It’s time to take a look at the new KRK headphones. KRK Systems — a leader in professional audio gear and studio monitors — is introducing its next-generation KNS headphones with the latest 6402 and 8402 models. Geared towards casual listening, as well as at-home producers and content creators, the new KRK headphones tap into the company’s expertise in professional-quality engineering with a classic recording studio look. Head below for more details on the new KRK KNS headphones.
New KRK headphones
KRK, best known for its studio speakers — those black and yellow monitors found in a massive number of professional studios around the planet, including my own — is now ready to upgrade its previous-generation headphones that released in 2011 with the latest KNS models. As expected from a brand of this pedigree, they are as suitable for the casual listening experience as they are for more critical production environments:
KRK Headphones provide a precise listening experience that takes you from personal studio to commercial studio to on-the-go track evaluations — and they allow you to accurately enjoy your music with the consistent voicing philosophy and honest reproduction top producers, studio musicians, performers and engineers have come to trust.
Both models fall into the closed-back, circumaural category with 40mm Neodymium transducers, a 36ohm impedance rating (ready for your smartphone and recording rig out of the box), and gold-plated 3.5mm connections (these studio guys still don’t trust the wireless connection for critical listening sessions it would appear).
Where the two models (KNS 6402 and 8402) differ outside of the price tag and overall appearance is in some of the build materials and hardcore tech specs. Firstly, the more premium 8402 set features “Acoustic Memory Foam,” as opposed to the “Acoustic Cellular Foam” on the 6402s, as well as a more high-end leatherette material on the headpad. The memory foam earpads on the 8402 model also mean you’re getting a stronger 30dBA of isolation from external sounds by comparison to the 26dBA of isolation on the more affordable set. You’ll also notice a wider frequency response range and higher maximum SPL on the 8402s as well (124dB and 122dB, 5Hz-23kHz compared to 10Hz-22kHz).
The new KRK headphones are available now, with the KNS 6402 coming in at $99 and the higher-end 8402 set fetching $149 shipped.
Electronicsforward’ Take:
The new KRK headphones might not sound all that exciting on paper, but for fans of the brand and at-home producers, these headphones are worth a closer look. They transition from the street to the studio quite seamlessly in terms of the way they look. But it seems like a misstep to release a brand new set of headphones you can’t also use wirelessly on road trips or just when out and about. Sure, some audiophiles swear by the wired connection, and for production work, that sounds like the right idea to me. However, it would have been nice to flip over to a wireless connection to test mixes outside the studio and just for casual listening. Nonetheless, KRK knows what it’s doing when it comes to high-quality audio reproduction, to say the least.
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