« worth the buy »

The AKG K 81’s are a set of studio headphones for uses of all types (even though they say they are DJ headphones). I'll just say up front that I'm not a huge fan of these headphones, as they feel cheap and don't have a great sound. AKG apparently agreed as they are no longer making these headphones, although you can probably find used ones. The headphones are only suitable for one application, and that's for listening during recording. They don't have a great sound at all, but will be fine for this kind of use as you don't need to get the fullest picture possible when monitoring during recording (although it can help). They do encompass a good amount of bass response, but it's not a tight sound to me at all. You could also get away with using them for general listening purposes, but do you really want to be walking around out there with these on your head? Not only are they huge but they're really cheap feeling. The outside is made out of some kind of plastic and it really adds to the tackiness of them both in handling of them and look. I'm not sure when these headphones were made or for how long, but there's also an AKG K 220 which is essentially the same set of headphones under a different name. I doubt that these are going for too much in the used market, but they weren't as cheap as they should have been while they were still being made. We have a pair of these K 81’s around the studio that kind of float from room to room as needed, but for me they're always the last pair off the shelf and only used on a must needed basis. Obviously, I'd suggest staying away from the AKG K 81’s and looking at something else that's a bit sturdier in make up and has a better sound.