[pentatonic]

Hope there's no recent thread for this, and if so I apologise
 
Anyhow, I posted in the Headphone amp section but not many owner in that thread. My question is, what would be the best under $200 amp for these. I realise they need good power to get them to shine. My last nice experience with them was on my vintage Harman/Kardon 330C. For now a dac is not necessary has I have a decent pro audio card. For the little info I found that was recent seem to point towards tube amps. I have the "neutral" version, Many seem to like Little Dot products but seems ss amps aren't as good in driving them.
 
If there are still owners here, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
 
Thanks

 

[RexAeterna]

are you comfortable with soldering? like small stuff like wiring? i don't have the 340's but do have experience with older akg models. i would try to save your money and drive them directly off speaker outputs of your current receiver. it'll give more juice and give the headphones bit cleaner sound due to low output impedance of speaker outputs. older akg's are bit picky when coming to that stuff from my experience.

 

[pentatonic]

I'm not really a tinkerer anymore (and to say only 10 years ago a was a cable network tech) but if the project is easy enough and decently priced I might at least wantt to know more.  On using my receiver, it's something not yet possible as right now I'm looking mostly for my pc and don't have room to spare much more than 9x9x6. When my projected 2 channel room is up then I could still use that amp, if the  preamp section is half decent I could run it in the amp section of my receiver and use that as an alternative sound once in a while, But my vintage gear has no room before my daughter moves out, or at least clears that room.
 
How does one go about using a receiver to power your cans.
 
These are the specs by the way, and have only read that to sound good, they really need good power.
 
Transducer: Electrostatic-Dynamic Hybrid
Type: Circumaural, Semi-open
Frequency Response: 16 - 25,000 Hz
Impedance: 400 Ω
Sensitivity: 94 dB / mW
Connector: 1/4"
Weight: 380 g ( Without Cord )

 

[liamstrain]

That's pretty good sensitivity - you shouldn't need the oomph from a speaker tap to make those sing nicely. I'm assuming these do not need a separate energizer? What about a solid OTL tube design like the Bottlehead Crack? No impedance issues, and plenty of power. 

 

[pentatonic]

Now you bring up a question since I'm such a newb. What is OTL tube desing. I've seen it plenty but couldn't find the technicals about it. Indeed they shouldn't need that much power but to drive the electrostatic driver is where apparently you need plenty of juice.
 
The more I read the more I realise in what world I'm getting into, very exciting
 
Edit: I just checked up on the BC, but unfortunately right now I have to limit myself to no more than $200. I know it's not much but would get me a Little Dot Mark II or even III.

 

[RexAeterna]

with the older akg's it's really the sensitivity at 1v really. my sextetts lp have the same 94db rating at the sensitivity and you're defiantly not gonna get 94db out of them from an mp3 player.

i believe the 340 is like the sextetts and use a balanced 4-core wiring at 1/4'' jack. i beleive the jack is unscrewable, so you can see if 4 wires are connected to it, it should be separate wires for left and right positives and 2 wires tied to the ground. you can either just chop the 1/4'' jack off and hook it directly to the receiver's speaker outs or you can terminate it with a 4-pin xlr plug and make a 4-pin xlr to bare wire cable and later on a 4-pin xlr to 1/4'' adapter if needed.

if not, you do have speaker box adapters if you don't feel like making your own. you can find them on ebay if you don't want to make your own. hi-fi man makes a box but it's terminated with 4-pin female xlr jack so no point if you know how to do your own cable since if you terminate the 340 with a 4-pin xlr jack i guess it'll be no issue for you doing a 4-pin to bare wire cable .

that's if you wanted to go that route. since you need space and want something small, only idea i can think of for simple solutions is if your pro audio card has pair of pre-outs or small preamp with pre-outs. if your audio card line out is +4dbu rating it'll work too since +4dbu setting is 1.23v rms. all you need is a female 1/4'' TRS to female rca/phono adapter to hook the headphones directly to the preouts/linouts.

i don't know much bout headamps since all i use to drive my headphones are my power amps off the speaker outputs, so i can't help you much there cause my knowledge on headamps is poo. sorry.

 

[pentatonic]

Yup that type of wiring, but for now I'd like to keep it simple and purchase something from a mufacturer and as I learn more about how it all works I might try different projects. I kind of had to let go my tools but have a buddy who's actually better at it then me. But he's not available from May to November as much. Anyways enough time to learn things.
 
Thanks for the replies guys

 

[pentatonic]

Apologies if it's too early to bump. But any owners out there, I know they're old but I know they are also fairly popular in the mod world.

 

[pentatonic]

Any other opinions?

 

[kozmo]

Still listening to my K340's on a regular basis.
 
My favourite has been the Consonance Opera Audio Cyber 20, not an easy amp to find these days but if you do, it should be in your price range.
 
This combination can produce a midrange that you will be comparing everything else to.

 

[tdogzthmn]

I agree that the tube sound works quite well with the K340.  I powered it with a Bottlehead Crack, which was capable of a good, authoritative sound.  Treble was something really special with this combination which I still have not found anywhere else.

 

[pentatonic]

Quote:

Still listening to my K340's on a regular basis.
 
My favourite has been the Consonance Opera Audio Cyber 20, not an easy amp to find these days but if you do, it should be in your price range.
 
This combination can produce a midrange that you will be comparing everything else to.

Thanks, but seems like you said it's not easy to find.Something easier maybe?

 

[idletime1213]

Something fairly powerful should do the trick. The O2 maybe?

 

[pentatonic]

Anything that doesn't need assembling, as the O2 looks like a kit if I'm not mistaken. I want to start easy and see if I get the bug first

 

[Papander]

Anything that doesn't need assembling, as the O2 looks like a kit if I'm not mistaken. I want to start easy and see if I get the bug first

jdslabs.com sells O2 that is assembled.