Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 63

I'm very much up to modding my cans but I might just make my own ES drivers and a housing around them. A lot more expensive though...

Thanks for the reply ericj and wualta, I just took a closer look at my HP-2 headphones adjustable band. The black material band is still there in tact but feels kind of old and flimsey. I don't know what it is made out of. It appears to be a sort of felt cloth material but upon closer inspection it seems to have some leather properties to it too. Whatever it is, it feels so soft and flimsey that I feel like it could tear very easily if I exert enough pull on it.
There is some of the thin black plastic band parts still glued to the edges of the cloth. The rest of the plastic band (actually most of it) is already gone, fell off a long time ago. I can see that the plastic band seems to have been glued onto the cloth (or leather) band and not crimped to it or sewn into it.
I see the screws at each edge of the headphones shells where this plastic and cloth adjustable band screw into. It looks like a relatively easy task to find some sort of thin but strong flexible plastic material and cut a new mold of the original plastic flex band out of it. I will try to see if I can find such a plastic sheet in the Home Depot store next time I am there. Then I would have to decide what sort of glue to use to glue the new band back onto the cloth/leather part of the band. Hmmm. Sounds do-a-ble if I can find the perfect plastic or other flexible material to cut it out of.

By the way, I hardly ever played these phones when I bought them so even after 30+ years, they may still have some breaking in to flex them loose! They sound amazingly close to my AKG K701's signature except the highs and mids are not so bright like the AKG K701 (which has about 240 hours burning in still). The bass is light just like the (exactly like) the AKG K701. Come to think of it, the AKG K701 seems to have copied Yamaha's adjustable head band design! Anyone notice that? The adjustable headband mechanism is basically the same just implemented slightly differently.

Ok, that pretty much marked the end of my YH-100 fantasy, from now on every YH-100 will probably be bid up over $150 or even $200 by "somebody" for donuts stuffing......

I'll just go back to my lowly 'O 990/600 and weep....



Congrets, that sounds like one hell of a pair of phones.....

And there comes the end of my ortho fantasy as a whole... the HP-2 is similar to the 701, then what will the HP/YH-1 be? 650?

These Yamaha animals will get soooo expensive from now on.....

You know I am serious when I said that my HP-2 sounds so much like the AKG K701's.
I am listening to my HP-2's and comparing them with several headphones I also have. The AKG-K701, the Senn HD-600, Senn HD-650 and Bose On-Ear Triports (please don't bash me for including Bose here). I have other headphones too but not downstairs with me (they are upstairs and I am too lazy to fetch them all). Out of all these, this old Yamaha HP-2 that I had totally ignored for 30 years left in a junk box, sounds mostly like an AKG K701 with less treble energy. It actually is sounding more accurate than the AKG K701 listening to some jazz music with piano and percussive sounds. It is so freakin accurate and smooth with beautiful mids and highs balance I don't know whether I should be happy that I have rediscovered a vintage gem or should I feel sad that I just blew close to $300 for a brand new AKG K701? Dang! The more I am listening to this HP-2 the more I am getting amazed how good it is sounding! Absolutely beautifully balanced spectrum presentation from lows to highs. Nothing harsh, nothing peaky nor bright. The AKG K701 as beautiful as I thought it sounds with its sparkling highs and transparency might sound a bit less accurated when directly A/B'ed against this HP-2. The midrange is more natural on the HP-2 it seems. This can't be! It even sounds more balanced than my Senn HD-650.
I think these HP-2's are breaking in and sounding better and better. I left them playing all night and day since I dug them out of the junk box last evening. Playing through a Creek OBH-11SE headphone amp. I am not kidding! I am so amazed they sound this good. Too bad the plastic band did not last through the years. I suspect and fear the cheap plastic parts on my AKG K701 headphones may suffer a similar fate in time. Plus I just noticed the AKG K701 has some elastic strings (like rubber bands) on each side tensioning the adjustable head band. Those are sure to wear out and snap in time. Does anyone believe me when I tell them the HP-2's sound this good? I am an audio nut, audio geek and love my audio hobby. I know good sound and these HP-2's are great no matter what their age is. Man I am so impressed with them now. As a young punk teenager when I first got them I thought they were dull, lifeless and way too low efficiency to drive. 30 years later, I am raving about them. What the hey! So I add another favorite headphone to my list.

Probably about half a dozen nut cases believe you. I'm still trying to figure out why a lowly pair of radioshack headphones is embarrassing a pair of AKG-340s that have arrived at my home.

Stock and underpowered for now.

Edit I should mention that the embarrassment the AKG is feeling isn't because of a lack of performance but of how far it has to go to outshine the pro-30s. A ratshack POS headphone shouldn't give a TOL AKG of equivalent vintage much if any competition in my mind.

Nah, AKG rubber bands just go limp after 10 years or so. They're cheap replacement parts when Harmin' Pro North America has them in stock.

And to be fair, AKG uses far better plastic in their premium headphones than Yamaha used in your HP-2.

I have two of the YH-2, which are a later version of your HP-2. Hopefully the HP-2 was built better than the YH-2.

The YH-2 was built with foam in the earcup that completely decomposed over the last two decades.

Well my YH-2's had crumbs of foam in the drivers when i bought them and i've never heard a K701.

I have had a lot of AKG cans but i hear that the K701 is a black sheep among them.

So, i have no idea.

Edit: I'm also hypercritical of the obvious chasm between sennheiser's development budget for premium dynamic headphones and sennheiser's marketing budget for same, so, I've never heard HD6x0 either.

I hear that there's a secret order of K340 naysayers lurking here somewhere . . .

If anyone ever holds one out to me and says 'here, have a listen' I'll try it.

But i won't ever buy one because I'm disgusted by the fact that i spent more time redeveloping my YH-2 over the weekend than Sennheiser spent upgrading the HD580 to the HD600 - which is an HD580 with a metal grille on the back.