Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 744

There is good clamping pressure with the pro-30 and damnit, I like the way the lock works. Going to home depot today... will edit later.

I can now confirm that the Kenwood KH-82 are NOT orthos, but instead electret with built in SUT's.

But how do they sound?

Very interesting. How does it sound?

Sound is about as one would expect, fairly rolled off on both ends. The pads really, really dont help anything. I do think that with some good, new pads and maybe a recable to run off my Stax amp, it should improve nicely. Just dunno if I want to go that route.

But what's there, is that sound any good?

Hmmm, I really liked the locking mechanism with the Pro 30 too. The problem is, I can't find the part anymore. I remember seeing somewhere that someone transplanted Fostex T30 drivers into a wood shell, with the Pro 30 headband. They drilled a hole completely through the plastic, and put a thumbscrew in its place. That way, the Pro 30 keeps its original functionality, but the thumbscrew allowed for all sorts of mischief with the headband.

Well I figured out what it reminded me of... an 1/4in TRS plug. Just a bit smaller :/

The old Pro 30 ad makes me want one as well. But I have more orthos than I have heads already.

Hi everyone,

This is my first post in this thread. I have actually started reading at page one and managed to browse the posts until page 100, at which point I noticed that there are a total of over 700 pages, so I decided to just pick things up from here.

I'm always keen on finding old headphones that still sound good at auctions for little money. I have not bought any new headphones yet. My whole collection so far is second-hand. My favourite two headphones are two Sextetts, one MP and one LP, both recabled, the former for classical and acoustic, the latter for the rest. I thought I might like the sound of the ortho's, so I started looking for them online. Last week I managed to obtain two sets for quite low prices, a HOK 80-2 and a Dual DK-720. They are both in good condition. The HOK came in the original box with certificate and the original pads, although these were torn at the inner seam. The Dual has very thin white pads that seem to work fine. I already listened to them the way they came, and I was impressed. My Sextetts are better overall, but I can hear their potential and the mids are very smooth.

I have already read the instructions for (dis)assembly on the Wiki, and I've used the search function to read some posts on these cans, so when I have some time I'll perform some surgery, recable them while I'm at it (the HOK comes with a DIN-plug, for which I fortunately have an adapter, and the Dual has an inbuilt volume control, so that in itself might improve the sound for both of them), and see if I can add some felt and reflect discs and what not. I must admit I'm not quite clear on what best to do.

I've read that DAC has already experimented with the Dual and some posts hint at modifications, but I didn't manage to locate them. Would someone mind and give me some brief overview or some tips on what you have found to be the sweet spot for both these headphones, so I don't need to reinvent the wheel so to speak? That would be great.

BTW, I had bid on a Heco which was obviously an ortho on Sunday, but someone beat me to it. I used to have Heco loudspeakers once, so I was keen to obtain them (shouldn't have been such a miser ). They belong to the Wharfedale/Leak family, it says on the Wiki.

Anyway, I joined Team Ortho, although I admit I actually don't know what that means in practice, and I'm looking forward to finding out if the ones I have now can beat my Sextetts eventually. That would be incredible and wonderful, because I absolutely love them, and not having heard any really high-end headphones like a Stax yet, I just cannot imagine anything sounding any better than it does now (although this has been my experience at each subsequent stage in my equipment upgrade process, so I guess there IS always more).

So you got the Dual! Nice And you got it for a very good price! I was amazed that it went so low. It does sound a bit dull stock, but so does most vintage orthodynamics. The white pads should be covered by (p)leater. You need some mods to bring the deep bass out, and to bring out the sparkle of the treble at the same time.

The Heco was a real bummer. I bid on it too. I hope someone from here got that one too.

You assumed right

Thanks! You've all done so much already. It's pretty amazing actually. When I have some time, I'll have a go at the Dual first. It's been my impression that this has the greater potential for goodness. I'll keep following the thread from now on and post whenever I have something meaningful to write about.

I am about to begin trying to file down a TRS plug... will report back.

Is it a smaller diameter? You might have better luck just buying aluminum rod the correct diameter, the use a Dremel to put the cone tip on it and use a small rat tail file against it while it's chucked into a drill press... If that works well enough, then you can always use stainless steel rod later if the aluminum wears out too quickly.