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Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 49

post #721 of 21643
7/30/07 at 12:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wualta View Post

My T30s sound smooth but tilted upward at the bass, kinda flattish in the midrange and then downward at the treble end. Until we figure out why our reactions to our respective T30s are so different, we should hold off on declaring definitive damping procedures.
I attribute it to my allergies. Highs in general have been bothering me for the past few weeks in conjunction with an up tick in my allergies.
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post #722 of 21643
7/30/07 at 12:53pm
Thread Starter 
Aha. Well, go to Big Lots, and while you're poking around for the Accura SR-660 headphones, look to see if they have the big brown bags of Java Time coffee.

People are going to think I work for Big Lots. Snot true. I just love the place. Gonna marry it someday.

.
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post #723 of 21643
7/30/07 at 2:03pm
The T-40 showed up a few minutes ago. nikongod was very, very conservative when describing the condition of these, they're in fantastic shape. Quite nice for the few minutes I've been able to listen to them. I'll get more familiar with them before any modding.
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post #724 of 21643
7/30/07 at 3:45pm
They're a tad dark, but nice and smooth. More bass than I expected too.
I took the foam rings off, because it's reversible, and that definitely is an improvement. They're more up front now. They're pretty comfy too, but I haven't had them on long enough at one time to see if they'll get hot.
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post #725 of 21643
7/30/07 at 3:55pm
I don't find that they get hot really, but i feel like they're awfully intimate with my head for a cirum-aural 'phone.

AKG K(2,3)(4,7)(0,1) style pads mostly generally kinda fit them (a little loosely) so I've wondered a bit if the akg velours would improve things, though maybe they'd push the drivers too far away from the ears.
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post #726 of 21643
7/30/07 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericj View Post
I don't find that they get hot really, but i feel like they're awfully intimate with my head for a cirum-aural 'phone.

AKG K(2,3)(4,7)(0,1) style pads mostly generally kinda fit them (a little loosely) so I've wondered a bit if the akg velours would improve things, though maybe they'd push the drivers too far away from the ears.
I'll try the AKG velours later and let you know.
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post #727 of 21643
7/30/07 at 6:05pm
I got some foam from a pet store and some felt from a craft store and modded my T30.

The felt disk


The foam


Unfortunately, I didn't think to listen to them right before I modded them, so differences I am going to describe are based on 48 hour old memory. It seems that they are a bit more closed in sounding. I expected this from what I've read in this thread, so I may be hearing what I'm expecting. I liked the bass before modding and I like it a lot now. I don't remember enough to know the difference. I really like the mids vocals and vibes sound wonderful. As for the highs, they were still bothering my ears, so I compared them to my K601. The same music that bothered my ears in the T30 bothered them in the K601 as well. It's mostly sopranos hitting high notes, high notes on piano, and high notes on flute, all played loud. By loud, I mean the loudest part of the music at that time. Hunting around my music library I found some highs that aren't piercing. Basically listening to cymbals, bells, and other small percussion sounds. I found one piece in particular where the T30 is lacking compared to the K601, a minute and a half cymbal solo on a Modern Jazz Quartet live album. In the K601, the cymbals really ring. With the T30, in comparison, the cymbals sound like tin cans.
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post #728 of 21643
7/30/07 at 8:40pm
The T-40 isn't quite on par with the Yamaha HP-1 IMO, but it's very good, and close to the Yamaha before mods. It'll be interesting to see where it stands after modding. It just enforces what a bargain these old Orthos are, for the time being anyway.
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post #729 of 21643
7/30/07 at 11:58pm
Thread Starter 
Scompton, looks like you got the ideal kind of foam to act as a damper-disc spring. You might even try putting the yellow fake-fiberglass biscuit on top of the foam if you think of it some day. In any case, you've done exactly what I do when I damp an iso/ortho. If the highs are still weak, or should I say if the bass is still dominant, I put a reflex disc behind the damping disc. If they're still weak, I switch from felt to the fake [paper] chamois. That should do it; if the very tippy-top octave still needs a goose, I put a small reflex dot right on the back of the driver.

If on the other hand the bass is a little tepid, I damp the vent or back opening, if any. The T30 has an excellent open back.

Did the bass increase in quality, quantity, or both after you applied the damping? And did "detail", which is really a function of damping, increase? You know, the ability to hear tiny little tinks and scratchings?

Quote:
Originally Posted by swt61
It just enforces what a bargain these old Orthos are, for the time being anyway.
Amen to that. Let's hope they stay obscure just long enough for all of us to get some.

Let us know when you do your mod. Instead of a chunk of opencell foam, you could try the dryer lint idea or just stuff in a bunch of polyester fiberfill from an old pillow. It will be very interesting to hear your comparison of the two modded 'phones. Prediction: the Yamaha will have dangerous bass, the T40 will have AKG bass.

.
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post #730 of 21643
7/31/07 at 1:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by scompton View Post
I found one piece in particular where the T30 is lacking compared to the K601, a minute and a half cymbal solo on a Modern Jazz Quartet live album. In the K601, the cymbals really ring. With the T30, in comparison, the cymbals sound like tin cans.
Ah, another AKG challenge. I have a modded and unmodded K501, which I understand is similar to the K601. What's the name of the MJQ CD? I'll get a copy of it and do the comparison.

Who knows, they might've been playing on tin cans! Heh heh.
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post #731 of 21643
7/31/07 at 9:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wualta View Post
Ah, another AKG challenge. I have a modded and unmodded K501, which I understand is similar to the K601. What's the name of the MJQ CD? I'll get a copy of it and do the comparison.

Who knows, they might've been playing on tin cans! Heh heh.
Dedicated to Connie

I need to remove the damping to tell how the bass changed since I hadn't listened to them for 2 days when I damped them.
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post #732 of 21643
7/31/07 at 12:40pm
Thread Starter 
MJQ CD on its way. Which track is it, and have you found this to be a good test of top-end quality in general?
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post #733 of 21643
7/31/07 at 12:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JadeEast View Post
For the record with a few beers the drivers found in a Realistic Pro 30 fit almost perfectly in the gutted corpse of a Grado sr-60.
Interesting! I would've guessed the Grado (Primo?) drivers were much bigger. Got any photos? And does the result have that funky Grado-iso sound?

Now the problem will be to turn my SR-60 into a corpse... hmm..

[thinks] I can do that!

But would it be possible to do this transplant without wrecking the Grado drivers?

.
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post #734 of 21643
7/31/07 at 1:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wualta View Post
MJQ CD on its way. Which track is it, and have you found this to be a good test of top-end quality in general?
I just got the CD last week myself, so I don't know the track names. I'll post tonight when I get home. I do know it's near the end of the 22 minute long track. I read somewhere that cymbal crashes and high trumpet notes are good for evaluating how well lossy compression algorithms handle highs. When I heard this cymbal solo, I thought this would be great. I'm new at trying to evaluate different frequency ranges, so there might be better music to try. But I could here the difference between the T30 and the K601. I imaging some of the high notes on the vibes would also be good for evaluating highs.


BTW, I compared the T30 and K601 because of the headphones I had handy at home, the K601 has the best highs. Last night, I hooked up my SR-5 to the new to me NAD 3155 that I got at Goodwill. Tonight, I'll compare the T-30 to the SR-5.
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post #735 of 21643
7/31/07 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
Just so everyone knows where I'm coming from, I make jokes about AKG 'phones but I do appreciate them and respect their ability to present treble smoothly, which is the most difficult thing for a dynamic to do well, especially in this price range. However, when I compare the Fostex T40v1 or the Stage Two Yama YH-100 to my K501s, I do clearly and unambiguously hear the extra smoothness of the ortho design, just as I can hear a small increment of extra smoothness when I compare a modded ortho to a fullblown 'stat like the Lambda Signature. Bass quantity/quality is a separate matter, of course; right now we're trying to zero in on this deficit the T30 seems to have compared to the K601 in the high treble. To make this comparison absolutely fair, I would need to have scompton's K601 available to me, but I think we can ballpark it. I suspect we're going to need further damping, but I'll hold back on a final judgment until the test disc arrives.

.
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