The sound of music on the Galaxy S8’s bundled AKG headphones
The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes bundled with a free pair of earphones tuned by AKG that have an approximate street value of US99 which clocks in at about RM435 in local currency. Like many of its ilk, the earphones allow you to take calls as well and have a pair of line-in controls that allow you to control music volume and playback. Each earphone terminates in a silicone earbud while the cable itself is a combination of a plastic sheath on the upper end terminating with a cable protected by a length of braided fabric and a reinforced 3.5mm jack at the end.
The braided fabric sheathing a good length of the headphone’s cables ensures that they hold up to hard use without them fraying over time and users who tend to inadvertently yank their headphones out by accident or misadventure will appreciate the sturdily built audio jack at the end that is robust enough that you can remove them by gentle but firm yank on the cord. The build quality is solid and the earbuds fit fairly comfortably when worn with little chance of it falling off on account of the snug fit. If that doesn’t work and it feels overly loose or tight, you have the option of a couple of extra earbuds that you can swap out for a better fit. Once properly fitted, the earbuds also had the additional bonus of offering a modicum of passive noise suppression too.
When pitted against a variety of genres including Joanna Wang’s dulcet voice, the obligatory barrage of contemporary pop and a bit of electronica and house as well as a bit of the Eagles and Enya, the AKG headphones managed to serve up relatively balanced audio with an emphasis on detail in the midrange, a decent amount of treble and just enough bass without drowning out the rest of a track. Vocals were well handled with good clarity as well. The soundstage feels restrained and isn’t as wide and deep as we’d like it to be but it proved more than sufficient for mainstream listening and gaming. As it stands, it’s a fairly balanced pair of buds that can handle most genres. While philistines would prefer something more bass heavy, the bundled AKGs aren’t a crude club to simply swing at the nearest bass-heavy rock track and its balanced output makes it more of an all-rounder rather than a means to reenact a heavy metal concert in your skull.
If the sound doesn’t quite appeal, you can tweak it to your own specifications to some degree via the S8’s audio tuner where you can modify equaliser settings, gravitate the audio towards bass or treble or focus emphasis on vocals versus instrumental. There are also audio profiles based on age seeing as the average person tends to gradually have less sensitivity towards higher frequency audio as they get older. Once properly adjusted, the AKGs sounded much better.
The buds are decent out of the box and are heads and shoulders better than the usual malarkey you get bundled with a phone. They only get better when you tune them properly on the S8 and the best part is that they don’t use up a valuable port nor do they need ‘courage’ to use. Most of all: they’re free and as far as free kit goes, they’re a pretty darned good pair of earbuds indeed.
