[nickchen]

I agree that the HP1 doesn't sound too impressive open-back & completely undamped (except with HD414 pads, that sounds acceptable). However, when they are micropore'd so that only 9 backwards holes remain open (with an optional reflex dot), they sound massively good. And that is the way I will go, micropore, open back, different Beyer-like housing & headband (my 2nd Lux is on the way). Maybe that principle can be refined further with transpore or what the heck, but it's already now totally superior sounding to the Jack-and-Joe damped HP1 IMO.
 
And I must say, the "usual" HP1 damping in its own housing sounds only slightly better than stock IMO, a muffled mess with a frequency range maybe from 100Hz to 10K Hz. If that would have been my 1st contact to vintage orthos, I doubt that I would have decided to participate further in this field.

 

[gurubhai]

The micropore actually has a strong damping effect & some added "reflex dot" effect as well. Unfortunately, IME, the added reflex effect leads to peaks in upper mids & sibilance. I would only use micropore if space was at a premium.
What felt damping schemes have you tried ?
I have a Yamaha YH-2 on my head right now & it does not sound muffled at all.

 

[nickchen]

Eddie's HP1 came with the usual damping scheme that gets referred here so often (I controlled that thoroughly), and it sounded...okay, but I found it very work-to-rule in a lot of things such as detailling, SS, sound richness, presence and bass precision. Maybe that also comes from my listening habits and main genres, as I mostly listen to fat and complicated electronica stuff. If I was more into acoustical "kitten music" I might have found that presentation totally sufficient.
 
However, getting rid of the stock housing was a major boost in respect of most defiancies, which was also confirmed by the other participants of the last kraut meet.

 

[gurubhai]

Getting rid of housing is fine, they are difficult to work with anyway !
 
I was just pointing out that the micropore on back HP-1 IS a damped yammie. And that atleast IME, damping effects of felt are preferable to those of tapes.
Have you tried sticking a layer of dense felt to your HP-1 instead of the micropore?

 

[scompton]

nickchen, the vintage Fostex line might be more to your liking.  Your complaints of the Yamaha echos mypasswordis' complaints and he prefers the Fostex

 

[nickchen]

Quote:

Have you tried sticking a layer of dense felt to your HP-1 instead of the micropore?

Not yet. My approach with the tape was just a rough scetch to fathom makebility...
 
 
Quote:

nickchen, the vintage Fostex line might be more to your liking.  Your complaints of the Yamaha echos mypasswordis' complaints and he prefers the Fostex
 

When following the usual modding paths, your assessment of my preferences seems to be definetely right. But the Yamis with swapped pads and open housings offer 90% of what I like so much at my Fostex' tonality, but coupled with much better comfort, airyness and SS. Hence I think it could turn out to become a really big thing, and there hasn't been any fine tuning of the concept until now!

 

[AnAnalogSpirit]

Quote:

The open concept with ortho drivers is interesting. This actually sounds pretty good:
 

 
These are HP-1 drivers sandwiched in HD414 pads and with an extender behind the drivers to bring out the bass. 
 
The only real issue I have know is that the drivers really need to be on the ears to hear any bass at all. When I get back from holiday I will have to build some kind of baffle/shells/cups for this. 

Hi apatN and other cool Ortho Commandos,
 
This concept of the Yamaha Ortho Drivers (you have the HP-1, I have some HP-3's) sandwiched in pads is screaming GRADO looks to me. I'm wondering if borrowing a GRADO SR-60 as a housing would pay off? I mean you'd totally have to disembowl it, and forcefeed the Yamaha Driver Sandwich to the housing, but it could possibly work. What do you think?
 
Anyhow, just a notion that popped into my head from looking at your good works with the Yamaha Drivers.
 
What I did with my HP-3 drivers was pouch them in felt, seal up with Micropore tape just enough to keep the pouch shut, and have them as Inserts into the SONY MDR-5760LP Lightweight Headphone housings. That's how I'm currently enjoying my HP-3 Drivers. The Felt Pouch is a little underdamped but gives enough bass, and the Foam Pad with Donut Insert of Sponge into the center cutout of the Foam Pad (The Earpads are a Slipcover of Urethane) allow for an added layer of Damping and add to the Bassiness of the package as I'm listening to the "headphones" now.
 
I'll attach Photos:
 

Photo 1: How the MDR-5760LP Shells look with the Yamaha HP-3 drivers pouched up inside the pads. Very unobtrusive. You'd NEVER guess they were housing Orthos.
 
 
 

Photo 2: This shows how the Pads of the MDR-5760LP look bulged but not too much housing the Yamaha HP-3 Driver packages in the pouches.
 
 

Photo 3: This is how the Yahmaha HP-3 Driver looks with the recabled wire, Some 6N UPOCC copper stuff, and the Felt Pouch sitting in behind the Foam Donut and Sponge Disc Damping (removed for the pic)
 

Photo 4: The back of the Yamaha HP-3 Driver Packet, labeled as the Right Driver, and the front of the modified MDR-5760LP (the central dome bulge was removed to make a flat platform for the HP-3 driver to sit down on beneath the Earpad and Damping Foams, which forms a Urethane "slipcover" holding this whole "pouch system" of a headphone together.
 
Anyway, I hope someone has enjoyed the photos and doesn't think I'm too crazy. LOL. I just figured I'd share a little...

 

[EddieE]

I already tried a HP50S driver into a Grado (same size as HP3) - won't go. It's exactly the same width as the Grado air chamber section, so is kind of a snug fit but of course there is a pick up coming off it to ruin the party. Maybe something quite ghetto could be achieved with fitting it into the cup itself, using the cut-out for the cable to make room for the pickup and kind of having the wires just hang out there - but it would be kind of fragile. Maybe a lot of electrical tape covered in some heatshrink to cushion it but... I don't know if its a good idea. If that could be made to work then sticking a distancer to the front of the driver to take the pad and it could work, but it's not as ideal as other solutions.

 

[nickchen]

Cool conception...

 
So you had tape backwards and felt on the front?? Not quite sure what front and what back is at the last pic though...

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

I already tried a HP50S driver into a Grado (same size as HP3) - won't go. It's exactly the same width as the Grado air chamber section, so is kind of a snug fit but of course there is a pick up coming off it to ruin the party. Maybe something quite ghetto could be achieved with fitting it into the cup itself, using the cut-out for the cable to make room for the pickup and kind of having the wires just hang out there - but it would be kind of fragile. Maybe a lot of electrical tape covered in some heatshrink to cushion it but... I don't know if its a good idea. If that could be made to work then sticking a distancer to the front of the driver to take the pad and it could work, but it's not as ideal as other solutions.

You can put rings of tak lining the inside of the grado cup until the tak sticks out of the cup a bit, then you can just stick it to the driver.  I'm not sure this works with Yamahas yet because the driver is kind of naked, but with fostex, there's a plastic housing around the driver that is perfect for sticking the grado cup to.  And once you have a line of tak around the inside of the grado cup, it is now the same diameter as the driver.  Plus you get the added benefit of damping the headband and cups from resonance from the drivers. 

 

[EddieE]

Quote:

Quote:

I already tried a HP50S driver into a Grado (same size as HP3) - won't go. It's exactly the same width as the Grado air chamber section, so is kind of a snug fit but of course there is a pick up coming off it to ruin the party. Maybe something quite ghetto could be achieved with fitting it into the cup itself, using the cut-out for the cable to make room for the pickup and kind of having the wires just hang out there - but it would be kind of fragile. Maybe a lot of electrical tape covered in some heatshrink to cushion it but... I don't know if its a good idea. If that could be made to work then sticking a distancer to the front of the driver to take the pad and it could work, but it's not as ideal as other solutions.

You can put rings of tak lining the inside of the grado cup until the tak sticks out of the cup a bit, then you can just stick it to the driver.  I'm not sure this works with Yamahas yet because the driver is kind of naked, but with fostex, there's a plastic housing around the driver that is perfect for sticking the grado cup to.  And once you have a line of tak around the inside of the grado cup, it is now the same diameter as the driver.  Plus you get the added benefit of damping the headband and cups from resonance from the drivers. 

These sort of things have been going around my mind the last few days, it'll all depend on how the HP-50S sound with distancers. From Nico's experiments with them open so far they have been pretty unimpressive, but if distancers add a little energy I'll definitely be trying something like this when they get back home.

 

[Katun]

Dear Orthoheads,
 
Anyone want to say hello to the newest member? Me.
 
I think I've been officially converted by the T50RP.
 
Now the HE-5/HE-5LE is looking seriously tempting.
 
Sincerely, Katun.

 

[JadeEast]

There seems to be a bit of an interest in free-range orthos and I thought I would share something I used briefly for some testing with a pair of SFI drivers.
My wife had a pair of folding earwarmers that look something like the ones here. They have a small pocket that would let the driver slip right in. Ultimately they are ear-warmers so they simply may be too hot for most applications.
 
As far as the sound from the HP1, using a fried-egg style dampening made mine sound pretty good. But to each their own.
 
ETA. Katun <secret hand shake>

 

[joelpearce]

I've been wondering if the SFI drivers are small enough to do something with them like the AKG K2xx parabolic series, with two of them angled in towards the ear.  I've gotten some interesting results with the SFIs, but they always end up too sharp sounding somehow.
 
It would take a heck of a big enclosure, but if you wired them up right, it would end up being 64ohms per system, which most decent amps should be able to drive sufficiently...
 
I'll have to keep an eye out for the right enclosure.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Check out this crazy felt I found today while picking up some different tapes.  It is something like 5 or 6 times thicker than the Oz felt and seems to be made from several layers, but doesn't seem to be glued together as I can blow through it so it is sound transparent.  All it said on the box was "felt" so I don't know what it's made of.  But it isn't very expensive at all.  I haven't played with it too much, but so far it seems to have potential.  Mainly I'm thinking of using small pucks of it. 
 
Here's a picture of some of the felts you guys probably know next to it.