[Voltron]

Congrats on your new-found K340 love!

I have been listening to mine quite a bit since getting them last month or so. I am now on the brink of having Headphile do the full mod treatment and recable with balanced cables (no wood, though, I like the sides too much they way they are--see you pic #2). I agree with facelvega that many K340 owners emphasize the *need* for mods. In my opinion, and from the limited listening to modded K340s I have done, there is no need to mod but it can take a great can and change it to an extraordinary can.

 

[swt61]

I don't think there's a better match out there than the Darkvoice 336. This thing seems like it was built and voiced specifically for the K340's even though I believe their target was the Senn. 650's. And talk about power, don't let it's medium size play tricks on your mind. Of coarse there's always that whimpy little no balls piece of crap that philodox is having built.

He's mentioned having me do some woodwork on the amp itself, but I have a feeling I may be building a stand to hold that monster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltron Congrats on your new-found K340 love! I have been listening to mine quite a bit since getting them last month or so. I am now on the brink of having Headphile do the full mod treatment and recable with balanced cables (no wood, though, I like the sides too much they way they are--see you pic #2). I agree with facelvega that many K340 owners emphasize the *need* for mods. In my opinion, and from the limited listening to modded K340s I have done, there is no need to mod but it can take a great can and change it to an extraordinary can.

While I'm certainly not even close to being anywhere near the first to own these badboys modded, I'm probably one of the longest term K340 owners (bought mine in 1985) and to my ears, there's a very sizable difference in SQ between modded and stock. Modded correctly these will impress even Omega II owners.

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swt61 While I'm certainly not even close to being anywhere near the first to own these badboys modded, I'm probably one of the longest term K340 owners (bought mine in 1985) and to my ears, there's a very sizable difference in SQ between modded and stock. Modded correctly these will impress even Omega II owners.

man i'd really like to hear what yours sound like. i don't hear how they can hold their own against stax O2s. i've had 2 pairs of stock ones (sounded the same) and briefly compared them to machead's headphiled set at the recent ny meet. here's what he had to say:
Quote:

Originally Posted by machead I brought along my Headphile-modified K340s, in the hope that I might find an amplifier that made them sound as good to me as so many other owners have raved. Alas, I heard nothing better than the AudioValve RKV (which I already own). To make matters worse, I had the opportunity to do a quick last-minute A/B with daveDerek's unmodified pair and definitely preferred his! I suppose I'll have to ask Larry what he did to mine, then try to "reverse-engineer" them back to the original configuration. I'll keep the BlackMax cables, however.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swt61 Of coarse there's always that whimpy little no balls piece of crap that philodox is having built. He's mentioned having me do some woodwork on the amp itself, but I have a feeling I may be building a stand to hold that monster.

Man, I can't believe I missed this.

A stand... that's awesome. I can't wait!

 

[SonicDawg]

Yet another soul is bitten by the AKG bug

Good luck with your pair. And since that your's the bass heavy version, you will have a lot more headroom for improvement in turns of modding.

 

[Blackmore]

So you think it is a bass heavy, ha...


Quote:

Originally Posted by SonicDawg Yet another soul is bitten by the AKG bug Good luck with your pair. And since that your's the bass heavy version, you will have a lot more headroom for improvement in turns of modding.

 

[swt61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveDerek man i'd really like to hear what yours sound like. i don't hear how they can hold their own against stax O2s. i've had 2 pairs of stock ones (sounded the same) and briefly compared them to machead's headphiled set at the recent ny meet. here's what he had to say:

I'm not so pompous as to even pretend to imply that they'll give the 02's a run for their money, but considering the price difference they'll sure make an 02 owner take notice. Bahamaman's 02/ES1 combo is still my overall favorite system hands down. I just feel like I snuck in line close behind with a discount ticket.

 

[SonicDawg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackmore So you think it is a bass heavy, ha...

Pretty much, since most people with the bass light version characterize them as fairly fairly weak in bass, which runs contrary to your description. Either way, I still think that a well modded pair is a lot more refined, among other things, than the stock version. And when I said that your version is better for modding potential, imo it's just that with a bass heavy version, you have more option of choosing the bass quantity vs. quality ratio in modding, by means of decreasing the amount of cotton, instead of through other means in the bass light version( which often includes change in your signal chain which will mostly be more expensive).

 

[xand1x]

Congrats. The K340 is an amazing headphone, I miss mine everytime I see a thread about them

. One thing about them that seems to be fluid across the spectrum is their wonderful treble extension and sparkle. I see a recable + beefy amp in your future

 

[gmgraves2]

I have had a pair of AKG K340 Electrostatic headphones for more than 25 years and they're still going strong. I use them a lot. They sound great, and must have built like tanks to take 25 years of abuse without falling apart, or even requiring the ear pads being replaced. The only thing I've replaced are the elastic bands that comprise the "suspension" for the ear cups. I replaced those about 10 years ago with pieces of black elastic banding bought from a fabric shop. These things ARE GREAT! I also have a pair of Koss Pro-4A's that I use for recording (very isolationary) and a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones that I bought 20 or so years ago to use with my Pro-Walkman WM-D6 cassette recorder/player. They too still work great and I use them on my iPod Touch. I did have to replace the ear pads on them with some third-party pads because the originals had deteriorated into some kind of messy goo...

 

[joelpearce]

Does this break the resurrection record?
 
4 1/2 years...

 

[renlute]

Graves, can you post a few photos so we can see which version you have? If you are the original owner, it would be very interesting if you could post identifying aspects such as photos of the box (if you still have it), or sales literature.
 
I am trying to figure out which version was made when. I have a couple different K340s myself.

 

[gmgraves2]

I don't have the box or any sales info on these phones. They've been knocking around my place since the mid-eighties and are pretty beat-up - but they still sound great!  I looked for serial numbers on the 'phones but didn't find any . I'm afraid that I can't help you at all.

 

[renlute]

The most obvious distinguishing characteristics are that one reads ELECTROSTATIC-DYNAMIC on the cups and has AKG stamped on the headband, while the other reads ELECTROSTAT DYNAMIC and has no letters on the headband. I have not figured out yet which is which. The color of the drivers differs also, but that means taking the cups apart.