Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 894

It looks the same and it is an electret. Square cups, square pads. Very thin and uncomfortable headband, so if they sound good, the headband will be replaced, but I'll keep the square cups.

OK, couldn't wait to get them open. Curiosity killed this cat.

They are very small drivers! Far smaller than I thought they would be. It's hard to see in the pics, but there is clear film over the back of the driver. The pads mount in a unique way, but the construction looks easy enough to replicate in leather customs. The headband is just vinyl coated flat wire. The side pieces are aluminum and I can disassemble them down enough to free the necessary bits I have to keep. If they sound good enough, I'll give them the custom touch.

And the pics:


























Recabling them should be easy enough, I'll use the Teredyne cable and Teredyne energizer on them initially, then also try them on the SRD6 until my eXStata is done.

It's actually smaller than it looks. I'll measure it later, but it's similar in size to a SFI driver. There is a felt dampening disc on the back of the driver, then a clear Mylar-like material stretched over the entire back of the driver and glued in place. You can see the amber'ish glue around the driver, same as all the other glue spots.

I find it a bit odd that to this day I have not owned a full-blown electret. Sure, my K340 has electrets in it, but it's just not the same thing. I had a Philips electret which sounded very odd and then developed a channel imbalance, so that doesn't really count. The mylar-ish material is probably the dustcover. What exactly is in front of the driver? Some kind of a grille?

I wonder if the channel imbalance was in fact a varistor failure and not the drivers themselves.

In some ways the electrets really are the poor man's Stax. Hell, Stax even sold electrets as the way into their sound signature. I've become smitten with them and really can't wait to try them on the eXStata amp after reading so many posts of guys using their SR30s and SR40s as the sacrificial test can, then being blown away by how good they sound on the eXStata. That's the reason I acquired all mine. Plan to keep two and sell two.

My vinatge Kenwood KH-82s use the same big driver as Scompton's AcCuTrex and even with small, crappy built-in transformers, they are really nice sounding, just bass light or bass clip with the wrong pads. Had planned to use W11JPN pads on them, but they sounded even better with the O2 pads and the RP18s were the planned home for the O2 pads, but they sound best with the W11JPN pads, so it was a win-win for me.

I'm sure the mylar is a dust cover. The front is a molded grill. The driver assembly is glued in, so no plans to mod that grill for now. If I it doesn't work, then I'll use acetone to carefully dissolve the glue and separate the driver for repairs and make new front bezels.

The cans are fugly, but a lot of the design is rather simple and ingenious. I think they used all the development budget up in the cup/mounting design and had to use bent spring steel for the headstraps with the heatshrink vinyl protectors to meet corporate budget directives. I have a plan in my head for improvements if they sound good, but I can't say any more until I get them recabled and get the pads sanitized and deodorized. These things are just gross. I'm ok with it for the money paid, and it's buyer beware, but man, they just reek.

so who's grab those anniversary model T20v1 from auction?

I'm actually done with buying headphones now, except for another normal bias Lambda to complete my collection of the first three Lambdas. The K1000 really clicks with me, and my 'stats complement it nicely. Who knew I'd end up with a dynamic headphone, and one that I at one point didn't see the point in getting?

I tried looking up some pictures of the HR-910 and found that it went for 300 euros at a recent auction. That's more than my DIY SR-X Pro cost me. I bet the ECR-800 would sound really good, but it's rarer than hens' teeth. Electrets are cool, I'm using an entry level phantom powered Shure electret mic to make recordings and they certainly are used in a wide variety of applications today. In other news, have fun spreading the ortho love at the meet this weekend! I'd enjoy your impressions on some of the top tier dynamics, the HD800 in particular.

Anniverary edition?

Edit: I just saw it (thanks DAC), it looks rather interesting im guessing its just a cosmetic makeover, but its rather cool, never knew it existed.

Care to share the link with all? If not, PM it to me please!

Well the auction is over so here it is: VINTAGE FOSTEX ANNIVERSARY PRO HEADPHONES - eBay (item 270530696090 end time Feb-17-10 16:32:01 PST)

If you look at the pictures it looks like great an unavailable T20v1 version. One of the cups has hardly readable info "NOT FOR SALE" - it must have been some kind of internal release for business partners or such.

Cool, but too bad it's missing the tab on the one side.

I have to say that I prefer the T20v1s over the v2s just for their headband. I'm willing to give up a little bass impact for the comfort, but so far on two pairs of v1s, I'm really not unhappy with their performance in the smaller cups.

I know a few T10 and T20 owners have worn sliders, so one of these days, I'll get around to finding the correct Teflon tubing we need to replace the worn PE tubing they used. Might have to make little blocks from UHDPE, which I happen to have in the dungeon...