[Graphicism]

Nice find Skylab!

All the best gear was made many moons ago, back when consumers built with quality in mind and not quantity. When recording artists used their voices and real instruments as opposed to the digitized nonsense we are fed today.

 

[3X0]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif All the best gear was made many moons ago, back when consumers built with quality in mind and not quantity. When recording artists used their voices and real instruments as opposed to the digitized nonsense we are fed today.

Eh.. the best gear of today is better than the best gear from the past. The R&D that goes into quality audio gear in the present cannot be ignored -- attention to detail and quality is still there, almost always in the highest-end offerings. Though yes, many products nowadays err to the side of volume sales and profits.

 

[XXII]

The thing about the K340 is that there is a huge variation in sound quality -- so I guess it's not surprising that the best pair of K340s that Larry owns sounds great given that he has probably seen so many pairs.

My modded pair sounds very good except it is a bit bass light. I'm driving them out of the speaker outputs of my Cary integrated and the mids sound almost as good as the mids of the OmegaII+KGSS.

 

[fishski13]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullseye /img/forum/go_quote.gif If headphone reproduction had changed too much over so many years, either now or before something had been done WRONG. The sound quality of a headphone call it X, Y or Z can't be too different from each other in absolute terms. If that were the case a guitar wouldn't sound like a guitar, nor a piano like a piano, etc... What we have now is different presentations of the same sounds. And even if they might seem big at first listen, our brains can get used to anything, so the difference we at first thought to be big ain't not so big after time...

x2.

 

[Ridleyguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullseye /img/forum/go_quote.gif If headphone reproduction had changed too much over so many years, either now or before something had been done WRONG. The sound quality of a headphone call it X, Y or Z can't be too different from each other in absolute terms. If that were the case a guitar wouldn't sound like a guitar, nor a piano like a piano, etc... What we have now is different presentations of the same sounds. And even if they might seem big at first listen, our brains can get used to anything, so the difference we at first thought to be big ain't not so big after time...

Have you ever heard a 78 rpm record?

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullseye /img/forum/go_quote.gif If headphone reproduction had changed too much over so many years, either now or before something had been done WRONG. The sound quality of a headphone call it X, Y or Z can't be too different from each other in absolute terms. If that were the case a guitar wouldn't sound like a guitar, nor a piano like a piano, etc...

with a lot of headphones, guitar doesn't sound like guitar, nor piano like piano, so I think a lot of times something is done very wrong. in my experience anyways...

 

[MacedonianHero]

Skylab: just think when you're headphones were released in 1980, Jimmy Carter was President (Pierre Trudeau was Canadian Prime Minister), sadly John Bonham passed away (along with the end of Led Zeppelin), John Lennon was assassinated and I was a only 8 years old!

I gotta admit for being antiques...they do look in amazing condition. Enjoy!

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhythmdevils /img/forum/go_quote.gif with a lot of headphones, guitar doesn't sound like guitar, nor piano like piano, so I think a lot of times something is done very wrong. in my experience anyways...

Yeah that's what I'm trying to hint at... music has changed a lot in 30 years and manufacturers design there headphones for the masses. They have headphones geared towards bass heavy music because that dominates the radio and tops the charts, but where are the headphones geared towards violins and classical guitars... I believe they designed headphones and the likes 30 years ago that replicated a different audio tone than they do today.

 

[Ridleyguy]

Your point makes a lot of sense. Just listen to the old Beatles albums which were not even in stereo I believe.

 

[Sasahara]

There is a K340 in the FS forums right now. Sorta tempted to give them a shot for that price.

 

[sean3089]

Regarding the price: Tough to judge really. A new house might have been $30,000 -- a clock radio $49.95. I remember appliances being very expensive, too. I think that electronics are a much better value today than they used to be -- you get a lot more for your money.

 

[KLS]

AKG K340-Yahoo Auction Japan

There were a pair of these in Yahoo Auction

Mint condition. Bidding price ended up in 12,599Yen.

 

[k3oxkjo]

I think it is worth considering that when we do these now-versus-then comparisons we are using the best that the older era had to offer. All the also-rans from then are long forgotten.

So the K-340's, DT-48, SR-X and other sought-after phones of that era are competitive even today, but I doubt many people today listen to Koss 4XX, for example. In the meantime, progress marches on, although not as fast as we might like.

But we can be encouraged by the steady improvement of Stax stats and the advanced ideas and drivers in things like the K-1000, HD-800, T1, Sony R-10 and its derivatives, among others.

Kevin

 

[k3oxkjo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nice find Skylab! All the best gear was made many moons ago, back when consumers built with quality in mind and not quantity. When recording artists used their voices and real instruments as opposed to the digitized nonsense we are fed today.

I do not totally agree with this. I should start by saying that I love and have owned a lot of vintage equipment, but it should be said that, while there is certainly a lot of stuff that misses the mark and is made for a new type of consumer, there is also stuff made in the grand tradition.

As one example, my Harbeth Monitor 40 speakers are in the grand BBC research tradition of the LS3/5A and the Spendor BC-1/BC-3.

I think we are fortunate that much of the best of our headphones are made by companies that have their roots in the past, Beyer (granddaddy of them all), Sennheiser, AKG, Grado etc. They may make "popular" stuff in some of their budget lines, but their better stuff is, I believe, a serious attempt to make good sounding equipment that builds upon the best of the past.

Kevin

Kevin

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism /img/forum/go_quote.gif They have headphones geared towards bass heavy music because that dominates the radio and tops the charts, but where are the headphones geared towards violins and classical guitars

if a new phone doesn't have a nasty V shaped EQ, noobs and kids call it "thin sounding" and "too bright"...so SONY comes up w/ their "Xtra Bass" serie, because we all want moooore bass