AKG Y50BT

The AKG Y50BT Bluetooth 3.0 wireless headphones with microphone were manufactured by the Harman Corporation in 2015. These are reference class acoustic designs with volume control and detachable 1.2 m cable. They can provide more than 20-hours of use time on a single charge.

Review

The ear cups are mounted on variable pivots and they can take any angle of your ears, consequently making them one of the most comfortable on-ear designs I have ever experienced. The sound quality of the 40 mm drivers is excellent with plenty of treble and bass in the range. The specs mention a standard frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but they actually sound much better than that. The coil impedance of 32 Ω and sensitivity of 113 dB sound pressure level (SPL) produces a very good audio definition that is noticeable compared to other cheaper models. The built-in rechargeable battery has capacity of 1000-mAh and consequently the long battery life is extremely useful.

On the down side the plastic clip within the ear cup, which secures the hinge has a tendency to break if you are heavy handed. People new to the design of these headphones often end up fiddling around with the cups trying to turn them in ways they are not supposed to, and that can damage them. I was lucky to find a broken pair with such a fault going cheap and managed to repair them. You can see the repair in the following pages of this multi-page article. The button design and layout was confusing because they were all the same colour without clear markings. There is also a microphone grill that looks just like one of the buttons that might confuse you, but these are minor things and I managed to figure it out after reading the manual.

Replacement Cables

For a wired connection, you will need a wire with 2.5 mm stereo jack plug on one end to fit into the headphones socket. In the specs they mention 3.5 mm jack, which is the end that connects to your phone or hi-fi. There is more information about this on the box graphics. For the charging cable, you will need to have a wire with a micro USB plug at one end to fit into the headphone socket port.

Price/eBay

These are top quality headphones that one would expect from the Harman Corporation, and consequently they are expensive especially for us Brits and lowly publishers. However the sound is decent and comfort is excellent making them very desirable. If you are buying on the auction site then make sure not to stumble upon fakes as these are high-ticket items. Overall, a genuine pair is worth getting if you have the big bucks, and of course, it is a good idea to shop around for the best deal as the price can vary greatly. In the following pages of this article you can see the inside view of the drivers and circuitry when I disassembled my pair for repair.

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