AKG K340 sound level

[musicman59]

I got a pair of good condition K340 that I immediatly sent to Alex (Apuresound) to be recabled and modded. Alex did an excellent job and the K340 look like new and are in the process of burning-in.

I couldn't resist the temptation and listen to them for a littel bit last night. I was using 2 differernt amplifiers both Rudistor. A RPX-33 and a RP7 lite.

The sound was excellent even that the bass was a little bit lean to my taste but not too bad.

The only thing that grabbed my attention was how high up I was needing to take the volume to have a decent output level. In my Edition 9 and D5000 I normally have the volume somewhere between 9 and 11 o'clock. With the K340 I was needing to turn the knob to somewhere between 1 and 3 o'clock to get a comparable sound level.

Is this normal? I am surprise since these two amps put out pretty good wattage.

Thanks.

 

[JadeEast]

Welcome to the hard to drive club.

They are pigs to drive, the original brochure mentions powering them with a regular power amp. My pair is driven nicely by a pair of mono block amps that put out maybe 3watts in 8 ohms.

Nothing wrong with the cans just the amp needs are much greater than almost anything out there.

 

[craiglester]

yeah I run my amp at like 75-85 % to run my K340's. If it's not hurting the amp, i'm ok with that.

 

[musicman59]

Wow! That explains it. I don't think my amps are hurting because I can not hear any distortion.

JadeEast, Do you have a kind of conversion box between the speaker terminals of your amps and the headphones to convert to a 1/4" plug?

 

[JadeEast]

No conversion box per say just a couple of resistors, solder and bare wire. Although I do have an adaptor that I made to use a 1/4 inch plug.

Do note that not all amps are friendly with sharing ground between outputs and that many power amps are grossly over rated in terms of power for most headphones. No fun damaging your amp even less fun damaging your ears.

Check this link if interested.
http://sound.westhost.com/project100.htm

 

[catscratch]

I drove a 4-pin XLR cabled pair with my monoblocks, and even then I had to crank them to get to a decent volume. These headphones really do need a lot of power.

I'd say fit is a much more pressing issue with them than amplification - there hasn't been a single pair that has been able to fit my head properly, and I always have to physically hold them in place. As good as the drivers are, the K340 chassis is wretched, especially the headband assembly. I'd love to see the earcups transplanted onto a DT770 headband, or something else that can provide a lot more clamping force than the stock assembly can give.

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch /img/forum/go_quote.gif I drove a 4-pin XLR cabled pair with my monoblocks, and even then I had to crank them to get to a decent volume. These headphones really do need a lot of power. I'd say fit is a much more pressing issue with them than amplification - there hasn't been a single pair that has been able to fit my head properly, and I always have to physically hold them in place. As good as the drivers are, the K340 chassis is wretched, especially the headband assembly. I'd love to see the earcups transplanted onto a DT770 headband, or something else that can provide a lot more clamping force than the stock assembly can give.

You can always replace the elastics with something that grips stronger. I tried one such elastic before and it felt like my head was going to be crushed. Maybe it will suit you.

 

[catscratch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorander /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can always replace the elastics with something that grips stronger. I tried one such elastic before and it felt like my head was going to be crushed. Maybe it will suit you.

Been there, done that. The problem is sideways clamping force. The headband is incapable of generating any. This is, for all intents and purposes, a supra-aural headphone that needs to get a perfect seal in order to sound like it should, which means that it has to generate HD650-levels of clamping force and no new elastics will help make it do that.

I should note that some of my friends don't have this problem, so it could be just the shape of my head.

 

[JadeEast]

You can add stuffing under the earpads between the grill baffle to fill in some space and even get a bit of an angle on the driver if you just stuff the back.

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch /img/forum/go_quote.gif Been there, done that. The problem is sideways clamping force. The headband is incapable of generating any. This is, for all intents and purposes, a supra-aural headphone that needs to get a perfect seal in order to sound like it should, which means that it has to generate HD650-levels of clamping force and no new elastics will help make it do that. I should note that some of my friends don't have this problem, so it could be just the shape of my head.

I never had any such problems with the 5-6 pairs I have gone through either.

 

[Vaughn]

The fit was the only reason I got rid of my 340's. I absolutely loved their
sound with the DV336i but couldn't stand the way they moved about on my head, even with replaced elastics.
I think Catscratch is on to something with the DT770 or similar chassis.
The higher clamping force would probably improve the bass presentation as well.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is, for all intents and purposes, a supra-aural headphone

Nonsense.

Unless your pads have gone flat - in which case you need to ring up Frank and order new pads - the K340 is as circumaural as they come.

 

[Zorander]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nonsense. Unless your pads have gone flat - in which case you need to ring up Frank and order new pads - the K340 is as circumaural as they come.

x2. The K340s are not supra-aural as much as Grados are.

 

[catscratch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nonsense. Unless your pads have gone flat - in which case you need to ring up Frank and order new pads - the K340 is as circumaural as they come.

Not really. They're not a supra-aural headphone in the same sense as Grados are supra-aural, but they don't have the earcup depth of, let's say, the HD600, or just about any other circum-aural headphone I've ever used. The outer pinna is, um, pinned down by the earpads and a lot of the weight of the headphone is still resting on your ear instead of being distributed around your ear.

My pads are brand new.

When the headphone is interfacing with the pinna of the ear rather than sitting around the ear, it needs to provide a lot of clamping force if it wants to get a good seal. The K340 is not capable of doing that when it's on my head.

 

[ericj]

Name some other circum-aural headphones you've used. Because you've got funny ideas about circumaurals.