Despite the slightly vague and cloudy midrange, for the equivalent cost of a pair of inexpensive 'street' cans, the K72's offer a remarkably pro performance that threatens to knock Sennheiser’s HD206 off its 'best cheap studio all-rounder' throne.

The AKG K72 have a flatter frequency response than most £40 sets of headphones. As you might expect, you don’t get ultra-refined reference-grade sound at the price, but you do avoid any huge bass or treble skews.

If you’ve been looking for audiophile-grade sound for less than $50 . . . well, you’ll have to keep looking, because the AKG K72s don’t do that and I don’t know of any headphones that do. (Maybe some earphones could legitimately make that claim.) But for a set of knock-around headphones to use in places where you need sound monitoring and don’t want to fret too much about the headphones getting left on the floor and stepped on or run over with an office chair, they’re a great choice. I’d love to do some more tests of cheap studio headphones to see what else is out there, but the K72s will easily do the job for me.

A great, affordable pair of home headphones for those on a tight budget