Very old thread indeed....But i cannot resist to say my words...
I listen to the AKG K 340 for sometimes now,i heavily modify them, and my audio system is heavily modded also, and this headphone now sound so good that they are absolutely no comparison between it nude right out of the box or modified in a clean audio system... Defects that many people report are there no more,or way less evident, after cleaning the electrical grid of your audio system and modify the AKG (principally grid mods,and damping with sorbothane and stones) Their principal sound quality is holographic depth imaging like my speakers with a sound so natural that they kill my Stax lambda, Stax SR-5,AKG 701,hifiman he 400 and beyer DT-150,i listen no more to them and upgrading is for me a smiling foolishness now...But anybody who listen them nude ,in a non cleaned system, does not know them....This is the reason that they are sold often at 100 bucks,because people does not know how to modify and damp them,and almost all audio system are not cleaned and the k 340 are the most sensible to source and to the electrical grid there is ... They must also be drive by a SS amplifier with quality power or tube amp...I think that short of Stax omega or many thousand dollars headphones they cannot be beaten...I does not search headphones anymore ...i pay them 100 bucks...Must i say i steal them?