If you have ever been in the music or production business (professionally or for fun) then you have very likely come across an AKG product.
My favorite random factoid about AKG: both Frank Sinatra and the Pope in Rome used gold-plated AKG microphones.
Anyway, without going into a huge history lesson about AKG (Wikipedia it, geek out) the bottom line is this; they make epic product. More often than not it is best-in-class stuff.
Their newest set of consumer-graded noise cancelling headphones lives right up to that standard.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, the electromodo AKG N700NC review.
The Sound
I got the chance to talk to an engineer over at Harman the other day (AKG’s parent company and engineering arm) and asked him what the best sounding headphones were that they made.
Without hesitating he said the AKG N700NC.
He explained it like this: their engineering team has a sound quality curve that they use, from worst to best, and they position each product they make along that curve.
And out of all the consumer headphones Harman makes (JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG) the AKG N700NC ranked highest.
Are there better sounding headphones in the world? Yes of course, these aren’t at the top of the curve (that space is reserved mainly for professional products) but they are right up there according to him.
What does the curve measure I asked (good question right?) His response was essentially the faithfulness to reproduction of the original recording. That doesn’t necessarily mean a flat EQ curve, but something close to it.
It also means very low distortion, so as little noise from the drivers and the electronics gets to the listener as possible.
The also have a very cool feature called Trunote Auto Calibration. When you press and hold the Smart Button (more on it later) the headphones perform an acoustic sweep of your ears and adjusts the EQ of the headphones to compensate for undesirable tonal varieties created by your specific body shape.
I got to test a pair for about 20 minutes and the time flew by. I was completely immersed in the sound, which was so dynamic and clean that it just drifted me off into another place.
This was all it took for me to pre-order a pair. They are shipping on November 6th, so once I’ve gotten time to break them in and give them a real test run I will return with our thoughts on the real-world sound.
But we will look at the science behind them in the meantime and look at some of the other reasons why I decided to buy them as my new commuters.
The Look
The AKG 700NC’s have a refined look and uses materials which are subdued but durable. The sliders are made out of metal (not plastic) and there are aluminum accents throughout.
Being that these are almost specifically designed for travel there are some features that make them comfortable to wear for long periods:
The ear cups are made from memory foam and leather. They are roomy and fit over the ear as to avoid squishing them. No one likes squished ears!
The headband is padded and shaped in such a way as to not apply pressure on the top of the head, another design feature to aid in comfort.
When not being used, they fold up quite nicely into a compact shape; use them with the provided case if you wish or just stuff them in your backpack.
The controls are intuitive and easy to figure out without having to read the instruction manual. They are also made from and encased in aluminum for strength.
On the right side is a sliding power/Bluetooth button. Slide up to power on/off, slide down for pairing mode.
Beneath that is the Smart Ambient button which does a number of different things. As we mentioned before it will activate the Trunote Auto Calibration when pressed for 2 seconds.
A quick press will do one of two things (depending on how you have it setup in the AKG app):
- Ambient Aware: pipes in the outside world so you can hear announcements and things going on around you. This is the default setting.
- Talkthru: allows you to talk to people around you without taking off your headphones.
On the left side you have volume up/down. Double taps on either skip or rewind tracks respectively.
There is a play/pause/answer button. Double tap to get to Siri or Google Now.
The Technology
There is an accompanying app by AKG which gives you some extra functionality and also provides over the air firmware updates to the headphones.
You can decide the ambient aware level, enable and customize the equalizer
settings, and control the auto on/off feature.
Grab it wherever you get your apps. It’s there.
You can make and take calls with the headphones by the way. And there is echo and noise cancelling with the microphone so you’ll sound good on the other end.
The Battery
You can get 20 hours of use with the built-in battery with Bluetooth and Active Noise Cancelling active. Use the cable with ANC and you can get 36 hours.
Charging is provided via micro-USB so it’s easy to find a cable to power them back up should you misplace the original.
The Accessories
Some nice extras come along with the AKG N700NC’s. There is a really sleek carrying case, one-button remote detachable cable, flight adapter and charging cable.
Like the headphones, the accessories are made from premium materials and feel high-end.
The Pricing
Sticker shock time: the AKG N700NC will set you back $349.99.
That is a lot of money for headphones of course. But if you are looking the incredible noise cancelling and premium materials then this is where you’ll be.
The Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II and Sony WH1000XM2 are also $349.99, so the AKG N700NC are priced in-line with the competition.
By the way, if you buy from the links on this page we may receive a commission. Please see here for more info.
Where to get them
$349.99 Direct from AKG.com (via Samsung.com, AKG parent company)
$349.99 on Amazon.com: Prime Shipping Available.
Conclusion
I can’t wait to get a pair of these. Have a bunch of long flights coming up over the next few months, and it will be great to give these a thorough test drive.
We’ll post updates once we get some more real world experience with them. Stay tuned!
Update 1/28/2019
Now that I have had a few weeks to play with the N700NC’s, I wanted to put down some thoughts about them.
The thing I noticed about the N700NC is how lightweight they are. At first I was almost disappointed until I remembered that this was a good thing of course. You don’t want big heavy cans on your head for long periods of time, that wouldn’t be comfortable.
This was immediately obvious when I put them on for the first time. They sit nicely. The ear cups aren’t sitting on my ears, I would say they are sized somewhere between on-ear and over-ear sized.
The flat shape along the top of the headband keeps the N700NC’s from applying undue pressure along the top of the head.
Overall I am still as impressed with the build quality as I was the first time I saw them.
Now that I have my own pair, I was able to play with the EQ settings via the AKG app. I listen to a lot of modern music, so I made a slight bump in the lows to low mids to bring a little more oompf.
The N700NC’s took it in stride and delivered the extra low ends surprisingly well, without sacrificing the upper ranges.
I’m still wildly impressed with the sound quality of these headphones, and these have become my go-to pair for now.
If you get a chance to try a pair, do. They are top notch and I think you would be hard pressed to find anything better at this price.
