I was watching a 2-year-old interview with Dr Sean (Harman Target) Olive. They asked him what he considered to be the AKG (Owned by Harman) flagship IEM, and he mentioned the AKG N5005, which is apparently one of the first and most expensive IEMs made by AKG based on all the Harman Target research, and it had an MSRP of $1000. Ever since Samsung bought Harman and everything it owns, AKG has been clearing out inventory of all of their old stuff at reduced prices…
Well lo-and-behold… the apparently $1000 IEM is now on clearance for only $159.
I ordered a pair and thought I’d share what seems like a really nice deal to try out something that may be really closely Harman tuned.
AKG N5005 | Reference Class 5-driver configuration in-ear headphones with customizable sound
This kinda deal is pretty common for this specific iem. Although last I heard about it, it was dropped to 200 usd and not 160.
(sadly only purchaseable in the US.)
I think they keep dropping the price to try and get through the inventory. This was the first I’d heard of them. 
Yes, likely the case.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uq9wu5/akg_n5005_available_for_300_dollars_is_it_a_good/
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/102aiy0/these_199_iems_were_originally_1000_akg_n5005/
Nice, the stock cables look like they might be surprisingly good (braided and flexible). Never going to use that Bluetooth neck thing tho… lol Can’t wait to eff up the sound with distortion by running them off my Woo Audio WA7.
Harman also has an eBay store at the same price
They already sold 4,611 of them there, they’re just blasting off inventory.
ASR someone did a pretty comprehensive review at
Might grab a pair, but the market will be flooded for years at that price, wish the 8khz treble peak measured wasn’t so steep…
They look cheap and tacky AF… doesn’t pass the sniff test for me so I’ll sit this one out.
8k peak could definitely be a deal breaker for some people, depending on personal hrtf. Which kind of proves the limits of Harman Target research. I personally wanted them to have a potentially good reference for Harman Target tuning, not necessarily daily driver.
They do look a bit cheap and tacky, I agree… Lol. But these are recommended by Sean Olive as the flagship AKG IEM, so I thought they would be worth giving a shot. I think they have a much better presentation in the packaging from that reddit post, compared to the marketing renders, for what it’s worth.
Looks like a once $1000 IEM packaging to me.
This is the interview in question where he mentions it. It’s conducted by Resolve (Andrew) Great interview overall. Lots of talk about Harman research, etc. I don’t remember exactly at what point he brings it up, but it’s during the Q&A session in the latter half. It’s a 2 hour interview. Wish ASR guys would watch it, given Sean is way more open to the fact that Harman Target has it’s limits. LOL He even goes over the issues of bias if you look at graphs before conducting listening tests and how it can affect bias. Something ASR does all the time.
The question to me is where they stand amonst chifi.
Aye 200 bucks can get you a killer chifi set…anyone got a set the N5005’s to compare to circa $200 chifi set?
That’s a good point, chi-fi has come along so fast. Definitely interested in some of the Moondrop stuff.
a thing to remember though…just because a product is older doesn’t mean it’s bad compared to the newer stuff. of course it can, but usually doesn’t…perfect examples are the continued popularity of the Etymotic ER series and the holding power of the Sennhesier HD6## series.
edit - LoLoL!!! Sennheiser is flagged as a spelling mistake so I checked the suggestion and it gave me Sennacherib, LoLoL!!!
I’m trying these now, as they just got delivered today, and honestly sounds pretty ‘mid’ so far. They definitely sound extremely neutral, but something else is going on too, they sound a bit grainy in the treble region to my ears. Will play with tips and try the bass filter a bit later on. So far, I definitely prefer the sound of the Blons and Tin T4s I own.
And 2 years is a very long time in chifi
The bass filters make these sound significantly better, IMO. Very punchy and dynamic!
Yes it is, but if its anything like Sony then it is fine.