[GREQ]

 

  Been tinkering with the EAH-820 a bit recently.
Anyone other owners out there? 
Or has anyone else owned it? Just wondering what the general consensus on these are.

I own it. Based off memory, and while I'd hate to put words in peoples' mouths, no one's really a fan of the 820, especially if we're talking strictly SQ.​ Afaik, general consensus relating to SQ is severe low end drop off, full range coloration to the point it's not worth graphing or really talking about (it's just wrong), large amounts of treble roll off.
 
My opinions, fwtw:
 
Very comfy supra-aural! Granted I hand stitched myself some faux-leather replacements, but the ear pads themselves are adhered to the baffles only at their perimeters and there's a ~5mm gap between the baffle and front face of the front magnets. This gap effectively makes the supra-aural ear pads hammocks for your ears which, ime, drastically reduce pressure points on your ears. You'll still get the supra-aural fatigue, but it could be a lot worse, imo.
 
The stock ear pads hold this headphone back severely by failing to create a seal. Imo, unstitching the pads and replacing ONLY the front, vinyl-stripped pieces of fabric with thin, supple (p)leather is all that needs to be done (meaning I agree with Technics on this one, I think they rolled 'em out well tuned from the factory). More a restoration than modification.
 
Overall, a charming line of headphones that I wish sounded better.
 
As for perforations in the plastic magnet assembly there were six in mine, but two were effectively non-existent due to being plugged up by double sided tape (that Yellow stuff in the picture on the wiki) making it virtually the same exact thing as what Nick's got pictured.
 

Thanks for getting back to me on this one...
i'm still playing around with mine... and still having trouble placing it in my overall rankings.

I have to say my impression is similar in ways, but not the same as yours.
Mine doesn't seem to exhibit the same bass roll-off, and my pads are totally fabric - all the pleather has flaked away - but they're bassier than my modified RP18
Overall I don't hear much colouration. 
The treble is certainly somewhat rolled off, but not in a bad way. I'm hearing plenty of good detail, but it's always lush, never harsh.
 
It's probably just a matter of taste, but they're my 2nd favourite behind RP18.... 
It just sounds more natural than others, like the HP1 which just sound more clinical and boring. *hides under desk*

 

[nick n]

Thanks for popping in master khbaur! Good to see you still browse here.
Hope things are well..

 

[khbaur330162]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GREQ /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
[1]​
Mine doesn't seem to exhibit the same bass roll-off, and my pads are totally fabric - all the pleather has flaked away - but they're bassier than my modified RP18
Overall I don't hear much colouration. 
The treble is certainly somewhat rolled off, but not in a bad way. I'm hearing plenty of good detail, but it's always lush, never harsh.
 
[2]​
It's probably just a matter of taste, but they're my 2nd favourite behind RP18.... 
It just sounds more natural than others, like the HP1 which just sound more clinical and boring. *hides under desk*

[1]
I've taken my 820 mods too far, I can't get myself back to stock, and I'm not a huge fan of what I've done to them, so it's pointless to use them now as a reference, although stock I do remember enjoying them (which I still sort of do). But tbh what you describe sounds like my EAH-830, which I enjoy and use regularly, stock fabric pads. They have bass, don't get me wrong, but a pleather face side portion changes the entire character of the sound and I enjoy that change. There's a lot of bass being lost, and the headphone could be much cleaner and more intimate sounding, ime. ?May even help the treble roll off?
 
[2]
I have a ZX700 housing with B&O U70 drivers in it. It sounds a little flat at first coming from the 830, but when your ears adjust and start listening to the new driver/enclosure the sound staging becomes holographic, the bass goes very, very deep and it's satisfyingly punchy, and everything sounds a lot cleaner. Overall I feel the 830 has been outclassed in a few fundamental areas. Now who's to say what an 820 driver in some other enclosure would sound like?
 

 
 
 

  Thanks for popping in master khbaur! Good to see you still browse here.
Hope things are well..

Hey, man, thanks. I don't come here too, too often, but by chance caught wind of EAH-820 talk and had to stop in.
Likewise! Shoot me a PM whenever.

 

[DooberKnob]

I seriously need a pair of Orthos...

 

[leeperry]

I see that the 50MK3/TH600 got one backside driver hole uncovered and that peeling it off SFI's did wonders IME so what would removing it completely do to T20v2 & T40v1 if anyone tried?

And I got a T20v2 that reads 53 & 68 Ohm, left side is much louder........SOL I guess? can I somehow rotate its drivers to make it even-steven ***? :devil_face:

 

[nick n]

what about adding a 15 ohm resistor  somehow?

Then it'd be poifecto

 

[iQEM]

i dont quiet sure are there any posibilities the diff caused by that issue or not..
but from what i remember, rotating the magnet lining could cause a difference result on their sonic wave...

you might check this out...


it known as a standart/factory magnet lining position from a stock T20v1, i guess its the same for T20v2&T40v1..
its appear there's a wider hole acting as the bass vent, as you can see at the hole that marked with red circle..
you might want to try that out and then check on the multimetre again..
even though looked silly to some, maybe trying this would sort the problem..

hope this help..

 

[nick n]

@ nick_n:
oh rite, i'm using several materials like a quarter size felt (low densities) act as reflector, glasswool and a donut of rockwool on my previous Yammy HP1 aniso..incl. micropore ala YH100 mod of Boilermakerfan, offcourse..
again, Yammy are not my thingy, not my cup of tea..even if it have very good sounding as a result, i'm still let it go for the previous Fostex T10..lol

1. What is the arrangement of the rockwool donut?  Are you worried at all about rockwool mineral dust if shakes off with all that big bass pounding it ?>? Glasswool in the middle of the donut?

 

1. Micropore mod is there a link at all for what you did? Do you mean you did it on a YH-100 or an HP-1 ?

 
It's funny I somehow enjoy both companies stuff Yamaha and Fostex, but most seem to prefer one or the other usually. It's like the old Ford or Chevrolet people. ( also owned both ha! Even a  Dodge or two, or 3 ) I guess stuff like Dual/Peerless is the Dodge of the vintage ortho world

 

 

[iQEM]

nah, the mineral dust avoided by felt+tapes covering the driver..
sorry, mistypo there..its using transpore tapes, not micropore..

Well here's some pict of it..i couldn't find much photo's of it left, since its a long gone now..



its an HP1 aniso, but i copy the whole scheme from YH100 Questa (modded by BMF) long time ago..

plus, i have fix the statement there, sorry for the missleading..

@ nick_n:
oh rite, i'm using several materials like a quarter size felt (low densities) act as reflector, rockwool and a donut of glasswool on my previous Yammy HP1 aniso..incl. transpore ala YH100 mod of Boilermakerfan, offcourse..
again, Yammy are not my thingy, not my cup of tea..even if it have very good sounding as a result, i'm still let it go for the previous Fostex T10..lol

*updated...

 

[nick n]

Ah thanks for finding the pictures. Looks like the fried egg mod type
 
So transpore ..interesting. I'll look around in some posts from way back..

 

[iQEM]

you're very much welcome, Nick..

 

[leeperry]

2 weeks necro-bump

seeking a T40v1(not MK2/MK3) and I can either pay in plain green bills or trade for other vintage orthos so feel free to PM me

 

 

[BucketInABucket]

Thought I'd revive this thread again!
 

Spoiler: Long story:

Nick..sorry, I lied; couldn't resist the ID1.

Excellent condition as you guys can see except for one thing: the damn pads! They LOOKED ok for sure, but as soon as I touched them, black stuff came off and previous owners of the ID1 should know what I'm talking about when it came to the smell...
 
Scratched my head for days as Leeperry can attest to and got more and more desperate. I first tried soaking the pads in hot soapy water and got something which had a bitumen-like look to it which obviously isn't really good enough. Then I tried scrubbing the pads with a toothbrush and got a slightly nicer finish (and a very black toothbrush) but not much improvement. 
 
Finally, I tried this gem. Bought a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol from the pharmacy, took the pads off and soaked them in the alcohol. Well well well, what do you know, it dissolves the sticky stuff very nicely indeed. Dirtied my sink quite a bit but at the end of it, after my arduous journey, I got something similar to a velour texture on the pads, a very obvious lack of stickiness and a smell which you can only detect if you put your nostrils right up to the pads. Most importantly, they're very very much wearable.

Needless to say, it's a vast improvement from when I first received these cans and very much worth sharing.

 
TL;DR: Isopropyl alcohol really helps dissolve black gunk that comes from stuff like ID1 pads.
 
Update:
 
Turns out that the smell gets stronger after being left out a few days. Still, the biggest thing is that the pads aren't sticky anymore, right?

 

[Andrewek]

Yamaha YHE-50s drivers in Revox (DT990 vintage clon) hausing:
Damped by felt and sponge and cardboard is also inside, for scene widening. Recabled by canare starquad.
There are awasone, airy and wide. This is level of HE-500.
 

 
 
Amfiton TDS-7 drivers in vintage Devition headphones hausing (bass reflex made) with HM5 pads. Recabled by sssnake smk222bk cable
Also strongly damped. Also level of HE-500.
 

 

[leeperry]

Hi Andrew and welcome to headfi, nice first post
 
Just so you know, in this thread we're supposed to say that vintage orthos sound terribly dated and dark in order to keep ebay prices low 

 
I recently heard the PM3 and found it to be a complete joke, but then again it's just a vaguely pimped vintage russian ortho. So much not worth the pricetag ><