When you’re looking for a new pair of headphones, you of course want them to sound good, be comfortable to wear and to be as painless to use as possible. Naturally, I’d expect you to seek out pairs from the likes of Bose, Sony or Apple first, such is their extreme brand awareness.
Allow me to suggest a new contender: the AKG N9 Hybrid. These over-ears tick all of the major boxes and will even improve the sound quality from your devices thanks to a nifty feature – all for a price that’s less than the three aforementioned brands, even at their full price of AU$499. Why pay that when they’ve received a 36% discount at Amazon? It also makes them oh so easy to recommend.
If you’ve not heard of AKG before, you’re probably not alone. Yet the company has a long, illustrious history in the world of audio. It was founded in 1947 in Austria and then acquired by Harman in 1994. Harman was then acquired by Samsung in 2017, so in essence, AKG is now a sub-brand of Samsung’s sub-brand.
The N9 Hybrid over-ears on sale here are the latest in the company’s efforts to produce a genuine alternative to more well-known brands, and as our review found out, they’re largely a success. The key to that success is a USB-C dongle that can be hidden away in the left ear cup when not in use.
The dongle can be plugged into any device that has a USB-C port, including the best iPhones, whereby it will upgrade the audio output to a higher resolution, something an iPhone can’t do natively. The dongle also allows for a more stable, reliable connection compared to Bluetooth and it also allows for an instant connection – no more having to go to Bluetooth settings on your device.
The features don’t end there. Battery life is incredibly good at up to 100 hours with ANC turned off. Turn it on and you’ll get up to 45 hours from them on a single charge – more than what you’ll get from Bose, Sony or Apple.
Noise cancellation is also impressive, although admittedly not quite class-leading, and a smartphone app lets you tweak various settings, including EQ and spatial audio.
Sound quality is superb, packed with detail and “beautifully balanced”, according to our reviewer. It’s this balanced sound profile that meant our tester could use them not just for music, but movies and gaming too. One pair of headphones for all purposes? You can’t get much better value than that.
Even at their original price of AU$499.95, the AKG N9 Hybrid offer plenty. Now they’ve received a 36% discount (in the white colourway), they represent sensational value. The black pair also gets a discount, albeit only 19%.
