AKG K340 Electrostatic Phones

[esuko]

Well I do not see K340 and K701 being similar in sound. They are compety different concepts. K701 has a normal open headphone configuration with moderate sized driver. K340 on the other hand has one dynamic driver, six passive drivers and the high frequency responce is taken by the electret driver from 4kHz on. From the same period of time K240 had similar if not the same dynamic driver/passive configuration as K340. K340 is a closed design and shares some qualities good and bad of other closed desings. But when the electret kicks in at high frequencies it is quite unique headphone.

 

[REB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuko /img/forum/go_quote.gif Darkvoice 336i have been recommended by others. Have not personaly heard it. I would at least stay away from amplifiers with high output impedance because it alters the frequency response of K340 too much and does no favours for the bass tightness. So I would at least stay away from Graham Slee Solo and similar high output impedance amplifiers. Receivers generaly have a high output impedance so stay away from them.

I concur. I owned a pair of k340s and paired them with my Solo (otherwise my favorite amp). It didn't work out well. The k340 was too bright, bordering at sibilance, and the bass extension was disappointing. Although it took me a while to figure that out. I quite liked that sound in the beginning

.

 

[TDL-speakers]

I'm a bit dissapointed with my Rotel RC-03, as it uses a dedicated IC (integrated circuit) as a headphones amplifier. But I have to say it sounds good though.

I use a NAD poweramp in my system, would the NAD benefit better with a NAD preamp? Be nice if there was a NAD preamp that had it's own headphone transformer inside.

 

[helios]

Agree with Esuko. The K340 and K701 are very different.

 

[MONVMENTVM]

Aren't speaker amps optimized to drive speakers that have an impedance of around 8 Ohms, while K340 are 600 Ohm!? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[esuko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MONVMENTVM /img/forum/go_quote.gif Aren't speaker amps optimized to drive speakers that have an impedance of around 8 Ohms, while K340 are 600 Ohm!? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Receivers headphone jack is usually connected to the speaker line trought 120ohm resistor(that is the international standard Beyerdynamic uses to develope their headphones). AKG K340 is developed for amps that does not imcorporate excessive output impedance, the less the better. If you would ask me why. I would answer: because of AKG K340 studio heritage it was suppose to be used from a mixer with little output impedance not from hifi speaker amp.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuko /img/forum/go_quote.gif Receivers headphone jack is usually connected to the speaker line trought 120ohm resistor(that is the international standard Beyerdynamic uses to develope their headphones). AKG K340 is developed for amps that does not imcorporate excessive output impedance, the less the better. If you would ask me why. I would answer: because of AKG K340 studio heritage it was suppose to be used from a mixer with little output impedance not from hifi speaker amp.

I thought it was normally closer to 300 ohms?

feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

 

[esuko]

No you are not wrong it indeed varies. But I remember reading that Beyerdynamic desing their home headphones with this 120ohm standards. But I have seen speaker amps having output impedance high as 470ohm.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuko /img/forum/go_quote.gif No you are not wrong it indeed varies. But I remember reading that Beyerdynamic desing their home headphones with this 120ohm standards. But I have seen speaker amps having output impedance high as 470ohm.

oh I wasn't doubting the Beyerdynamic standard, I was just remembering some articles on using recievers, integrated amps, and preampilfiers as hp amps, and what I took from is that its basically the power amp stage fed into ~300 ohm resistance for the receiver/IA crowd, and opamps for the preamp crowd (except for some really elegant preamp solutions, and some really crappy A/V receivers that use line drivers found in ipods and whatnot for the hp output stage (....yikes))

might have to bust out ye olde measuring equipment and perform some tests

 

[MaloS]

Hm, alot of confusion here it seems...


AKG k340 is 400 ohm.
If you listen to overall k340 signature, it seems to be best tuned for warmish tube amplifiers - and that does seem to work well in practice also, SET amps do the best, especially OTL. The spirit is along the lines of 'moar power' - they will strive as long as you put enough behind them (hence the speaker amp suggestion). You can recable it to use with speaker taps.

If you can, changing pads and elastics is usually a good idea. Modifications offered by various folks are not necessarily for the best.

Oh, and solid state and k340 for some reason just don't go well together.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaloS /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hm, alot of confusion here it seems... AKG k340 is 400 ohm. If you listen to overall k340 signature, it seems to be best tuned for warmish tube amplifiers - and that does seem to work well in practice also, SET amps do the best, especially OTL. The spirit is along the lines of 'moar power' - they will strive as long as you put enough behind them (hence the speaker amp suggestion). You can recable it to use with speaker taps. If you can, changing pads and elastics is usually a good idea. Modifications offered by various folks are not necessarily for the best. Oh, and solid state and k340 for some reason just don't go well together.

would I be somewhat correct in assuming the K340 is fit snugly between the K701 and K1000 in terms of drivability and whatnot?

also (and I may be mistaken), I'd read something about K701/2 and OTL being a bad pairing, is the 340 just that different due to the electrostatic aspect, or did I misread (or did someone get their facts wrong?)

 

[esuko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaloS /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hm, alot of confusion here it seems... AKG k340 is 400 ohm. If you listen to overall k340 signature, it seems to be best tuned for warmish tube amplifiers - and that does seem to work well in practice also, SET amps do the best, especially OTL. The spirit is along the lines of 'moar power' - they will strive as long as you put enough behind them (hence the speaker amp suggestion). You can recable it to use with speaker taps. If you can, changing pads and elastics is usually a good idea. Modifications offered by various folks are not necessarily for the best. Oh, and solid state and k340 for some reason just don't go well together.

This is interesting information. I tought that the K1000 was the only headphone driven straight from speaker amps.

I enjoy my K340 from my SS headphone amp. Realy like their raw nature. I think I will try some tube amp in the future.

 

[JadeEast]

I have a copy of an original sales brochure for the k340, it mentions in the copy the ability to drive it straight from a power amplifier.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by esuko /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is interesting information. I tought that the K1000 was the only headphone driven straight from speaker amps. I enjoy my K340 from my SS headphone amp. Realy like their raw nature. I think I will try some tube amp in the future.

I've seen other 'phones driven as such, most older electrostats require it, and I've seen but never read about K340 from a speaker amp (honestly this is the first thread that talks about driving them from hp amps, that I can recall reading, most everything else has them on big beefed up single power amps, or straight off speaker terminals like K1k's)

there was also a few people that rigged high impedance 'phones into T-Amps if I recall, K1000's included, but iirc the T-Amp performed quite poorly (in terms of sound quality and control), not 100% on this (theres been so much done to that poor T-Amp)

oh yeah, and of course, who could forget the Luxman P-1 (another question for MaloS, how would a P-1 drive K340's? its like a full Class A speaker amp with SE outs, so shouldn't it push K340's (and probably K1000's) quite cleanly?)

 

[esuko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd read something about K701/2 and OTL being a bad pairing, is the 340 just that different due to the electrostatic aspect, or did I misread (or did someone get their facts wrong?)

K340 with it high impedance will work with all the tube amps. K701/2 with it's 62ohm impedance used with a OTL using too low output capacitance can result in early bass roll. Generally you get more power with high impedance than low impedance strain using OTL amp.