[philodox]

Sorry about the german... I just found it funny for some reason.

To translate: My AKG K340 electrostat-dynamic system Hi-Fi-Stereo-Headphones have just arrived!

After I finish this post I will try to take some snapshots of my headphones and Larry's []www.headphile.com] handywork, but dont expect much as I have the worst digital camera ever.

The headphones, which used to belong to gerG, are in fine shape. The metal rings are _way_ less dinged than the ones on my K271S'. One of them is a little loose, but not ready to fall off yet. The left ring on my K271S fell off last winter [it gets damn cold here sometimes] and I was able reattach it firmly with crazy glue, so no big deal if it does fall off. The earpads are even softer and more cushy than my K271S earpads. I was worried when I heard people talk about the extremely hard pads on their K340's, but that does not seem to be the case with mine. There is a little bit of paint on the headband, but that is ok as I plan on replacing it with the leather headband from a set of K501's. Headband is really comfy... I may end up keeping it if the K501's is lacking in that regard. I am suprised that people call these headphones heavy... maybe the recable helped, but they arent heavy at all on me. Like all AKG's they fit my massive heed to perfection. [if your not following here, watch 'I married an Axe Murderer']

Now to get on to the amazing work that Larry did. The cable is beautifull. I was expecting a rather stiff cable like the Mobius on my K271S'... but what I got was more like the lovely cables that grace the woody Audio Technica headphones. The dual entry is professionally done and the join and main run of the cable is very sleek. It is terminated with a sweet looking switchcraft mini and the little mini->1/4" dongle that I asked him to make me is really nice as well. The female mini end of the dongle is very heavy duty looking and the 1/4" male connector looks to be of high quality.

I havent opened them up yet... not sure if I will, but I can also see the enlarged holes in the plastic screen that he did to allow for better flow of sound.

How do they sound you might ask?

Well, I can't say much yet as they are burning in and I don't have proper amplification yet. What I can say is that while they are definately not being driven properly by any of my unamplified sources, they are being driven.

I started off by listening to some high energy music... cant remember what, may have been Hot Hot Heat. Did not like what I heard.

So I switched to that nice classical violin piece that nearly made me cry the other day [paganini's vionin concerto #1] and I was very pleasantly suprised. I think that everything is sounding a little under done right now which probably has a large part to do with poor amplification and burn in. When I concentrated in on the violin I was met with more detail than my K271S' can present and a sense of imaging that I have NEVER heard before... not even with the Stax SR404's.

Then I switched to Zero 7 - Warm Sound. I've always loved the liquid bass and smooth sound of the vocals on this track. With the K340's I could hear detail in the bass that was previously obfuscated.

After Zero 7 I put on 'Being in Love' by Songs: Ohia [one of my favourite songs]. Sounded great, no huge suprises here though.

I listened to rage against the machine's self titled on and off for a while mainly using it to burn in... it sounded alright, but I think that I need a bit more power backing me up before these headphones can pull off something like that.

Listening to the Junior Boys right now and I'm finding the detail and speed of these headphones to be very addictive. I hope that my Flute drives them well, because if not I will have a big hole in my wallet. Especially after hearing all the amps at the Chicago meet.

EDIT: holy crap... anyone familiar with the song 'bellona' by the junior boys... that last bit with the 'floaty clappy' sounds

Damn, I need to listen to some binaural recordings on these... next best thing... I'll throw on dj spooky's 'sequentia absentia'

 

[philodox]

Ok, I've got some pictures... they arent that great, but better than my crappy camera usually pulls off.

I also just got some great news in my email... my AOS Flute is all done and should be on its way shortly.

 

[holeinmywallet]

Hey! Wow, finally at last

Let me tell you I've completely changed my mind and sold them a while back. j/k..

Yours look fantastic.

While mine probably doesn't compare with your heavily modded akg, lately they have gotten more use than SR200, which basically has been sitting on the shelf. They are addictive for sure! Interesting.. about your comparison with the stax model, which I'd like to get my hands on someday. How is the bass on your K340? Last time I remember headphile was make them a hybrid with a skull crusher(?).

Your concerns regarding proper amplification makes me think twice about an amp upgrade. But hey I'll be glad to be of your service along with your new amp purchase

Those holes look much bigger than the ones on mine, Nice

Look forward to more impressions!

edit: is that a real cat?

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet Let me tell you I've completely changed my mind and sold them a while back.

lol... you had me going there for a split second.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet Yours look fantastic.

Thanks... the pictures dont do them justice. Maybe someone can take some better shots of them at the meet for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet Interesting... about your comparison with the stax model, which I'd like to get my hands on someday. How is the bass on your K340? Last time I remember headphile was make them a hybrid with a skull crusher(?).

Without proper amplification and no direct comparison I wont make much of a comment on whether I prefer the AKG K340's or the Stax SR404's, but I do think that these are doing a better job in the imaging department. The bass is quite nice... more of it and more detailed than with my K271S.

uhhh... hybrid with a skull crusher?

Not sure what you mean by that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet But hey I'll be glad to be of your service along with your new amp purchase.

Yeah, I'll let you know how that works out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet is that a real cat?

hehe... yeah, that is my cat raistlin... he looks a little creepy in that picture eh?

 

[hedrick]

I'm currently listening to the Faure Requiem with unmodified K340's that I bought when they were still current. Very nice. I keep having this feeling that I ought to prefer my HD580s, but the K340s have a clarity that I haven't heard elsewhere recently. (I used to use Koss electrostatics, but when I moved to transistorized equipment I lost the ability to generate polarizing voltage. I used to use the B+ from my tube amplifer, through a very large resistor for safety. The box that came with them was terrible: it derived voltage from the signal, thus causing the gain to go up and down with signal volume.)

I haven't found them that hard to drive. My iBook can actually do the job from the headphone output, but I'm currently using a Total Bithead as a DAC, with a Hafler SE100 as an amp. (The Bithead doesn't have quite enough output either for the K340s or the HD580s, at least when taking power from USB.) I have a Benchmark DAC-1, but that's in my main system driving a NAD C372 and Vienna Acoustics Haydn speakers. The DAC-1 is probably slightly better than the Bithead/Hafler combination, but not enough to be worth reconfiguring my hardware every time I want to use headphones in bed.

 

[Xanadu777]

Glad they've arrived!

Since I have a pic of the screen mod, I'll explain what I did in case someone else wants to try it on theirs (if you are skilled at DIY).

On the left, the stock screen. Notice small plastic mesh and silver driver face. I used a piece of printer paper over the driver face with the side of a pencil (not the point). When you softly sketch over the whole area, the hole edges will show darker. I clear taped both sides of the paper for strength then cut out the sketch the size of the driver face.

Placing it on the (removed) plastic mesh and lining up with the top notch mark, I taped it in place entirely. Rather than use a drill press which could wander into a mesh hole, I used a tapered dremel. This is so I could get it started in a mesh hole, then steer it by eye to the template hole size.

While I couldn't do every driver hole due to structural integrity of the plastic mesh, I chose the most I could. Once the holes were made and deburred, I believed it would look better to change the driver face to black (not the diaphram), which looks like the right choice to me.

Of course it takes some patience to do a mod like this, so allow an evening (or more).

Quote:

What

The "skull crusher" mod is something I may try on my pair. It's a separate "vibration sub woofer" bass driver with it's own control. It's something I have to think about for a time on how to implement in these, once I have the time. I won't know till I focus on them whether it will be a waste of time or a successful addition

 

[holeinmywallet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox hehe... yeah, that is my cat raistlin... he looks a little creepy in that picture eh?

Watch out! That look suggests he's planning to run away with them..

Xanadu777,

thanks for the pics. yours look golden.. was that part of the modd also?

 

[Xanadu777]

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet Xanadu777, thanks for the pics. yours look golden.. was that part of the modd also?

The above is a pic of philodox's that I took to show him what I was doing when they were here. I think the "golden" look is more of a light reflection. They look more like gun steel in person.

 

[Nak Man]

Glad they finally arrived ! You said burning in ... are those new old stock K340 you found there ?

 

[jpelg]

Congrats on the new arrival, p-dox! I know from experience that even stock K340's are one of the best cans ever made, and I'm sure that your modded pair brings them to another level.

They do require a bit of power to bring them into their own though. What are you using to power them while you wait for the Flute?

 

[philodox]

Thanks for all the congratulations guys, I sure am enjoying them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by holeinmywallet Watch out! That look suggests he's planning to run away with them...

Heh... My wife saw that picture this morning and said to me, "You didn't mention Raistlin when you originally posted the pictures?" I told her no and she said something to the effect of, "You think you would have drawn attention to the fact that Raistlin was hovering over the headphones, apparently possessed by Satan."

After looking at it again I couldnt stop laughing for a good 10 minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nak Man You said burning in ... are those new old stock K340 you found there ?

I wish... but no. By burn in I just mean the cabling. I have found, and Larry has confirmed, that silver cable takes a good 50hrs or so to completely open up.
Quote:

Originally Posted by jpelg They do require a bit of power to bring them into their own though. What are you using to power them while you wait for the Flute?

Its kind of embarassing, but mainly my archos av320. It isnt doing a horrible job either... not great, but not crap. They are burning in at home right now on my wifes all in one stereo.

They sound great, but I can tell they are straining and want more juice... can't wait for my Flute!

PS. We need a K340 or K271S smiley on here! [They could probably be the same smiley as they look very similar]

[EDIT: Oh wait, some ingenious individual has actually made a K340 smiley...

]

 

[00940]

Very nice cans and very nice mods. I hope you will enjoy them for a long time

Even if you're not in this kind of music : get somewhere a CD of Gregorian music, if possible without any musical instruments, just the choir. The K340 have on voices a texture I've yet to find on other cans.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00940 Even if you're not in this kind of music : get somewhere a CD of Gregorian music, if possible without any musical instruments, just the choir. The K340 have on voices a texture I've yet to find on other cans.

Will do, thanks for the tip.

I listened to my K271S' on the way to work today and I think I know what is missing from the K340's right now... presence. Although the K340's have amazing imaging and detail there is a certain weight to the music that is not there. I think that this is due to the poor amplification that I am giving them, but might partially be due to the fact that I am so used to closed cans right now.

Note: I've used the words 'presence' and 'weight' in lack of better terms.

 

[aerius]

Feel free to drop by my place when you're in Toronto. I have a couple amps lying around for you to test the new headphones out on. PM me if you're interested.

 

[philodox]

How about tomorrow night?

YGPM