[avid2010]

Thanks dBel84, looking from within the joint enclosure, I was able to see the tiny 'nub' holding the external brown cap to the frame. But I couldn't get the cap off by pushing that nub because I found out that the cap was glued to the frame. I cracked the cap a little while trying to lever it off, so I gave up and stop. So I won't be able to remove the screw..
 
However I was able to get the internal brown discs off and I am able to rotate the cups. I wonder if it is ok to use some temporary glue to hold the disc in place instead of super gluing it back when I am done. Never know a day where I need to get them off again..

 

[dBel84]

no reason why it couldn't be normal glue with some reversibility ..dB

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

I finally got around to transplanting a pair of 32 Ohm SFI's into a set of fake Audio-Technica ESW9's. They sound awful. No lows, tizzy excessive highs, and recessed veiled mids. I'm using the stock cable that is very small Asw 30 or 32 that appears to be resin insulated.  One wire on the left side is red and one on the right side is blue; the other two are copper.  I assumed the wires with color are positive and the naked copper ones are negative.

I did nothing for dampening due to very little clearance between the back side of the sfi and wood cups. These cups are closed on the back but have about 10, 1/4" inch openings around the ear side of the baffle that vent under the earpads.

Should I close off these vents under the pads, drill a small bass vent hole on the edge of the cups, re-cable, and / or do something else?

The SFI's have a "finished" mesh grill cloth on one side and a "random" pattern coarse grill cloth on the other side. Which is the ear side, or does it matter?  I assumed the mesh grill cloth side is the ear side.

I might end up drilling multiple holes in the back of the cups as described in "Does It Pew?" by Stacy.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Generally, you want vents or openings to be on the rear side of the driver, and you want them to be venting away from you.  If the vents are letting backwave into the ear opening, it will lessen the bass and add treble and air/soundstage.  I'm not sure what you are describing with the vents, but it sounds like you want to close those off and create vents or holes in the cups.  Other folks here are more familiar with those frames and the SFI's. 
 
Also, IME, the more closed an ortho's enclosure is, the more damping you need, so you'll definitely need some felt at least lining the back of the cups and ideally something on the back of the driver as well. 

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

^ Thanks for the information, rhythmdevils.  This confirms my guess that the ear side vents around the perimeter of the baffle and the absence of a bass vent in the cups are the major culprits.  I'll give it a go and let you know.
 
If anyone knows, does it matter which side of the SFI tweeters is positioned on the ear side?
 
Since there is practically no space left between the back of the SFI and the inside of the cup, I may try some very loosely placed fiberglass for damping.
 
Many thanks.

 

[Armaegis]

One of my transplants had zero space between the driver and cup, so I used one of those sticker felt tabs that you put underneath vases and such.

 

[dBel84]

Germania published a detailed "how to" on a blog - Wualta may recall the link. I was toying with doing the same thing myself but RD has been teasing me with the idea of using a YHD1 driver and my subconscious couldn't help itself and placed a "lets see" lowball bid on a HP3 which I got for the princely sum of $20 ( there is some advantage to the new generation orthos - vintage seems in part to have returned to great value ) I see that there are still folk trying to pull the most out of the system as there are both HP1 and YH100 listed for over $300. 
 
..dB

 

[nick n]

Oh I am glad that was you that got the HP-3 just now. hard to believe that was so cheap given the prices these days. Great score.

 

[dBel84]

My HP50 is still really an enjoyable headphone to listen to. I couldn't quite believe that I had won that auction , my son may find himself with yet another pair of headphones ( terrible to be burdened by all the orthos I keep passing on to him - probably the only middleschooler with a reasonable collection of orthodynamic headphones )  ..dB

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Germania published a detailed "how to" on a blog - Wualta may recall the link.
 
I was toying with doing the same thing myself but RD has been teasing me with the idea of using a YHD1 driver and my subconscious couldn't help itself and placed a "lets see" lowball bid on a HP3 which I got...

Some of you may remember Germania, aka Stacy Devino. She came and went quickly on this thread but posted a mod using the SFIs and a cheap fake Audio-Technica closed headphone earlier this year on her blog (named "Does It Pew"). This blog entry was picked up by lifehacker, digg, stumbleupon, etc etc, so you'll have zero difficulty finding it. It may seem overly fussy in some respects, but it's a good step by step description of a decent basic SFI transplant, with lots of photos and a low voodoo content.
 
No guarantees on the sound, of course.
 
DB, lemme git this straight: RD has been slyly suggesting you use a YHD driver, but your subconscious strode forth, reached out and snagged an HP-3.. which you're going to force on an innocent child? You know what this means, don't you? It means you can claim the Team Cheap Bastards trophy for the lowest price paid for a vintage Ortho. That's down there with Pro 30s. But it's good to stuff your children's rooms with headphones, and you're lucky. None of my kids show any promise of becoming audio nuts. It's sad.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

I covered all the baffle slots around the ear side of my fake AT-ESW9 foster phones with electrical tape. Placed 1 inch squares of yellow fiberglass in the cups about 1/16" thick. I drilled one 3/16" bass port hole in the side of each cup 1/2" from the cable entry and inserted a brass servo eyelet in each. Made sure this bass port was not obstructed by the fiberglass. Then secured the 32 ohm SFI tweeters, that fit perfectly, with a bead of hot glue. I cut donut felt rings and placed one over the ear side of each baffle to cover the outer ring of holes and secured them in place with double sided tape. Finally, replaced the ear pads.

The result? Remarkable improvement across the frequency range but too much bass. EQ'd the bass down and they sound surprisingly good. Tomorrow I plan to remove one piece of tape from an an ear side baffle hole to open a vent between the cup housing and the ear side of the baffle. I think this will attenuate the bass. I may find that I have to open more than one per baffle.

For 32 ohm tweeters, I had to turn my Dacmini volume knob to 2 o'clock for 80-85 dB compared to 11 o'clock for my 50 Ohm LCD2's.

I'll take pix and post them tomorrow.

Thanks to rhythmdevils for the helpful tips.

 

[Armaegis]

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_npmv=3&_trksid=m570&_nkw=sawafuji
So... can anyone translate or would be willing to purchase and send to Canada/US? These don't seem to be available outside Europe.

 

[Zombie_X]

Yo guys,
 
Guess who joined the Orthodynamic club? I just snagged some Yamaha YH-2's and am quite excited to hear them.
 
 
Looks like that German ebay page is just for ribbon tweeters. I don't know if those are elements for Ortho's.
 
Quote:
 

Originally Posted by Armaegis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_npmv=3&_trksid=m570&_nkw=sawafuji
So... can anyone translate or would be willing to purchase and send to Canada/US? These don't seem to be available outside Europe.

 

[Keller1]

Alright, so I found another TDS-5M, (For 2 euros on a fleamarket) and holy crap, were my initial impressions shattered, this thing is one hell-of-a nice headphone.. There's actually a very significant bass signature on this pair o' cans. they sound very lair-back and relaxing aswell.

 

[dBel84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
None of my kids show any promise of becoming audio nuts. It's sad.
 

 
Starting to show some interest at 12, he can discern nasty from good and scoffs at his pals wearing Dr Dre ( thank the stars ) . We built a "boom box" for his ipod over the summer - 12V car battery, popular class D amp, 4 1/2 inch long throw woofer / sub and a Peerless full range driver. Nifty usb/sd mp3 module from partsexpress and last minute addition of a switch for aux input. Not too shabby if I must say so and a great bonding experience for us.
 
 
 
 
Quote:

Alright, so I found another TDS-5M, (For 2 euros on a fleamarket) and holy crap, were my initial impressions shattered, this thing is one hell-of-a nice headphone.. There's actually a very significant bass signature on this pair o' cans. they sound very lair-back and relaxing aswell.

now that deal is hard to beat !! 
 
..dB