AKG K52 vs Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8 (2018)

The AKG K52 makes for a good, if unremarkable, Closed-Back Headphone for people with a $35 budget.

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, is merely mediocre at its $302 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $35 and $220 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the AKG K52 and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The AKG K52 managed to earn a spot in roundups from two sources that are known for their trustworthy review methodology - What Hi-Fi? and Android Central - but fell short of making it to the top of their lists.

As for the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at Techradar, PCmag, and Wirecutter (NYTimes) enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Closed-Back Headphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the AKG K52 got its highest, 10, rating from What Hi-Fi?, while the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) earned its best, 9.4, score from Lifewire.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Closed-Back Headphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Closed-Back Headphones being 7.4 out of 10, whereas the AKG K52 and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) managed averages of 9.0 and 8.5 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct AKG K52 vs. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.