[JAnonymous5150]

I owned both K1000 and K340 and now I still own the K340. The K340 was a much more versatile headphone in my ears.

I agree. The K1000 is a much more specialized headphone that sounds great on a few things like classical and acoustic stuff in particular, but isn't useful for a lot of others. The K340s can handle most genres pretty well.

 

[richard51]

I think there are by virtue of his hybridation well done and coupled with his 5 passive resonators something acoustically right that the K340 can do that no other conventional headphone, with one singular dynamic, electroacoustic or planar membrane can do by the virtues and limitations of their single membrane precisely, nevermind their higher price..... In a room nevermind the speakers drivers cost and tech , you cannot replace the resonators distributed in the room by the sole work of the speakers drivers, the best speakers in the world cannot beat a room by itself alone....

In the same way an headphone shells is a "room" where resonators do what no headphone drivers can do by themselves alone, hybridated or single...

For me this "cult" around the K340 reflect this uniqueness which cannot be discovered in any other headphone at any price....

The K340 is the most evident contender to be the most underrated headphone there is .....

The fixation about the K340 come from his holographical more natural acoustical rendition of sound unrivalled ability not from some bass impact, mids beauty, or higher frequencies honey taste nor from details captation or others usual aspects which reviewers are used to underline ....It does not come from his colors tonality, or dynamic or even from his specific way to give timbre experience, it comes from a specific acoustic power of realism to transform 2-d timbre in a more natural 3-d timbre like a timbre playing in a room....

Am i right? I express my opinion and dont claim to be right , i am not an acoustician nor an engineer by far....

 

[Majoox]

The K340 and the K1000 are two completely different headphones, you can't really compare them. My K1000 is already one of the "warmest" compared to other K1000s (yes, I have heard several) and yet the K340 is a good bit darker. The K340 is quite neutral for me, there is nothing that stands out very much. But I'm writing about my own K340 here, that doesn't apply to others. Just recently someone sent me a K340, I restored it completely and oh well - the 2,5 kHz peak is really horribly pronounced on this one, disturbing. It was immediately necessary to use EQ, but it is not necessary with my own model.

The best comparison is between the K240DF and the K1000, as their sound is similar. A K240DF comes so close to the K1000 in terms of sound that the K1000 is not a rational purchase (note the amplifier requirements and "pickyness"), but rather a collector's item. The K340, on the other hand, has a soundstage that seems claustrophic but is still authentic - the same phenomenon as with the K240 Sextett. The depth and space suffers. Nevertheless, the K340 is not worse because of this, simply different. It's way more powerful and more balanced.

The most expensive I owned was an LCD-X and the LCD-X was much faster in the bass, reproduced transients more cleanly - but that was it. I sold the LCD-X after my first K240 Sextett arrived. But this only makes the Sextett better for me, not objectively better.

 

[richard51]

You are right about the way we differ with one another about the same product....

But if we speak of the K340, we must remember that this headphone is more sensitive or react in a more drastic way to any mechanical modification...

For example my own K340 is heavily damped by 2 anti vibration products inside and outside .... Then the soundstage is huge when the recording is well done and half the time the soundfield is "out of the head" to some level and often completely ....The reason i prefer the K340 to anything i ever listened to is because it is not so much claustrophobic all the times precisely and the sound acoustic is 3-d and rival my speakers/ dedicated acoustic room ....My past Beyerdynamic Dt990 pro for example had a huge soundstage but INSIDE my head, not something that make me feel surrounded by the sound in my room like the K340....

Then your examplar differ from the one you modified, but mine differ a lot it seems too ...

I think there is at least two different tuned K340 after reading many reviews for sure... But nevermind the type, using the right product to damp the shells produce a great impact for the better,.... And most people are unconcious about the destructive effect of vibrations in headphone shells...

Am i the only one with the K340 who listen Marie Claire Alain Bach organ work and with the Organ completely out of my head floating in the virtual room superposing itself completely over my physical room ? There is no claustrophobic effect at all here, the complete opposite.... I hated headphone only listening in the past because of this claustrophobic between the ears effect... The K340 save me ... I lost my room by the way and i dont miss it precisely because of this fact....

The K340, on the other hand, has a soundstage that seems claustrophic but is still authentic - the same phenomenon as with the K240 Sextett. The depth and space suffers. Nevertheless, the K340 is not worse because of this, simply different. It's way more powerful and more balanced.

 

[richard51]

I forgot this interesting remark of you:

The most expensive I owned was an LCD-X and the LCD-X was much faster in the bass, reproduced transients more cleanly - but that was it. I sold the LCD-X after my first K240 Sextett arrived. But this only makes the Sextett better for me, not objectively better.

I think someday i must buy a Akg K240 sextett for sure.... Thanks for this interesting impression....I am pretty sure that these passive resonators inside the K240 plays a role in your replacement of the Audeze by the Akg.... Is it not?

 

[Majoox]

By "claustrophobic" I mean the exact comparison of first listening to the K1000 and then the K240 Sextett or K340. Of course, the location outside the head works perfectly with all named headphones, but with the K1000, everything is just further away, almost exaggerated, even with a tendency that everything slides in front of you.

The K240 Sextett is a headphone with a similar "magic" as you always describe it, whether that has to do with the passive radiators - I don't know, later AKG models that rely on paper tuning also sound very good (K240DF). However, the tuning of the radiators does have an influence, see the differences between Sextett EP, MP and LP.

For the LCD-X: I just didn't think the price was justified for what I got.

 

[richard51]

Thanks very much.... I will buy a sextett one day for sure....Or a K240DF ....

Thanks to increase my curiosity, i dont even know that there existed so much models of k240 and the DF seem on par with the sextett even witout these passive resonators like in the sextett if i am not wrong.........

 

[richard51]

I like very much the minutes of blossoming , when from cold to warm after 12 hours of rest i start my amplifier and dac and the K340 begin to shine minutes after this long sleep....

For me waiting these minutes for the K340 to blossom is not an annoyance at all but a marvel to contemplate like in front of a rising sun...

I just read a very detailed and very good thread about TOTL headphones i read a few years ago just before i embarked in my room acoustic very seriously and quit the headphones after my last purchase : the Akg K340.... Which was very promising headphone even at this time for me....

But room acoustic well done is marvellous too.... I forgot headphone and now coming back i am reading anew this old thread about TOTL can....

For sure i will never claim that the K 340 will better them on all acoustic counts, not even on one....

But one fact is certain for me, after all and all, the K340 will present the better balance between all possible score on all acoustic counts for the best S.Q./price ever..... I dont have any doubt about that....


Anyway when an headphone is optimal for you why buying another costly one? I am not interested by collecting costly headphones..... But i am not against trying a low cost unknown to me headphone which can beat very costly one on many acoustic counts or at least on few, why not?

I will study more about the K240 family, especially the sextett and the DF...... Thanks Majoox for these advices.....The sextett because i want to listen to an headphone with the same set of resonators tech than the K340, the DF because many prefer it to even the sextett.... And the DF also is tuned in an original way using an average diffusion rate for all frequencies, diffuse field equalization by its name....

It seems that the K240DF is an alternative to the K340 on some aspects.... I am very curious to buy one.... It will be possible next year..

http://www.audioreview.com/product/headphones-home-audio/on-ear/akg-acoustics/k-240-df.html

 

[richard51]

Sometimes i read, when people speak about headphone equalization, be it the customer equalization or the manufacturer own rules, i read that speaker and headphone are completely different but some other people claim that headphone must sound like speakers........

Both are right and wrong at the same time on different acoustic counts.... For me speakers must sound also at the end like top headphone in some way and headphone must also at the end sound like top Speakers/room acoustic well done in some way....

It lack something when we compare any headphone to speakers, sometimes dynamic, and bass sometimes holography etc and it lack something else when we compare speakers in a living room to the intimacy of headphones....

I look for headphone with speakers/ dedicated acoustic room qualities without being as if 2 speakers were attached to the ears, because if it was such, i will loose holography and virtual/room soundfield created by the ratio/timing of reflected waves and direct wavefronts ....

It is the reason i love the K340 so much ....It is an headphone not a speakers set on the ears, but it sound like a virtual room acoustic well done and recreate something of the recorded acoustic of the album in our room by superposing a virtual room on the real room ....Often the sound dont come from the cups at all...

By the way my first set of headphone, the old Beyerdynamic DT 990 pro which was a good headphone also had a large soundfield but only in the head never out of the head ( my wife destroyed them by accident which is why i go after replacement) , the pro were better than all those headphone i bought after, save for the Stax SR-5 gold magical timbre and the K340 marvellous natural soundfield , the Beyer was also like the DF a diffuse field equalized headphone....They were relatively neutral indeed compared to my K701....

 

[richard51]

The basic problem with headphones is as with speakers/room, it is creating a good set of frequencies response for the better possible instrument timbre restitution but also creating a virtual space soundfield an holographic one reproducing to some extant the original recording album in our real room with speakers or in a virtual room out of the head with headphones....

Not much headphones solved this problem in a satisfactory manner, neither much speakers throwing off in a living room....

So good they were the diffuse equalized field Beyerdynamic pro DT990 never solve this duality to my satisfaction.... The K340 did.... And it is not a diffuse field equalized headphone.... Perhaps i must try the sextett.... And i could compare then this passive resonators effects and differences in the hybrid K340 and in the single dynamic K240.....It will be more akin to a "loudness equalized field effect" than to a diffuse one i think with these two....

When i listen to an headphone i want to see the sounds in the room not captive between my ears .... In the same manner i was loving my speakers/room because at the end of my acoustic experiments it was like listening with no speakers and in an intimate way like with an headphone and forgetting the speakers locations and presence immersed in an intimate surrounding soundfield....

Only music must exist, not sound at the end....

Most people had never experienced a good speaker/room acoustic embeddings and controls to begins with .... Then they cannot imagine what it is.... And when they review headphones they talk colors or frequencies response graphs but not so much about soundfield holography and the trade-off between the two factors... This is what i read when i read headphone reviewers.... Then not knowing what i know now, in the beginning many years ago, make me sensitive to influences and marketing hype like everybody....

Now i am able to stay calm and throw out any upgraditis, if the room /speakers are relatively well done or if these 2 factors of timbre and spatialization are relatively well done as with the K340, i can live with it....

My speakers/room was not perfect at all no more than the K340 is perfect..... But their ratio S.Q. /price were and are over the roof... And at least i know what is acoustically possible or optimal with speakers/room or with headphones, and I can live with the best imperfect trade-off at the least cost now without frustrations.....

 

[richard51]

We dont need an AKG k340 to know that this man is a master of the oud...

We must listen here , forgetting the linear flow of melody as in european music....The music here whirl and circle without flowing but ascending and descending in a dance without end..... Some sufi turkisch jazz i think.... Anyway any headphone will do....

 

[Krassi]

In my homeoffice i have loudspeakers and i wanted to use headphones at night.
Since i have 3 pairs of k340 i grabbed one with original pads and hooked them on a technics Su-V3 wich is also an underrated gem.

I was pretty surprised because its like "holographic mode ON" if the plastic grills press against your ears with those flat circular pads.
its seems as expected that some thick pads with more space inside and asymmetric ear shaped hole loose tremendously this out of head experience for the gain of comfort.

Since i dondt listen to any other headphone any more i should really consider modding them.

 

[Davidzak64]

In my homeoffice i have loudspeakers and i wanted to use headphones at night.
Since i have 3 pairs of k340 i grabbed one with original pads and hooked them on a technics Su-V3 wich is also an underrated gem.

I was pretty surprised because its like "holographic mode ON" if the plastic grills press against your ears with those flat circular pads.
its seems as expected that some thick pads with more space inside and asymmetric ear shaped hole loose tremendously this out of head experience for the gain of comfort.

Since i dondt listen to any other headphone any more i should really consider modding them.

I only own 1 pair of bass light 340's.
(green driver)
They have the original pads and are in very good condition. I wouldn't even think about modding something that sounds this great to begin with. None of my other headphones give me the enjoyment I get from listening to the 340.

Team OEM pads here.

 

[richard51]

Each experience is different here and specific to each one of us peculiarities.... And anyway this headphone is very underrated and already good without any modifications, or more than good for most people relatively to the qualities of their actual accompanying source , amplification, cables, state of the pads, etc ...

Then I dont recommend modding them to " normal " people or to most people , save to those like me, whom are not satisfied and curious to investigate this headphone possiblities to begin with , I dont recommend to all some modifications because modifying them will destroy the headphone economical and esthetical value or may really physically destruct them by accident...

In the same way i dont recommend equalization, save a slight one to compensate for or for own own hearing specificities, or resonance and adapt them to our own hearing in some way, equalization will destroy also the balance if too much heavily done.... I myself suppress all my beginners equalization experiments save a very slight one....

Anyway there is some modifications history of this headphone, pads and grid removal for example, which results are almost unanimously praised, it is the reason why i attempt them , adding to it my own vibrations controls methods....

Myself i will not go back to a non modded K340 with original pads and i used a very slight equalization as said above ......... And i have a complete 3-d out of the head experience when the recordings made it possible anyway.....I dont have the plastic grid anymore..... I also had a heavy damping of the shells with 2 products.....

And even when their holographic power is limited by the original source recording, when, because of the original recording process for example, the sound stay in the head ; even in this case the sound is more holographic or natural and 3-d anyway than on any other headphone i ever listen to....They dont loose their holographic power ever and yes the distance to the ears and drivers is for sure critical, but too thick pads destroy first, more the timbre than the holography...

And i think that the materials density, and the skin thickness covering some density foam inside the pads too and not only the total pads thickness and the material porosity under the skin pads and their degraded or non degraded state, are more critical to the S.Q. than just a slight variation in thickness of the overall pad itself ....

My actual " vented holes pads" are slightly thicker than the original pads yes and way better, better than the too thickest protein skin also ........ I think i can recommend a change of pads , the right one, to everyone.... This will not destruct the headphone nor make it unesthetical and it is reversible and low cost....This was a super important improving modification for me i recommend to all without exception....

By the way i am used to headphone modifications, i modified all my headphone in the past against vibrations of the shells anyway with success.... But for esthetical reason i understand that most people could not do that, for economical reason too for sure, it is not easy to re-sell a modified headphone.... But vibrations controls is for me necessary for almost all headphones, some way less , some way more in need ....Then i recommend it to those who want to improve the headphone, but it is not sex appealing mod like a beautiful new pads.... The grid removal i will do it again but i dont want to recommend it to all nor be responsable of someone dissatisfaction with it.... Even if the mods history teach us that it is an improving mode and way more confort for my ears....


I live with only one headphone now and i wanted the sound to be optimal....Using anything else that i ever own is without appeal at all now.... Even my 2 Stax basic models...

I forgot to say that the "bass version" i own seems to be, right out of the box unmodified, more " boomy" with degraded old ears pads probably than the "Green" bass light one could be in the same condition .....Mine were such, and even after vibrations controls and the plastic grid removal evident improvement, this was not enough optimal though, change in amplification and pads were mandatory and help me a lot here to reach my actual S.Q. state....Now they are sensitive to any recordings and optimal in their workings for me ....


And like some i think they are very difficult to overcome or replace because of their ratio S.Q. /price .....And because of their specific technology they own a sound quality impossible to have with any other headphone type ... Many costlier headphones can beat them on some acoustic counts and cues, dynamic, timbre, transients, bass, highs, mids, imaging, soundstage, and even rival them in 3-d holography, who knows?, But none can beat the overall balance between all cues and acoustic counts for their low price....

It is by far for me the best headphone ever designed, in spite of their imperfect or unachieved ultimate design possibilities , this design staying in his original 40 years state without any further necessary and possible improvements at all coming from AKG ....

AKG goes and was exploring others roads instead of keeping them in an evolutive improving trajectory because of their complexity probably and the related high research consuming cost to really improve them at the end and the headphone amplifier specialized era , and the end of these days were people were connecting headphones to big amplifiers or receivers....

And the temptation to explore new possibilities of design like the K1000 was there for them ...And all other simple design variations easier to sell around the K240 very diverse family among others...

 

[richard51]

-----Update about equalization:

After many interesting experiments, i had arrived at the point where i consider no other experiments necessary and i keep ONLY one minimal increase of the db level on my equalizer at the 4KHZ threshold, the crossover point of the K340, this slightly elevated level is FOR ME very improving.... Any other modifications had overall negative effects on the general balance, even if they seems better on some recording and at first listening....Tuning them by ears is tricky and anyway this equalizer is very basic et not precise.....But this slight increase in the 4KHZ point is welcome a lot for me and produce audible benefit without negative one to my ears....

It is very instructive and informative to play with equalization.... Even if at the end i recommend none, save this slight increase at 4KHZ that improve all the general perceived balance for me.... It is perhaps related to my own hearing and people must try it and decide....

I keep anyway my tone controls use and some general tone controls in my dac/dap too.... But i am pretty done with specific frequencies equalization.... Equalization is very useful and delicate tool, but may be also a useless time consuming toy.....