with the K612 Pro. The 100 Hz to 3 kHz stays within 2dB, and the increase in higher frequencies reaches only a relatively moderate 5dB, beating one of its main rivals Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro. The mid-range will sound very natural with only negligible coloring and the high end boost will not translate to overly harsh sound.

Channel balance is very good. To be fair our sample pool was way more limited than that of more popular models, but out of those, the worst issue was a 2dB disbalance at the bottom-end for a single pair. For the rest of the samples, the channels were quite evenly matched only with few narrow frequency band issues at the very top end of the spectrum. Overall a commendable result, especially for its price class.

The headband is a little bit stiffer and ear pads not as plush as K712 Pro’s, yet K612’s are still plenty comfortable which is rare in its price class. None of our testers found any obstacles to wearing them for hours.

There are many reasons to like the AKG K612 Pro, the fact that you can get them in Europe for about €100 being one of them. They’re double the price in the States, which, frankly, still is a rather good deal. The main reason keeping them from receiving top marks here is the non-detachable cable.