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I just bought a vintage Toshiba HR-X1 complementary back electret headphone. (although it doesn't say complementary electret on it, that's supposedly what's there.)

It's very light and comfortable. Although, the sound is light too. What's there sounds good at a first listen, but the lower bass is absent. Like the pleather on the pads. It's no worse though than some of the low-bass orthodynamic headphones I have - before modifications to restore the bass. (I have no idea (yet) if any of them would work on the X1.). I'm taking the pads apart to replace the ruined pleather. I don't want the small pieces of crumbling pleather inside the drivers. I managed to get two small pieces out without destroying the drivers.

There is no damping inside.

The label on the headband is not exactly like the Aurex line of headphones.
This is mine:

and this was posted in a japanese site:

I don't know if it's the same headphone. But it sure looks extremely similar.

It uses a somewhat mysterious "complementary back electret" principle (mysterious to me, since I can't read this explanation in Japanese (?).)

 

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Here is a picture of the driver:

And of the box that does the high voltage thing:

It appears that maybe the cord can be unplugged from it. But I wont try now since I can see no reason to do that.

 

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Bass extension clearly improved with a pad fix. (I simply took the pads apart and sewed on a piece of lambskin instead of the no-longer-pleather fabric piece).

It's still no bass monster though. Bass is rolled off. Some could still be missing at the lowest end. I've got to do some listening to find if it's just weak.

EDIT: it's just weak. Perhaps something is missing at the extreme low end. It doesn't bother me though.

 

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This can is extremely sensitive to the amp, I noticed. There is a world of difference connecting it to my XCAN versus my NAD preamp. The difference is there with my other cans to, but not as obvious as this. It also responds well to the bass EQ on my preamp.

I wonder if the small electret adapter in the cable also affects the sound a lot.

By the way, if the rumors of electrets "failing rapidly" are true, then this can has been failing rapidly for about 30 years. Odd that it still works...

 

[Acix]

Cool hps, the electret adapter looks interesting, maybe this why they are so sensitivity, how the adapter low and high levels effect the sound? How do you compare them to the monitor 10?

 

[ourfpshero]

very cool. is that a 1/4 or 1/8 inch plug? how much amp does it take to sound decent

 

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The adapter has an 1/4 plug, and at 600 ohm it takes a lot of amplification power to sound good. The "low" level sounds a bit "canny", the highs seem to suffer. The "high" level gives very nice highs, imho. Especially with my pre-amplifier.

The pads turned out a bit too small after the repair, so I am making new ones. Then I can start comparing. It's a bit tricky though, since it appears that the amp has such a major effect on the sound of these.

 

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Pads repaired

 

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Acix /img/forum/go_quote.gif Cool hps, the electret adapter looks interesting, maybe this why they are so sensitivity, how the adapter low and high levels effect the sound? How do you compare them to the monitor 10?

The X1 is overall better than the monitor 10. It appears to extend deeper and higher than the Monitor 10, judging from some test tracks. Still, the X1 is bass light. It doesn't go all the way down to hear the fully sound of deep bass instruments, at least not at nice listening volume for me. (At lower volumes, my monitor 10 doesn't play the low bass instruments at all. It's not how I recall it really, but that's how it is right now. Maybe it was always like that. It extends deeper at high volume levels.)

 

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The X1 would be much nicer if it had a bit stronger deep bass. (Maybe other electrets are like this too?)

It can produce a lot more bass when I max out the bass boost on my vintage Pioneer amplifier. The overall effect is not so nice. But I can't come to think of any mod of the headphone at the moment that would just bring the low bass up

Or maybe I'll just have to grab another can for music that needs that low strong bass. The X1 sounds great with music that don't need the depth much. (with that I mean that they play an enjoyable tune, that's all. More enjoyable than some of my other cans.)