Telefunken X AKG K140 Frankenphone

Hi, I'm modding a really old Telefunken WWII Headphone which I sniped on ebay for the looks.

Some time ago I was sniping an AKG K140 (600ohm closed back) because I really liked my other modded K140 and I wanted to have a stock one... but there were some plastic parts missing so I trashed everything except the drivers and a part of its housing.

Since then I felt the urge to slam them into a portable headphone. In the end I never found a decent looking cheap headphone till I stumbled upon these Telefunken.

This is what I thought of so far:

-swap drivers

-dampen

-refurbish

-add ear pads

-check cables... they looks so funky I want to reuse them in order to keep its looks

Day1:

disassembly->

what is this...

oh god what...

but... the cable is even more... unique~

so do these fit the cups?

I guess they do, to a certain extend.

there will be a tad more room, due to the modifications concerning the hole in the front

luckily I own 2 Dremel powertools

it fits, an I got almost 8mm of room for the driver, nice~

well, they fit quite snug, but closing these gaps with glue is no bad idea IMHO

That's all for today,

next up will be checking the cables, some sanding and removing the paint

... silly cables

sadly I won use wood this time :C

Day2:

Progress...

Today I woke up late and had and still have quite a bit to do... so in the end there was only room for some color removal and sanding

this is what they look like atm... needs more sanding and a bigger grit

I initially planed to redo the original black paintjob but after I took this picture, I'm somewhat not that sure anymore.

I guess they look better this way... what's your opinion concerning the color pattern?

Thank you for the comments, I guess I'll give coloring another thought and don't do anything drastic yet.

Day3:

didn't do much...

only sanded the excessive glue/plasic mixture

yeah, that's all folks... no time to do anything at all till friday.

But there will be quite a dump next weekend... I should have time to finish them (no fine tuning included)

I did some work this evening...

Day4:

oh noes the one driver is FUBAR... so I had to dismantle my K140 woodies and use these drivers for this headphone...

now I have to snipe another one on eBay for replacement drivers :C

I did some basic felt dampening...

used spare Etymotic plugs and shrinking-tube to create this

before I noticed the broke driver...

this is what they look like atm

Did some test-listening with horrid old and dirty Sennheiser PX30 pads... I happen to have 8 of these phones, for parts...

plus... I got the for free /me is storing junk...

->

quite horrid to look at indeed.

My impressions so far:

-horrid dampening, stange sound      ->      needs some wool .etc

-I'm not used to fully closed cans

-these two drivers are working

-the red/black cable looks a bit to flashy -> I have to braid a white/black one ...

-after tesing with some actual "pads" I decided to buy some      ->      Candidates are AKG K518 pads OR Sony MDR 150 pads.

The biggest problem so far (despite the dampening) is the unusual size... pads need to have a 7.6cm diameter

-> I might have to add some width to these phones to make the pads sit tight.

That's all for today... I'll have to wait for the pads to arrive.

Until then it's no use adjusting anything.

So...

I'm rather disappointed  by the closed sound, had to use quite a bit of EQ to make them sound right (The k140 drive were designed for half open phones anyway)

The isolation level on the other hand was awesome though. The flashy cable just feels ~wrong.

Bought the AKG K518 pads, which don't fit by 8mm. I knew I would run into this problem so I intend to enlarge the headphone either by plastic and resin or just resin.

The next cable will the braided with either pure black or black/white colors... not sure yet but I don't like it to look as flashy as the current one.

To fix the sound I have no choice but to modify the headphones from a closed- to an (half)open headphone.

sadly you cant read "Telefunken" anymore... I might paint the missing letters if they turn out decent.

I might just make a Logo and put it on the Grill... the Grado approach, but I guess this will compromise the sound quite a bit...

There truly is quite a bit to experiment with these cans.

decided to use black spray paint and some varnish later on... because there is no way to powder-coat them at a decent price.

They still need some sanding but I applied some paint to fill some deeper scratches first.

not sure how dampen them correctly, but trial and error is a nice way to learn about those things if you work on a cheap headphone.

Not sure if anyone is still interested... I will keep on logging my progress here though~

Quote:

Originally Posted by roker 

I thought it was going good until you cut the cup.  I know the drivers weren't working out, but the set is vintage and should have keep that touch to it.

Yeah, my heart bled a little... but the results are quite stunning:

IT'S ALIVE

open this time... quite fine

they look their best without pads... sadly

without any dampening they sound surprisingly great... a bit more airy than the K140 but with a bloated bass wich reminds me of the K240s... very similar indeed (which isn't bad)

with some cotton inserted they sound... more neutral, the bass is punchy not bloated, but now it's back to the recessed treble which is quite... nice? I like my treble Sennheiser style :P

I'm using the K81 pads so far... thy don't fit perfectly yet... but this will change.

So far they sound similar to where I started, the K140 but less airy and with more body... which is fine as well. Plus, they look uite nice, imho.

FR-wise. Quite neurtal but "n" shaped. Lacks deep bass and treble extension... like the K140 did.

doublepost... y u do this...