[elrod-tom]

OK...so I'm setting my home rig back up, after our fantastic Detroit meet. All my other headphones are out of reach, so I grab my 20+ year old AKG K240M's. I bought these when I was in college, and over the years they've gotten a LOT of use. I've even sent them back to AKG twice for re-cabelling and re-padding. They are truly like the comfortable old shoe that you just can't get rid of...

At any rate, they still get a lot of use to this day: in my computer rig, fed by the M-Audio Audiophile USB. Today, I plugged them into the tube-driven ASL OTL/32, just to make sure that all my connections were as expected.

Well, all it took was Chet Baker's "Easy Living" to make me remember all over again what truly great headphones these are. They are not outstanding accross the board, but they're good, solid performers in virtually every way one might measure...and they do midrange just about as well as anything I've heard. Add SACD and tubes to that mix, and it demands a few minutes to soak it all in.

For years and years, these were all I ever saw whenever I saw a recording engineer in studio. Now I remember why.

 

[NiceCans]

I also have a similar old pair, I purchased them in 1974 or so and used them throughout the years.

Mine pre-dated the S, M, or DF designations being sold as "K240 Sextet Cardan", a name they were given due to the 6 'passive radiators' surrounding each driver. AKG claims in their literature that these not only act to increase bass, but in addition act allow only high frequencies to pass through (as happens in an open design).

At 600 ohms they are quite a handful to drive, but they do sound good with a headphone amp. Considering their age (and thus technological disadvantage compared with today's cans) they still sound rather respectable.

 

[lini]

elrod-tom: I've still got my two K240Ms (must have bought my first one ~ 1984 and the second one some 2 1/2 years later...) as well and would never sell 'em. Oh, well, actually I've only got one left, 'cause the other one is on permanent loan to my stepfather.

Btw, have you ever compared it to the (more expensive) K240DF? Personally, I'd always prefer the K240M - 'cause while the DF sounded more neutral, it also sounded very sterile and sort of unmusical to me... I also prefered the K240M to the similarly priced models from Beyerdynamic at that time, 'cause the Beyerdynamics just seemed so overdone in the bass department. Still, the K240M didn't see much use anymore, after I bought a K400 in the late 80s, 'cause the K400 just seemed to do everything a little better (especially extension was imroved quite a bit...), albeit being somewhat colder in sound...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini