[tdogzthmn]

For the past three months the K400 has been my go to headphone.  Towards the beginning of summer I bough a K340, K240 M and a K400 because I was interested in exploring vintage AKGs.  I also built myself a fancy new bottlehead crack and was ready to listen!  Needless to say the K400 still remains while the other two have moved on.  The K340 was highly detailed and had an effortless sound which I had never experienced from any other dynamic can.  What makes the K400 a winner for me is the sum of its parts.  What set it apart from the other cans I own was its musicality.  It did not shove detail in your face, nor wow you with deep punchy bass.  Its this combination of sweet midrange, detail, soundstage, and organic tonality which make the K400 a keeper.  In a direct comparison with the DT880 250 ohm, both cans have the around the same amount of detail.  However the DT880 has an unnatural spike in the treble which sounds out of place with most music.  I have been switching between CDs and DVD-A and noticed a much fuller sound with DVD-A that I have not experienced prior to owning the K400.  I wish I still had my K702 to compare, I would like to see how it fares against the K400 regarding detail and soundstage.  Who else still has a K400?  I would like to know if you still get a kick out of this wonderful black beauty.

 

[nickchen]

A friend of mine has the K401 which I assume to be similar. I was a bit underwhelmed back in my DT770 basshead days, but I "re-listened" to them a year ago and really really liked them. You are right, one of the most musical AKGs out there (much more than K501/601/701), and AKG mids are unbeatable anyway.

 

[tdogzthmn]

The only reason you dont hear more about them is that they are out of production and pretty rare.  I was lucky to get a pair in mint condition with perfect elastics and pads.  They are not for bassheads but for me the bass is just the right amount.  The only time I have run into an issue was with heavy metal such as alice in chains, where the K400 would sound a bit congested and unable to hit every note.

 

[jellojoe]

I have 2 functional K400 and one with a nonfunctioning channel. I ought to get it repaired since it's the best sounding one of the bunch.

 

[REB]

the k401 is actually better sounding than the k400, I found (with the k50xs it's exactly the other way round). I liked the k400, but i was bowled over by how much fun the k401 was to listen to, especially rock.

 

[tdogzthmn]

I just wish the K401 was as good looking as the K400.  Im not a fan of the blue and grey housing, also the stock cable on the K400 looks more sturdy.  I hope to try a pair if I can ever find one.

 

[burgunder]

tdogzthmn have you sold your K340? I most confess that I prefer my pair to my K400 at least since I got the K340 some months ago. I feel that the K340 gives me more detail and better roomdefinition a little better timbre the bass is a little flabby but I don't notice that on most recordings. And then they isolate which is nice at times for instance right now where my wife is listening to speakers in the room next to my office.
I will however keep the K400 as it's nice to be able to change from time to time.

 

[REB]

i have to do this from memory, since i sold the k340, the k400 and k401, but although i was fond of the soundsig of the k40xs, i also felt that the k340 was in a league of its own (but oh so difficult to amp). I ultimately did not grow fond enough of the k340 soundsig to keep it around, but it is a very good headphone, better, i'd say, than the k40x.

 

[nickchen]

Sure the K401 is "only" midfi, but of the better sort. If it was still in production nowadays, I'd see the new HD598 and the MS1i as contenders - both models that I am very fond of.
 
The issue of many cans that are "better" is the absence of musicality, that is why I regard cans as the 401 somewhat as sweet spot for music lovers. You got to convert into a gear lover when you crave for "more". Unfortunally, I personally went that soulless path to a certain extend, midfi just isn't big balls enough...

 

[tdogzthmn]

Quote:

tdogzthmn have you sold your K340? I most confess that I prefer my pair to my K400 at least since I got the K340 some months ago. I feel that the K340 gives me more detail and better roomdefinition a little better timbre the bass is a little flabby but I don't notice that on most recordings. And then they isolate which is nice at times for instance right now where my wife is listening to speakers in the room next to my office.
I will however keep the K400 as it's nice to be able to change from time to time.

 
Yes I did let me K340 go.  They are very detailed which was my favorite part about them however, I found that on the whole the K400 was more suited to my tastes.
 

 

[levecque]

Hey guys
I bought the K400 on ebay.de for a pretty good price and really enjoyed the sound. Unfortunately, they arrived in worse condition than I had expected, and developed a rattle in one of the drivers. I opened them up and found lots of hair and dust inside the cups and on the drivers. Also, the very small screws inside were mostly missing, so I replaced them with ones I sourced from the local AKG distributor. I gave them a proper cleaning, but managed to break one of the wires inside the cup.  A local electronics repair shop soldered it back in place for about 4 bucks, but the problem returned after some time, because the wires were heavily oxidized and kept breaking.
 
I spoke to the electronics guy again and asked him if he could do a complete recable. He said that it may be possible, depending on the construction of the headphone and that he usually only works on panasonic headphones, which means he would have to put a panasonic cable on them and maybe make them double-entry. He quoted me a price of about 50-60 bucks.
 
What do you guys think I should do? Just go through with the recable, or should I try to source a higher quality cable? Maybe try to find somebody else locally or a DIYer in Europe who could do the recable for me? I don't know if I want panasonic cables on my beloved AKGs. Also, how will the conversion to double entry affect the headphones? Does it mean that the connection won't have to go through the headband like it does now?
 
I really want to bring these headphones back to life, especially since I just got a new source and amp.

 

[nickchen]

Cable is cable, IMO they don't differ (apart from optical and voodoo specs), and dual entry has some advantages for comfort, as the cable weight is leveled to both sides.

 

[rhythmdevils]

I find sound differences between cables in some systems and headphones.  But I guess that's another thread. 
 
You might want to consider having someone here on head-fi do the recable for you, since it doesn't sound like he really knows the phones.  But it's better than nothing.  I'm not sure how you would find a head-fier for that, maybe just post a thread in the FS forum?

 

[levecque]

 
Quote:

I find sound differences between cables in some systems and headphones.  But I guess that's another thread. 
 
You might want to consider having someone here on head-fi do the recable for you, since it doesn't sound like he really knows the phones.  But it's better than nothing.  I'm not sure how you would find a head-fier for that, maybe just post a thread in the FS forum?

I don't have an opinion on cables sounding different and would really like to avoid discussing it here. I just want the cable to be durable with a gold-plated jack.
 
Posting in the FS forum might be a good idea, but I live in Europe so things get complicated because of expensive shipping. Maybe I should just find someone to make me a DIY cable and then let the repair guy solder it on, so I don't have to send the headphones to someone. I might have a talk with him about doing it this way, but he didn't seem very open to any suggestions the last time we spoke..

 

[tdogzthmn]

Quote:

 


I don't have an opinion on cables sounding different and would really like to avoid discussing it here. I just want the cable to be durable with a gold-plated jack.
 
Posting in the FS forum might be a good idea, but I live in Europe so things get complicated because of expensive shipping. Maybe I should just find someone to make me a DIY cable and then let the repair guy solder it on, so I don't have to send the headphones to someone. I might have a talk with him about doing it this way, but he didn't seem very open to any suggestions the last time we spoke..

 
It's not too hard to do it yourself if you want to save money, but I am sure you could find a member here willing to do a recable of your K400 if you ask around.