By "hard to drive" i refer to not only amplification qualities, but also to the source...
The right pad is mandatory....I tried 5 types of pads before the right one... Right thickness and one with the hole vented for me...
Right amplification , not only powerful but with a very low noise floor ... I must have changed my beloved sansui Au 7700 to use a very more refined Sansui Alpha with a more clean less tube-like sound...
Right source : i must change my beloved tube-like NOS french dac tda 1543 , for a cleaner less noisy more cold Hidizs ap 80 pro dac ( not connecded to the grid and with battery too ) ..
i throw off the internal plastic grid....
I put two kind of vibrations control materials inside and outside...
I used equalization to go nearer the Harman curve and increase the Db level around 1,200 hertz...And at the two extreme point of the scale...
After all that i can say that all my 9 others headphone sound as unnatural , with an "inside the head sound" impression , and like "plastic" artificial sound so much i NEVER used them again... And will never do...There is even 2 Stax models ...
After the optimization the K 340 is unbeatable on all acoustic factors...I discovered tuning my room at the times 4 factors of the soundfield , not two, i did not count "timbre" as a factor of the soundfield ,it is the fifth factor timbre is the fundamental tree and the soil at the same time , the other 4 factors are like the ground...We test a fertile ground by observing the tree growth and varying the ground composition ...
1) Imaging differentiation of each sound sources...
2) Soundstaging VARYING dimensions according to each recording encompassing all sound sources ...
3) Holographic volume of each sound sources...
4) Listener envelopment born from the right ratio between sound sources and the imaginary listener position in the soundfield "outside the head" most of the time to varying degree accordingly to each recording trade-off ...
These 4 aspects of the soundfield were there in my speakers/room acoustic control relation , and they were there with the K340... No other headphone gave me that... Perhaps top omega Stax i listened long time ago but never own...The "timbre" experience of the K340 is so natural , that the only adjective i can use is realistic...Not one of any other adjective used by reviewers about voices... Realistic , not gorgeous, not beautiful, not the " most extraordinary mids voices ever" etc Only natural... 😊 For example my Stax sr5 -gold seems to gave the most beautiful timbre of voice possible , but not so natural and evident as the K340... Realism is the most important quality for a timbre the most difficult and only necessary one ...
I cannot fault the AKG K340 on any acoustic count... If something beat it it must be costly and because it is an hybrid with 5 tuned passive internal resonators , his soundfield is so unique , nothing will crush it to pieces... But "right of the box" i could have faulted it as some reviewers did , unable to understand how to optimize it... There is NO MISMATCH between the drivers for example, this impression may come because of all the necessary modifications that must be implemented i listed above.... This is a very hard headphone to figure out... I even read his patent and ittakes me 6 months of experiments to optimize it to this point... I will never upgrade it... Why ?
It is the stronger link of my system and his back bone... I consider my system now top high-fi because of the K340... I could not say this with my acoustic room /Mission Cyrus 781, because of the limitations of the frequency response of the Mission Cyrus speakers so good they were, they were not top high fi product... AQcoustic control of the room so important it is does not change a component quality but just put it at his highest potential working level ...
I agree with Mahgister, the AKG 340 simply does it for me. I keep reading that it is so hard to drive, but mine’s plugged into my McIntosh C15 preamp and works great. Not sure what all the fuss is about on that issue. Mine is the "gray" model meaning it is the "neutral" version; it has plenty of bass also.
