An open-back studio headphone whose spatial abilities are the one point nearly everyone agrees on: a wide, deep stage and precise placement that reviewers, gamers and owners keep praising, though it is a little more compact than the K701/K702. It is also light and very comfortable for most heads, isolates nothing by design, and resolves detail well. The sound itself divides people. One camp hears a smooth, slightly warm, natural balance with controlled bass and gentle treble, and finds it fatigue-free for long sessions. The other hears a coloured tuning: a deep dip in the 2–5 kHz presence region, lean sub-bass or woolly upper bass depending on the listener, and treble peaks that some still find sharp or sibilant. Every measurement rig shows that presence dip, several decibels below an HD 600 and well below a K702, which is why it sounds warmer than its siblings without measuring much more bass. Reviewers mostly call the build sturdy, but owners report headband elastics that sag after a few years, cracked plastic parts and earcup wiring that fails. It wants a proper amp for full volume and bass. It is widely called a good buy at its old street price or used, and a hard sell at $499.
About this product
Open-back, 62 Ω — the 2013 'improved low end' member of AKG's K7xx family, with flat (not angled) memory-foam pads, a leather suspension strap and a detachable mini-XLR cable (straight and coiled in the box). Launch units were made in Vienna; later ones are marked Made in Slovakia. Not the K702 (brighter, angled pads) or the Drop K7XX (a differently damped variant). AKG and B&H list it at $499 against a $699 list; it sold for around $300 for years, and used pairs often go for $100–$160.
The AKG K712 PRO arrived in 2013 as the warm sibling of the famous K701 and K702. It keeps their huge cups, self-adjusting leather strap and wide, open presentation, but AKG retuned it for '3 dB improved low end', gave it flat memory-foam pads and an orange livery, and pitched it at mixing, mastering and long listening sessions.
Reviewers and owners agree on the stage, the imaging and the comfort. Almost everything about its tonality is argued. Some hear a smooth, warm, natural reference with tamed AKG treble. Others hear a hollowed-out presence region, woolly upper bass or a peaky top end. The measurements explain part of that, and long-term owners add an argument about how well the plastic and the headband elastics hold up.
