AKG N60NC Wireless Headphones Review

The AKG N60NC Wireless have a similar look to the AKG K490-NC, but their larger design makes them look more dense and durable. Their ear cups have polished metal rings and thick padding. Their headband is fully padded, which is slightly different from the K490 and doesn’t have big apparent screws where the cups fold. They are fairly low-profile but look quite good.

The AKG N60NC are fairly lightweight, and their on-ear design is decently comfortable. You can wear these for a few hours, but they might get uncomfortable after a while since they put pressure directly on your ears. On the upside, the padding is thick and comfortable, and the headband is more padded than the AKG K490-NC. The cups are also larger and cover more ear surface, which some may prefer.

The AKG N60NC's control scheme is simple and easy to use. However, the layout is a bit different from most headphones. There's a power switch for turning the headphones on/off, but you also use it for their pairing procedure. There's another switch for track skipping that you can also press to play/pause music or answer/end calls. The volume controls are in an unusual but distinctive spot on the top of the right ear cup. The feedback of the physical buttons is decent, and they feel clicky, but the sliding switches aren’t the best. You don’t get any audio cues other than when powering the headphones on and off and when they connect to your device.

The AKG N60NC Wireless are breathable headphones thanks to their on-ear design. They trap less heat than over-ear headphones but might still make you sweat a bit more after a while, especially during physical activity. You might feel a slight difference in temperature while wearing them for long periods.

The AKG N60NC are decently portable due to their foldable cups. You can slide them easily inside a bag, and you can protect them with the included pouch. The cups also rotate to lay flat.

They come with a pouch that will protect the headphones against scratches and very minor water exposure but won’t help prevent damage taken from falls.

The AKG N60NC are decently well-built headphones. They have a similar design to the AKG K490-NC, but the materials used seem denser and sturdier. The headband is metal, which is an upgrade over the K490 and is also fully padded. The cups are also larger and seem to be able to survive a few accidental drops without too much damage. However, since the cups rotate and fold, there are a few moving parts that could be susceptible to break after a while. If you are looking for a better-built option, check out the more robust Beats Solo Pro Wireless.

These headphones aren't the most stable. The cups are heavier than those of the AKG K490-NC Wireless, and they wobble around a lot if you move your head sideways. The headphones can slide fairly easily off your ears by simply tilting your head forward. It shouldn't be a problem for casual listening sessions, but they won't be usable for physical activity. Their wireless design eliminates the risk of having a cable that could get hooked on something, which would yank the headphones off your head.

• AKG N60NC headphones
• 1/8" TRRS audio cable
• Micro-USB charging cable
• Airplane adapter
• Carrying pouch
• Manuals

The AKG N60NC Wireless have a good frequency response consistency. In the bass range, they seem to be using their ANC to verify the seal and ensuring proper bass delivery. In the treble range (below 10KHz), the maximum amount of deviation is about 6dB, which is good, but the positioning of the headphones on the head can affect their perceived brightness.

The AKG N60NC's bass accuracy is decent. The LFE (low-frequency extension) of 14Hz is excellent. Low-bass is flat and follows our target curve well, meaning these headphones will produce the right amount of thump and rumble. Mid-bass, responsible for the body of bass guitars and punch of the kick drums, is well-balanced but slightly overemphasized by 2dB. Also, high-bass is overemphasized by more than 3dB, which adds a bit of boominess to the sound.

The mid-range performance is good. The range is fairly even and flat, but there’s a 7dB tilt favoring lower frequencies, making vocals and lead instruments sound slightly thick and cluttered.

Their treble accuracy is good. The response is rather uneven but well-balanced across the whole range. On the other hand, the small peaks in the range could make some S and T sounds a bit sharp on already bright tracks.

The imaging performance is excellent. The weighted group delay is at 0.15, which is very low. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold. It ensures a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our test unit were very well-matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (instruments, voices, footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

Their passive soundstage performance is bad. The PRTF graph shows little amount of ear activation and interaction, and it's not very accurate. Also, there's no 10KHz notch present either. This and the closed-back design result in a soundstage that's perceived to be inside the listener's head.

The AKG N60NC have an impressive noise isolation performance. In the bass range, where engine rumble sits, they provide about 15dB of isolation, which is good. In the mid-range, important for canceling out ambient speech, they achieved 17dB of isolation, which is also good. They do well in the treble range, occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts and fan noises like A/C systems, and isolate by about 34dB.

Their leakage performance is good. A significant portion of leakage sits between 2KHz and 5KHz, which is a narrow range. The overall level of leakage is quite low. With the music at 100dB SPL, their leakage averages at 36dB SPL but peaks at 58dB SPL, which is about the noise floor of an average office.

The integrated mic has a mediocre recording quality. The LFE of 289Hz results in a recorded/transmitted speech that is relatively thin. The HFE of 2.8KHz is poor and suggests speech that is muffled and lacks detail. Overall, the understandability of speech on this microphone will still be decent in quiet environments.

The integrated microphone is mediocre at noise handling. In our SpNR test, the AKG N60NC achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 14dB, indicating that the microphone performs best in quiet environments and may struggle in moderately loud environments.

The AKG N60NC have about 13 hours of continuous playback, which should last you a normal workday without any problem. However, it's slightly under the advertised 15 hours. Also, if you use them wired with ANC on, you’ll double that number according to the AKG specs sheet, but we don't test for that. Unfortunately, the headphones don’t turn off automatically or enter a standby mode to save battery life, but you can use them passively with the included 1/8" TRRS audio cable, even if the battery is dead. If you're looking for Bluetooth on-ear headphones with longer battery life, consider the Status Audio BT One Wireless, which last close to 23 hours on a single charge.

The AKG N60NC aren't compatible with the AKG Headphone mobile app like the AKG N700NC Wireless. If you want on-ears that have an app for customization options, take a look at the Sony WH-XB700 Wireless.

The AKG N60NC Wireless support an older Bluetooth version, but this shouldn’t be an issue. On the upside, they can connect to two devices simultaneously, which means you can switch between your phone and work computer. You can easily switch between the two devices thanks to the connection slider directly on the headphones.

Their latency with PCs and Android devices is quite low, but it's much higher with iOS devices. They also support the aptX codec, which slightly reduces their latency when connected to PCs. Also, certain apps and devices seem to compensate for latency, so you might not even notice the delay at all.

You can use these wireless headphones with the included 1/8” TRRS audio cable on consoles. You'll get audio and microphone support on all consoles and PCs, which makes them very versatile.

The AKG N60NC don't have a base/dock. If you want a versatile headset with a base that you can also use wired, check out the SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless 2017 or the Astro A50 Gen 3 Wireless 2017.