Anyone recognize these?

Yes, it's hard to believe, but I found a K340 for a decent price, and it's still undergoing the normal descaling and steam cleaning processes old studio 'phones have to go through here at The Lab, but I did do some preliminary tests and took some photos so all the aficionados can tell me when...

Somone on That Auction Site is selling a Pioneer SE-500, calling it an electrostatic, and of course it's no such thing; it is instead a headphone with the world's simplest headphone driver: two wires attached to a small sheet of PVDF piezoelectric film, which is draped over a foam backing. No...

Those of you who are Audio-Technica fans may be interested to know that the company started in the headphone biz with a full line of different types of 'phones (no buds, though-- they were yet to come). There were several decent electret electrostatics beginning in the mid-70s, along with some...

Yes, it's '70s isodynamics time again. So far I've found only one 'phone of this type that in stock form was ready for the future Head-Fi market, and that was the 1978 North American (NA) market Fostex T50, but it was expensive, had limited distribution and was made in low numbers, at least for...

I felt really out of it when I found Panasonic had been selling receivers with digital amps using the Equibit technology (now called PurePath) from TI via a Danish company called Toccata for three years before I found out about them. http://www.mm.hs-heilbronn.de/gruhle...bit%20risbo%22...

This site from the Netherlands (in English) shows a complete disassembly of the Yamaha HP-1's earpieces. It covers everything except the addition of damping materials, and it's applicable to all the other 55mm Orthodynamics (HP-1, YH-1, YH-100). Good step by step photos. Tells where to get...

Finally found some photos of these oldsters on the 'net. I'd read about these as a Toshiba product back in the late '70s and discovered that they used electrets in a unique way that wouldn't compromise the classic "true" electrostatic sound, plus allowing fully portable operation with...

My place of work is considering headphones for the company fleet, so to speak, and wants something even stupid people can't kill. Does the HD201 live up to the old Sennheiser reputation for near-bulletproofness?

In the Sunday November 13 2005 issue there's an article about US inventors. Pictured on page 1 of the section featuring that article is James West, co-inventor (with Gerhard Sessler) of the electret microphone (the kind in your headsets, PC monitors, cameras, telephones, DAPs, &c &c) at what...

Many Stax owners say that their 'phones sound better after they've "charged up" for an hour or two or even overnight. Others say it's the Stax class-A amps that temperature-stabilize after awhile and finally reach design temperature. No matter which of these two things you believe, the big...

Lambda Signature (ca. 1987) vs. Lambda Nova Basic (1994), using Stax's old SRM-1 Mk 2 Pro amp. They look pretty much the same, although the Signature comes in Stax Signature Brown, and the arch (Stax calls it a head spring) on the Nova is a little sturdier looking. Many people have complained...

Starting in the late '60s, AKG started thinking of breaking the audible spectrum in two, mostly because engineering a single diaphragm for optimum performance for both highs and lows always runs up against some mutually exclusive imperatives. Just ask any speaker designer. AKG didn't want to...

Actually just a comparison. Here at The Lab we have a mockup of a typical lowest-bidder office environment. I even go there every day and pretend to work. Anyway, we're trying different 'phones and testing their sound quality as well as their socio-office-o'logical effects on coworkers and...

A crowd of two so far, but yes, the Sennheiser HD-201 cheapie closed 'phone is a hit. Buy.com had 'em cheap, and many of you recommended them, so I said: Why Not. My workplace has slowly evolved to the point where we are now faced with the happy problem of where to put all our little amps and...

We've seen a lot of feverish activity over the circa 1978 AKG K340, but there's been almost no mention of the successor 'phone, the K4. There was a recent auction in England for a pair. I don't know anything about the K4 except that it's another electrostat/dynamic hybrid and the K340's...

A Completely Unfair First Impression of a Well-Respected Headphone Beloved by Thousands if Not Millions The story of my K501 adventure starts where any good story these days really starts: eBay. I snagged a BIN auction for a new K501, based on the buzz here and figuring that I liked AKG's...

I believe in clarity for Head-Fi thread titles. Well, ya gotta admit it's better than "Help me" with sixteen exclamation marks. All I wanted to report was that the folks who say "Get an old receiver or integrated amp from the late '70s/early '80s" (in lieu of a multihundred-dollar dedicated...

Many of you are probably tired of hearing me rant about this type of headphone and make wild unsubstantiated claims for them (sample: "This type of headphone has merit! YMMV! IMHO! DBM!"), but I have to say, they really do merit more attention than they've gotten, which is just about zero...

For those vintage collector types wanting to own a unique headphone from the '70s that was truly a pioneering effort-- no pun intended-- how about some 'phones that aren't electrostatic or dynamic or magnetic? These used Kynar (polyvinylidene fluoride plastic film), which is piezoelectric, for...

Okay, what's a good price new/used, and where does one get 'em?

I've just become reacquainted with Sennheiser after having been away nearly 30 years. Thanks to all the fond descriptions of the HD-580/600/650, I've come home to Sennheiser by picking up Amazon's HD-600 refurb deal. As I explained in another thread, there was a day in 1976 where I'd had it...

After seeing Jude's exploded K340 diagram in an earlier thread, I started getting little signals from the far side of my brain. Using a Townes-Schawlow maser amplifier, these signals are now large enough to be examined, and my brain has decided that they are bits and pieces from old audio...

I've mentioned these in my posts and others have expressed a desire to acquire them. I'll update this thread to track the prices and frequency-of-appearance of the YH-100 on eBay after the auctions end. Full name: Yamaha YH-100 Orthodynamic headphones. They're from 1981, they're...

Here's an invitation to nominate the headphone that was once popular or at least tenderly loved by you which has now been forgotten so completely that it can't be found by Google, and/or it's never come up on a newsgroup, a for sale ad, or a site like this. I nominate the Realistic...