A very short review of the KRK KNS 8400

[odigg]

I recently heard the KRK KNS 8400 headphone. I've been a fan of KRK's Rokit monitors for some time, so I decided to try them. These are a new competitor to the Shure headphones and so they are available at most Guitar Centers.

Overall, the sound is quite balanced. Like a number of other studio monitors they have a bit of boost somewhere (upper midrange?) so that fine details come out. This can make the sound somewhat nasally/thin.

In terms of bass, I felt they had a good amount of bass. I'm not sure about the extension, but I suspect the bass rolls off a bit at the lower (below 50hz or so) frequencies. The is NOT a bass head headphone. I suspect a lot of people will say these headphones do not have enough bass.

I prefer the KRK to the Shure 840 because the KRKs have a decent treble presence, whereas the Shures sounded a little rolled off at the top.

The KRK also had a weird issue where if I pushed the ear cups a bit closer to my ear they sounded a lot better. I wonder if they could do with thinner ear pads?

The KRK headphone is decent for the price, but I didn't buy it and don't plan to.

[WalkGood]

I love to hear the KRK 8400’s, how’s the cable on them, it’s a bit hard to see from pictures I’ve seen? On the other hand I found the SRH840s to be fun/enjoyable phone to hear but then again the pair I tried had been well broken in. On the down side I didn’t like the coiled cable at all but that can be modified.

[odigg]

The cable on the KRKs is just a very basic detachable straight cable - it's not coiled. To be honest, it seemed a little cheap for a $200 ($150 street price) headphone. There is also a detachable in-line volume control.

Here is an unboxing video I found on youtube. You can get a basic idea of the cable quality from this.

unboxing video

unboxing video