Orthodynamic Roundup

Well first I would not use polyfill. At least when i tried it it was far too easy to increase it's density without knowing it and whaddya know. Pads were too hard.  It also isn't as springy as foam and not sure if it retains springiness over time. For all the effort you are going to put into these, use foam and be sure. Foam's dirt cheap. Find a shop and maybe get the exact thickness, or thinner so you can stack to height. I'm gonna do that tomorrow. Worth the ~  $5 for a chunk in the scrap section.
 
1:1  I don't understand or grok that exactly?
 
Anyhow I'm just some hack.
 
Here's some action shots of the two I did tonight in between getting seriously distracted by other things.
 Waxed thread is the best! Makes it faster.
The leather needle is also thicker and has a triangular point with flattened edges.
1  Size comparison of rings- holes are the same.                 2  just fold em over like so and start stitching

3 keep seams together as you work around                         4  it'll bunch up and here's the end of the center. Done.

5 Flip it over and stretch the center a bit then put foam ring in. Then start stitching the outside around that.

Below is how they ended up. good enough for me and talk about comfort! ( well we sort of are )These are particular with the bunching up on one half and the flatter spot on the other . Reason is I have some tapered drivers ( 5-6 mm higher than flush with baffle )that otherwise maybe hit my ears. This stops that. Flatter parts to the outsides in the pictures obviously.
Beside them is a stock Superlux pad they replace. The bass increase with these pads simply from lessening that space is very noticeable. Less distant sound overall now, but my damping makes up for that spacey aspect anyhow.
Not perfect but I'm happy as hell. I'll get better at it. Holes are almost identical! YAY!

 
 I do not know why it took me so long to figure out putting that ring of foam there until now. Last square ones I was stuffing it in and working it around. Not fun took forever. This way you know where it is, it won't bunch up , and same all around allowing you to properly judge how much to bunch up the larger outer edge as you work around it being already prestuffed.
 
Now for a final fit in place after a bit of the  Leather conditioner wipes.
 

Unless you want seriously hurting fingers, try to use/buy waxed nylon thread and a proper leather needle with the 3 edged tip.  Be warned about that 3 edged tip though I ended up looking like a sliced up my thumb with an exacto the edges are super sharp.. Always wear 3 bandages as a shield on your thumb and first two fingers.  
Or don't , and don't come crying and complaining to me.
 
Even a regular sewing needle will take it's toll using leather/pleather.

1:1 ratio means for every cm he wants the pads to be thick he accordingly adds 1cm to the radius of the larger ring of fabric. That's how I took it at least.

A quick update on my Sony 32ohm SFI hybrids, which have replaced my modded iGrados (now sold) as my laptop headphones when travelling. It's a real pity the 32ohm drivers are not available anymore, as with the proper enclosure and some careful damping they are unique: cheap, portable, sensitive enough to not need an amp.
 
I am now at the point where I am convinced I have tuned the SFI driver to its best: the sound is clear, clean, fast, with nice but not overpowering treble, and none of that sense of constricted sound I almost always got from my previous attempts, or from the Pro30. their major weakness is deep bass, there's some of it and it turns out it's pretty easy to preserve it, but it rolls off pretty sharply: at 40hz volume is about half of what it is at 100hz, but clearly audible, and enough for what these phones are intended to, nice sound without an amp in a rugged enclosure I can toss in a bag. Edit: a slight damping tweak brought out a nice amount of deep bass, not overpowering like some large driver orthos, but very well defined and present. These drivers are awesome.
 
My latest and final mod involved a slight enlarging of the donut, and some felt damping of the rear vents, which allowed me to squeeze every last bit of deep bass they can produce. Thanks to rhythmdevils for a very informative and concise damping summary, it should be in everyone's signature.
 
Here they are
 

 
BTW, the TDS-15 are absolutely amazing, best deep bass I have ever heard. And the search engine has been synced with the latest content from this ad the t50 threads.

oh man nice work !!! I totally forgot about those Sony's as a housing donor.  How much rear venting did you use? Looks like 3 (?) holes of (?) diameter.
Major weakness is deep bass, that'd be perfect for a lot of people so long as it doesn't occlude the rest of what's going on.
So by slight enlarging of the donut you mean making the donut width smaller  with a larger free center area?
 
Those are aftermarket pads? You should try rolling a headband pad might be the icing on the cake.
TDS-15, guess what should show up here anytime soon. Thanks for the impressions.
 
And thanks for the work on the search engine once again.
 
 
Honestly thinking, what would be so hard about getting a few of the 8 ohm drivers and simply swapping out the unperforated magnets carefully. No doubt it's been tried I forget.   It's simply a clamping thing if a jig could be made up with a tube that had a rounded taperd end to press it back and press. Easy. Not cost effective maybe.
 
 
the 1:1 thing if you have the foam laying on the joined pads ( like in pic #5 above )after you sew up the middle you can already prejudge by grabbing the outer seams and pretending they are sewn shut to see how phat 'yo wanna make 'em.

Quote:

nick n said:

oh man nice work !!! I totally forgot about those Sony's as a housing donor.  How much rear venting did you use? Looks like 3 (?) holes of (?) diameter.
Major weakness is deep bass, that'd be perfect for a lot of people so long as it doesn't occlude the rest of what's going on.
So by slight enlarging of the donut you mean making the donut width smaller  with a larger free center area?
 
Those are aftermarket pads? You should try rolling a headband pad might be the icing on the cake.

Click to expand...

 
Yes, the rear vents are the three holes you see in the picture, hand drilled with a 1.5mm (or 2mm can't remember) bit mounted on a metal pencil. The inside of the cups is lined (except for the are around the vents) with some kind of adhesive foam used as a substrate when placing wooden floors.
 
Yes, most people would not notice anything missing, as most people have never heard plenty of clean, good deep bass. These have bass, and even have some deep bass, it's clean and does not mask the other frequencies, there just is not a lot of it. Deep notes don't make your inside ears vibrate, but you still can hear them.
 
As for the donut, I enlarged the hole a tiny bit. The donut is kept in place by some very light porous yellow foam which simply acts as a spring and has no influence on sound.
 
The pads are the original ones, I cut the bit that folds over the baffles, as the new plexiglass baffles are flat against the cups to make a proper seal. I then fixed the pads in place using double sided adhesive tape, like on most Yamaha orthos. Cheap, effective, and no worrying about sealing, the tape does it.
 
And yes, the headband could be improved: it works, but it's not as comfortable as my other phones, and it could clamp more. I will probably modify it at some point.
 
As for the TDS-15, are you getting a pair? Mines are simply fantastic if you are not a treble nut: they have a spacious, airy sound that works great even with awful recordings, and a surprising amount of clear, tight, layered deep bass, and a slow decay in notes which I have only heard in one my original bass-heavy HP-3. The pads are awful, hard and uncomfortable and they don't seal at all, but somehow they suit the drive and work great acoustically. They really are the best kept secret in the ortho world, they sound better than anything else I ever listened to, and are in a different league from most other vintage orthos except for the very expensive unobtaniums like Kabeer's Aiwas, YH1000 or T50v1.
 
I forgot: interesting idea about replacing magnets in the 8ohm. I know Don has quite a lot of experience in disassembling and repairing drivers, we should ask his opinion. An 8ohm SFi would be marvellous.

BTW, if anybody needs my drawings for the custom baffles I used on the Sony SFIs, they are here. You can send them to Ponoko for laser cutting, the first drawing is for the baffles and should be cut on 2mm plexiglass, the second drawing is for the rings on top of the baffles that stop the drivers from falling out, and should be made with thin (1/1.5mm) plexiglass. To glue the two discs together just clamp them and use a brush dipped in acetone on the edges, capillary action will suck it between the two discs and melt them together.
 
You'll then need to drill two holes for the original screws, modify the pads like I explained above, and drill vents on the cups. And of course you'll need to solder the original cable on the SFI drivers, and glue them with some expoxy on the rear of the baffles. All in all, it won't take more than half an hour, and it's a very clean and easy job. The baffles cut from Ponoko will cost maybe 5€.

Quote:

nick n said:

Honestly thinking, what would be so hard about getting a few of the 8 ohm drivers and simply swapping out the unperforated magnets carefully. No doubt it's been tried I forget.   It's simply a clamping thing if a jig could be made up with a tube that had a rounded taperd end to press it back and press. Easy. Not cost effective maybe.

Click to expand...

Not the easiest way to go about it, but Don B. (dBel84) did try this back in May of 2010. He said they sounded okay driven full range. Don, did you do any development work on them after that?

Thanks fellers!
 
 One thing I would like to share. I knew that pads made a difference, but I simply was not prepared for the difference in the ones I just made. I also knew that the original Alder pair were, well lacking but had some good spacial aspects due to the inner earside space, and crappy sensitivity for driving as a result.Needed a lot to drive them to a fully detailed level.  After installing these new pads i rolled tonight, they are so comfortable I cannot believe it, and with making that hole in the center the exact same size as the driver it's blowing my mind with the results. Sensitivity and overall sound quality is way up. I think it also has something to do with the leather softness making a better seal over the stock Superlux junk, no doubt. But decreasing the space inside is tops., as we knew all along. ( I got sidetracked )
 
One things for sure I will be making my own pads for a few other builds now where I can sense this possible limitation. No point in messing about with poor ebay junk, and trying to work around that . Best to work to exactly what is needed for each thing.
Hackamichis are in desperate need of proper pads, and the Pro30 couldn't hurt. Same with a couple pairs of Stats.
 This has transformed something that was half ok to something great, and it is solely the proper pad setup and material used. Something I look forward to listening to rather than feeling "well maybe I will revisit those for a bit" out of guilt.
 
Now if I can figure out incorporating the rear lip/ flap while stitching them up should be set.
 
finished product.( that's putty remnants there on the driver edge )  They look taller than they are. Just measured barely over 1/2 inch high.

Thanks nick! Hope my pleather will be soft enough for this!
And sorry by 1:1 I meant if the foam donut should be any bit compressed when closing the material up.
But point taken in size increase for top piece.
Hopefully I can get started on a second pair of pads soon

it gets easier after you do a few. This is one I did late last night , Getting the hang of it. This is the back side which is flatter.

Wow... Nice >_< takes me hours to do just about anything.
I am the prime example of slow worker. Going to space my stitches further too to prevent too much time loss.

Not 100% sure I was able to understand how the inner circle stitching work yet--when I get home I will try it out and if I still don't get it I'll inquire from you again! Should be fine...

You'll figure it out. If not feel free to send me a pm  and I can post pics of me even holding it if you want. It took me a while to get my brain around it, sort of like one of those 3-d puzzles that are impossible but once you see extremely easy, until you forget again! It's very fast once you get it that one took maybe 20 minutes.
 
the next ones may be tricky, some smaller Pro30 pads.
 
An easier way to describe it is this:
 
Take the rings and place them with center holes lined up, with the inner part of the pleather/leather facing/laying on each other like pic#1
Grab the one facing you on the top and fold it over towards you just before half, but just to where you see the top edge of the inner hole
Grab all that and flip the whole thing over and do the same with the other side.
 If you look closely you will see what looks like a lemon wedge space missing in the center hole sort of like pic#3
 
Line up those edges of the center hole seam properly, and sew through that point, holding the edges together there as you work your way around. As you get around more it'll start bunching up just the way it works don't pay attention to that.
Once you get the the end it's done in the middle, then take it and make it look like it does in pic #1 again.
.You'll see that the stitching is all on the inside.
 
And here's a jingle to keep yourself occupied, to the tune of Rawhide:
 
"rollin rollin rollin, keep them pads a rollin, rollin rollin rollinnnnn, mod-tiiime"
 

I got the AD1000s in today.  They sound better than I expected but not good enough to escape the operating table.
 
Hopefully I'll have a Yamaha-Technica ready for chi-uni-fi in June.

I love the look of those ones. I hope the transplant goes well.  Did you go into the "Let's Talk AT" thread and tell of your plans?  Maybe best not to. But you could probably offload the drivers there.  The comfort must be excellent.
 
Any idea on damping methods or you simply going to let them fly.

RD posted earlier that they worked pretty well in a wide open enclosure with a ported baffle so besides the AD1000s being broadly similar to the one he made I'm not really sure exactly where to start with damping and tuning.  It will probably take quite a bit of trial and error but I should come up with something sooner or later.
 
The first order of business is going to be making a 53mm to 38mm adapter ring to fit the Yamaha drivers in to the AT frame.  I'm not sure if I should place the Yamaha Driver off center in hopes of improving soundstage or not.  I might try an on center and an off center one.
 
I wonder if crashing the AT thread with this plan would count as trolling or not...