[Armaegis]

The Technics I picked up recently are surprisingly capable in the bass department. I was not expecting that at all. Could be that the stock pads are still in good enough shape to provide a good seal.

 

[MuZo2]

Technics have a big serpentine diaphragm so I guess they capable of nice low end, but I guess the housing is bit odd on them. Is there enough room for damping?

 

[nick n]

Those particular 810 ones use an SFI style driver not the square types as seen in the 820 and 830. The driver is held in a small round chamber with about a half inch of space before some factory damping disc material ( towards the backside ), then there is the rear area that is perforated with tiny pinholes leading to the outside.
 
There's no immediate damping directly touching the driver so i guess this is why the bass can let loose a bit more. Then in that rear area there is room for damping yes.
 I didn't find they needed much if any. Sound interestingly open.
Really easy to access

 

[kalbee]

  I seem to recall a while ago someone using corkboard sheets. Don't remember what become of that though.

  I seem to recall someone also tried a cotton + cork pieces thing (think fruit in jello kinda thing).

You called?
 

  I think that was kalbee wasn't it? Or someone used wood chips/shavings also, but forget who.
 
Also those Shure 550 pads are pretty nice I have them on a few things, but not a T30. And definitely not TWO OF THEM!

Yup that was me. Well one of them was.
 
I used cork for other uses in the end, namely as a sub-layer under the baffle. Mainly to give more room in the cup since the SFI drivers didn't quite fit in the HP-2 cups.
The random wood bit diffuser with cotton was... well a bust. Both the idea and the results were eccentric. It was so random it made the two channels completely imbalanced.  Since I lack more precise tools I never went back to that idea. That and I completely suck with powered tools.
 
(I better get back to reading all I missed... 40 pages to go!)
(...and done!)

 

[Igenich]

Bu the way, any suggestions for dumping YHE50 ? Does anybody tried to turn them into closed back by taping cups inside? I love how light this headphones and they are really suits for portable, but this open back killed my idea to wear them outside

 

[iQEM]

That was you then, these are from Japan just recently?

iQEM should be in soon he will know how.

DONE!
and thanks for mention me there, Nick..
sorry for the late respond, since i'm still on a holiday of Ied Mubarak several days ago...

i'll share that info here as well, kay...

Just pull out the black plastic screws (on the both sides of that arm fork) using spoon or metal spudger, and you're freely to mod em..
you might want to use a thinnest spoon, because a thick spoon would be difficult to get inside between that plastic screws gap & arm fork...


funny, but all i can remember, this D50 are not bass-shy/light cans..or is it ?
cos if you all still remember, this cans are not mine...and the original owner have recable it and remove the factory sheet dampener from the driver..you might want to try that before recable it to bring up more bass...less simple, right ?

 

[money4me247]

hey quick question. there isn't really any closed portable orthodynamic headphones nowadays ya? Like the LCD-XC and modded fostex t50rp are the only closed planar magnetics I know about and they don't seem really portable.

 

[Igenich]

There are Russian guy snorry who can make custom mod for you, i read that he has made some closed back orthos aswell and his favourite portable closed back cans is based on HOK80 drivers. You can contact him on doctorhead.ru forum and talk to him. About 20 pages ago one member shared his experience and post some photos of open back headphones purchased from snorry.

 

[MuZo2]

hey quick question. there isn't really any closed portable orthodynamic headphones nowadays ya? Like the LCD-XC and modded fostex t50rp are the only closed planar magnetics I know about and they don't seem really portable.

Alphadogs & lff paradox/slant moded t50 are only new closed back less than 1000$
Other option is oppo pm-1

 

[Drakkard]

Recently I tweaked YHD-1 drivers in portable closed housing to the point I like the sound. My main point was to improve frequency extremes, and bring some slap to the sound, I think it went quite well =) Love this drivers, they are damn awesome
 

 

 

[JamesHuntington]

Today I found a Yamaha c-6 preamp at a thrift store for 25. Thought about it for quite awhile because I wasn't finding much info on the internet except for 2 of them on eBay for $200 and $350. So I bought it with the plan of using its phono preamp mostly. Well got it home and set up, WOW! The headphone out is very good. Powers my hd600 at half volume at ear blasting levels. It has so many ways to eq it and sounds very good for used gear. Lucky me , I know.
My curiosity is that I think it's about a 1980-81 and I wonder if they built it with their ortho dynamic line in mind. I have yet to use it with anything other than hd600, but when I get a chance I'm gonna pull out my hifiman he5le and listen some more. If it powers those I'm sure it could power yh1000.

Update: the c-6 performs excellent with the hifiman he-5le. I can't imagine turning it up louder than 2/3 volume with them.

 

[No_One411]

  Recently I tweaked YHD-1 drivers in portable closed housing to the point I like the sound. My main point was to improve frequency extremes, and bring some slap to the sound, I think it went quite well =) Love this drivers, they are damn awesome
 

 
 

That looks amazing man! Nice to see people still playing around with vintage orthodynamic headphones despite the recent expansion of the technology. 
 
Would you mind sharing your dampening configuration? Which foster headphone did you use?

 

[Drakkard]

  That looks amazing man! Nice to see people still playing around with vintage orthodynamic headphones despite the recent expansion of the technology. 
 
Would you mind sharing your dampening configuration? Which foster headphone did you use?

Thanks man I have no problem sharing, but exact configuration is not that important, as I doubt anybody will be able to get all same mats I used.
I have no idea where that headphone was from, I borrowed it from my friend. It have no markings and lables at all. But its not the best anyway - it is hard to work with, as to seal ear cup I needed to glue it every time...
 
I liked it because of three factors - all back part of earcup was made from metal, and drivers place was 40mm, so yhd-1 fits there fine. And third - driver place protruding above the surface of earcup.. Meaning that driver was sticking out to the space inside ear cushions for about 3-4mm. It was interesting to test this driver position.
In my opinion, this drivers hates any plastic, and I ended up covering all left plastic surface (the part that holds driver itself) with various damping.
 
For back damping I used 2 layers of coat fabrics (cashmere), like this - http://ricci.com.ua/images/stories/virtuemart/product/gg293.jpg , and filled all left space with felting wool. And behind the wool sticked some blu-tac. I can balance bass and hights by covering different area of metallic cup. More area covered with blu-tac - less airy and more bassy sound.
There is a port hole in the earcup, after some experimentation I covered it with paper tape, that is half air flow transparent, or so. I still think I can try to find better material, to bring some more mid bass and make it a bit more lively. Low bass already amasing.
 
The hardest part is ear cushions. I tried like 12 pairs of different ones. I feel that getting right ear cushion geometry is very, very important, not less than back damping. Not much talk about this because it is hard to make them. I do not like ear cushions that narrows driver opening, it makes sound bassy and usually muddy, compared to wider cushions..
 
Also, local made silver cable.
 
Btw I'm also waiting for recently purchased Victor D50 to arrive =)

 

[iQEM]

so Victor HP-D50 not that rare anymore, eh ? lol

 

[goober-george]

Great mod Drakkard! Seems those headphones were meant to have orthos put in them. I currently have 2 Yamaha HP-2s and will mod/dampen one. I've been listening to the HP-2s stock and I think they sound great. Very warm, natural sound, with nice bass.