[ourfpshero]

got these. realistic nova 15 headphones. large supra aural design. hard to drive. nice sound, good mids, kind of a mid-high peak, decent bass that doesnt extend to the very lows.
no koss emblem on the plug. possibly sennheiser?

 

[Zombie_X]

I think those are older beyers.. but I'm not entirely sure either.

 

[ourfpshero]

thx- they look similar to beyer dt302 -even the plug is the same design. though i didnt know beyer ever oem'd for others

 

[Viktor]

Don't they look more similar to Sennheiser's vintage HD414 and HD424?

HD 414

HD 424

 

[ourfpshero]

they do- but i am thinking the design was generic for the time. the cups are oval, not round. describe the senns sound to me

 

[ourfpshero]

pics of driver and detachable plug

 

[ourfpshero]

anyone?

 

[ourfpshero]

??????

 

[Currawong]

The design and detachable plug say Sennheiser to me. Hard to drive makes sense too, as they were 2 kOhm from memory.

 

[Kloug]

They remind me of a Koss model from the late 70s. Those Koss were very cheap (around 25$), with all white plastic construction and the pads were red foam if I remember well. They had a sound signature very similar to your description : clear midrange but not very much extension both in highs and lows.

 

[MCC]

I've heard before that many of the Radio Shack/Realistic cans were made by Koss. I have the Nova 20 and I wish I had yours- mine are of entirely different construction with a large 8-ohm paper driver in a sealed enclosure. I use them as test headphones.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

There was a pair on eBay sold for $20. They were offered in 1975. Made in Japan is interesting.
 
http://tinyurl.com/jr6afpd
 

 

 

 
$21.95 in 1975 = $100.03 today (2016).
 

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

I have the Nova 44 quadraphonic headphones. I should get them rewired with drivers in parallel. So far just running them a driver per side, they are muddy as hell and kind of hollow sounding.

 

[dr_korb]

I know this is an ancient thread, but just in case anybody else is trying to find info and lands here (like I did). These are definitely Sennheiser - no more debate needed. Sold by RS from 1973 to 1977; following is from the 1976 Radio Shack catalog:

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AH3Jcr02Bb5NkAY

I guess I'm too new to put up real links or photos, so it will have to do. For those who don't want to open the link, that version of the catalog is the only one that has the text "Licensed under Sennheiser Electronics, K.G. Patent No. 3586794."

Now if I could just figure out which driver they used in these......I'm guessing it was an HD414 driver, since that one had been in production since 1968, it would be least likely to impact sales of newer technologies from Senn, and would be cheapest to ODM for another label.

 

[garbulky]

I just got a pair of these and hooked it up to my Emotiva Bas-x A-100 . Unfortunately no sound. Looks like they are broken. Strange as there doesn't appear to be any damage to them.