We haven't come as far in 30 years as we should have: my experience with a NOS pair of AKG K340's

The same could be said for the resurgence of vinyl and tubes, which looked to be going the way of the Dodo bird.

Having grown up in a vinyl and tube world with a very high end system that could probably also heat your house, I was convinced that both vinyl and tubes were dead forever when reel-to-reel, solid state, and then digital arrived.

Those are gorgeous.

and many vintage speakers sound just as good as speakers now. Speakers and headphones are relatively simple machines, improvements will never get as huge as with amps or DACs.

I have an old pair of akg k240m(600oms) which is probably at least 20 years old and I don't think they are that far behind the hd800.

It's funny how I was the one to think of that before you; I can't stand vinyl, too finicky and high-maintenance.
well, enjoy those!
Vinyl rips, on the other hand...

If headphone reproduction had changed too much over so many years, either now or before something had been done WRONG.

The sound quality of a headphone call it X, Y or Z can't be too different from each other in absolute terms. If that were the case a guitar wouldn't sound like a guitar, nor a piano like a piano, etc...

What we have now is different presentations of the same sounds. And even if they might seem big at first listen, our brains can get used to anything, so the difference we at first thought to be big ain't not so big after time...

For vinyl, I remember we used to put a thin cardboard template (like a 45 rpm record) on the turntable to check the speed. It had a pattern on it which merged/separated if the speed was not precisely right. Of course it made a huge difference in the sound if the turntable speed was off even very slightly. I have no idea how this is tested today over 40 years later but it worked pretty well.

Yes, tube amps may be an old technology in itself, but the amps behind the tubes have evolved quite a bit over the years if I'm not mistaken. Tube amps today cannot always be described with the words syrupy, slow, etc that used to go hand in hand with tube amps.

But I agree, I think it's rather pathetic the way headphones have progressed. Not just the K340. Also the K240 Sextett (if you have a good pair) has a more realistic sound than most hp's today. Not to mention what I consider the best dynamic headphone ever produced, the Grado HP1000, made 30 years ago as well, and not only that, it was tuned by hand, or by ear I should say, without any of the fancy equipment used today by Beyer, AKG, Sennheiser, etc which still doesn't bring them very close to the accuracy of those phones.

we've gone forward in some ways, and backwards in some ways, forgetting technology like planar drivers, and for the most part, stax, which has a lot of potential.

I suppose it is more about money today, then experimenting with new ideas and technology to find better sound. i should be more specific though. judging by the success of dynamic headphones (which i won't name lest we start a flame war) by various manufacturers that use very old technology, or in fact simpler/cheaper designs than earlier models, it doesn't take fancy designs or cutting edge technology or the best sound possible to sell headphones. More important is fancy packaging, looks, and marketing.

But headphones like the HE-5 and upcoming HE-5LE and LCD-1/2 and HD800 and T1 all go against that trend. Even if they may not sound that much better than the K340...

I've had much the same experience with vintage Stax. The 1982 SR-5NB I have I find to be more refined and musical than a great many headphones, quite a few costing more than these did.

I've always wanted to try K340s though.

How does it compare to the T1, HD 800, JH13 et al?

Admittedly I have never pleasured to hear a pair of K 340s, but I'd hazard to guess that the improvements are available in modern-day equipment. It's just that you pay around the same inflation-adjusted price ($275 30 years ago = $1000 today) for that kind of cutting edge sound relative to the competition today. Unfortunately $275 doesn't go a long way nowadays.

To be fair desktop headphone amps have improved even less in the time they've been around. DACs have improved fairly substantially, but the expensive vintage DACs of yesteryear are far superior to anything less than middle-high end of today.

Indeed.

I was very displeased that my old old iriver player had better sound quality (and a custom eq) than the new zune. Your case is valid, newer doesn't always mean better. I think much has to do with with limitations with human ears instead of technology.