Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 102

construction, phase, etc

Finally caught one of those 'sales' and picked up a pack of four SFI 'bipolar tweeters' for $20+ship.

The resemblance to the Pro 30 driver is uncanny, aside from the different damping pad on the back.

But what immediately caught my eye is that each one has a lug marked with red sharpie, presumably to indicate "positive here" when soldering, and on each of them it's the back tab rather than the front tab.

Now i know that driver phase is essentially arbitrary, and doubly so with dipole drivers, but it has me puzzled, because i was under the impression that on a dome type driver, normal phase would be hooking the positive lead up to the front tab.

Now I'm going to have to open up my other dome-type spiral-trace orthos and see how they're hooked up. I am of course going on the theory that all of the dome/spiral drivers have traces printed on both sides of the membrane, whereas the serpentine drivers and pinch-type drivers do not.

And while we're on the subject, i could swear that on pinch-type drivers, + usually goes to the outside edge and - to the center.

Speaking of which... is there any way to keep the SR-X's sound, but without the earcrushing pain of wearing them? Meaning not changing the sound by using a different enclosure or such...

Someone must have really done a number on my SR-X headband because it has less clamping force than nearly any of my other supra-aural 'phones, and i wear a size 8 hat.

New pads help the comfort too, though.

It's not clamping force, it's the tiny supraaural cups with virtually non-existant pads. New pads with the vinyl intact are even more uncomfortable to me than old pads with the cloth exposed.

A Gamma headband makes them a whole lot more comfortable and then you can add an adapter to take the SR-007 earpads.

Btw. If you think the normal bias Mk3 is good then my Mk3 Pro is miles ahead.

I'll give it a closer comparison soon. I'm a bit swamped with headphone stuff right now, with 3 stats on hand, 3 adapter boxes, new power tubes for my Lunchbox, and a new mp3 player since my old one developed an intermittent channel. As far as I can tell, though, every headphone I hear is telling me I need a Lambda, stat.

Five in the morning is getting typical for me. Dissertation writing, holiday parties, and a girl on vacation 3 time zones earlier all aggravate my natural insomniac character, and I got all three last night. Oh, and not having to work 9 to 5 helps.

I don't mind my thin fabric pads, guess my ears are the right shape that they remain quite comfortable for an hour or two at least. How does the SR-007 pad mod sound? Something like an SR-5 gold?

It was less controlled so it could be compared the a SR-5N in some ways. It certainly wasn't bad but when I mod a headphone it is to bring out its strengths and not to transform the way they sound. I'll look into this some more though as I start to hoard Gamma Pro's and SR-X Mk3's for conversion...

My YH-3 has turned up. Huzzah! I now have YH-1, YH-2, YH-3, and YH-100. And no HP- series.

Seems to be in good condition. Cable a little stiff below each earcup so we know someone used them significantly, but the pads are in good shape and they were reasonably clean.

Stock SQ doesn't seem bad. I should spend some time getting used to the stock sound before i start meddling.

But since we know I'll meddle with them anyway, any tips for disassembly?

I like the 3-series frame so much better than bellinis . . . .

I'll take dozy, since it's new years eve (well, new year by now), and you did know. But how anyone could keep my purchases straight is beyond me - sometimes i'm surprised by the parcels that show up on my porch.

I've got the box in good condition but no accompanying documentation. Want a glamour shot of the headphones leaned up against the box or something? Visually it seems to be identical to the HP-50, except black.

Yeah. I'm jealous of the padded headband and single-entry cable a bit. But I'm still not paying what that guy in eastern europe wants for his HP-50S. I suppose if the YH-3 shows promise i can make these changes myself with some drill work and sewing.

I haven't done an A/B with my stockers YH-1 but my gut reaction is "No".

I may have to pull the drivers out of my Rev. 1 YH-2 transplant and rebuild a YH-2 to do truly fair comparisons. (Yamakoax is Rev. 3 of the YH-2 transplant effort).

Yup! And I agree about the pads, but we shall see.

Sometimes i wonder about making pads with a 1/8" layer of closed cell foam behind a 1/4" layer of quilt batting, with somewhat loose glove weight leather covering. You know, to form closely to the ear for a good seal without holding out the driver.

The HP-50a has the single-entry coiled cable, but no padding in the headband. Never thought the earpads were too puffy.


So, not the overpowering bass of the HP-50a? It would be instantly noticeable.

I'm not sure we've reached that conclusion yet.

How much bass are we talking about, and how low is it?

Well, when i listen to something bassy, the bass response is good, much better than the stock YH-2 at least as i remember it. I haven't unearthed my stock YH-1 for a/b comparison yet.

I've opened it up. pics forthcoming.

The driver is visually indistinguishable from the YH-2 driver except that it's cleaner and doesn't have bits of decomposing brown foam rattling around in it.

The bass quantity is similar to Yamakoax, which is pretty interesting because Yamakoax currently has two layers of cheap felt against the driver and a layer of superfelt lining the back grille. The YH-3 has no felt filtering the vents, just foam.

And in the YH-3, the foam seems to be For Damping. Spring is not required because the driver is pushed against the baffle by four plastic posts on the back of the earcup.