But the AKG K340 is my dream come true with music after all, the amplifier so good it is, is only the servant of this king....... It takes me time to learn how to use this headphone optimally.... It was necessary to mods them first and built all other audio elements all around them and for them ...New amplification, new dac, new cables, new pads, vibrations internal shell cups materials controls with 2 kind of materials, other modifications too....
At the end i cannot fathom anything that will be better on all acoustic counts under many thousand dollars and i am not even sure that anything can beat them really.... After all they were the Flagship of AKG 40 years ago and their technology even if successful was not continued....
Too complex technology to manage and improve well enough in a changing world with the ascent of the specialized headphone amplifiers in the decade after their introduction.... The K340 need some volts swing able enough powerful amplifier....And their shells cups house 2 new technology at the same time, then it would have been in need of more research to be acoustically optimized.... And many people begins to bought headphone specialized amplifiers at these times for more easy to drive portable headphone .... They are not made to be used walking from a phone for sure.... This explain why AKg put them aside for new design like the K1000 , which being different is not better....And the next flagship being the K701 is not even in the same league than the K340... I own them two....
This headphone is a cult object now always affordable at a relatively low cost because they will stay under the radar for many reasons, one being that to work at their peak level they ask for some mods... But there is a clear reason of their cult status, even in their raw out of the box state, it is the only new working technology piece of his kind on the market with hybridation of dynamic driver and electret which crossover is at at 4khz, then these dynamic and electret work in equal footing so to speak and more than that, they use 5 internal passive Helmholtz resonators that make the sound holographical , natural, in 3-d format in your room, if the recording is good, you dont feel the sound in your head.... Amazing.... I really love headphone now after buying 8 headphones at least i dont use anymore....
If you are curious about this headphone this article of the AKG company under my post explain it all.....Nothing they said is exagerated or untrue, it is information not marketing bull, i know it because i listen to them right now.... And this is an end game toy....The rest is hype and upgraditis for me....
Conclusion: Vintage is the road to go, for the sake of the S.Q./price ratio, and for a cultish product which had proven itself to be more than only good, after 40 years or thirty five years for the alpha amplifier, then we pay for an always underrated by hype, proven by time, masterpiece at a ridiculous low price...
