K-240S Promenade
So well, it's been clinically experimentally proven: nobody really cares about a fellow with a weird hairdo (that is, a lack of one) in full-size circumaural headphones. In Mexico City, anyway.
K-240 Studio, headphone amplifier, CD player.
The scientific experiment was a stroll around Polanco and Condesa, around Mariano Escobedo, Homero, Amsterdam and such streets.
Aside from a fellow on Mariano Escobedo st., who must've heard the sound of Nirvana's "Rape Me" at louder-than-thee volume (it wasn't really "loud" by K-240 standards; when headphones of the K-240 class are driven loud, air pressure starts hurting ear membranes - bass kicks literally get hammered into one's head), and packer kids at the store (the cable and golden logos got out from under the hood), nobody noticed. So well, K-1000 might turn a few heads around (then again, those are potential head-turners anywhere), but nobody seemed to pay attention in the "fashion-offended" way to the "humble" K-240, yet alone even recognise the AKG stamp.
AKG K-1000.
In conclusion: if certain German reviewers of headphones might take a strange consideration such as "too large to wear in street" into account when preparing a comparison between different models, here even something as obviously un-mainstream as the K-240, makes zero impact.
Now about K-240S on the street... Funny thing is, the K-240 Studio isn't so great for monitoring mixes destined for a CD (the older K-240 Monitor is way more transparent); its bass exaggeration and slight roloff of mid-high frequencies do show. But outdoors... The K-240 Studio is obviously a pair of headphones designed for drummers recording in session - those have a lot of bass around them, so they need a set of headphones capable of drowning out the fuss.
Which makes them great for isolating street noises. Pretty much anything, really. They're even effective in the underground. The effect is a portable hi-fi zone (when combined with a headphone amplifier, though there ought to be players capable of driving them loud, too). With the excitement the headphones create, it's quite a contrast of the internal, private zone of music to whichever greyness might be on the outside.
Which is the other bit about the K-240S... They're not really "professional" headphones capable of turning themselves invisible (the best headphones are those that aren't there - that is, fully transparent), but their bass exaggeration and very, very slight mid/high-frequency rolloff are not hurting. They do not distort the music; they exaggerate its "warmth" and are capable of reproducing pretty much anything thrown at them in full detail. The Headroom review called the K-240S a "basshead" set, and they are suitable to a basshead, but when equalised, they respond immediately to every decibel measure. They do like the mid-high range boosted, not the bass recessed though. Which EQ makes them sound not quite like a "basshead" set.
On the street, they always tempt a dance to the music; with Gershwin's piano rolls record they almost provoked a charleston-like leg-kicking; head-nodding to the synthesised strings with Schulze/Namlook, and so on.