[Jon L]

In the K340 back photo, are the wires on the right the (+ red) and the wires on left (-)?

In the K340 front photo, my passive diaphragms are not white like others'. It is transparent clear diaphragm with slight yellow tinge. You can see the "transformer" on the back photo. The headband has "AKG" logo on it. So is this the older, or newer model?

In K340 back photo, the back plastic covers for passive diaphragms are black in color (not grey, red, or green like I've seen) with little holes. Do I have to leave these little holes all open? Or can I place some damping material on this plastic so only some of the holes are covered up, to reduce buzzing type of resonance I hear on some music.

I was running the K340 off of my SuperMacro v.3 and thought there was close to zero bass. Then I remembered a post that the K340 has to be placed on the head so the back of the ears almost touch the back of the pads. Doing this gives me too much bass. Will bypassing the electronics for the dynamic driver increase/decrease bass, and will it also help with some buzzing on some bass frequencies?

 

[ReDVsion]

I hate everyone who owns a pair of K340s.

...because I want one.

 

[aznsensazian]

wow, it appears you have the older version without the screw mounted pcb. Not sure, maybe someone else can confirm. and that coil thing on the pcb looks different than mine.

 

[some1x]

OT, but what happened to the K1000s? How do you wear them?

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by some1x OT, but what happened to the K1000s? How do you wear them?

lol. Ghetto K1000s.

 

[Anders]

There is a lot I too would like to know about modding the K340. Not saying that the design of the K340 is perfect, I doubt that it is as simple as filling the holes or bypassing the crossover. Why do they have one in that case?
I have thought about rewiring it but have no experience of suitable wires and it is rather complicated to exchange the internal wiring. Hope I will get time for it sometime.

 

[philodox]

Nice headphones, they look to be in good shape. I don't think that the headband really means all that much as I have seen the AKG or non AKG on every 'type'. Internally I think yours match aerius', although he will need to confirm. Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L Will bypassing the electronics for the dynamic driver increase/decrease bass, and will it also help with some buzzing on some bass frequencies?

You may get a little more bass, but the real benifit is that it gets tight and well defined. I don't have any buzzing on my K340's, so this may correct that problem as well. Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders Not saying that the design of the K340 is perfect, I doubt that it is as simple as filling the holes or bypassing the crossover. Why do they have one in that case?

Filling the holes?

As for the 'crossover'... it is not really necissary as the passive diaphragms perform that feat themselves. The step up transformer on the circuit is needed for the electret, but it plays havoc with the dynamic driver. Take it out of the mix for the dynamic driver and everything improves dramatically. I heard aerius' headphone before and after... biggest change I've ever heard from a mod. As for the other differences between our pairs, I am beginning to think that it just might be that he uses tak and mine has the holes cut out in the screens. Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders I have thought about rewiring it but have no experience of suitable wires and it is rather complicated to exchange the internal wiring. Hope I will get time for it sometime.

Larry from Headphile explained how this is done very concisely in a post recently. It is actually pretty straight forward.

 

[Jahn]

man i was admiring how that K340 looks like a "Real" headphone, when i saw that k1000 on hanger wire in the back - the polar opposite of a "real" headphone lol!

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn man i was admiring how that K340 looks like a "Real" headphone, when i saw that k1000 on hanger wire in the back - the polar opposite of a "real" headphone lol!

Yeah, I gotta take the blame for my K1000 looking so insubstantial, but it sounds MUCH better to me this way. I get much better detail, less peakiness (along with cable mod), warmer tonality, and INCREDIBLE bass. I just need to figure out how to ake this "nude" mod look pretty. For those who want a taste of how this sounds, try wearing your regular K1000 (rotated all the way in) with headband in front of your face so the drivers are much closer to your ears.

So can people confirm that for K340, the wires running to the right of the "coil" is + (red)?

 

[aerius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L In the K340 back photo, are the wires on the right the (+ red) and the wires on left (-)?

I'm not entirely sure since I haven't opened mine up in a while. However, I did make a diagram of the external wiring. When you remove the coverplate that says "K340..." on it, you'll see 2 holes with wires coming out of them. On both sides, the wire on the right is the (+) wire, then it's a simple matter of tracing the wires to where they connect to the drivers.

Quote:

In the K340 front photo, my passive diaphragms are not white like others'. It is transparent clear diaphragm with slight yellow tinge. You can see the "transformer" on the back photo. The headband has "AKG" logo on it. So is this the older, or newer model?

I'm not sure, I suspect it's the older (same one I have BTW) version but I can't confirm it.

Quote:

In K340 back photo, the back plastic covers for passive diaphragms are black in color (not grey, red, or green like I've seen) with little holes. Do I have to leave these little holes all open? Or can I place some damping material on this plastic so only some of the holes are covered up, to reduce buzzing type of resonance I hear on some music.

You could try that, I tested it out with mine but thought it made the sound too dead.

Quote:

I was running the K340 off of my SuperMacro v.3 and thought there was close to zero bass. Then I remembered a post that the K340 has to be placed on the head so the back of the ears almost touch the back of the pads. Doing this gives me too much bass. Will bypassing the electronics for the dynamic driver increase/decrease bass, and will it also help with some buzzing on some bass frequencies?

I think the bass amount stayed about the same before & after bypassing, but the quality was much improved. It also got rid of most of the weird echoes and resonances I noticed in the bass & midrange. I don't remember if mine had any buzzing in the bass, but if it did it's gone now.

Anyways, link to my modifications thread.

 

[Jon L]

Boy, I've never been so torn over cabling choices. My choices currently are

1) Fine solid silver in teflon/air--I just KNOW I will lose the rich warmth I have now, though I'm sure it'll sound cleaner up top with tighter bass.

2) Continuous cast copper magnet wire (Vampire)--I have 21 or 26 AWG. This is sort of on top of my list right now, but it is stiff and frail, and I'll need to buy some techflex or something to make it look decent. This will enhance the midrange glow and warmth and detail but very high treble will not be enhanced much.

3) Jena Labs 22 AWG cryo'd stranded copper in unflourinated teflon--Hmm. I have just enough length. I don't think this sounds as coherent or liquid as ccc magnet wire, but it's a hell of a lot flexible, and I can even leave it uncovered with decent looks. Probably has better bass warmth/tightness balance than the two above options.

4) Plenum Cat5 with teflon--Each strand is 24 awg. I could use 2 or 4 wire per contact. Should sound pretty good, and it doesn't need any more covering/techflex b/c it already has nice blue jacket over it. Never tried this stuff for Headphone/interconnects, though..

5) Mil-spec silver-plated stranded copper w/ teflon--the smallest awg one I have is still stiff as hell, around 20-22 awg I think. I don't know.. I never really liked silver-plated copper for signal wire, but I can see this complementing and livening up the K340 a bit..

Any suggestions or experiences comparing one or more of above? My 4-pin XLR plug should arrive any day now, and I need a plan in action soon. TIA!

P.S.

When I first received K340, I had forgotten to turn off the P->S switch on my SuperMacro v.3. So for a while, my poor SMv.3 was pushing nearly 500 Ohms load. To make matters worse, I didn't know about the bass-friendly placement on my ears yet so I had very little bass, making me keep the SM bass boost on. This punishing combo of mistakes really had me scared for a minute

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L 1) Fine solid silver in teflon/air--I just KNOW I will lose the rich warmth I have now, though I'm sure it'll sound cleaner up top with tighter bass.

I wouldnt be so sure of that as my K340s are cabled in silver and still have a good amount of warmth and a nice liquid midrange. The K340s are somewhat recessed in the treble and I think the silver helps that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L 5) Mil-spec silver-plated stranded copper w/ teflon--the smallest awg one I have is still stiff as hell, around 20-22 awg I think. I don't know. I never really liked silver-plated copper for signal wire, but I can see this complementing and livening up the K340 a bit.

This might be your best bet as it will add a bit of punch to the bass and should allow for a little more high end sparkle... if my Zu Mobius is any indication. Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L When I first received K340, I had forgotten to turn off the P->S switch on my SuperMacro v.3. So for a while, my poor SMv.3 was pushing nearly 500 Ohms load. To make matters worse, I didn't know about the bass-friendly placement on my ears yet so I had very little bass, making me keep the SM bass boost on. This punishing combo of mistakes really had me scared for a minute.

Yikes, that would be a pretty bad start.

You might want to consider biwiring the headphones with the OCC magnet wire to the dynamic drivers and silver to the electrets as another option.

 

[Anders]

phildox wrote:
"As for the 'crossover'... it is not really necissary as the passive diaphragms perform that feat themselves. The step up transformer on the circuit is needed for the electret, but it plays havoc with the dynamic driver. Take it out of the mix for the dynamic driver and everything improves dramatically. I heard aerius' headphone before and after... biggest change I've ever heard from a mod."

I haven't heard it so I can't say anyting about the sound except that I am convinced that there is a big difference. But I am surprised if AKG has made such a major design flaw that considerably deteriorates the performance of one their top models.

Regarding the wire I think it must be flexible if the headphone is rewired through the headband, otherwise there is a risk that it will be broken after a while as the wire moves when adapting the height of the headband.
I think I would prefer copper to retain the original sound character, 80s sound but hopefully more refined after rewiring.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders I haven't heard it so I can't say anyting about the sound except that I am convinced that there is a big difference. But I am surprised if AKG has made such a major design flaw that considerably deteriorates the performance of one their top models.

Don't get me wrong, it doesnt sound like ass before the mod or anything... it just really clears things up. Also, aerius and I have been using these with very powerfull amps and I have found that with lesser amps the bass is really not there... it is possible that this is less of an issue with the K340 pre mods. It may be that by modding them in this manner the bass driver is hard to drive... it is hard to say for sure as I have only heard mine after the mods were done and I had limited time with aerius' set before he modded them. Quote:

Originally Posted by Anders Regarding the wire I think it must be flexible if the headphone is rewired through the headband, otherwise there is a risk that it will be broken after a while as the wire moves when adapting the height of the headband.

Dual entry is definately the way to go with these as it makes this factor less of a consideration.

 

[aerius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L Boy, I've never been so torn over cabling choices. My choices currently are

I think solid core copper is the way to go with the K340, causes severe flexibility issues unfortunately. I haven't tried solid silver yet, but for some reason stranded silver wires collapsed the soundstage depth on my headphones when used on the dynamic drivers. It's fine though for wiring from the dynamic driver to the electrostatic panel.

Right now I'm using 2 pairs of wires from a Cat-6 cable, 23awg solid core copper with teflon insulation. One wire to each contact point. Used a poly-something-or-other fabric sleeve to make it look pretty, techflex is too stiff & microphonic. I think magnet wire will work even better, but I'm too lazy to go out and buy another spool and I'm still having bad dreams about the last time I had to twist magnet wire together to make cables.

Just a note, be really really careful doing the solder joints to the tabs on the dynamic driver. If you overheat it you may detach the voice coil wire from the tab, and if that happens you are in a world of trouble. Happened to me once and if it weren't for the miracle of conductive silver-based epoxy I'd be out a headphone right now.