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Music:

Musicacl reproduction is always one of the hardest things for headphones to take on, given the limited driver size and power, this really makes it so the higher area of the midrange makes itself prominent. The lows and the highest notes generally get cut out because the driver is trying to work as a universal output. The AK-R8 uses 8 drivers and when called into 2.0 mode it seem sto provide a very solid tone.

Oceans 13 OST:

Oceans 13 provides a very unqiue mix of audio, anywhere from Frank Sinatra to the Soul tones of The Motherhood - Soul Town. In this demo I'll be checking out the balance of the two.

Frank Sinatra - This Town: A really casual big band assortment, the musical tone ranges from peaks in the brass section right down to the steady beat being kicked out by the drums and bass, the song rolls very well int he acoustics, the AK-R8's represent the high range well enough in 5.1 mode but because it's trying to do so much with it, the song is best left to 2.0 where it has a richer fuller body to it, in this case the 5.1 technology really seems to fail out, you can't have a classic feel without hearing the actual lower range, the problem in 5.1 mode is that it uses the sub to more or less rumble instead of actually kicking and feeling like a low tone.

The Motherhood - Soul Town - This track is full of soul, tons of brass, lots of mid and high ranges being used, honestly it's just absolutely great as a track favorite, at this point 2.0 mode becomes a standard selection, the power and the feel of the headphones is solid, up to 4 channel mode it's even pretty good if you want to feel a little more variety with the arrangement of instruments here. Personally both tracks end up demonstrating that the encoder / decoder aren't really music friendly for the headphones, I'm sure on a proper speaker arrangement this can be controlled, but as is it needs a little work.

Oreskaband:

Next up was the popular track Tsumasaki, a huge ska treatment by Oreskaband.

Tsumasaki - The first thing that really kicks in is the usage of the bass, solid tones just hit hard from the gates, the music is really thick in that sense, it's a full body approach that helps support the track. The AK-R8 works to support the low end while also highlighting the horn section. Of course on top of this lets throw in the melody from the guitar section and the actual drums and the high vocals from the all female leads. When it all loads up on the drivers, I have to say that things go quite well, I like how regardless of the variation, the drivers don't load up or bottom out like in standard 2.0 configurations. The music maintained consistency and a good range true to the original.