[section_title title=”Performance”]Performance
The pursuit of small from AKG with the K323 lends itself well to the comfort of the earphones to the point where I was forgetting there was anything there. The minuscule size and weight somehow dwarf the limited presence the Uplift commanded, giving off a bizarre sense of freedom. There is, understandably, no excess cable and faff with the K323 as there was with the Uplift, either. AKG do produce an inline control option for the K323 but it isn’t in their store or strangely on the K323 spec sheet either. All measurements and weights on the product page explicitly state they’re for the non-inline version of the K323 in this review, but nothing on the inline version. All the same, I find it highly unlikely it would add much weight, let alone length to the K323 given typical designs are small.
As I mentioned on the previous page, the build quality of the K323 doesn’t feel poor by any means but it pales in comparison to the Uplift. The lack of significant weight in the K323 should mean them getting knocked around shouldn’t cause too much damage, but it would be foolish to think the modules themselves could stand the same sort of punishment that the Uplift could sustain after a prolonged period. Building on this, it seems a shame that the AKG don’t sport a braided cable as the earphones are a perfect fit for physical activity and I’d expect these to get more overall usage than competing headphones whether for travelling purposes or after hours activities.
Of course, AKG’s sentiment throughout their K323 product page is small and light-weight; the sound produced is anything but. The K323 sound incredibly sharp for such a small device. There is no over-eager bass present here and everything sounds on point and precise. Comparing directly with the Haim and SBTRKT material used in the Uplift review, there is no drop-off between the different layers in the tracks and there is no sense that the bass is a sound, but more so a feeling. Whilst the K323 give up the possibility of an exciting low-frequency drive there is no worry that they’re going to drive off the proverbial cliff, either. The sound isn’t restrained, but constrained within its known quality zone. There is no need to drop the volume using the K323 to get rid of any distortion induced by a greedy bass effort like there was on occasion with the Uplift, either, meaning you can have your music playing at any volume you choose.
