[ezzony]

Hi

I have a pair of Phillips fidellio X2's. One of the drivers is broken and I can't get a replacement anywhere.

There are a lot of 50mm drivers on alliexpress and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a pair that might be be good in the X2 shell or any 50mm that produces a high standard of audio quality. Tks.

 

[legopart]

The headphones not so expensive. buy some new pair

 

[seanc6441]

There's a big thread on aliexpress headphone drivers but I can't seem to find it right now. The guys there have bought and tested numerous drivers in 40mm and 50mm builds (you can buy either if you use an adapter ring to convert 40/45mm to 50mm).

I believe there were some very nice drivers there for open back builds, if you can find that thread you may be able to find the right driver. Good luck!

 

[legopart]

not remember https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-headphone-driver-pics-thread.202122/page-64#post-14822804

I tried some 50mm mesh white Chinese drivers 32ohm and not like them.
then tried 50mm "metal" silver Chinese drivers 40ohm and really likes them. used on closed back headphones, plan to put them on some semi open.

 

[ezzony]

The headphones not so expensive. buy some new pair

Even if I did that I would still have my old pair and I would still be interested in getting a new pair of drivers for them just for fun

I don't particularly miss the X2 anyway. They were my first high end open cans and I was actually a bit disappointed with them. I got a HD6XX since and for me they are on a higher level in terms of audio quality that the X2. I only paid €40 for the X2 as they are faulty but I repaired them. That's what I call inexpensive not the current as new price : )

I was just thinking of paying something like €30 to €50 on new drivers and maybe get a better sound than the original X2 if I got lucky!

 

[ericj]

Even if I did that I would still have my old pair and I would still be interested in getting a new pair of drivers for them just for fun

I don't particularly miss the X2 anyway. They were my first high end open cans and I was actually a bit disappointed with them. I got a HD6XX since and for me they are on a higher level in terms of audio quality that the X2. I only paid €40 for the X2 as they are faulty but I repaired them. That's what I call inexpensive not the current as new price : )

I was just thinking of paying something like €30 to €50 on new drivers and maybe get a better sound than the original X2 if I got lucky!

Check with your local Harman parts distributor - AKG replacement drivers for the K7?? series are pretty reasonably priced. I mean most of them are less than $40usd each from fullcompass and probably cheaper if i called up harman pro north america parts division. You're on the correct side of the atlantic and they are probably even cheaper where you are.

Here in the states, parts express has been selling the Peerless HPD-50N25PR00-32 driver for less than $11 each. I ordered a pair tonight. They are part of Tymphani these days which is an asian company, but unless I'm crazy confused their lineage is through MB-Quart to Peerless-MB to the original Peerless company so maybe they still have a euro presence and someone in the EU is selling them?

Also, there are soviet ortho drivers for sale on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Matched-pa...-headphones-TDS-16-New-Old-Stock/273979867290

 

[ezzony]

Okay, a lot to look into there, thanks @ericj.

In the meantime I ripped the drivers out of an old pair of Superlux headphones I never use. HD-681 with 50mm drivers. They don't look much different that the X2 drivers except the diaphragm is a lot stiffer.That is a big difference I suppose. Anyway anyone who knows that headphone knows they have really shrill treble and you can't really listen to them without turning 4k down about 10db. Turns out the shrillness did in fact reduce quite a bit not that the end result is anything spectacular except for the very wide soundstage which is nice for non vocal EDM and classical.

 

[ericj]

Okay, a lot to look into there, thanks @ericj.

In the meantime I ripped the drivers out of an old pair of Superlux headphones I never use. HD-681 with 50mm drivers. They don't look much different that the X2 drivers except the diaphragm is a lot stiffer.That is a big difference I suppose. Anyway anyone who knows that headphone knows they have really shrill treble and you can't really listen to them without turning 4k down about 10db. Turns out the shrillness did in fact reduce quite a bit not that the end result is anything spectacular except for the very wide soundstage which is nice for non vocal EDM and classical.

Yeah, those superlux drivers have some harsh damn treble. I wonder if that can be tamed by doping the diaphragm. Having built my measurement rig, I am considering buying a bulk quantity of identical drivers on aliexpress to test different treatments.

I guess you'd think that if superlux could tame the treble by spritzing it with a rubbery coating they'd have done it, but, who knows. I do know that a lot of high end headphone drivers are doped or otherwise coated with something, and some of the beyerdynamic drivers are actually sticky. And that has me wondering how far i can water down some water-based contact cement.

 

[ezzony]

Yeah, those superlux drivers have some harsh damn treble. I wonder if that can be tamed by doping the diaphragm. Having built my measurement rig, I am considering buying a bulk quantity of identical drivers on aliexpress to test different treatments.

I guess you'd think that if superlux could tame the treble by spritzing it with a rubbery coating they'd have done it, but, who knows. I do know that a lot of high end headphone drivers are doped or otherwise coated with something, and some of the beyerdynamic drivers are actually sticky. And that has me wondering how far i can water down some water-based contact cement.

As I was saying the Superlux driver is very rigid, that's the one big difference I see between it and the X2 driver. It's not just that the diaphragm material is thicker. It's as if it's stretched way to tight. It doesn't move up and down anywhere near as easily as the X2 which you'd notice if you gently lay your finger on it. I spent a while thinking if there was a way to loosen it up a bit. I think applying heat would make it more rigid not less as plastic would shrink if you apply heat. What I did do was use my thumb around the edges and crinkled it up and down to see if it would loosen it up and a bit. Because it's so thick doing this didn't damage it. I did one first and compared it to the other when done and yes it did loosen up just a tad. So what I suspect is that doing your mods might not have much effect due to the overriding problem of the stiffness.

 

[ezzony]

There's a big thread on aliexpress headphone drivers but I can't seem to find it right now. The guys there have bought and tested numerous drivers in 40mm and 50mm builds (you can buy either if you use an adapter ring to convert 40/45mm to 50mm).

I believe there were some very nice drivers there for open back builds, if you can find that thread you may be able to find the right driver. Good luck!

Can't find the thread either. I found one with just a couple of pages but don't think that's it. I'll have another look.
I didn't know you could get an adapter ring! I think I'd prefer to go with a 50mm though because I suspect the 50mm produces greater soundstage than a 40mm which is the only one issue I have with my HD6xx, which if course is a 40mm. That's just my novice theory based on the fact that the X2 and the Superlux have wide soundstage sigs and both have 50mm's.

 

[ezzony]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329..._expid=b1b2fcea-a3c7-4818-a516-3a6e983f3b22-3

Quite like the look of these, according to the feedback they have wide soundstage and are basey. My current superlux mod certainly is not bassy. I might be happy enough with that and maybe shouldn't really expect too much with this experimenting.

 

[ericj]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329..._expid=b1b2fcea-a3c7-4818-a516-3a6e983f3b22-3

Quite like the look of these, according to the feedback they have wide soundstage and are basey. My current superlux mod certainly is not bassy. I might be happy enough with that and maybe shouldn't really expect too much with this experimenting.

I don't know anything about those drivers, but in open-backed headphones with a lot of leakage from the back to the front, you sort of need a driver with a metric assload of bass to overcome the issue of backwave cancellation.

The deal is that treble is very directional and midrange is somewhat directional, but bass goes in every direction at the same time. And the bass wave coming out the back of the driver is 180 degrees out of phase with the bass wave coming out the front of the driver, so the backwave will cancel out the frontwave.

 

[ezzony]

I don't know anything about those drivers, but in open-backed headphones with a lot of leakage from the back to the front, you sort of need a driver with a metric assload of bass to overcome the issue of backwave cancellation.

The deal is that treble is very directional and midrange is somewhat directional, but bass goes in every direction at the same time. And the bass wave coming out the back of the driver is 180 degrees out of phase with the bass wave coming out the front of the driver, so the backwave will cancel out the frontwave.

I decided to go with those based on what you said about the bass. Very useful and helpful info in total there that I did not know.

I did a fair bit of searching and can't really find anything that stands out so I thought I'll just have to experiment. Given they are not very expensive it's worth a shot. I think I'm guaranteed to have a wide soundstage due to the angled baffle and the thick pads on the X2 and with a bit of luck they might be descent enough and have that good bass as they are described. I'll be interested to see and hope that they have that extra bit of quality since they are high impedance. Gonna be a few weeks thought before I can report back!