[AzraelDarkangel]

Focus is in the lower mids/upper bass, about perfect for male vocal. Because of the tonal balance they sound a bit bassy. But they don't have much output in the lower bass. It's the upper bass focus. I just read online that these have almost no output above 12khz which would explain the lack of air and openess. I think the drivers have potential though, they are pretty detailed with good leading edge transients. But they need a non resonant enclosure and good wiring for me to judge properly. But I don't think I'll be able to extract the raw drivers without damaging them.

 

[DisCHORDDubstep]

Focus is in the lower mids/upper bass, about perfect for male vocal. Because of the tonal balance they sound a bit bassy. But they don't have much output in the lower bass. It's the upper bass focus. I just read online that these have almost no output above 12khz which would explain the lack of air and openess. I think the drivers have potential though, they are pretty detailed with good leading edge transients. But they need a non resonant enclosure and good wiring for me to judge properly. But I don't think I'll be able to extract the raw drivers without damaging them.

someone here probably could... Maybe use a chemical on the glue?

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

They also had some weird bolts holding part of them together. They were obviously constructed so you couldn't take them apart. I'll take some pics when I get the chance. I partially disassembled one ear piece (more like spent 20min tearing them apart) but I haven't gotten to the driver yet. They still work fine though. They have conductors that touch the metal headband so they only use one entrance cable. but the conductors are placed on top of plastic layer over the back of the drivers and I can't tell how they are connected into the back of the driver itself. I'm worried that if I tear them up I could rip the wire out of the back of the driver, if it's connected directly to the voice coil, no way I can repair it.

Not really a big deal though, you can buy these used all over for a few dollars. I just did a Google search.

 

[Tiemen]

I got the MB PMB 45 II.
The only information I could found about them is here: http://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/MB_Quart_PMB_45_II
 
I took these photos when they arrived:

 

 

They look a lot like the current headphones from German Maestro, the company that took over MB Quart.
Befrore the name was changed to MB Quart, the name was simply MB and before that: Peerless
 
The ear pads were shot, so I decided to replace them.
To my dismay I found out that the earpads were glued to the frame. It took some efforts to cut them loose.
And....the cups fell off

.
Apparantly the elastics that hold the cups to the frame were desintgrated due to age,
so the former owner decided to glue the cups to the frame.

 

 
Well, it's a personal record, to destroy a headphone within half an hour after I got them
 
I managed to tape the cups back into the frame with isolation tape. Looks bad, but at least I can listen to them with the HM5 pads.
Their sound is dark, even darker  than the ZMF and the DT150. Although the details are there, they don't jump at you. I can see how others will find them veiled and muffled.
They need my hybrid tube amp to give the best sound, which reminds me a lot of the HD650.
My other amps gave a sloppy bass and overall dull sound.

 

[GREQ]

  I got the MB PMB 45 II.
 

Nice.
From my very limited experience with MB Quarts I was half expecting you to say something like "it's bright/detailed and bass light" as that was my experience with an MB Quart 70.
It's externally very similar to the MB Quart 70 - the version I had was well looked after, but the elastics (same kind of elastic as on vintage AKG headbands) holding the cups in place were barely still attached with no clear means of replacement, and just sort of 'dangled'. 
 
While it was comfortable and very detailed, it wasn't dark enough for me and so I sold them on.
 
If the sound is too dark for you right now, I would try out some large velour pads on them. Anything from AKG or Beyer should fit (as they did on my Quart 70), but I suspect AKG pads would be better than Beyers at taming the 'darkness'.  (just a guess - YMMV).

 

[vid]

Based on my very limited experience, the modern Beyer velours are terrible for sound quality. They increase your treble for sure but they also kill your treble resolution - the case with the vintage DT 990 anyway. The AKG velours were actually excellent for treble resolution on the K 340, but who knows.

 

[Tiemen]

  Nice.
From my very limited experience with MB Quarts I was half expecting you to say something like "it's bright/detailed and bass light" as that was my experience with an MB Quart 70.
It's externally very similar to the MB Quart 70 - the version I had was well looked after, but the elastics (same kind of elastic as on vintage AKG headbands) holding the cups in place were barely still attached with no clear means of replacement, and just sort of 'dangled'. 
 
While it was comfortable and very detailed, it wasn't dark enough for me and so I sold them on.
 
If the sound is too dark for you right now, I would try out some large velour pads on them. Anything from AKG or Beyer should fit (as they did on my Quart 70), but I suspect AKG pads would be better than Beyers at taming the 'darkness'.  (just a guess - YMMV).

 
Nah, I kinda like the dark sound. Good for streaming and bad recorded music.
The soundsignature surprised me as well. The Quart Phone 90X I had was what you described: bright and detailed. But also fast with good bass. Shouldn't have sold them.
The GMP250 is also brighter, but with a strong bass.
 
I have the AKG velour pads, but they are too small for my big ears. And I'm afraid DT770 velours will give even more but worse bass than they have now.
Maybe if I tape the little holes as on my GMP250.
But the HM5 are also very soft which is a good thing since the cardomatic suspension system doesn't work anymore.
 

  Based on my very limited experience, the modern Beyer velours are terrible for sound quality. They increase your treble for sure but they also kill your treble resolution - the case with the vintage DT 990 anyway. The AKG velours were actually excellent for treble resolution on the K 340, but who knows.

Correct. The DT770 velours are terrible sounding on the vintage DT990. I'm still upset that a Beyer spokesman recommended them to me when I asked the firm which earpad to buy as a replacement.

 

[GREQ]

 

  Based on my very limited experience, the modern Beyer velours are terrible for sound quality. They increase your treble for sure but they also kill your treble resolution - the case with the vintage DT 990 anyway. The AKG velours were actually excellent for treble resolution on the K 340, but who knows.

Correct. The DT770 velours are terrible sounding on the vintage DT990. I'm still upset that a Beyer spokesman recommended them to me when I asked the firm which earpad to buy as a replacement.

Agreed (also based on limited experience putting modern velours on my vintage DT990 ... too much bass bloom too)

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

These have a driver design I've never seen before with a round metal plate that acts like a diaphragm but is not attached directly to the voice coil. It seems to create a resonant chamber when in place, held on by the magnet.

 

[nick n]

^ is there any ohms rating there? They might be a crystal radio set headphone.
 
I like the colour scheme
 
Is there any brand name or model?
 
Interesting thanks for the post.

 

[Hutnicks]

These have a driver design I've never seen before with a round metal plate that acts like a diaphragm but is not attached directly to the voice coil. It seems to create a resonant chamber when in place, held on by the magnet.

I have seen those type of drivers in PC speaker sets. I believe Logitech uses a similar configuration in some of theirs..

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

600 ohm Telex. I mentioned it a few posts back. I was hoping to free the driver and try a different enclosure, but the driver design itself is flawed for musical playback. No high frequencies and lots of resonances. I looked them up and they have no output over 12 kHz.

 

[robthebiggerman]

Telex make, amongst other things, communications equipment for tv and radio like thier Adam talk back matrix. These cans would have been designed with human speach in mind only. It's only over the last 10 years that talk back matrices have started to handle full bandwidth audio 20-20Khz. I remeber those though, cool colour scheme but rubber against your head....no thanks but if your into that sort of thing...

 

[spbach]

Just bought a pair of YH-100's yesterday. They sound great and when I mod them, will rival some serious modern headphones.
 

 

 

[BruinAnteater]

Ooops!!! Wrong Thread