[spritzer]

The Stax SR-5 pads should also fit or you can pester anybody that has recently replaced his SR-007 pads.

Just cut off the plug and rewire it. You can do it close to the plug and then cover the whole thing with heatshrink so that it looks nice.

 

[smeggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Stax SR-5 pads should also fit or you can pester anybody that has recently replaced his SR-007 pads.

Eeek, I pulled them off the ECR-500 to test. They have to go back on.

However, I do have a set of 240 pads I can toss in with the T40 parts.

Oh, I just realised you were talking about all those peeps arguing about new/old style 007 pads.

 

[mypasswordis]

Thanks for the generous offer, smeggy. I'll try posting over there first and see what happens.

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh, I just realised you were talking about all those peeps arguing about new/old style 007 pads.

That's a vicious debate we've got going there...

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D Where do you store them all? Can you tell me more about that Sanyo amp?

You've heard of the Room 101 for headphones, the MOSFET Room, right? The room Where Headphones Go To Have Bass Painfully Inserted?

In the late '70s, just as the Second Golden Age of Home Audio was starting to wind down with a bang, Sanyo, who'd already bought the iconic American audio company Fisher, tried marketing a line of top-quality components, the Plus Series. Unfortunately, the audio snobs only laughed, so it didn't last and Sanyo shrugged and went back to selling low-fi. But the P55 remains as a little monument to Sanyo's folly. Don't let the goofy graphics on the fascia fool you. It's a very serious little (100w/ch, 8 ohms) amp, and the YH-1 loved the punishment it was taking. If you type in Sanyo P55 in Google, the first hit is my writeup on AK. Which is kind of sad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis If I had known they were close to an ECR-500 I might have gone for them.

That's the trouble-- we don't know what's inside. They look pretty much like the 500, and it's obvious they came out of the same factory, but....


Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis Also, freon-cooled amps are cool (until they break/explode and release the freon which is a greenhouse gas, the opposite of cool).

Don't forget all the old refrigerators and cars people dump in rivers and lakes. When I think of those, the risk presented by my Sanyo and Kyocera seems happily insignificant. Freon is not a greenhouse gas; it's an ozone-breakdown gas. So the danger is not global warming but that increased UV will mutate old hippies into Zombie Squirrel People. Which might be an improvement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy That Yammy B-2 looks sweet!

I think you'd love that amp. It would be the perfect amp for Wharfers and speakers using the same principle.

 

[smeggy]

Heh, I'd love to find one, it sure looks like it'd be a killer ortho amp.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif Did you close off the back of the cups with tape? Try opening them up again.

The experiment failed. Sort of. They got even bassier when I removed the tape, one layer of felt, and added a thick circle of blutak around the driver in addition to the foam baffles. Too much of a good thing must be better, I thought. The HOK is now very open, much like the Grundig, but with thicker (the factory) felt behind the driver and then (factory) foam. I still have not been able to seal the cable exit point in any really satisfactory way. That bugs me.

Right now I don't get that closed-box-feeling (well, maybe a bit) but I'll try these again later and see if I feel the same then. The HOK presses hard against my head, that could contribute to the effect now. To place some felt inside the WU-pad or not, that's the question....
EDIT: I just noticed that the HOK with the WU-pads is very sensitive for positioning on the ear, because the hole in the pads is quite small it has to be placed right, otherwise there will be bass but more fragile parts of the sound will disappear or at least get much lower volume. It's a cheap but crude EQ.... Anyway, I think that this might have been the problem yesterday.

What was the problem with the HOK now? Lack of bass? I don't think so... (but I can hear why the bassheads would.). Bass rolls off between 40-30hz, with a noticeable point also at around 35hz. Unlike the ortho masters around here, I can't say how good the bass is compared with other orthos, because I have only one more.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Heh, I'd love to find one, it sure looks like it'd be a killer ortho amp.

Yup, but no headphone jack.

Still, it's easy enough to build a coupler, or just buy the ultra-retro Pioneer JB-21, of which there seems to be at least a zillion left NIB.

* * * * *

I need to say that in stock form, the T50RPv2's bass is good, but it's not great either controlwise or extensionwise. Another way to put it is that it won't present bass up to the high standards set by [to pick an example] the YH-100, but it's not all floppy like the stock YH-100, either, and of course it's actually available, and for a reasonable price. Frankly, this is to be expected. We're lucky that it's as good as it is. Still, I don't want people rushing out and buying T50RPs thinking this is as good as it gets. With damping [read: F2D's work to date] and clever manipulation of earcup volume [read: ongoing Smeggsperiments], I expect significant improvements.

Has anyone noticed the two little sticky spots on the T50RPv2's baffle designed to hold the v2 earpads in place?

.

 

[mypasswordis]

Honestly, a roll-off point at 35Hz is very good for any headphone. Only large diaphragm electrostats can go appreciably lower with ease.

I have the pad problem with my T20v2 too, sometimes. For some reason I can't always find the right spot to place.

wualta (and smeggy), I think removing the stock white damping and damping from scratch may be the best way to get good bass along with the rest of the spectrum. Certainly helped with my T40v1. I can't say for sure until I have the T50RPv2 in my hands and mod it myself.

 

[smeggy]

These ones have two sticky pad spots per side. Internally, one side had rubber buffers on the support pillars and the other side didn't. The 50RP does have nice bass but not that big luxurious bass of an oversized driver like the T50 or T30. These now go down to 25Hz and rumble at 20Hz at my normal listening level and the amount is sufficient to pass most tests. These are beyond the level of my modded T40 in bass and are even smoother.

I had them blasting at dumb SPLs all night to loosen them up and they sound very nice.

Not the be all and end all by any means. However, relatively cheap, easy to mod, easy to get, comfortable and good sounding. How often does that happen below $100 for a new can.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis Honestly, a roll-off point at 35Hz is very good for any headphone. Only large diaphragm electrostats can go appreciably lower with ease.

Yes. I think you've accomplished something special with the HOK, DAC. Facelvega would be proud. He was the one who brought the HOKs to our attention and never lost faith in them.


Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis wualta (and smeggy), I think removing the stock white damping and damping from scratch may be the best way to get good bass along with the rest of the spectrum. Certainly helped with my T40v1.

I think you're right-- Damping From Zero gives you max choice to bend the final curve to the shape you want. However, theT50RP's stock damper is attached properly, so if you feel it needs more damping than stock, you might as well leave it on. I don't think the stock damper's damping is qualitatively bad. On the other hand, there's no harm in removing it, you just need to use denser felt to get where you want to go, and who knows, you might make a discovery or two along the way.


Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy These ones have two sticky pad spots per side.

Whoops, you're right. Mine do too. I edited my earlier post.


Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy Internally, one side had rubber buffers on the support pillars and the other side didn't.

Very interesting. I wonder why.

 

[smeggy]

There are many mysteries of the universe, what's one more...

It's quite astounding how much better the bass on the RP gets when the housing is damped and solidified. The bass sounds a little 'off' but not bad in stock. Remove that thin plastic vibrating effect and the bass is more solid, deeper and much cleaner with no extra driver damping.

 

[Faust2D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif Whoops, you're right. Mine do too. I edited my earlier post.

My T50 has double-sticky tape, stupid thing almost ripped the pad up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif Very interesting. I wonder why.

It fell off?

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust2D /img/forum/go_quote.gif It fell off?

Feh! Mister smarty guy!

Fostex was trying to cure the very thing that Smeggy was trying to cure. Why they'd goof up badly enough to leave the rubber dampers off one cup means they're having quality control problems. Either that, or Smegonia, Smeggy's fictional cat, ate 'em.

 

[smeggy]

Smegonia must have quite the rubber appetite to eat all four of them! I think I managed to stuff enough crap in the cups for it not to be a worry

I just did some more little mods, I put a length of the famed weatherstrip underside the rear of each pad for earflap clearance. You know what a fussy git I am. Also ripped off the felt/paper thingy from the front of the baffle and re-bent the headband for more comfort. Next I need to replace the big plug with a little one and maybe shorten the cable a bit.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the hell out of them now. Very pleasing phones indeed.

*edit*
I also noticed something others have, the sound on the right gets a little scratchy and level goes up and down. It's caused by the cable connector. You can notice the level changing as you swivel the connector. Half locked seems to work best so I think I'll be doing some surgery to do a direct connection and bypass the plug.