[Philimon]

Interesting pics of drivers of HE-X4 vs HE-4XX.

HE-4X (left) vs HE-4XX (right). This is the front side of each driver that faces your ears. 4XX has no magnets front side.:

IMG_6503 by philimonmon, on Flickr

HE-X4 (left) and HE-4XX (right) rear of drivers. HE-X4 has double magnets. 4XX magnets are shinier and smoother. 4XX tracing is corrugated which is a technique to improve driver ability (I forget how but its described in detail somewhere in vintage ortho roundup). Tracing looks denser too on 4XX.:

IMG_6499 by philimonmon, on Flickr

HE-X4 is just a repackaged HE-400se. Still prefer 4XX to 400se and 5XX due to sounding a little less grey but that could be the warmer tuning (minus very highs peak).

The HE-X4 I didn't listen to. *Click links for higher res.

 

[Philimon]

One RP18 driver installed. Just about drops in completely neatly. The T30 required a little more work to install since it was a little too small so had to make an adapter and use some longer screws. .

 

[Philimon]

And just need to solder.

 

[Philimon]

Came out nicely. Measurements in a moment. Impressions later, wont have time until this evening.

 

[Miiksu]

Not sure what you mean. I still dont understand why T30 stock enclosure had better bass extension. Maybe Ill stumble upon answer. Maybe RP18 to HE-X4 will result in same bass roll off. Which I am about to start working on the transplant right now.

Sometimes when you have too much upper bass energy it suppress midrange. I like slightly boosted subbass and that will work for me.

 

[Philimon]

Sometimes when you have too much upper bass energy it suppress midrange. I like slightly boosted subbass and that will work for me.

Yes. Sub bass boost is good. Mid bass boost is usually a flaw instead of a pro. Its a pro when its “punchy” and not “boomy” aka fast instead of loose, quick release, when there is no sub bass so you need some filler to create that exciting bass sensation, or when you need masking over a more flawed upper frequency, etc.

A gentle negative slope is my preference for frequency response. Or maybe its less linear. But definitely sub bass is most prominent and everything else shifts down to some degree. Things get weird for me in that 1-3kHz range. Still not sure if I want linear or a dip.

My quick comparison from that other friendly forum. Mods are same except for pads which makes a big difference.:

I like how these two sound (rp-18 kapton and t30) but still room for improvement. Ordered more Defean velour and hybrid pads to for tuning. T30 a bit too warm. RP18 a bit too not warm. RP18 bass hits harder. T30 is cleaner. In terms of detail, RP18 has advantage in midrange (vocals, guitar). T30 though warm+dark, cymbals sound more delineated with more spacial depth. Bass texture I feel goes to T30. However, much of the difference in bass and mids detail could be due to frequency response. Don't want to spend much time comparing until I have final tuning for each. Hoping hybrid pads are best for both because they are so comfy. They have the most surface area for spreading pressure and the foam is very soft. As-is I would prefer T30 easy.

 

[Steven31]

Man this thread is long, lol. I just wanted to share my thoughts on a particular orthodynamic/planar magnetic headphone; The Fostex TH500RP. I don't have much experience with orthodynamic/planar magnetic headphones, i've only owned 3 so far (all Fostex - the T50RP, T40RP and now the TH500RP) but after an extensive 6 hours long listening session today, whereby I began by connecting my TH500RP to my Pioneer receiver and Sony S6700 SACD blu-ray player and watched a movie with it then connected it to my Marantz HD-CD1 for continued critical listening and analysing its sound characteristics, I have to say i've reached the conclusion that it is the best headphone I have had the pleasure to listen to. I would describe it as having a very smooth, mellow (not overly bright/overdone and not harsh in the high frequencies) neutral sound signature with very accurate, controlled and defined bass. It also has this strange magic to it's sound, a strange but wonderful musicality, however,- I don't know (due to my lack of experience with planars) if this special quality is common amongst all planars or unique to the TH500RP. I can't understand and find peculiar one thing; it's unpopularity amongst enthusiasts. The TH500RP to me, doesn't have the flaws that a great many other headphones i''ve heard does-yet it's no where near as popular. Something i'll never understand. Ah well, i'll be keeping mine!

 

[ferrytrainhp1]

Hi All,
I have a pair of Yamaha HP 1a's and a Pair of YH 3's that both need a little bit of work.
I know when I originally worked on the HP1's there was some sony pads that were reccomended as replacements for the HP 1 but wondering if there is now a better option that's a bit higher quality for both HP1 and also for YH 3. also interested in any good suggestions for replacement cabling for the HP1 and also trying to find some of the original info on the best damping regime for the HP1.

Thanks

 

[khbaur330162]

Hi All,
I have a pair of Yamaha HP 1a's and a Pair of YH 3's that both need a little bit of work.
I know when I originally worked on the HP1's there was some sony pads that were reccomended as replacements for the HP 1 but wondering if there is now a better option that's a bit higher quality for both HP1 and also for YH 3. also interested in any good suggestions for replacement cabling for the HP1 and also trying to find some of the original info on the best damping regime for the HP1.

Thanks

I highly recommend transplanting HP-1 drivers into a Sony DR-ZX701ip housing. The treble sounds much more natural in a different housing, imho, also better projected center image gives better sense of soundstage. Comfort will obviously be better in circumaural enclosure as well. You lose some sensitivity, however (they aren't as loud, you have to turn it up).

As for modifying stock HP-1's, the only help I can offer is to stitch you a pair of leather earpads. I would re-use stock HP-1 pad foams, and I would use the original material to make leather earpads with the exact same dimensions as stock. The leather would be WHITE, however. Stark white earpads... Also I can't guarantee the pads I'd make you would sound good. This leather sounded great with a couple builds I did and sounded terrible with a couple others. Given they are supra-aural earpads maybe they won't influence sound as much as circumaural, they just need to create a seal for bass, but I really don't know.

 

[khbaur330162]

I found these photo's of the Amfiton TDS-15, wanted to repost them seeing as I posted these before Head-fi hosted photos and photobucket stopped supporting the photos, so here goes.

Here I show you how to remove the drivers pretty easily.

Small metal tab over driver.

Bend metal tab slightly.

Pull driver down and out past the tab. Driver can be pushed back in fairly easily.

 

[Philimon]

I was not expecting the box to be that big. Here is next to a Hifiman package for comparison.

And suprise lucky me ! Was not advertised. I just wanted a standard version. Nice!

 

[Philimon]

Mint. OO. Sound good. Lovely Yam mids.

Edit: btw these and T30 and RP18 are going on small loaner tour tomorrow. See other friendly forum for impressions and measurements.

 

[khbaur330162]

Ugh... if you ever get tired of those HP-1a's consider selling them to meeee???? Haha. I want one just haven't found one yet. Nice grab!

 

[khbaur330162]

So I bought a pair of TDS-15's. I wanted to revisit these, I remember them sounding pretty good. I remember saying that they are worth having in your collection due to bass quality and urethane diaphragm, they had a smoothness to them.

I got them, plopped them on my head, and yee gods they did not sound good. I was like "It's these pads," so I removed the drivers from housings and spun them around. I tried to shove stock pads into the housings just to hold the drivers, but didn't really work. Then I stuck stock YH-1 pads onto the rears of the drivers which were now ear side. Sounded so much clearer. I took measurements of this configuration:

Whoa. Bass hump. They don't sound bassier than YH-1's. I have bass boost ALWAYS ON on my receiver so both headphones receiving bass boost and YH-1's easily more bassy, imho. But after reverting everything back to stock and sealing the YH-1 pads with damplifier pro, they sounded pretty darn good to me. I wanted to hear these drivers in a full circumaural enclosure. I bought a Sennheiser HD555. These have baffles angled at 9 degrees. I figured the angled baffle would give soundstage, but alas, the enclosure is too small for giant 70mm vintage planars... So I still had an HD535 laying around. I was trying to sell the refurbished 535, but there's zero interest in vintage Sennheisers apparently, haha. So chop them up for science...

Dremel cut rough 70mm holes, friction set drivers into baffles, then sealed around the drivers and all the baffle holes with damplifier pro. Akasa paxmate covers baffle faces where pads do not cover to kill reflections. This was supposed to be temporary mod, but Idek. They show potential.... but they are not YH-1 level even, imho, and they are already more expensive. Do I swap magnets and hope for more detail? What if these got RP-18 detail level with neo magnets? Does anyone know what a magnet swap usually does to the sound? Higher sensitivity? More bass? More detail? All of the above? Like what HAPPENS? I really wanna buy custom magnets for the hell of it just to SEE. If anyone reads this and has any idea what a magnet swap might do for these headphones, please chime in, I'd really like to know.

This is the measurements of TDS-15 // HD535:

Haha, they are called Russian Thanos headphones because the first TDS-15 that I purchased years ago had a Gold diaphragm circuit and a purple driver housing piece. One of my friends called them Thanos headphones because of the color scheme and it stuck.

They sound like really good consumer headphones now. Bass isn't as impressive to me this go around, it's just normal bass mostly, but there is a haze at times and I wonder if this is bass oddities. Detail isn't amazing, just high enough that you get a sense that the drivers are very capable, but they don't cut as deep into the track as even YH-1's. I really thought bass would extend lower after circumaural enclosure, I sorta chalked it up to supraural pads not sealing on EARS and was hopeful for more, but obviously not the case... I couldn't angle the drivers, either. I was going to just leave the drivers cocked in the baffles while they were friction set and cement them in with damplifier, but the ear pads have plastic rings that cover up the drivers and inhibit any angle. Can't really mod pads to support angled drivers, either, would destroy them, so they are just.... normal headphones. Sad.

I listen to them and I'm like, "These are really good," and then I listen to YH-1's and it's like, "Oh... Well these are better..." So sad. I just recabled them with stock YH-1 cable so now it's easy to put your noggin' into them, haha, the stock HD535 cable didn't have long enough Y-split portion so it was weird. I think they're done, unless someone chimes in and says they will be T50 killers with neo magnets. Driver is 70mm, movable membrane maybe 60mm at widest section? Serpentine circuit. It could be really good with neo magnets?

 

[ferrytrainhp1]

Hi guys, I've accidentally put a hole in the diaphram/inside of one of my HP 1 drivers which I assume has killed it with no chance of repair. does anyone have a spare HP 1 driver or know where I could fine one, alternatively is there anyone here with experience repairing this type of thing and would be open to me sending it to you?
Ive just spent a lot of time and some money on a new cable and headband for these phones so would really appreciate being able to find a solution to get them going. They were my first pair of orthos so have special value to me.
Thanks