AKG K340 ? Are they for me ?

[swt61]

OK, if the bass is sounding like it's borderline too much, you definitely have the bass heavy version. The bass heavy version I heard recently was a very different signature from mine, and I wasn't crazy about it. It sounded overall kind of murky, without the beautiful clear presentation mine have. Not sure if all the bass heavy versions have this signature, with 20+ y.o. drivers you never know if SQ is attributed to that.

One thing you can try is adding a cotton ball into the center of the earcups. This + the cotton already present in the outer circumference of the cups was said to open them up a bit in the pair I heard.

 

[SonicDawg]

From my experience with the bass heavy version, clear out the cotton, biwiring them with copper wires to the dynamic drivers, and silver/SPC wires to the electrat units, and degrilling them help ALOT. Btw, I don't believe that the electrat units are dead. Most likely it is the lower frequency bleeding too much of the HF... Yes, the bass is THAT overwhelming when unmodded

 

[philodox]

Yeah, removing the cotton and taping up the back helps a lot with the bass and imaging. Recabling and recreening should help the highs. My headphones do not sound closed. I had an amp designer over and when switching between the K340 and the HD650 [I had a pair on loan from Tyll at the time], he thought that the HD650 was the closed headphone and that the K340 were open.

 

[swt61]

A question from a guy who's only done a littel cotton tweaking on the inside of the K340's, and this without fully pulling out the driver assembly. Where is the dynamic driver you guys are refering to? All I see when I open them up is the electret and the passive drivers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, removing the cotton and taping up the back helps a lot with the bass and imaging. Recabling and recreening should help the highs. My headphones do not sound closed. I had an amp designer over and when switching between the K340 and the HD650 [I had a pair on loan from Tyll at the time], he thought that the HD650 was the closed headphone and that the K340 were open.

Really? Not that I don't believe you, I just would have thought more cotton would tame the bass of the bass heavy version. But you have all the cotton removed from your bass light versions too Jason, am I right?

And I totally agree with the rescreening, I find it as important as the recable, and it was a piece of cake on the pair I just did. Of coarse I have more tools than Norm Abrams.

 

[Koolind]

"clear out the cotton, biwiring them with copper wires to the dynamic drivers, and silver/SPC wires to the electrat units, and degrilling them"

"Yeah, removing the cotton and taping up the back helps a lot with the bass and imaging. Recabling and recreening should help the highs."

Well then my mission must be to remove the cotton.. tape up the back and do a biwiring of the drivers and a rescreening if i can find something to fit as a screen... Recabling i cant afford right now... but the other things should be quite cheap to do...

But how much of a difference does this do ?.. thinking that IF i dont like them anyway i then just have decreased the eventual resale value..

 

[Koolind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swt61 /img/forum/go_quote.gif And I totally agree with the rescreening, I find it as important as the recable, and it was a piece of cake on the pair I just did. Of coarse I have more tools than Norm Abrams.

How did you do the rescreening ? and what did you use for the screening ? IS there really a need for more screening than the metal behind the plastic screen i could think ?

 

[Koolind]

just had a WOW experience...

Just listened to Eric Claptons unplugged album - track 3 "hey hey"..

Sounded just SOO good... holy sh**... had not heard the track much before, so thought that it might just be a track i had not really listened seriously to... so tried it with my MS1's and well... all the detail and beautiful tone are gone... just figured... wow these cans are good

This really is what i love about head-fi

 

[swt61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolind /img/forum/go_quote.gif How did you do the rescreening ? and what did you use for the screening ? IS there really a need for more screening than the metal behind the plastic screen i could think ?

I wouldn't want my ears rubbing on the electrets. I used my router table to cut out the screened section of the screen piece, leaving the solid outer ring. I then used speaker grill cloth (robbed from some Logitech computer speakers) and glued it to the trim piece, then cut the cloth all the way around using the trim piece as my guide.

You can use some snips to cut the grill out and file or sand it smooth around the inside edge, I just happen to like a power cord on the end of my tools.

 

[Mr_Penut]

seeing as this review may never be finished, I will say that the akg's are the best do everything headphones I've heard, imo. They are great, and I can't wait to mod mine

 

[Koolind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swt61 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wouldn't want my ears rubbing on the electrets. I used my router table to cut out the screened section of the screen piece, leaving the solid outer ring. I then used speaker grill cloth (robbed from some Logitech computer speakers) and glued it to the trim piece, then cut the cloth all the way around using the trim piece as my guide. You can use some snips to cut the grill out and file or sand it smooth around the inside edge, I just happen to like a power cord on the end of my tools.

oh.. i was thinking in something solid like some grado-wire-grid-like material... but well some thin fabric sure sounds a lot more comfy..

Did my HD600's screens with a piece of my girlfriends stockings (or what is the name of such a thing) its very thin but smooth

 

[swt61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolind /img/forum/go_quote.gif oh.. i was thinking in something solid like some grado-wire-grid-like material... but well some thin fabric sure sounds a lot more comfy.. Did my HD600's screens with a piece of my girlfriends stockings (or what is the name of such a thing) its very thin but smooth

Pantyhose. They're not as durable as speaker cloth, but for this application might work just fine.

 

[SonicDawg]

Koolind:

Speaker cloth works the best. If you want, pm me and I can send you a sheet. As for recabling, it is really affordable, if you know how (hint:ebay) Most of the ethernet Cat5 cables are great as oxygen free copper cables. For the SPC wires, you only need a little snippets of them. I can send you some as well, if you like.

 

[Koolind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SonicDawg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Koolind: Speaker cloth works the best. If you want, pm me and I can send you a sheet. As for recabling, it is really affordable, if you know how (hint:ebay) Most of the ethernet Cat5 cables are great as oxygen free copper cables. For the SPC wires, you only need a little snippets of them. I can send you some as well, if you like.

oh.. great tips there.. but recabeling with Cat5 cable ? arent the wires in Cat5 cables very very thin ?

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolind /img/forum/go_quote.gif oh.. great tips there.. but recabeling with Cat5 cable ? arent the wires in Cat5 cables very very thin ?

They're reasonably sized at 24AWG. Generally thicker than most stock cable wires (which can be as thin as 32AWG).

 

[philodox]

I could be wrong about the cotton, it has been a while since tweaking my first pair. I would suggest trying different amounts of cotton to try to find a happy medium. Experimenting with blutak would be a good idea as well if you get strange resonances.