[Policar]

I'm too dumb (also busy lately) to do that right now unfortunately. Would it possibly make sense to run the 1/4 output to the 1/8 inch input rather than the RCA input of the energizer? Do you think the they have different input impedances since the RCA is designed to come from a pre-amp and the 1/8 from an iPod or something?

 

[100VoltTube]

They're probably wired together internally, but you never know. Also, the 1/8 jack wasn't for iPods. It was put there in 1991 or whenever the ESP-950 was released.

There's nothing wrong with using the stock 100uf electrolytic capacitor, but you could use a much lower value, say 1uf or 2uf, and get a high end cap, say a Mundorf Evo alum/oil. That'll run you $20 or so for a pair. You could get a more, or less, expensive cap. The Cornell Dubilier 942C series is supposed to sound good too, and it's about the same price.

You just need to remove the old cap, and solder wires to where its leads used to be. One of those wires would lead to the middle tabs of a switch (DBDT on-on <- I wouldn't recommend this one; the plastic melts really easily, but this is what you're looking for) The different pairs of caps would be soldered to the outer tabs of the switch. The remaining leads on the caps would be soldered together (that is, the electrolytic from one channel and the film from the same channel would be soldered togrther. The other channel would be seperate.), along with the wire leading back to where the cap used to be.

That was a bad explanation, but I think you get the idea. It shouldn't be that hard

 

[Policar]

Thanks! I think with some research I could figure that out. What change would that make to the sound? Would it be louder? I assume the down side is I couldn't use my other headphones.... the Beyers sound pretty darned good on that amp, too, and the HD650s sound great although I gotta sell something at this point lol.

Any recommendations for replacement tubes that will thicken the bass up a bit btw? \

Anyone know where to order new headbands btw? The biggest improvement I've found to the sound so far is holding the ear pads closer to my ears and I want to go ahead and really bend the headband pretty aggressively, but I want to be able to replace it if I mess it up. I treat these pretty carefully so I don't want to break something, but it's just a headband....

These really have grown on me. Despite their quirks, I now definitely prefer them to the HD650s and Lambdas, though it's all "matter of taste" at that level.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Any recommendations for replacement tubes that will thicken the bass up a bit btw? \

I think you are referring to the crack. There are the tubes I use to add some thinkness to the sound

Mullard 12AU7 (Blackburn, Great Britain, code Gf1 84DB), Catham 6080

I've been using mjolnir 2 with GE396A tubes as a preamp for the 950, and I'm impressed. For classical, the 950 is really amazing. I still prefer the utopia for rock and pop.

 

[Vesperaudio]

Got the Vesper Pads in through fong audio's amazon shop. First main thing out of the way, they are hell to get on. After a dram of Bruichladdich and another of Ardbeg, I finally got them situated.

2 All: If you experience real difficulties putting our pads on you can simply make leather lip 1 or 2 mm less. It is very easy, just use sharp manicure scissors and take your time.

 

[ratboi]

snipz...

Anyone know where to order new headbands btw? The biggest improvement I've found to the sound so far is holding the ear pads closer to my ears and I want to go ahead and really bend the headband pretty aggressively, but I want to be able to replace it if I mess it up. I treat these pretty carefully so I don't want to break something, but it's just a headband....

These really have grown on me. Despite their quirks, I now definitely prefer them to the HD650s and Lambdas, though it's all "matter of taste" at that level.

I'm thinking that, WRT headband for the ESP-950, like their own earpads or the extension cable, you ask Koss and they will quote you a reasonable price. I ordered 2 sets of their original pads for a whopping $10 total before I discovered the Vesper.

Others have found, as have I, that I got a bit more of a firm fitting, along with a better seal, when I replaced my stock pads with Vesper pads. A little more bass, but calling it a 'seal' when the backs are open is a little bit misrepresentative. What bass is delivered doesn't escape; m'kay...

Anyway, I'm getting the impression that I'm alone in actually trying out a bass harmonic exciter on these headphones. Rolling tubes isn't the same, as I know you all know already. You expressed an interest when the subject was broached, seems making the midrange better is your focus now. If you ever get to trying it, I'm still interested in knowing if you find it makes the 950's sound more 'dynamic' in the bass, as I have. That's all for now...

 

[JimL11]

Others have found, as have I, that I got a bit more of a firm fitting, along with a better seal, when I replaced my stock pads with Vesper pads. A little more bass, but calling it a 'seal' when the backs are open is a little bit misrepresentative. What bass is delivered doesn't escape; m'kay...
.

The seal is real - it is not to keep the bass from the back-side from escaping, nor is it to keep the bass from the front (listener) side from escaping. It is to keep the bass from the back-side coming around and cancelling the bass from the front side. If the seal leaks, the back-side bass gets into the cup and partially cancels the bass from the front, resulting in weak bass. It's the same reason that a woofer in free air doesn't generate much bass - the back wave, which is out of phase, comes around and cancels the front wave.

 

[Policar]

I will let you know as soon as I try it. I do have a PC (without so much as a single .mp3 on it so far as I know) and while it's in another room I could move everything but the tube amp and try ti out. I do still consider the thin bass to be the biggest deficit and am curious to look into how to improve it.

That said, how I usually improve it is by switching to my DT1350s. The room with the PC is also really noisy.

Allanmarcus, thanks for the advice on tubes. Sounds expensive, but no surprise I guess... I'll have to trawl eBay to see if I find any very good deals but I remember swapping to Mullard tubes in the Little Dot Mk II seemed to thicken it up a lot and really improve the sound, might be confirmation bias though. I'm not surprised to hear that rock and pop sound better on the Utopia (for its price, they should). Rock seems like the weakest genre on electrostatic headphones. But some older material like Lou Reed and Bowie and Pink Floyd sounds really good. Folk and acoustic are unbelievable. Pop is a mixed bag, but synths often sound good.

I strongly suspect that electrostatic headphones are much faster than widely distributed measurements indicate and that the limiting factor is the measurement gear. The sound is airier... for better and for worse, and it's a dramatic difference that I think results in certain music sounding worse and certain music sounding better.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Is there a way to measure the speed of a headphone?

 

[Policar]

I think it would correlate with a fast impulse response (not necessarily a well-damped one), a fast rise in 300hz square wave, good step response, and an elevated ultrasonic high frequency response, or at least one that doesn't fall off.

What I suspect is that many measuring rigs aren't themselves "fast" enough to accurately measure the initial impulse of electrostatic headphones and instead are measuring a clump of impulses.

 

[100VoltTube]

CSD plots are a good measure of the "speed" of a driver. There are a lot of those on the other forum, and some here.

 

[cskippy]

Impulse responses can be a good indicator as well.

 

[Policar]

I'd think CSD plots are more a measure of decay than attack, but of course if a slow CSD muddies up the sound then the fastest attack isn't going to matter.

All I'm saying is that I suspect many available measurements of impulse response are inaccurate for electrostatic headphones because the microphone that's recording the impulse response and whatever system is quantizing it are too slow to give an accurate measurement.

That said, I wonder how much it matters. In theory, every headphone out there is playing back sounds above 20khz, and so the "speed" or resolution is faster and higher than that of the human ear. And so, beyond that, any veil would be attributed to a slow decay, which would indeed correlate with the CSD and not the impulse response.

But none of this really adds up to me tbh. I'm no expert, just confused by a few things. Anyone who's an expert on measuring impulse response and step response–would you mind fielding some questions?

Anyhow, subjectively I like electrostatics for acoustic instruments and I'm pretty happy with what I have, enough so that I'm selling most of my equipment soon. This comment is more curiosity than anything.

 

[100VoltTube]

I understand "speed" to be the ability of a driver to start producing a tone, stop producing a tone, or both simultaneously, which you should be able to hear as instruments' notes coming and going faster, not actually at a higher tempo, but more clearly defined. Drums are most easily used to evaluate speed.

also, for the purpose of this post, tone=given frequency

I am by no means an expert, or even close, but my limited understanding of measurements and subjective analysis lead me to believe that the decay would have just as much effect on the speed of a driver as the attack. We hear the waveform as a tone, not a moving signal, if that makes any sense. The characteristics of the waveform our ears are subjected to defines the characteristics of the tone we hear, not the characteristics of the changing of the tone, which is what I understand "speed" to be. Assuming all of this is correct, that means that the nature of the driver's squarewave and impulse response is of no use in determining the "speed," however, it does help in determining the subjectively perceived tone, which can have an effect on the subjective "weight" of notes, which may lead to a differently perceived "speed," doesn't actually change the speed as defined at the beginning of the post. Decay and attack, on the other hand, are the name of the game when it comes the speed. CSD plots measure how long it takes for the driver to stop producing a frequency. I'm not aware of any measurements that measure how long it takes for the driver to start producing a frequency, but I would be interested in seeing some of those. Measurements of the time transitioning from one frequency to another would also be interesting.

 

[ratboi]

I will let you know as soon as I try it. I do have a PC (without so much as a single .mp3 on it so far as I know) and while it's in another room I could move everything but the tube amp and try ti out. I do still consider the thin bass to be the biggest deficit and am curious to look into how to improve it.

That said, how I usually improve it is by switching to my DT1350s. The room with the PC is also really noisy.
snipz...

Are you totally convinced that plugin won't work with WinAmp run as an Apple app? Alternative approach, to avoid the PC, might be to run Wine and put winamp and the plugin there. Never did it, no Macbook Pro here now or ever, so not speaking from experience.

Anyway, I just put 200 miles round trip today to see our girls, forced to listen to SiriusXM and the GM version of Bose sound. Let's just say generous with the bass, and let it go at that. Inspired, though, to come back, and try to jam a bit of Brain Salad Surgery. Seriously, thin bass does _not_ describe how the ESP-950 sound with the combination of 'enthusiastic' equalization, and the 'Real Bass Exciter'. Even backed it back down to +24dB from +30dB, though it is a bit more fun at +30dB. Makes a distinct difference, quite different from just the effect of the EQ. Knife Edge from their eponymous album? Greg Lake's bass, Palmer's drums? yeah, maybe back to +27dB. heh...

I may never be able to listen to these again without the 'exciter'. cskippy? Thank you SO much!! What a good suggestion!