AKG K830 BT Wireless Headphone

Visited the JBL Concept Store at the Bonifacio High Street earlier this week upon the invitation of their rep who showed me a new line they’ve recently introduced in the Philippines — the AKG Personal Audio collection.

Frankly, I am not very familiar with AKG and this is the very first time I’ve seen their products (mostly microphones and headphones). The local distributor only got the permission to release the AKG line just this January.

I also learned that AKG was actually bought by Harman since 1994 and they’ve been in the audio business for over 60 years.

One of the items they demoed to me and eventually lent out was this AKG K830 BT which is a wireless Bluetooth headphone. The headphone can be paired with your iPod, iPhone or any other music player or mobile phone that has built-in Bluetooth.

Device pairing is pretty easy and simple — just press the button in one of the headphones for 8 seconds and it will show upon your media player or phone and ready to be paired. Pressing it another 8 seconds will also turn off the power of the headphone.

One pretty nifty feature of the AKG K830 is the embedded microphone hidden in one of the earcups. That allows you to make and receive calls when paired with a mobile phone — just press the receive button and you’re talking hands-free in an instant.

Audio quality is impressive, IMO. Sound is pretty sharp and crisp even at significant distance from the streaming device. Bass is good but not that very emphasized though you can feel the omph when the music calls for it. Volume control is also found in one of the ear cups. I reckon you can do as much as 10 meters between the headphone and the music player and still get good sound quality with minimal attenuation (the Bluetooth transmits over a 2.4GHz radio link using the Kleer technology).

Tried the built-in microphone and got good reception despite it’s odd position in the headphone. Had some problems with my iPhone 4’s Voice Control — was having a hard time making the device correctly recognize my voice commands.

The AKG K830 is a neat, light-weight and portable headphone with good audio performance both for streaming music and handsfree phone use. Just could not figure out how they priced this at Php12,990 which, IMO, a bit on the expensive end.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

39 Comments

Kevin says:

8 years ago

Meron ako nito .. 2nd hand… kaso sira na yung mga foamies nya .. pagawa ko nalang sa egg head .. got it for 5K only ^_^ di na masama… solid ang tunog at sobrang tagal ng batt life
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Ken says:

13 years ago

The last paragraph (where i learned the price!) was a bummer! haha … super mahal! kainis!
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Telo says:

13 years ago

I have an AKG K450 ordered from Ebay.. from Hong Kong to Philippines.. The Best Portable Headphones I ever have.. The Bass is not just powerful.. but it is very detailed.. you can hear the waves of the deep Bass and not just the Bass(you know what I mean). The Mids are buttery thick (which sometimes can be mistaken as Muddy.. but it can be tuned down with an EQ)… The only lacking is the Highs.. But all the details are there and it’s satisfying..

One more important thing.. the sound leakage is minimal.. even if you turned the volume up to 2/3s (loud enough).. This headphones are also loud! Very sensitive..
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Jun says:

13 years ago

this AKG brand is not that familiar here in Phils. but I been using one,the AKG K414P which I really like so much,cause it really delivers a very satisfying bass even if you’re using a cheap player.
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jon says:

14 years ago

wow nice wireless headset!
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erickkk says:

14 years ago

@Paul – there’s a 581 DJ actually, *too bad it’s already discontinued*. as per some forums, the 518 DJs is a toned-down successor of the 581 for the lower-end market. I haven’t auditioned the 518 DJ if it’s comparable to the 581.
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Paul says:

14 years ago

erickkkk I think you’re talking about the AKG K518DJ. I’ve seen some in Bonifacio HighStreet JBL store.
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Wakocoke says:

14 years ago

AKG! hanggang grado lang ako hahaha
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Jesza says:

14 years ago

Obviously, most of the people here aren’t familiar with d AKG brand. U cant compare a Philips/nokia ETC on it. It’s like u r comparing a honda civic against a lambo. It will both get you where u wanna be. But the question is how u will get there. It’s like driving with fame and quality. For it’s price. Yes it’s expensive. But on it’s target market? it’s cheap. Thanks YT.
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jun says:

13 years ago

it work very satisfying bro,try one even the AKG K581 and you’ll see what I’m saying here,I’ve got one, the AKG K414P for quite a long time but it really impressed me when it comes to sound quality.

erickkk says:

14 years ago

AKG! (drooling) must.. have.. 581 DJs! good to know that we now have a distributor for AKG – been waiting this for years. i have auditioned this once – been looking for this everywhere. 581 DJ where art thou!?
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jigs says:

14 years ago

if you’re tight on the budget better get a nokia bluetooth headset instead..like the BH-503. it’s good value for your money.
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paul says:

14 years ago

12k? No thanks. I’m already quite satisfied with my Philips SHB9000. Exceptional audio quality and more than half the price of the AKG.
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vince says:

14 years ago

It costs 12,000 pesos and there isnt even a decent on off switch? You have to press the button for 8 seconds to turn it off?

WTF! Bad engineering
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Pepe says:

14 years ago

Seems a lot of people who visit this site aren’t familiar with high-quality audio :)

In all fairness, considering the quality, AKG is a very respectable brand; much more than Beats and Bose and other more well-known brands. Their former products like the K81DJ have gained respect throughout the headphone community.

Like mr8382004 said, these are very high-end. Someone who is used to good quality music would easily notice the difference between this and, say, a nokia BT headset.

Though, not counting Bluetooth 3.0, I wouldn’t consider Bluetooth as a very good channel for audio, considering the probable precision loss.
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Eason says:

14 years ago

Too expensive!!!

The Philips is the closest thing to that, but I don’t trust Philips since I bought a LOT of earphones to them but they are just too frajile
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mr8382004 says:

14 years ago

Mga sir, high end po yun AKG headphones, they are for professionals and audiophiles. I think the 12k price is cheap compare to the Shure earphones which cost 20k plus for the higher model. But still I don’t know the performance of this particular model but most of their products are highly praised by audiophiles.
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johnbrew says:

14 years ago

expensive. I’ll go for nokia bh 503
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Jonaflormicfren says:

14 years ago

An elegant device, it deserves its worth. http://ineduchange.webs.com
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iamkamote says:

14 years ago

That’s way too expensive! Those who can afford go buy one but as for me I would rather save my 12k for something else and buy copy cat Wireless headset in Quiapo/Raon for just P300.

^_^
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Edgar says:

14 years ago

BTW this would make a nice prize on the next Yugatech contest, sir Abe (then the losers would have an excuse to sourgrape) haha!
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Edgar says:

14 years ago

If the Harman name has made it expensive, they should’ve stamped it on the product.
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Suplado says:

14 years ago

come on guys! the headphone looks awesome. if i have the cash, ill surely buy one. for now, tiis muna ako sa jabra halo ko.
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ZERATUL-PH says:

14 years ago

12k? roughly around $280? Forget about it.
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Iyan Sommerset says:

14 years ago

Aray ko po. 12k? I mean, we know their target market since they’re smack-dab in BHS but still…12k? Doesn’t even look impressive aesthetically. I wonder what BT stack they use.
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sylv3rblade says:

14 years ago

AKG headphones have always been on the more expensive side of things
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luiboowee says:

14 years ago

what? hindi kaya sobra sya ng zero? hehe. 12K?
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Messie says:

14 years ago

Nokia BH 503 is also a very affordable alternative with better than average sounds and generally good reviews.
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ethan tremblay says:

14 years ago

i still prefer beats. It’s already tried and tested, though they have the same price.
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Drey says:

14 years ago

Dear Sir Yuga,

Any way of making a review of a Nokia BH-505 Stereo Bluetooth Headset? It retails at around 3K.

Thanks!
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Harley Son says:

14 years ago

sticking with my hisense slim! i am loving it!

thanks for the update sir!
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Jade says:

14 years ago

I would go for Nokia BH-905i if that’s the price of that thing.

Plus the BH-905 was already proven to have an excellent battery life. And it features Noise Cancellation that you can’t see on that headset.
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adam says:

14 years ago

What will be their selling point? Next question is why would you buy a brand that is not familiar to you considering it is pricey?
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hihey says:

14 years ago

or philips shb6110 http://hihey.gjamoroso.com/2010/08/philips-shb6110-bluetooth-stereo.html
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ayashino says:

14 years ago

try visiting my site @http://filblogcentral.blogspot.com
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deuts says:

14 years ago

Can be used with laptops as well?
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Benchmark33 says:

14 years ago

There are alot of BT headset in the market that has the same quality but in a cheaper price.
Such price is too much….IMO.
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