TL;DR the AKG N90Q walked so that the AirPods Max could run?

Long time AKG enjoyer, recently Harman pilled and ultra frugal maxxing. These were on my Marketplace and I was mulling them over for a little while. I brought them home for $150 complete with all of the cables, packaging and documentation. I think the seller picked them up during one of the many Harman clearance sales. She said it didn’t really work well with her setup and I can see a lot of reasons for that. Regardless of whether she is in this hobby, or is a creator.

Impressions. It’s actually not a bad thing that these are not wireless. I know that in hindsight it’s such a glaring omission, but here’s the deal. These things are enormous, they’re going to look silly on anybody’s head, and they’re swathed in what might be real leather. The outside of the cups, the pads, and the ear pads are, I think, actually leather.

You have two inputs on the right ear cup. A 2.5mm analog input, and a micro USB input. Using micro-USB with your portable device or computer will allow up to 96/48. The headphones contain a DAC, DSP, and discrete amplification. Ok, that sounds pretty run of the mill for today. Hell that sounds run of the mill for 2015/2016 when they came out. Bose was already doing this in the QC35 for example. The difference here I think is that the base components aren’t junk for the DSP to fix. Or rather, the DSP is a feature, not a bandaid. The DSP allows for calibrating to the wearers HRTF (if I’m understanding it correctly) as well as offering two EQ modes (flat or V-shaped) and three sound modes (standard, studio aka crossfeed, and some atrocious approximation of surround sound).

Here’s what’s weird about all of that. There’s a ADC on the analog input. So regardless of what you plug these headphones into, you’re at the mercy of the onboard components. I’m not even going to bother using these with an analog source. Just USB. I have a handful of USB-C to A on the go adaptors I can use to plug these into my iPad or my cheap Android burner phone. This was one of the earliest attempts at an all-in-one solution on your head. Sure it’s wired, but that’s near right?

These were like the concept car. Or a homologation car. Overpriced MSRP? Check. Ambitious new features? Check. Over time these features have drifted down to other headphones. Everybody has something in their collection with most of these features included. AirPods Pro and Max attempt to calibrate for HRTF, and have Spatial Audio (which I don’t really care for). The Bathys probably has a decent DAC and amplification on board (I’m assuming because I’ve never handled them). The problem with these were the price at the time, the strange looks and branding, and the kind of unclear use case. Is it portable? Kind of. Does it offer easy connectivity? Kind of, but the analog input is really hobbled. These were a tech demo from a company that may not have known yet how numbered its days were.

You can get a lot of the same features in the NC700 mkII. Noise canceling, HRTF calibration, bio-cellulose drivers, and all for a fraction of the price. The NC700 also disintegrates in your hands though.

That’s a lot of yapping to say, that these sound wonderful. There’s not much of a bass shelf hear. The presentation is very clear and detailed. They don’t sound as boxed in as many closed backs do. I’m going to enjoy these while I can.

This is a love letter to a company that’s largely been reduced to a brand in a portfolio. If you like AKG, or if you like collecting one offs and oddballs, these will at least make a cool collection piece and sound good doing it. Cheers.