[spinali]

I have a chance to get a K340 in fine condition for $300.

I wish I were less of an ignoramus about this phone, aside from its uniqueness. I dislike the coiled cable and not thrilled by the retro design, but I'll be convinced if it sounds good. (Right now, I'm happily with the K701.)

Is this a good price? More to the point, how does the K340 stack up against, say, the K701? Or is it an overrated vintage phone?

Thanks!

 

[Killercrush]

There's a cheaper pair in the FS forums as we speak, $300 is a bit on the high side. It does sound better than the K701 IMO but it really needs an amp that delivers high voltage to shine.

 

[guzziguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinali /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a chance to get a K340 in fine condition for $300. I wish I were less of an ignoramus about this phone, aside from its uniqueness. I dislike the coiled cable and not thrilled by the retro design, but I'll be convinced if it sounds good. (Right now, I'm happily with the K701.) Is this a good price? More to the point, how does the K340 stack up against, say, the K701? Or is it an overrated vintage phone? Thanks!

With an amp that can properly drive it, the K340 stands up to modern headphones such as the K701. I actually prefer it a lot to the K701, which also needs a powerful amp to properly it.

$300 is more than the current market value for K340. They typically run from $175 up to $250 for a mint pair.

 

[vcoheda]

the K340 is definitely hard to drive though. need amp with lots of power.

 

[jp11801]

the k340 is one great headphone with some of the best mids I have heard. THey are shelved off in the upper treble region though but still better than most modern headphones overall.
If you are serious about them then I highly recommend getting them recabled at a minimum. Headphile does great work with these. When I used a k1000 speaker tail with my pair that was 4 pin balanced the speaker taps of either a fisher kx100 intergrated amp or my red wine audio sig 30 or even the first watt amp trounced most headphone amps with only Boomana's extreme plat delux or my eddie current hd2 coming close. If you can dedicate a speaker amp to them you will be rewarded in spades with great sound.

 

[Zorander]

$300 is a pretty high asking price for a stock/unmodded pair (a bargain otherwise). You do need a powerful amp to drive these as even the K701 is far easier to drive in comparison. Once you amp them adequately however, be prepared for a sonic treat. They have an addictively magical sound to them that also makes the newer AKGs sound sterile.

 

[morphsci]

The K340 is a great phone but like others I think $300 is overpriced for an unmodded pair. If you do get a pair I can certainly vouch for the headphile mods and recable. They really allow this phone to shine especially if you go balanced.

 

[SonicDawg]

Ditto to everything said so far.

To get a great pair of K340 it is beyond just cosmetic conditions, but the sonic balance of the pair itself. Some of them are more bass heavy, and some more treble happy, though there is headroom for bringing them close to a degree through modding... And yes, prepare to put some time in either modding them or have them modded by someone else.

That's just the basics. Building a system around them will be another worthwhile enterprise that rewards greatly!

 

[Zorander]

If this $300 pair is the very same (modded) one KT88 is selling, then yes it is a superb bargain. One of my K340s is of the same version (black-backed dynamic drivers) and I have similar, if not the same, sonic findings.

 

[derekbmn]

Just keep in mind that it is IMO a bit of a crap shoot when buying them. The sonic differences from pair to pair can be astonishing. I currently have 3 pairs. One pair sound absolutely sublime , the next one very mediocre and the final one like absolute S**T.

And a recent post of mine from another recent thread.....

I'll echo what SonicDawg has said. I really believe driving K340s from speaker amps is the way to go.
Case in point......I am now driving my best pair of them off of a vintage Monarch SA-30.(a Japanese built integrated that I had completely recapped) The amp runs 2 12ax7s for the preamp functions, 4 6bm8s in push pull configuration and a 6ca4 for rectification.
The results have simply blown me away! It has seriously been stealing time from my SR-007 rig. It drives them sooooo much better than my MPX3 Slam it's unbelievable. I think the fact that it's a push pull amp has ALOT to do with it.

I really feel that most have simply not heard the K340s at their fullest potential.(ie: most ALL headphone amps)

 

[kool bubba ice]

I assume my Hr-2 will drive it well by headphone amp standards? Mind you, I'm using my DAC1 now..

 

[Asr]

I wish I could be as positive about the K340 as the others above me. I wasn't really impressed with it. Well it's a fine headphone I guess, but on the bass-heavy version I had, the bass and treble vastly overshadowed the mid-range. The thing I liked most about it was its bass (the most quantity I've heard to date) but eventually I found the bass too off-the-charts for my taste.

There are at least two versions of the K340 btw, make sure you know which one you're getting.

 

[SonicDawg]

Was your pair modded in anyway? Sounds like an unmodded pair to me.

 

[Asr]

Mine had foam inserts and was Cardas re-cabled.

 

[SonicDawg]

hmm... it's funny that you mentioned a recessed mid... AFAIK, regardless of the variety there's always a very prominent mid in the K340s. I have both the bass heavy version and bass light version.... rarely you get a pair that has both polar extremes but not the mid. I suppose that you have the crossover bypass done as well, which should fix the mid range problem.