[Steely]

Yep, that's what i did to get rid of the discomfort.
Inverted the head band so the smooth leather part is facing down.

There's still some tension at the middle though, so i used a rubber band to tie the leather band to the two "tubes?" at the top. I guess you could use string or a zip tie.

 

[midix]

Fast forward 10 years

I noticed there seems to be some kind of a redesign of AKG K702 - now the band seems to be flat.

Also the price is cheaper - at least on European side of "the great pond":
https://www.thomann.de/de/akg_k702.htm

The videos on their website also seem to be a bit conflicting - one clearly shows the bumpy version, but the images show a smooth band.

Can anybody confirm that indeed AKG K702 in their latest incarnation come with a smooth band and can be used for 8 hours non-stop without any discomfort?

Edited:
hm, I found in some comments on Thomann.de that the flat band does not help much and they can be very uncomfortable for long use. A quote:
"The leather strap is a disaster, it goes into the head and ends with cranial pain that is not believable. It's so damn bad, you feel like you're in a medieval torture device."

Sigh. I had high hopes for these. Actually, this mechanism is used by all the best AKG headphones, so they all might be not comfortable at all for prolonged use.

 

[danterikxx]

Fast forward 10 years

I noticed there seems to be some kind of a redesign of AKG K702 - now the band seems to be flat.

Also the price is cheaper - at least on European side of "the great pond":
https://www.thomann.de/de/akg_k702.htm

The videos on their website also seem to be a bit conflicting - one clearly shows the bumpy version, but the images show a smooth band.

Can anybody confirm that indeed AKG K702 in their latest incarnation come with a smooth band and can be used for 8 hours non-stop without any discomfort?

Edited:
hm, I found in some comments on Thomann.de that the flat band does not help much and they can be very uncomfortable for long use. A quote:
"The leather strap is a disaster, it goes into the head and ends with cranial pain that is not believable. It's so damn bad, you feel like you're in a medieval torture device."

Sigh. I had high hopes for these. Actually, this mechanism is used by all the best AKG headphones, so they all might be not comfortable at all for prolonged use.

mine came with the flat band

you might want to buy some Brainwavz XL pads tho

the stock pads are awful in terms of comfort. they're angled, making your ears touch the drivers, and the foam is very stiff

 

[K_19]

Fast forward 10 years

I noticed there seems to be some kind of a redesign of AKG K702 - now the band seems to be flat.

Also the price is cheaper - at least on European side of "the great pond":
https://www.thomann.de/de/akg_k702.htm

The videos on their website also seem to be a bit conflicting - one clearly shows the bumpy version, but the images show a smooth band.

Can anybody confirm that indeed AKG K702 in their latest incarnation come with a smooth band and can be used for 8 hours non-stop without any discomfort?

Edited:
hm, I found in some comments on Thomann.de that the flat band does not help much and they can be very uncomfortable for long use. A quote:
"The leather strap is a disaster, it goes into the head and ends with cranial pain that is not believable. It's so damn bad, you feel like you're in a medieval torture device."

Sigh. I had high hopes for these. Actually, this mechanism is used by all the best AKG headphones, so they all might be not comfortable at all for prolonged use.

In my personal experience that’s not the case at all; the newer K701/2 with flat headband is MILES more comfortable than the old torture bumps headband (many years ago, I had actually cut it off on my first pair). And I have a bald top! I currently have the newer K701 with flat headband and find it comfortable enough for couple hours of listening; I could never do that with the old bumps headband. The key is to give as much surface area for the headband to rest on, so that the pressure is dispersed and not on one narrow spot (like the old center bump). For me, this means positioning the headband further back on the head rather than forward or straight down.