Show us your vintage headphones! - Page 30

My note about the warmth was a secondary thought - should've put it into its own paragraph for better clarity. On one hand I'm questioning anything possibly being brighter than the K 241 and on the other hand I'm wondering whether Greq used some terms like warmth out of turn by accident (and if so, whether some other terms might be more suitable).

Edited by vid - 9/15/12 at 8:08pm

*shrugs*

 

I don't really have anything to add as I dont have either headphone 

This time I'm pretty sure I said what I thought I meant 

 

By bright, I did mean more treble - although I did also mention that this could be down to my K141 having much less bass than my k241 and k240, so it could be a placebo.

 

- OK... I just did some A-B testing with some System of a Down (so plenty of treble, cymbals and crunchy guitars to listen to)  - my k141 has more mid/upper treble than the k241, while k241 has more lower treble - cymbals sound 'fatter'... but on the k141 they are more sparkly. The volume was almost the same... the k241 might have slightly more treble and volume naturally, but the lack of bass in the k141 negates this as it requires slightly more volume to reach similar listening levels (both 600 ohm, but it's never that simple). Once similar listening levels are reached the resulting effect is a 'brighter' sound. 

 

Also about warmth, that was just a general comment I added, sorry it caused confusion   I find that my k141 can sound equally so, or more warm than some Grados. Sometimes I even prefer the k141 mids to my RS2i. 

 

 

 

Now I HAVE to try my k141 with pleather pads!!!

I'm also find K340 (ibass light version) treble is a little hot/sparkle. stax lambda (507, for example) has a a little smoother treble. But overall, K340 bass light is not so easy to compare with Lambdas. One pair has original pads, and the other has pads from 880 ed.2005. I didn't like how 880S sounds with newer pads (from ed.2005)
Edited by Ilya--s - 9/16/12 at 5:17am

Very anxiously awaiting the arrival of my SE-700s. Should be here within 6 days. 

 

It was over a year since I fiddled with the Unipolar 2000, but I think I used an ordinary dinner knife. The baffle is just pressed into place. The plastic seems quite durable. I experimented with different damping schemes but came to no conclusive results. It has an upper midrange peak typical of the Sennheiser sound of the era (following th HD414). The easiest and most effective mod is to cover the side openings in the cup with electric tape.

 

Thanks, need to try and pry it open then. It's hard to know with vintage cans if something is being held in place intentionally by some structure or unintentionally by dirt.

 

Yeah, there's some peakiness and dippiness at the upper mids. I measured this graph off the left channel, though using only ear canal modeling and not of the rest of the pinna, and also no HRTF compensation (hence the K 240 DF measurement, taken in the same way, is provided as a reference). I should probably dig out the artificial ear and see how the graph changes - I've never measured anything with a driver this big.

 

I did some quick modding on the front of the baffle (on the right side which is a bit brighter) and found out that:

• a toilet paper disc over the transparent part reduces everything above 6 kHz by about 5 dB
• a nylon disc over the transparent part reduces bass extension and has a small reductive effect around 5 and 6 kHz
• a nylon donut (covering everything except the transparent part) improves bass extension without bloating up the rest of the bass, upper frequencies not affected to any large degree
• two nylon donuts as above improves bass extension further.

 

From what I recall from someone else, the taping up of the sides improves bass; not tried that yet. I think the best mod, though, may be EQ. If it weren't for that harsh dip after 5 kHz, that would be almost the perfect response for EQing.

 

Like this. Blue is bare baffle, wonderful cool pink is with two nylon donuts.

 

Getting down to 50 Hz roughly on level with 1 kHz is decent for an electret, as is 40 Hz about within -5 dB. Shame about the slight hump that develops around 100 Hz - but that's what you have an EQ for.

 

I've finally managed to open these up!! - they ARE orthos (at least 90% sure) MORE PHOTOS TO COME SOON.

Ok first the photos:

 

I found 6 screws under the pleather earpads. 

 

 

 

Here you can see the thickness of the driver housing - this is unfortunately totally sealed shut.

 

There are two large magnets inside with 8 large holes in each. 

In both drivers the two magnets are both slightly counter-rotated, which is clearly shown here

PLEAS LET ME KNOW IF THESE ARE NOT ORTHOS

 

MOD: To counter the large bass/low mid sound hump, I put a disk of denim over the rear of the drivers.

 

After the mod the sound improved radically. I hoped I wouldn't kill the bass tonality and volume, but the results were better than expected. I did a similar mod on my Yamaha HP-3 which improved the sound maybe 15-20%. But the sound on these has improved by up to 50%! Now I prefer the sound on these to my HP-3!!

The trebles are sparkly, almost like a Grado, but a little shrouded and less airy in comparison.

The mids are now much less conjested - the high mids are still a little recessed which is probably the natural sound of the driver, but the low mids are warm and the tone is much better, almost excellent.

The bass is less bloated but almost thunderous - acoustic decay is incredible and bass extension is pretty good (and quite amazing with a good EQ- I use a Fisher EQ-550, 12 band stereo EQ)

Also the high bass has a 'phat' quality to it that makes low guitar riffs and bass solos sound really juicy without being bloated - that is probably the most coloured aspect of the sound.

 

No, it's not neutral, but some of us aren't looking for that. Personally I love it - I won't be giving this headphone up any time soon.

Well, they're not regular dynamics. Post these pictures in the Orthodynamic Roundup thread, I'm sure you'll get an answer of some sort. I think the little seed-shaped holes are cool.

Cool find! Looks like there is a cap in there, definitely something I've not seen used in other orthos. 

The holes are actually round, but in both drivers the magnets are slightly rotated out of symmetry.

Oh yeah, that's true, and you mention it as well. Wonder if the rotation was intentional? I suppose if both drivers have the exact same amount of rotation...

They do. So it seems like a deliberate decision.