Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 101

Ok, I am attempting to post mods I made to my HP-1's(wish me luck)


The first image shows the thin gasket I made of UHU(blu-tak) to couple
the driver to the baffle.

http://imgcash6.imageshack.us/img185...0040vd5.th.jpg


This image shows the drivers adhered to the
baffleshttp://imgcash3.imageshack.us/img293/355/img0041uk4.th.jpg

I'll try again


URL=http://img185.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0040vd5.jpg][/URL]

and again(be patient)

Just got back to NYC after scouring the east coast for my headphones, mostly in storage with friends and family since I shipped them back from Germany in August. I've just been living with only my YH-100, Pro 30, and im716, the horror. My SR-X are, alas, out of order until I build a US plug onto my SRD-7 (the vintage one doesn't fit in my Germany-to-US adapter), but my A250 are in my hands again, and I haven't heard them since upgrading my source and amp. I've just been A/B testing them up against my YH-100.

Now I'm not sure how many of us in this thread have heard the A250; let me just say they are the only dynamic I'm likely to keep from the dozens I've owned, and I wouldn't hesitate to class them in with the current top-of-the-line offerings from the major producers, all of which I've also tried. From what I've had, I'd put the A250 most closely on a level with the K340, though with a dramatically different character.

Of course as you know I'm not a dynamic man, and even now I'm not surprised to be able to say that despite the Koss' fine performance, the Yamahas still edge them out up and down the range-- not by a huge margin, but enough to be decisive, even in the A250's trump suit, detail resolution. The comparison has reminded me of one thing that my orthos can't do for me, though: soundstage. Absence and time let me convince myself that the YH-100 could sound spacious, comparison now reminds me that this is not really true. The big, circumaural, wide-open Koss humble the Yamahas on this front, as I suppose they will also humble the SR-X.

Does this mean the A250 will be taking a larger portion of my listening time than before? I doubt it: the Yamaha and Stax are just more musical, more intimate with voices, and more toe-tapping. I have a couple more vintage electrostats on their way from Spritzer, which I'll be happy to add into the equation, though I doubt they'll give me the soundstage I'm craving. So far, the only orthodynamic I've had to give me a great spatial presentation were the PMB100, awful in some ways but not so much as to conceal the ways in which they were fantastic. Too bad they're gone.

I'm not sure what moral I should derive from this experiment, other than one more straw on the back of the camel named Lambda. Maybe I should start eating ramen to get there sooner. Or does anyone have a mod to get a YH-100 to sound like a float?

Nice to see you back. How do you think your YH-100 compare to my Floats and Lambdas? We can find out if you want

we'll be finding out soon enough once a certain shipment arrives from Iceland. We have to flip a coin to see who has to drag all their stuff to the other guy's house. Brooklyn New Year mini-meet, anyone?

Sounds cool Lots of planar phones is always a good thing.

Not to discourage the wonders of a ramen based diet but you can try to screw around with the pro30. If you take off the rear cup and hold the baffle and pad up to your ears you can get an idea of what they kind of sound like without a back. If you have a compulsion to over tweak you can also build up out of blue tack a slightly angled resting place for the driver.

Yes, I have been tempted to follow in your and ericj's footsteps on the Pro 30 front, but I've been held back by the fact that mine are serving as my primary portable phones right now, and the backs provide what little isolation I get. This is why Wualta suggested I get a second pair. I do have an extra pair of HOK80 lying around, but alas lying around in a box in my office in Berlin, for the moment unmoddable. And as you might imagine, I'm hesitant to start tearing my only YH-100 apart.

This is essentially why i got a 2nd pair. My experiments with the open-back continue, but I wanted the big aluminum cap both for aesthetics and so i can A/B the two of 'em to see if it really is an improvement.

This new pair isn't precisely NOS but it's hardly used, and the pads are much better. Unfortunately the coil of the cable is even worse than my previous pair. I need to get cracking on experiments to reform the coil.

Fired up the Stax today on my vintage Sherwood S-7100 receiver/amp. Even after getting a Lunchbox amp with upgraded tubes and re-modding my YH-100 for better bass (and boy I could hear both improvements), there's no question, for me the SR-X is still better.