K-340 Version Investigation (56k killer)

[Koolind]

Mine:

Electrostat:silver
Dynamic Drivers: black
Dynamic Drivers Center: grey
Dampening Material: cotton
Crossover PCB: ?
Headband: lettered


this is quite a mess ?`there really is many different looks of these...

i consider them bassheavy btw... though i havent heard other than my own pair

 

[craiglester]

When I took out the cotton on mine the bass just vanished - Popped it back in and it came back - so I'm guessing I have Bass Light version. I'll try and get them open sometime soon and post the details.

Should i have the backs taped up AND the cotton in? or just one or the other?

 

[Koolind]

have anyone done a conclusion of theese infos... there seems to be many variaties ?... The question might be if the coloring in all cases does a difference...

 

[khbaur330162]

Mine's unofficially one of the bass heavy type. I'll try to open it up and take some pictures later today. Very good idea, btw. I'm in the market for a bass light pair, and not everyone knows what version they have. More awareness within the market would definitely be appreciated!

 

[ericj]

thermoplastic pellets for injection molding are a commodity item. For things that 99.9% of customers are never going to see, AKG probably just bought, by the truckload, whatever was cheapest that fit their specs.

Usually that's 'natural' which is going to be either milky or gray or putty colored.

Sometimes the supplier has excess of some color.

So, the color of plastic items may indicate a separate production run, but is unlikely to have a definite meaning.

 

[Koolind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by khbaur330162 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mine's unofficially one of the bass heavy type. I'll try to open it up and take some pictures later today. Very good idea, btw. I'm in the market for a bass light pair, and not everyone knows what version they have. More awareness within the market would definitely be appreciated!

Yea.. would be good to know what version people have when they talk about mods and so on... what you would want to do with them depends on version some people say...

But if mine are the bass heavy i dont know... but i do think so... they have very much bass i think.. more than my HD600, so definately wouldnt say that its bass light... but well if there is 4 versions or even more, they might be more soundwise versions than just 2.. ? Also i could depend on the can itself.. how much it has played.. 100 hours, 1000 hours, 5000 hours, 20000 hours.. i mean. they are more than 20 years old.. some might have had a long life already.. wouldnt that affect the sound somewhat ?

 

[khbaur330162]

Electrostat: Silver
Dynamic Drivers: Black
Dynamic Drivers Center: Black
Dampening Material: White cotton
Crossover PCB: Spool Transformer (Glued?), brown PCB
Headband: Lettered

 

[khbaur330162]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolind /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea.. would be good to know what version people have when they talk about mods and so on... what you would want to do with them depends on version some people say... But if mine are the bass heavy i dont know... but i do think so... they have very much bass i think.. more than my HD600, so definitely wouldn't say that its bass light... but well if there is 4 versions or even more, they might be more sound wise versions than just 2.. ? Also i could depend on the can itself.. how much it has played.. 100 hours, 1000 hours, 5000 hours, 20000 hours.. i mean. they are more than 20 years old.. some might have had a long life already.. wouldnt that affect the sound somewhat ?

I also have a feeling that a lot of what differs between K340 to K340 is merely the use and abuse it's seen. However, it still is very possible that at least once throughout the K340's production AKG changed design slightly that could have altered the sound.

Concerning the modding: Most of the modding is straight forward. Recable, replaced elastics, and the rescreen. That ALL should be done on every K340 regardless of version. Past that you can plug up the hole in the back and/or remove (or add) cotton to be used as dampening, and that will depend on "version," but it's easy for you to do, and you'll then get to formulate your own opinions.

Right now I've fully romoved all cotton, and added some Plasti-Tak to the interior to plug up the back and create a surface for the sound to bounce off of less resonating (w/o tak, no cotton makes the sound a tad bit shrill, and boomy imo). I'll be removing the tak so I can put some electrical tape over the back, and then reapplying it, however, because some of it got pushed out the back. These are definitely only semi-close and not closed; big gaping hole.

 

[swt61]

I did the rescreen on khbaur330162's pair, and I can say that his definitely sound different than mine. His had more boomy bass, and were a little muddy sounding. I hadn't tweaked them much though. I'm hoping they're getting better with his tuning, but I'd really like him to hear the bass light version to have something to reference to.

 

[Zorander]

Electrostat: Silver
Dynamic Drivers: Black
Dynamic Drivers Center: Gray
Dampening Material: White cotton (replaced with foam in the pics)
Crossover PCB: Spool Transformer (Glued?), brown PCB
Headband: Lettered

Mine looks similar to Sleipnir's second pair. It is the bass-light version (could be 'normal'-bass to some).

 

[Koolind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorander /img/forum/go_quote.gif Electrostat: Silver Dynamic Drivers: Black Dynamic Drivers Center: Gray Dampening Material: White cotton (replaced with foam in the pics) Crossover PCB: Spool Transformer (Glued?), brown PCB Headband: Lettered Mine looks similar to Sleipnir's second pair. It is the bass-light version (could be 'normal'-bass to some).

Mine are like yours... But would have said that they are quite boomy and bass-heavy... would have been interessting to hear 2 identical and see if there is a difference.. i guess that the amount of bass a person think a can gives is quite relative, but well also it would depend on amp and so on.. That would make a difference in the sound-signature also... come to think about it my amp with the tubes i use right now is considered rather bass-heavy... maybe mine are the bass-light ones... but definatly think that they as they are connected now are rather bass-heavy

 

[Koolind]

great pics btw... you have some photografing skills there, and a good macro-cam... Such detail in a closeup picture is hard to get...

 

[Koolind]

oh the trick with experimenting with different amounts of cotton and so are rather time consuming... takes some time each time to open the can up and assemble it again with the pads and so...

Still wondering if mine would be considered the bass heavy ones or not...

 

[Koolind]

Just had my babies apart again to try and tape up the back, and while i did it i took 2 pictures of the inside...

The thing i notice with my pictures is that my dynamic driver is white, not really grey... its much lighter in the middle than the edges where its mounted, whereas Zorander's are grey both places...

(yea the pics arent that great.. but only had my cameraphone at me)

Dont know what i think of the sound of the taped up back.. it tames the bass, and makes a little better with rock-tracks, but on more quiet music it just sounds to have been limited a bit instead... (but still sounds great)

 

[philodox]

Limited in what way? Try turning up the volume a bit on the soft tracks.