SonicDawg
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2005
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Well I am back to the K340s club!
After my regretful parting with the K340s, I have always lusted after their exuberant sounds. I just can't get enough of their mid range goodness, and frankly the Koss A/250s are not cutting the muster there.
Nearly half a year later, I snatched a pair off the bay. Things of changed a lot since I parted with my first pair. Gone were my Dual mono Darkvoice. And I have practically moved to a vintage speaker rig with my Kenwood KA7100 integrated amp (which is still very great).
Then it comes the new pair of K340s. Fresh out of the box I plugged them into my Kenny's headphone out (which is very venerable in its own accord. It runs directly off of the transformer. And the amp section is no slough at all. It drives the A250s beautifully): shouty mids, weak bass and very peaky highs. Hmmm... Looks like I have finally scored a bass light variant! Having come to my conclusion that they are either in need of better amping or modding, or both, off they went to the bench!
After digging up the old thread on modding the K340s, I did a quick and dirty (still took me a good half a day) recabling with some SPC and x-over bypass. I am too lazy to replace the grills this time, and I really appreciate to have something solid between my ears and the electret units this time around
. I also left the x-over hookup wire stock. Don't want to tinker too much into the transformer unit and its tiny wires!
Lastly, I decided to wire them directly into my Kenny's speaker section. And boy, do they sing
! The mids really really improved! Much more well integrated and smooth. The bass gains much authority, thanks much to the beefy amp from Kenny. They trebles are just... exquisite. I thought the Koss A/250s have great highs. But compared to the K340s, they sound very... out of place especially with the mids being sort of recessed. The trebles on this pair of K340s just sound soooo smooth yet very energetic; a must welcome change from my old pair of bass heavy K340s where I tried almost every tweak in the world to get more trebles out.
Well, the bass sounds very different, if my memory serves me right, from my old pair. It's not overwhelming at all. I just puffed the cotton a little bit and stuffed them all back inside the ear cups. They need all the bass they can get! With the mod, the bass is very natural, with a slight warmth that is not echoey like that of old. The echoey mid bass/low mid have always plagued my old pair. Getting the perfect balance between bass quantity/ quality has been a constant struggle. But with this pair, there's no thinking at all. Just stuff all the cotton in, and that's it. Although to be honest, I do wish it to be just a smidgen stronger, perhaps at the cost of neutrality. But right now I can almost say it is warmer still than the A/250s. I have mostly tested them out with acoustic jazz (double bass, snare drums). I should definitely try some pop and rock to see how they handle overblown bass
All in all, I am really glad to come back to the K340s. I am also glad that the Kenwood drives them beautiful out of their speaker section (it better!). And my, they require almost the same volume as my EPI 100 speakers! Maybe when I have time I will take some pictures later (after cleaning up my desk first
)
After my regretful parting with the K340s, I have always lusted after their exuberant sounds. I just can't get enough of their mid range goodness, and frankly the Koss A/250s are not cutting the muster there.
Nearly half a year later, I snatched a pair off the bay. Things of changed a lot since I parted with my first pair. Gone were my Dual mono Darkvoice. And I have practically moved to a vintage speaker rig with my Kenwood KA7100 integrated amp (which is still very great).
Then it comes the new pair of K340s. Fresh out of the box I plugged them into my Kenny's headphone out (which is very venerable in its own accord. It runs directly off of the transformer. And the amp section is no slough at all. It drives the A250s beautifully): shouty mids, weak bass and very peaky highs. Hmmm... Looks like I have finally scored a bass light variant! Having come to my conclusion that they are either in need of better amping or modding, or both, off they went to the bench!
After digging up the old thread on modding the K340s, I did a quick and dirty (still took me a good half a day) recabling with some SPC and x-over bypass. I am too lazy to replace the grills this time, and I really appreciate to have something solid between my ears and the electret units this time around
Lastly, I decided to wire them directly into my Kenny's speaker section. And boy, do they sing
Well, the bass sounds very different, if my memory serves me right, from my old pair. It's not overwhelming at all. I just puffed the cotton a little bit and stuffed them all back inside the ear cups. They need all the bass they can get! With the mod, the bass is very natural, with a slight warmth that is not echoey like that of old. The echoey mid bass/low mid have always plagued my old pair. Getting the perfect balance between bass quantity/ quality has been a constant struggle. But with this pair, there's no thinking at all. Just stuff all the cotton in, and that's it. Although to be honest, I do wish it to be just a smidgen stronger, perhaps at the cost of neutrality. But right now I can almost say it is warmer still than the A/250s. I have mostly tested them out with acoustic jazz (double bass, snare drums). I should definitely try some pop and rock to see how they handle overblown bass
All in all, I am really glad to come back to the K340s. I am also glad that the Kenwood drives them beautiful out of their speaker section (it better!). And my, they require almost the same volume as my EPI 100 speakers! Maybe when I have time I will take some pictures later (after cleaning up my desk first
