[Philimon]

- My YH100 khbaurmod is starting to come together. I still need to seal up the driver baffle and get the correct pads (in transit).
- As-is it sounds pretty good. Best Yam bass no doubt. Slightly shouty but completely listenable (some may prefer this but I'd prefer laid back). Fatigue-free!
- Attached is current (mod4) with Brainwavz microsuede pads.
- I've switched nomenclature from "YH100 khbaurmod" to "KH-100" to save space on graph legend and reduce typing.

 

[Philimon]

So I have a Fostex T10 but the cables are kinda corrupt and the headband is in meh shape. I was thinking that instead of replacing just the cable, I could transplant the driver to Kenwood KH-33 and basically have a KH-83.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2941339140...Lv5F0hmTu2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=MORE

KH-83 seem to go for 2-3x more than KH-33. Having the more open back KH-33 could be a nice upgrade in addition to refurbing the T10 (drivers). Yay or nay?

edit: more hassle than its worth, ill just recable

 

[GREQ]

edit: more hassle than its worth, ill just recable

Good choice.
IIRC the KH-33 has a smaller shell, and isn't as open-back as the 83.
Also you would have to fabrticate a new baffle.

 

[khbaur330162]

I was asked to write a quick write up on Yamaha vintage ortho vs Senn HD650. I was going to wait for khbaur mod YH-100's to return to me, but I feel the YH/HP-1's are better suited for this comparison due to cost and performance, so I've jumped the gun a bit. All these impressions were made through direct A/B of khbaur mod HP-1's and KISS modded HD650's with leather earpads on the same rig as listed in signature. As a result I repeat myself a bit between the two categories making similar conclusions going back and forth, hopefully not too redundant for you. Here goes.

HP-1's
Clearer and cut a bit deeper, more organic
More prominent and punchy bass, reaches lower, more clarity in bass registers, better articulation
Higher image saturation (better timbre differentiation)
More natural soundstage, slightly more projected in front of you, bit more holographic
Bit brighter in tonality, more treble sparkle and more forward midrange
"Ssss" region can be a little glarey as times, but not bad
Electric guitar has better definition, same as synths (tuning and detail)
Mids can sound a bit thin in comparison (400Hz region dip in measurements, I presume)
Better airiness up top, possibly tuning, possibly how deep they cut, possibly soundstaging differences or combination of all three, but you get more space in-between notes
Clarity, bass punch and extension, better sense of space, and top end sparkle give higher macrodynamics imo


HD650's
More speaker-like, as in more artifacting than HP-1's, less organic
Added distortion of some kind at times (???housing/earpad reflections in open headphone???)
Less punchy bass, doesn't reach as low
Better lower mids, more meaty male vocals
"Ch" sounds can be a little glarey (due to pads???)
Flat, intimate soundstaging
Treble not as sparkly
Macrodynamics a little muted due to tuning and slight greyed out image (artifacting and distortion), bit lifeless sounding for hard hitting dynamic music
Nice midrange intimacy, little closer in with nice articulation, HP-1's a little more distant at times
Snaps and ticking noises little less etched out than HP-1's with less breath, character and space
Bit more clamping force, feels tighter on head, zero wobble when I shake my head


As you can probably tell, I prefer khbaur mod HP-1's to HD650's by fair margin, but if HD650's are your only headphones I don't feel you're doing too bad at all, they are still great, especially for certain music genres perhaps. Hopefully this review sheds some light on HP-1 technicalities and tuning. I'm sure someone not in the hobby would think I was crazy to have so much to say between these two headphones, they are both very good and if I forget which headphones I'm wearing I just enjoy.

 

[headphones1999]

More Akai ASE-40 padroll. The blue ones are super comfy but sound the worst, bass bloom, treble dip, claustrophobic. These newest black ones are described as “pillows” and they are super soft but with a wider inner dimension that the blue pads. Hoping they give the best balance, will update.

Don't have much luck with my ase50 either when it comes to earpad rolling, the very flat original ones seems to be the best.

 

[Philimon]

Stock might be the most balanced sounding unfortunately. Padrolls and a few damping experiments didnt uncover any potential for more bass. I dont foresee ever using ASE-40. Was fun to try them though.

 

[szerecsen]

Looking at it from all sides, it doesn't seem likely.
Especially considering the black fabric ear pads. That's pretty much a dynamic giveaway.

Its a dynamic. Unfortunately.

 

[khbaur330162]

So, I've had the pleasure to build three different khbaur YH-100's now (ty @Philimon for the opportunity). For ease I'll call the first pair KH-100.1 (short for khbaur, YH-100, revision 1), and the other two KH-100.2 and KH-100.3. The first pair that I built, KH-100.1, which I've spoken about many times in this thread, seems to be a slightly different tuning than the other two!

KH-100.1's have better sub-bass extension, slightly pronounced 2.5kHz peak, more tinny upper-mids and seemingly a lot more mid-treble (few dB's @7-10kHz). It was most noticeable with a pad swap. The Aliexpress lambskin MDR-ZX700 pads I was using with KH-100.1's were solid lambskin and never accentuated the harsh upper-mids and mid-treble for me, they always sounded very good and balanced, yet once swapping to a revision of the same earpads which were fenestrated lambskin it was extremely evident. That said, KH-100.2's and KH-100.3's both play very well with these same fenestrated lambskin pads. @Takarajima says KH-100.2's (which are now his) have more bloated and muddy bass, yet better midrange and treble clarity/airiness which I agree with on most accounts. To my ears KH-100.2's bass didn't sound muddy, just a bit more pronounced which I considered beneficial as KH-100.1's were always bit more bass light than HP/YH-1's, yet I didn't spend much time with KH-100.2's before sending them off and @Takarajima has much more discerning ears than me, so I will yield to his impressions.

From memory, KH-100.1's drivers were never as shiny as KH-100.2's and KH-100.3's. The metal flux plates on 100.2's and 100.3's drivers looked almost polished to me. Maybe it's just been a while since I built the KH-100.1's but as soon as I opened the YH-100 enclosure for KH-100.2 transplant purposes my mind went "Whoa... that's shiny..." KH-100.3 drivers were also similarly shiny. I might be completely off-base here, but this was the only way I visually made any distinction. So maybe in fact there was at least one revision of the YH-100. Interesting, because I've never heard of any talk regarding this topic (am I out of the loop?). I hear differences between isotropic HP-1's and YH-1's, too, I believe they are slightly different tunings per subjective and objective measurements, it's just hard to make out these differences in their stock enclosures with so much backwave reflection/distortion, imho.

So maybe there is still more to be discovered with these vintage gems. Just some food for thought. There very well may be bass light and bass heavy versions of YH-100 with bass light revision eeking out a little more sub-bass extension and bass cleanliness at the sacrifice of midrange and treble clarity. My KH-100.3's have a bass channel imbalance, and also the left driver can buzz with certain bass textures, however aside from these downsides, I feel they are actually more engaging! So if you thought you heard everything the YH-100 has to offer maybe think again. Differences are not huge, yet still substantial enough to make me prefer one over the other.

 

[Philimon]

My KH-100 got headband upgrade today.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00COS91PQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Philimon]

@takato14 just added some epic new posts in that other friendly forum’s vintage ortho thread.

 

[BURNART]

@takato14 just added some epic new posts in that other friendly forum’s vintage ortho thread.

Link?
edit: I've got it

 

[GREQ]

@takato14 just added some epic new posts in that other friendly forum’s vintage ortho thread.

@takato14 is onto something with about these Thermolam bass-lenses.

Revisited my RP18 mod (and bass-buzz repair which I've been procrastinating about) and tried out the Thermolam.
Then of course that had a knock-on effect of having to halve the Angel Hair amount from 1g to 0.5g per side, and of course a change of ear pads too.

(measured with minidsp ears)

 

[Philimon]

That’s fantastic @GREQ . @takato14 is fantastic too. Mind sharing how you fixed your bass buzz? So others out there might be able to fix their RP18(s) too with this info.

 

[GREQ]

That’s fantastic @GREQ . @takato14 is fantastic too. Mind sharing how you fixed your bass buzz? So others out there might be able to fix their RP18(s) too with this info.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the repair.

I opened up both drivers for inspection and noticed that the side with buzzing had a problem with the black foam compressor ring.
- That's the foam 'underneath' the diaphragm that you have to lift up to see; not the yellow foam 'on top'.
Seems like it got too compressed and flat over the years and didn't rise above the plastic baffle any more - so on bassy, high-excursion sounds, the diaphragm would touch the baffle.

I simply cut a VERY thin ring of thin card to add a 0.5mm layer between the foam and diaphragm tension ring.
It was actually a relatively quick and easy fix.

EDIT - I just noticed on my photos of my old Kapton drivers, that the one I owned DOES NOT have this black foam, but yellow sponge on both sides.
Therefore this fix might be more difficult if you do not have either a Mylar version, or one with the dense black foam.

 

[Philimon]

I dont remember if I ever shared my YH2 with Beats EP pads. They sound like you’d imagine: not good. Loki+ helps a lot but trade offs such as tunnel soundstage despite pads being hybrid. fyi, uses basically stock level damping, all that bass is the pads and eq. Don't use these but plan to replace with stock-style pads eventually and then maybe. What I want mainly is to reduce the slight bass bloom, which besides thin stock-style pads could also be alleviated with more porous pads like perforated.