Orthodynamic Roundup

[Nagasaki_Kid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameles /img/forum/go_quote.gif I guess I'll join the club; I have a pair of HP-3's. I just found this site while searching for a replacement phones for my iPod. While getting hooked on reviews for MDR-V6, K81DJ, and FX-33, mods etc. I decided to dig out an old pair of headphones I bought when I was 17 (I'm 45 now). I did a search which lead me here... it seems I have a little treasure. The pads are in rough shape and there is an intermittent connection in the cable. Other than that they look and sound fine. Any thoughts on the best way to spruce these up? I have a 20 year old Harmon Kardon receiver that seems to drive these fine however I typically listen to my iPod these days. In reading through the thread it sounds like the iPod will not be able to drive these? Is there any way to get them to work with an iPod?

You won't be able to drive these well with your Ipod alone you need an amplifier (a box that drives the headphone connected between the headphon and ipod) and your headphones are in pretty bad shape you might want to rewire them with new cable.

 

[wualta]

Welcome to the cult, and unfortunately I don't know where you can get direct replacements for your HP-3's earpads that are the correct size and shape. Yamaha seems to want to forget they ever made these. No parts, no manuals, just a nice little photo essay on the Japanese site.

Someone else may have some quick suggestions they can PM to you, however. Don't give up yet. While you're waiting, measure your existing earpads, including the thickness. It's important to get something reasonably close.

As for the cord, if you have an idea where the break is, you can of course repair it, but you could also simply solder a whole new cord to the drivers, and again, I'm sure people could PM you with cord suggestions. Do you know your way around a soldering iron?

As for your iPod, you'll need an outboard amp. Some very good ones cost as little as $25 shipped, are about the size of your iPod, use a 9v battery, and will do the job, but of course you can spend hundreds on this sort of thing. Again, look around the site for suggestions, be specific (they'll want to know how loud do you like it, are you a basshead, what color is your iPod skin, etc.) and you should be back in the Ortho business in short order.

 

[nameles]

The pads are 68cm (2 3/4") across and 1cm (7/16") thick.

Yes, I do know how to solder. Finding the intermittent spot might be tricky but I've never given it a serious try; I'll give it a shot. As for replacing the whole cord, I'd need advice on cable type etc. I think there was some mention in an earlier post about using aluminum solder only.... not sure if this is something special, I only have regular solder at the moment and I don't think it's aluminum.

Thanks for your help.

 

[ericj]

There are a lot of 80mm earpads out there that basically work - such as are found on sony mdr-v(100,150,200,300).

But i can't say i actually recommend them. Just that they basically work.

Oh, and the Yamahas don't have the aluminum solder requirement - you're just soldering to nickel plated brass tabs on the yamas. But, if you can nail down the break in the cable to just at the plug, that makes your life so much easier.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameles /img/forum/go_quote.gif The pads are 68cm (2 3/4") across and 1cm (7/16") thick.

The thickness is key. You don't want to move your ears farther away from the diaphragm than they already are with the stock pads.

There's an eBay seller in Hong Kong who sells pads that are almost but not entirely exactly the wrong diameter for the HP/YH-2. Thickness looks about right. Better than nothing, though they're $8/pair shipped.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameles /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, I do know how to solder. Finding the intermittent spot might be tricky but I've never given it a serious try; I'll give it a shot.

If wiggling the wires to find the bad spot doesn't do it, try making voltmeter probes from straight pins. Either that or sharpen the ends of your existing probes. That way you can poke through insulation without totally ripping a cable apart.


Quote:

Originally Posted by nameles /img/forum/go_quote.gif As for replacing the whole cord, I'd need advice on cable type etc.

Just about anything of decent quality will work. Make sure you salvage the existing strain reliefs or else be sure to seal the hole where the cable enters the earcup.

.

 

[AudioCats]

Received my 4-pak SFI tweeters today. Thanks Wualta, for convincing me to buy these, now I regret not getting a 8-pak instead.

Already put a pair into my Panasonic RP-HT355's housing. I am impressed with the result. Good smooth upper end and good bass (not much impact but the deepth is there, very clean. Good enough from such a small closed housing), no echo (thanks to the small Panasonic pleather pads- still circumaural

). Does not really give me that electrostatic feel, but the sound is very smooth and sweet and great for vocal.
Resolution is very good too, better than the QP's (even after recable).

Very pleasant sound.

This is with brand new NOS drivers, I hope things will get even better after some burn-in (the drivers are probably 20 years old?)

Will put the next pair into the 45x housing and see what kind of bass I can get. Too bad the Accura baffle has that 55mm hole and won't take these 38mm drivers.


Have fun (might post pics tomorrow)

 

[AudioCats]

by the way, the efficiency is about the same as the 45x, which means I can drive them with my PCDP. Not sure if a mp3 can do the same, we will find out this Saturday.

 

[wualta]

Yay Sawafuji bipole tweeters!

If things get bad on eBay for every single iso- or orthodynamic headphone we've turned up in this thread, we can always grab a bunch of these for $6.50 each and make our own.

AC, keep in mind these drivers aren't fully damped as-is. If you want a 'stat-chaser, get out the felt and be prepared for the hit in efficiency. Have some small dots (8mm?) standing by for top-octave tweaking.

Thanks go out to ericj for pointing out that someone was still making this type of driver for tweeter use. Could Sawafuji have been Audio-Technica's original supplier? Stranger things have happened.

You could put one of these in an Accura; you'd just have to come up with a filler disc with a 35mm hole in it for the SFI to sit on. Can't say the bass will be very good, though. A type of host 'phone better suited to foster the SFI foundling would be anything that was originally meant to house a planar-type driver, like an old supra-aural electret or electrostat. You want something with the smallest possible earcup volume, like, say, the Stax SR-30 or the Audio-Technica ATH-6/7/8.

Oh-- Fostex used to make pro-audio microphones out of an element not too different from this.

 

[nameles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif The thickness is key. You don't want to move your ears farther away from the diaphragm than they already are with the stock pads. There's an eBay seller in Hong Kong who sells pads that are almost but not entirely exactly the wrong diameter for the HP/YH-2. Thickness looks about right. Better than nothing, though they're $8/pair shipped. If wiggling the wires to find the bad spot doesn't do it, try making voltmeter probes from straight pins. Either that or sharpen the ends of your existing probes. That way you can poke through insulation without totally ripping a cable apart. Just about anything of decent quality will work. Make sure you salvage the existing strain reliefs or else be sure to seal the hole where the cable enters the earcup. .

I wish I could figure out how the multi-quote funtion works....

I think I may just use the pads as is. They are full of fine cracks but are still intact, soft, and comfortable.

It looks like the break is right where the wire enters the strain relief. I don't think I can splice it together right there. I'm guessing this means peeling back the fragile pads, opening up the ear piece, and either pushing the cable through and shortening it (resulting in an uneven Y), or adding a new bit of wire in the ear piece, running it though the strain relief, and spicing it together somewere further down the wire (if that makes sense). Is there any other way to fix a break right at the strain relief?

I saw some posts where people recommended peeling back only the section of pad where the screws are. I think that was for the HP-1 though; are the screws in the HP-3 in the same place?

I was going to insert a picture but all I can seem to do is attach a file, if I try to insert an image it is looking for a URL rather than letting me navigate to a picture from my drive. I guess I'll have to take the Advanced Forum Posting Course.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameles /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wish I could figure out how the multi-quote funtion works....

You click multiquote for all but the last message you want to quote, on which you click quote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nameless It looks like the break is right where the wire enters the strain relief. I don't think I can splice it together right there. I'm guessing this means peeling back the fragile pads, opening up the ear piece, and either pushing the cable through and shortening it (resulting in an uneven Y), or adding a new bit of wire in the ear piece, running it though the strain relief, and spicing it together somewere further down the wire (if that makes sense). Is there any other way to fix a break right at the strain relief?

Well, I've never done this with yamas, but I've done it with various brands of headphones.

Whatcha do is:

Extract the cable completely - cut it off leaving a half inch of insulation on each lug, so you have a handy visual aid for what goes where.

Examine the strain relief for a seam of molding flash - the line of extra material where the sides of the mold met - or just lay it down wherever it's flat and pick a straight axis to cut along.

Using a very sharp knife or razor, make a lengthwise incision through one side of the top (inside) portion of the strain relief, about half way down the length of it.

Chances are, it's fused to the insulation of the cable on the top (inside) end and nowhere else.

Sometimes you can peel the strain relief off of the cable at that point, sometimes you end up hacking up the insulation and then carefully carving out the core of the strain relief.

At some point you'll have the strain relief freed from the cable and cleaned up.

Then, yeah, lop an inch or so off the end of the cable, insert it through the butchered strain relief - being sure to provide yourself with enough wire on the top side of the relief to solder to the driver again, and then apply a dab of superglue to the split in the strain relief and press it all back together. This should bond the cable to the strain relief and seal the incision in the relief.

This can look very professional if you use enough care.

 

[wualta]

Ah, I see ericj's already on it. I'll just add a few useless bits.

You might find it easier to work on the strain relief if you can get it out of the headphone. To do that you'll have to >gulp!< open up the earcups. I don't have an HP/YH-3, but it's different from all the other Orthos in that the baffle simply snaps into the cup. You'll want to consult this post and determine where the four clips are, then push back the earpads, insert a little screwdriver...

Note that the photos (by HF member Duggeh, and dashed good photos they are too) are of a HP/YH-3 variant, the HP-50A. Should be the same as yours. If it isn't, let us know. Note also that Duggeh completely removed his earpads, which we hope won't be necessary.

.

 

[AudioCats]

Quote:

AC, keep in mind these drivers aren't fully damped as-is. If you want a 'stat-chaser, get out the felt and be prepared for the hit in efficiency. Have some small dots (8mm?) standing by for top-octave tweaking.

I actually damped them. The cavity is filled with high density foam (I put the foam in when the original Panasonic drivers were there, to kill boomyness/echo. I just left the foam in when I install the SFI drivers.).

Is the 8mm dot for boosting treble? at this point the treble is good, actually a little on the bright side to my taste (I like the "Beyer 990 darkness").

Maybe by the time I get the thumps I will need to use the dot to boost treble?

 

[wualta]

Foam's not usually enough, but if you've got flat response, you've got enough damping. And yes, the dot is to tweak the top octave, octave-anna-half. That's if you feel the need for 'statness instead of darkness.

This is a closed cup, right? Try replacing the foam in the cup with a dense wad of polyester. Try the kind you get at the pet store for filtering aquarium juice. Fiberglass would be better but requires care in handling.

 

[AudioCats]

just tried filter pad. Not the fish filter, but it is very similar or maybe identical, I removed the pad from a blue PUR pitch filter

Quite a bit more bass, but muddier, and the thump is actually about the same, just sounds like more bass floating around. Didn't like it, so I tried:
*cotton ball, large: slightly less bass than filter pad, but cleaner.
*Cotton ball with mid density foam pad, foam againsting the driver's back side: ...... can't remember what the out come was, apperantly didn't impressed me enough.
*cotton ball with polyester felt (from a polyester grey scarf I bought at the $ store), felt against the back side of driver: about the same as cotton ball.

It seems like it is either more bass but muddled, or clean sound but less bass. The bass thump is actually about the same. So I went back to the high density foam pad. This one will be mostly for vocal anyway, no need for too much thump.

 

[AudioCats]

SFI tweeters into 45x housing:
*stock vent (foam ring), stock black foam pads: bright, no bass, at all.
*stock vent (foam ring), filter pad: the same, no bass.

*solid baffle (filled vent with bluetac), stock black foam pads: some bass, still very very light, no thump.
*Solid baffle, filter pad: more bass, kind of have the thumps now, but not enough for rock (at least to my taste). Sound is clear.
* Solid baffle, filter pad, and grey polyester scarf felt againsting the back of driver: actually less bass than without the felt.
* didn't try high density foam, ran out of it.

No echo, highs and mids are pretty good, just not enough bass. Maybe the 45x pleather pad has too big a center openning?


Wualta, I don't seem to find the post about your UR40 project. Help.......Please...........

Maybe I should put the SFI's into my iGrado housing and micky-mouse a pair of "behind the neck street style" ortho? I do have mini pleather pads to go with them

.