[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

 
Honky and agressive mids...no matter what pads and/or damping stuff you threw onto or ribbed off them. But I guess that is the exact reason why the T50RP is so deeply loved by those who listen a lot to distorted guitars.
 

Yikes.  I think the T20 already has honky and aggressive mids

  The TP's I heard didn't though, which is impressive!

 

[gurubhai]

^That has not been my experience.
I also had the chance to listen to loaner pair of thunderpants ( thanks sachu for sending them to India).
Those TPs still had issues with mids, albeit much improved from stock T50RP . My modded pair of T20, on the other hand, had much smoother mids. In fact , the peaky mids were my only major gripe with TPs.
 
 

 

[joelpearce]

If they have 40mm drivers, it would be a perfect opportunity for an SFI transplant.  Anything bigger and you'd have a rough time attaching it and still use the original structure, I think.
 
Quote:

I've owned two pairs of K340 and sold/traded both because I couldn't coax adequate sound of them. Sure I probably should have held on to one in case I ever moved up to heftier amping, but heck, interesting trade offers roll by and you gotta roll with it.
 
Has anyone ever tried making a dual or hybrid ortho?
 
Also I think I asked this a couple pages back but didn't see an answer... has anyone else tranplanted ortho drivers into an angled earcup?
 
Or more interestingly, how about into an Ultrasone housing? Having received a borked Ultrasone in a trade recently, I can't help but wonder how S-Logic and orthos would mix.

 

 

[leeperry]

 

Yikes.  I think the T20 already has honky and aggressive mids

The T20v2 is unlistenable to my ears...the modded T50RP is a huge step ahead...and I don't listen to distorted guitars

 

[lorriman]

Thanks, guys, for clearing up the amping issue. I'll think I'll get the T50rp and see how it is first, as Smeggy suggested. Very surprised that so many run that straight out of portable players.

Anyone tried with a clip+? Any luck EQing down the mids that I'm reading could be a little overbearing?

In so far as specs go are ortho specs equivalent to conventional headphones when selecting amps? I'm still keen to elevate myself in to a thinner atmosphere if I can. Just maybe not quite yet.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

Thanks, guys, for clearing up the amping issue. I'll think I'll get the T50rp and see how it is first, as Smeggy suggested. Very surprised that so many run that straight out of portable players.

Anyone tried with a clip+? Any luck EQing down the mids that I'm reading could be a little overbearing?

In so far as specs go are ortho specs equivalent to conventional headphones when selecting amps? I'm still keen to elevate myself in to a thinner atmosphere if I can. Just maybe not quite yet.

They respond very well to good quality EQs.  You can boot or cut massive amounts and the drivers don't complain at all.  If you do use a lot of EQ then you will need a stronger amp though.  My amp is just barley strong enough for a 12dB boost at 20hz I use for movies and techno/EDM.
 
I'm not familiar with the quality of the EQ on the clip+ but unless its total crap (and even then you can rockbox it) it should be fine with a few dB here and there.

 

[Tenaka]

Quote:

 
I'm not familiar with the quality of the EQ on the clip+ but unless its total crap (and even then you can rockbox it) it should be fine with a few dB here and there.

Rockbox EQ isn't intuitive but very efficient on the Clip+, but  I haven't (still) test it with the Fostex T50rp 

 

[Armaegis]

Quote:

If they have 40mm drivers, it would be a perfect opportunity for an SFI transplant.  Anything bigger and you'd have a rough time attaching it and still use the original structure, I think.
 

 
Hmm, now I just need some of those drivers. That or just go to town with a dremel and hot glue

 

[GrandZechs]

 
Quote:

 
Hmm, now I just need some of those drivers. That or just go to town with a dremel and hot glue

 
The SFI's were WAY smaller than the drivers I replaced, so I just fabricated a new baffle and threw out the original one. I actually just got done making a new set for mine out of plexi glass. I was tired of using cardboard lol.

The original Paper driver next to one from a Koss SR-40 I think (same size as the SFI's)

 

[wualta]

Quote:

All this talk about efficiency reminds me that I wanted to pose this question : What determines the efficiency of orthos ? .... So what gives, why are the manufacturers still not able to better a 40 year old design ?

Good questions. Smeggy ran a bunch of the answers past you. The main tradeoffs involve cost, the strength of the magnets, how heavy you want/need to make your voice coil (and thus your diaphragm), and how much bass you want to have. Bass means wider diaphragm excursion, which means greater separation of the "stators". But the more you separate the stators, the more flux strength you lose, and very quickly, too. But if your magnetic oomph isn't what it should be, you'll need to send a lotta current through the voice coil (ie, you'll have to crank up the volume pot on your amp) to compensate, which makes the diaphragm heavier, which reduces efficiency. So you try a really intense field, with the stators close together, with a lightweight voice coil and a gossamer diaphragm with a restriction of some kind in the center (like Technics, like Yamaha and PMB), but now you need to make the headphone really big to get enough sail area to move enough air to create killer bass, plus the repulsion of the magnets threatens to make the magnetic structure explode if the buyer drops it (ask Kabeer about this) and warp out of true even if he doesn't.... and the temptation to make a modern-day YH-5M becomes overpowering... and you decide instead to buy cheap Chinese drivers and put them in fancy enclosures and sell 'em for 500 local money units...
 
So you gotta buh leeeeeve to get into the ortho business and stay long enough to produce something really remarkable. Then you have the problem of making the headphone cheaply enough so that many people will buy it-- after all, if it costs as much as a 'stat, what's the point, won't the affluent few just buy a 'stat?-- so you market it aggressively and sell a bunch of 'em so you can ramp up production and reduce the unit cost and sell even more and finance the R&D needed to make the next-generation driver and 'phone... 
 
But to answer your question, the LCD-2 has killer bass, whereas the 1978 NA-market T50 had good bass that's easily bettered by a modded Realistic Pro 30. It was a tradeoff.
 
Quote:

Thanks, guys, for clearing up the amping issue.  

We did??  ..Oh yeah, we did, that's right. Hey, no problem!
 
 

 

[gurubhai]

ok, so its either efficiency or great bass or huge driver.
But what of yamaha yhe-50S. It is supposedly very efficient, light & small & supposedly has pretty good bass too.
 
Quote:

But to answer your question, the LCD-2 has killer bass, whereas the 1978 NA-market T50 had good bass that's easily bettered by a modded Realistic Pro 30. It was a tradeoff.
 
 

The T50 driver is capable of killer bass. Haven't you tried it yet ?

 
 

 

[BobSaysHi]

OK guys, before joining the dark side of this thread (which I will begin reading when summer starts, since I want new headphones and planar headphones interest me) I was wondering if there was a good DIY option for open orthos. I only know of the t50rp, and I know those are closed. Has anyone done mods that are open? Is it even necessary?
 
The only reason I ask is because I'm not a basshead, and I'm worried that it might be overpowering.
 
EDIT: so even looking a teensy little bit at this thread before bed reveals that, yes people are making these into open 'phones... I guess what I really want to ask is if there's a readily available open ortho that takes well to modding. Or even an ortho that could be relocated into an open housing and sound awesome.
 
 

 

[wualta]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by gurubhai /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The T50 driver is capable of killer bass. Haven't you tried it yet ?

 

 
Are we talking about the same headphone?
 
 

 

[gurubhai]

Sadly, readily  available & open,  are two words that just don't go together in case of vintage orthos.
There have been only a few open orthos & they are not at all easy to get unless you are willing to spend some dough.
 
There have been some experiments with open shells. Of the top of my head : there is the Ericj's 'yamahakoax' , Kabeer's leakypants & some of smeggy's experiments with yamaha drivers.
 
I am loking to transplant my HP50S drivers into an open shell & should be able to share my experience hopefully by next week.
 

 

[wualta]

 
Quote:

ok, so its either efficiency or great bass or huge driver.
But what of yamaha yhe-50S. It is supposedly very efficient, light & small & supposedly has pretty good bass too.
 

 
Audeze set out to make a no-compromise ortho headphone, one that plays to one of the big ortho strengths: bass quality. Once they made that decision, they weren't going to end up with a YHE-50, which, though I admire it greatly, won't have the reach or power of the LCD-2. It does use one trick to get away with its small size: it gets the diaphragm as close to the ear as possible. It's just not in the same league as the big-diaphragm jobs.
 
 
But I'll bet ol' Bob here would find a YHE-50 or YHD-series 'phone would suit him just fine:

Quote:

 I guess what I really want to ask is if there's a readily available open ortho that takes well to modding. 

 
By an amazing coincidence, gurubhai has pointed out the very thing. Readily? that's relative. So relative that I'd have to say not-that-readily. Still, they're out there.