review of [old] AKG81DJ and test with [even older ] AKG77

 AKG DJ81 is one of my "newest" headphones but quite old as it was bought on 2017-8 It is a model that weas used for very short time and as tested with the very trebly models used on that time - a mini Sennheiser that has been used very long by my wife and then dropped in the dust due to cabling problem (the local technician advised us to replace that with newer instead of servicing that  ) she later used a model from China

For tat time the model has been left aside for very long time till last tow years when i decided to give tat to my daughter thinking that he sound was not so good for my ears.As noted in a previous post the model has been found while checking in Amazom on around 17 or 18 and finally has been ordered via the Italian site at only 18 Eu plus undefined low shipping It reached here in around 1.5 week AFAIK. The original price was around 40Eu but in an American site  it was priced at around 90USD  tat only 18Eu the  price is a real steal 

It sounded quite dull comparing to this Sennheiser model as also between i think the AKG 77 for that time , ie unclear and rather bassy 

note : the model as far as i checked the recent times is not available anymore  . it has been upgraded to the 180 DJ or something similar

 

As it can be shown the AKG 81 DJ uses a very long cable , around 2,5 m possvly good fro DJs  This is a supraural type that is kept over the ear 

A very nice design with radials of gray color . the earphones are also twisted by 120 degrees 

as with all models the arm can be detached a few cm . In the case of 81 there are something as griods that operate as 'stepped stops'  with steps of 2-3 mm The total length is around 2cm and locked by the pressure of the head Under it there is a mechanism to turn the speaker by left right but it by design can also be turned down up by a few degrees 

The design is totally plastic but there is a metallic blade in between on the over-head part This makes the arm to be rather stiff and pressy  into the head>it is also OK that after some time you adopt into that pressure 

 

The above photo shows the locking steps. All the design is very ergonomic and easy to be worn. 

Performance 

I have tested it with a older AKG model the K77 that is my replacement of the metallic 66 (again the it was littered sue to a bad technician to prefer replace than repair its cable Arghhh 

A messy table due to very many things. I recently bought a very cheap but very good audio switch with 4 ins and 4 outs from Ali at only 15Eu  (product link ). It really saved my life to continuously plug and unplug cables for testing sounds You see it over a box . Hoping to review it later There is a Q3 player with old test songs together with a personally made audio with 17 tone file to test heed- and ear-phones. At the opposite zide there is the K77 still  ion its plastic bag, even if that is used more than 7 years!

the idea was using te audio switcher in two ways : First by  cheeking the sounds in the sharer mode (connection as in the photo) and then in the switch mode - inverse cabling - to check the audio levels 

being too much adapetd to listen with the 81DJ it was rather uneasy to listen to the 77 as the sound was very different : same trebles , high lows and sub lows as part of the middle band is also strong over the 81 However after a more than 15 minutes my listening was adapted feeling better 

The original sound of 81DJ has some high deep and low lows over the voice and good highs. In other words it is quite and deeply bassy giving a feel of dead middles and upper middles

AKG77 was then heard wih better vocal and instrument presence intensifying them while listening to the music . Sound stage is the same . In many cases 77 get better in hearing but after more than 10=15 minutes the sound is felt rather "bad"  or tiring . This also  is song dependent 

Therefore the results are rather mixed , possibly due to being more accustomed to 81DJ Anyway this is my main headphone with sometimes more than 4 hours of listening.. 

Verdict : 4/5  and soon to add some analyis