The Austrian-made AKG K511 is advertised as a quality headphone at an entry level price. It’s the least expensive headphone from their K51x lineup which shares almost the same design and construction.
First thing I noticed when I held the AKG K511 is that it’s extremely light for its size thanks to its plastic body. It does, however, contribute to its non-premium and fragile look.
The size of the earcups are just right, not too heavy and has soft plush leather cushions. Cable looks ordinary and is hard-connected to the left earcup so there’s no way to replace it when damaged.
I’m not really a fan of headphones but these are extremely comfortable to wear with its unique adjustable cloth headband that’s way better than the typical ones and their fixed struts. Just pull the cups over to your ears and it will fix itself to that position automatically.
Clamping force on the K511 is light so no need to worry about ear fatigue. It doesn’t cancel noise as good as other headphones though unless you’re blasting the volume up or in a relatively quiet room. It also leaks sound like you’re wearing a pair of on-ears instead of over-ears so be mindful of the people around you when you’re in a quiet place.
As for sound quality, well I can say that for most tunes, it’s quite clean but somewhat subdued, like you’re listening from a distance. It also lacks power on its lows and turning up the volume doesn’t help its cause. I would definitely not call it first-class audio performance as advertised but it’s not all that bad.
The AKG K511 retails for just Php2,099 which is already affordable for a pair of AKG headphones. What you’ll love is the super comfort fit but I still urge you to audition these phones before buying them to gauge if the sound it produces is satisfactory for you.