Orthodynamic Roundup

[nick n]

Sorbothane is for however you wish to try it.

The seepage into areas is only for DYNAMAT type things that have the metal layer and tar-like viscous innards.

Sorbothane does not weep it stays stable.
So far the preapplied 3M double sided tape seems decent also.


No real rule for Sorobthane it depends upon the housing space.
T10 liked it all around because it was easy due to raised driver housing edges and that mod worked really well.
I have used it on HP-50 variants right on the back of the driver itself in thin lemon wedge shapes, making sure not to block magnet holes.
HP-1 is a difficult thing to figure out, no idea as of yet what to do.
Tried many many many maddening attempts at things.

Orthos generally like the stuff, but with dynamics often too much can kill the driver sound.


Did you find velours with a sort of similar small sized inner opening as the stock T30 pads?
AKG K141 / 142 pads might work, but the new ones available these days all have the integrated and non removable rear stiff plastic backing, so one would need to double sided tape them on whatever baffle face.

 

[Philimon]

Velour , Hybrid
Not sure of the ear hole diameter on the velours. Amazon describes dimensions but dont know if ear hole diameter changes in relation to changes in outer diameter. I did try one of these pads before with a Yamaha YHD-3 but did not prefer the sound or comfort to an open foam flat earpad.

Thanks for the info @nick n
YH-1 is less balanced compared to the YH-2 (s) Ive tried.

@BucketInABucket has agreed to sell me an RP18 kapton. Awesome. Thank you! The few impressions Ive seen of comparison to T30 are mixed on which is preferable. T30 has the worse enclosure. T30 is mylar with weaker magnet (still reading to confirm) but it has the interesting vintage ortho old style magnet design where its one piece with holes or slots. RP18 has the spaced magnet rods like on most of today’s planars. Both are interesting with pretty tracing. From pics the T30 has the more compact tracing and magnet. The few impressions Ive seen say T30 has more bass.

 

[JadeEast]

For the sorb on the Yammy... I cut sorb into small strips and then into pieces and then attached to the rear of the HP1 driver. Made a ring around the outer perimeter of the back. Then a circle of a woven fabric with fair breathability (maybe CFM of 70-80 a bit more than a single layer of paper coffee filter) that fit inside the ring. That was backed with fleece fabric with the pile part facing. That material highly breathable but had a finished face of a different density. Thin foam behind that for pressure (not so breathable) on the whole thing. Original vent felt removed. Front has the fake hybrid hacked pads pictured earlier.

 

[Philimon]

Are you saying you completely sealed the cups (with sorb)? I did not have good results in my attempt (with butyl). Too much damp. Needs air. And there was some air. Headband joint mechanism is not air tight...

edit: Covering rear of driver sounds like a lot of work. Im going to just do edge for now.

 

[JadeEast]

My Sorb use is a series of small cut pieces that I've placed on the rear at the edge of the driver.
Those small bits form a "ring" on the rear of driver.
Not blocking any holes in the driver or sealing the cup.
Heres a quick imprecise mock up of location of attachment.
Driver is sealed/damped on the side with mastic/bluetac.

I backed off the hard damping at the rest and used materials I knew had stable CFM and I could get more of.
First layer was for some treble lift and some resistance the following layers were with the hopes that different layers would absorb different frequencies.
Previous efforts - pre sorbothane - were a rip off of the "Fried egg" used in the HP-1000.

 

[Philimon]

Placing the sorb vertically nearly fills the edge of cups. Dont think this will work to keep driver held in place as well as all-sticky conforming butyl. Only the side facing driver has adhesive. I see, I need to orient the sticky side toward front baffle face and just use sorb as a bumper. Then use butyl (or whatever adhesive) to hold driver in place. Or reverse, fill in gaps with butyl and thatll hold all in place.

edit: Sorb on bottom left. Old butyl above, to be replaced by sorb.
Edit2: Will be using butyl just to fill gaps and to hold all in place.

 

[Philimon]

Sorb, gaps filled with butyl.
Might be difficult to see. My iphone XR has a cracked camera lens from drop.

 

[Philimon]

1/2” too thick. 1/4” would do I think. Took extra force to close which means this foam is getting smooshed increasing density and decreasing airflow. And I dont know how much abuse these plastic baffles can take, so Id order 1/4” next time.

edit: Based on quick measurements it looks like overdamping (because smoosh). I only did one side to test so not going to listen yet. Will try cutting in half then reapplying. My cuts won't be even so final results will be mixed. Need to order 1/4" samples next time.

 

[Philimon]

My Sorb use is a series of small cut pieces that I've placed on the rear at the edge of the driver.
Those small bits form a "ring" on the rear of driver.
Not blocking any holes in the driver or sealing the cup.
Heres a quick imprecise mock up of location of attachment.
Driver is sealed/damped on the side with mastic/bluetac.



I backed off the hard damping at the rest and used materials I knew had stable CFM and I could get more of.
First layer was for some treble lift and some resistance the following layers were with the hopes that different layers would absorb different frequencies.
Previous efforts - pre sorbothane - were a rip off of the "Fried egg" used in the HP-1000.

Is that an anisotropic magnet? Are anis all black and smooth. My YH-1 is pretty smooth but like a dulled black (aka grey) like a blackboard with some washed out areas that are even greyer.

Looking for anisotropic HP1 comparisons to non anisotropic. Some claim no audible discernable difference besides sensitivity. Some say huge difference. But its hard to know what variables: damping and pad condition, and upchain. I would assume ani is better.

Looking at orthowiki, the HP1 used a 55mm driver with a membrane effectively 48mm. The HP2/3 links dont work. I was wondering what’s their membrane’s effective size.

Not sure which is preferable: YH-1 or YH-2. 2 more balanced but smaller driver, I can damp 2 more than 1 though before treble gets too hot. Still working on mods and waiting to try alternate pads.

Felt may be best material. My craft felt when held to light shows sprinkled variations in densities. Different densities absorb different frequencies I guess. This thin craft felt in multiple layers could be best damping material. Im going to give it a go after pads arrive tomorrow.

 

[JadeEast]

Sorry to misdirect. That's not a pic of my HP1A. Just a random pic off the web of a Yammy driver and pushed into use for illustrative purposes of the Sorbothne layout I used. I do think mixing layers and materials is good in theory. Take a peak at some of the original HP1000 damping schemes. (not my pic) That uses three different damping materials laid around the driver. My guess is that this is used to treat the area of highest excursion differently than the centre. But different materials will also absorb different things from the cup. Multiple layers in depth would also allow you to back off a bit by removing or punching holes to adjust flow as Nick suggested.

 

[Philimon]

Cut foam too wide. I dont want it pressing against driver face, which it does some here. Felt in back of cup. Im trying to create a cavity and just damp at vents. I also redid the sorb so its all really tight. 2lb density foam

 

[nick n]

There is one foam I forgot about you might want to try.
It is very thin yet dense, good for troublesome mod sonics and /or physically limited space areas etc.
Only problem is it costs a bit to get because you can only find it included with the Bose Aviation headset headphone replacement earpads.
( Bose X A20 A30 headset )
So I consider it valuable and use it sparingly ( until I buy more pad sets ).

It is the thin black foam there.
I just peel off the grey foam edging.

PLEASE if anyone knows where to get this exact stuff elsewhere do tell us all.

​

Seems the BOSE Quietcomfort pad sets come with a different type of sonic insert, looks interesting also for an easy off-the-shelf frontside treatment possibility.
Looks like a thicker woven fabric with a rear ring of foam.

 

[Philimon]

T30 baffle is like ~82mm
velour 85mm (grey)
hybrid 85mm

Wish I went 90mm. They both are snug on my ears. I think the baffle could accomodate fine. See amazon links posted earlier for more info.

 

[nick n]

One other thing before I forget.
I still keep an eye on the MyST iso/ortho headphones, and in the course of looking up some other things on player.ru and lossy.ru I noticed a post by " Snorry " the well known modder from over there, so I checked out his website again and there are 3 models still available.
Love the articulation on the design of that top model.
Seems MyST and also Snorry do their own driver designs still.
I am unsure what the lowest wooden Snorry is based upon but you can see he has a patent of some sort linked for what may be in the other two models.


= https://snorryplanar.com/


Both are interesting companies I find.
Probably more reliable than some famous others.

Shot of the new MyST closed back prototypes from earside, with outer housing design at linked post.
https://ks2vjdc7tzzzi6pu6prj4566fy-...48521017b377&p=3145516&viewfull=1#post3145516




Good to see some alternatives around still.


*** for those of us who only look at a few threads here, this may have been missed by some people.
It is a closeup shot of the Abyss diaphragm, posted by a member of the trade here.
= https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-headphone-driver-pics-thread.202122/post-16303065


Perhaps the most important question when looking at the above info :
На этих наушниках жанр New Retro Wave отлично пашет?

 

[Philimon]

Attempted same mod on YH-1 that I did with YH-2 using same materials. I got decent results, best yet actually. However, I did not get as good results like I did with YH-2. I think 2# foam is not enough for YH-1’s stronger driver. So I attempted 6# foam. However, the foam is too wide dense to close cup back up easily, so will have to do more precise cuts and gluing instead of just stuff and it’ll hold on its own method. Or buy some pre-cut to 1/4”.

Failed 6lb:

Felt is crusty because I used glue at center to adhere to back of cup. Glue soaked up a bit.

edit: YH-2 probably doesnt work with the 2lb foam either if I had made my cuts precise. Its the squishing of the foam to higher density when closing that enables the higher damping. So if that makes sense - I may try 6lb foam precisely cut there too.