[Pierre59]

I have a " young " less than one year AKG K701 and an " old " 1989 Sennheiser HD540 Reference.

 

[facelvega]

Quote:

Originally Posted by augustwest /img/forum/go_quote.gif My oldest are the Sennheiser hd414, the origianl version of that part number purchased around 1974, I don't really use them anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by auris /img/forum/go_quote.gif My oldest are a pair of Senneiser HD-424X purchased around 1975-1976. I listen to them occasionally just to see how the sound differs from my newer headphones.

Gentlemen, how do these old senns actually sound? I've heard people swear that the original 2000 ohm HD414 still sounds great if you drive it out of weakish speaker outs or at least a very beefy headphone amp. Observations? Of course, I could just break down and spend the fifteen euro a good condition pair of those suckers costs out here. Then I'd have the rare Head-fi satisfaction of buying HD414 pads for use on an HD414.

 

[sschell]

My dad has a pair of closed Signet headphones, which were manafactured by Audio-Technica in the mid 80s.

Duggeh's Stax pic is pretty cool, I have to admit

 

[nikongod]

hmm, i have original akg k-240's
k-340's (forsale)
akg k-1000, 1000ish serial number
and of course, grado hp2's & sr-200's

 

[Carl]

This is as good a place as any to say [size=large]K340 GET━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━!!![/size]


Thanks Duggeh.

 

[waitinonthebus]

ESP 9 I believe with the seperate energizer.

 

[Zenja]

I really wanted some Stax SR-X but the cost of getting an amp for them as well was too prohibitive

I suppose I could have got a cheap amp or made one though.

 

[Duggeh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschell /img/forum/go_quote.gif My dad has a pair of closed Signet headphones, which were manafactured by Audio-Technica in the mid 80s. Duggeh's Stax pic is pretty cool, I have to admit

A cool looking picture indeed, I'm too cool for school as the cool kids say. Its only a shame I havent even heard them yet.

 

[edstrelow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif This does seem to be a common problem with the float electrostatics. Both the headphones themselves and the energiser boxs seem prone to failure over time. All of the working sets which go on ebay go for far more than their sonic value if the few reports on that sound signiture which are availible are to be believed. I would pay good money for a working pair, but not crazy money. It might also be possible to have a faulty pair repaired by a company like onethingaudio, or even Quad, if you put up enough money for such a thing. Basically, its all about the money, if youre prepared to spend it, then you can make things work. Id still love to hear a pair of float electrostatics more than any other headphone, including the omega and the he90.

I remember really liking their sound. Their weight was something else. I had a Stax SRX3-II, Koss ESP9 and one of the Stax electrets and I preferred the Floats. Alas I couldn't find anyone able to fix them. The guy who bought them thought he could make them go. he called them "head Quads."

 

[derekbmn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschell /img/forum/go_quote.gif My dad has a pair of closed Signet headphones, which were manafactured by Audio-Technica in the mid 80s.

Your post reminded me that I also have a pair of Signet EP700s . Probably forget because well...... ummm they sound like poo. I had high hopes for these but alas they suck. And a pic http://www.adelcom.net/Signet-EP700.JPG

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega Gentlemen, how do these old senns actually sound? I've heard people swear that the original 2000 ohm HD414 still sounds great if you drive it out of weakish speaker outs or at least a very beefy headphone amp. Observations? Of course, I could just break down and spend the fifteen euro a good condition pair of those suckers costs out here. Then I'd have the rare Head-fi satisfaction of buying HD414 pads for use on an HD414.

The best I can say is, they sounded great for 1973, which unfortunately isn't saying much to ears accustomed to modern totl dynamics. The bass is rolled off, the midrange is reasonably smooth, there's a killer peak at 2--2.5kHz, and the treble rolls off after 10kHz. Today they would be mid-fi. With a good modern EQ unit, they could be persuaded to sound pretty good. They were sensitive for their day, which helped overcome the limitations imposed by that monster 2kohm impedance. Amps couldn't put a lot of power into that impedance, but mostly they didn't have to.

But sure, for 15 Euro, why not own the headphone that owned the future?

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl This is as good a place as any to say K340 GET━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━!!! Thanks Duggeh.

Pwor! What Scottish dullskuggery is here? Carl, are you to join the legion of halfbreed hybrid crossover-equipped comme-ci comme-ca headphones? At long last?

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pwor! What Scottish dullskuggery is here? Carl, are you to join the legion of halfbreed hybrid crossover-equipped comme-ci comme-ca headphones? At long last?

I've been wanting to try them for a while, it's just been trouble finding the money for them beyond other...commitments. Fortune would have it that I had a pair of impressive sounding but ill fitting SR-001s that I wanted to spare my ear canals from.

 

[skyline889]

Oddly enough none of my three main cans are still in production. My favorite of the three, the Jubilee, is 11 years old already!

 

[edstrelow]

Very Interesting. I see so many reviews of new equipment in these columns that I was surprised to see so many people still using older equipment, and mostly by choice. There have has been regular discussions of the merits of the older, i.e. 20 -30 year old Stax phones. Some of these are not even that cheap on E-bay, compared to current models. But I did not realize that there were quite a few older dynamics still in favor as well.

So evidently not all design changes over the years are actually improvements.