Hail wualta and everyone,
I just found this site, being referenced in the AudioKarma site, of which I am a member, and joined this site a couple of days ago. Since then I have been reading as many posts as possible with great interest.
Although I have been keenly interested in HiFi since 1979, and have own and own many components, for a reason unknown to me, other than owning and using two pair of headphones, purchased new in 1980, I never entered into this area of HiFi. I am now very interested in it and intend to learn from yall and start a collection of headphones such that I have done with Infinity Loudspeakers over the years.
The reason for my introducing myself in this particular post is that as I am ignorant of headphone technology and the attributes associated with the different brands and models, I started my reading by looking up my headphones in your site. Not finding the brand, I typed in Orthodynamic and have read every shread of information that has been posted on them with interest.
My two headphones are the Burwen PMB 4 and Burwen PMB 8, by one of my favaroite audio legends, Dick Burwen. His site is
http://www.burwenaudio.com/.
They are Orthodynamic and although as I stated previously, I am ignorant as to what is considered good or great, I love them, especially the PMB 8 which was his top of the line. They both have been in service by me regularly since 1980, mostly driven out of the headphone jack of an HH Scott 480A Integrated Amplifier, with approximately 20 hours a week usage on the PMB 8 and much less with the PMB 4.
I do not have the spec for the PMB 4, however, the specs for the PMB 8 are as follows:
Model Number PMB 8,
Driver Principle - Orthodynamic,
maximum sound pressure - 112dB at 1 kHz,
impedance - 150 ohm,
Maximum input power - 2W,
Sensitivity - 130mW at 101 dB SPL, 1kHz,
Total Harmonic Distortion - <0.3% at 100dB SPL 1kHz,
Frequency Response - 15-26000 Hz,
Weight 12 ounces
The chit chat on the box that they came in reads; The patented Orthodynamic principle utilizes an ultra thinvoice coil diaphragm, positioned between two perforated disc magnets. The magnets are perforated to allow the sound waves to pass through to the ear. The diaphragm is uniformly driven over it's entire surface. Since the drive units are joined at the center and the edge, the controlled sound reproductionis comparable to that of an elecrostatic unit at twice the price. These orthodynamic stereo headphones feature solid bass response, extremely low distortion even at high sound levels, and excellent transient response.
Burwen Research Inc.
30 Cross street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Manufacture in West Germany
I paid $108.00 plus tax for these in 1980, which was a piece of change back then. I bought them from a chain that was called Tech HiFi in Framingham, Mass. The reason that I bought these particular headphones was that I knew of Dick Burwen and his inqinuity and reputation for excellence, and also because when I bought the Infinity RS 4.5 loudspeakers I asked the salesman to sell me the best headphones that were available with comparable excellence to the RS 4.5's. Since I walked out of the door with the Burwens on that day, I have never seen, read about or heard of any others. Web site searches turn up nothing. If you have any information concerning these, I would certainly be most interested. I have recently boosted my headphone daily listening to about 5 hours a day now.
I guess the reason that I never looked into replacements or investigated the headphone world further is that I love them tremendously and never imagined anything better. However, the axiom is ' you do not know what you do not know, so here I am saying hail to yall and will be learning as to what is out there, not to ever replaced the Burwen's but to obtain some companion headphones.
Thanks for letting me join yall and I will be reading and learning.
Vito
P.S. The AKG 340 conversations are most interesting.