[Pyriel0]

When I got them they only had some foam. Never had any mineral wool.

 

[smeggy]

In my opinion (not necessarily shared), the new driver is plain better in all sonic respects to the older drivers I've heard. It's clean, even, efficient and is extremely easy to get them sounding good. Many of the older orthos are a trial of fire, pain and frustration. It can be a lot of fun, it can also be a huge pain in the butt. My ultimate goal is to have great sounding phones, not to go bald from pulling my hair out..

The downside is that it's not as easy to work with. The driver comes on a frame with an extended circuit board that makes the overall drive size large. It needs at least a 4x3" housing, 4" round is better. The cup hollow needs to be 3.5" diameter or the driver capsule wont fit and even then the driver is a little off-center due to it being longer on one side than the other. The driver capsule is screwed and clipped to the baffle and if you remove it you have an odd protrusion at the front where it mates with the baffle. One of the reasons I tend to just cut the excess baffle away now is so that it has a flat front surface to stick to a new baffle.

The solder pads are easily pulled off, rendering the driver useless, so extra care has to be taken to secure the wires to the driver capsule so they don't pull on the solder joints.

Damping is pretty straight forward. I glue a piece of felt to the back of the driver. You can add felt sheets inside the cup to adjust the damping levels. The driver itself is extremely robust and tough. I'm still trying to find out why, but sometimes you can induce ringing on low, powerful bass notes. I don't know if it's the metal magnet frame or what is causing it yet. The drivers also need a good strong housing to work their best, when this is achieved the bass is very strong and powerful for such a small surface area.

As you probably saw from the pics I posted a few pages back, it's pretty simple as long as you get the cup and baffle sizes right. Then it just a matter of some glue, felt, solder and screws. It took me a long time to get to where I was happy with all the materials, parts and sizes that it's now a relatively easy, if very time consuming process.

Is it worth the trouble? You bet it is

I have completely stopped ortho and electrostat hunting, or any other phone hunting because nothing else I've heard is better for my tastes. For me, they do everything right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ujamerstand /img/forum/go_quote.gif If we are capable (or find some one capable) of constructing a new housing for the newer fostex orthos, would the newer fostex orthos be a better choice in terms of better DIY potential? I guess what I'm asking is, is the driver within the newer fostex orthos, (like the T50RP) superior to the older generation models? Which one was more fun to work with in your opinion?

 

[gurubhai]

What about the SFI drivers?
do they stack up to the vintage ortho/fostex drivers ?

 

[Kabeer]

All this T50rp talk

. I'd just like to remind everyone that these are all still taste issues. I agree upon the fact the T50rp has a VERY capable driver that can do it all, but it still comes down to taste.

Everyone here has different ears

. That's probably a big problem with headfi, we are just going by words on the net of people with different ears to our own :/

 

[sachu]

Hey Kabeer, you know I have two T50RP woodies..

 

[Kabeer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey Kabeer, you know I have two T50RP woodies..you wish you had one don't you

Loool Shurrup

.

I'm gonna make a headphone shell COMPLETELY out of blutack, then we will see who is jealous

 

[wualta]

I suppose we should point out for the benefit of those newly arriving that except for the new high-end 'phones, there are effectively no orthos available that sound right in stock form. As of now, there's a minimum of DIY necessary to get more than an introductory taste of ortho capability.

The SFI drivers, in a simple enclosure, can sound very good indeed. The Pro 30 uses what's basically an SFI driver. Use the special search engine to find lots of info and experiments, including Smeggy's.

 

[gurubhai]

I know about the smeggy's experiments & few others as well, that's why I asked.
The thing is you have to DIY the complete enclosure & headband for them so before I embark on that path, I would like opinions from people who have tried that.

Or is it better to get the newer T50 RP & just get a wooden cup ?

 

[ujamerstand]

Why not make both? It'd be a great way to get rid of summer boredom. I'm hoping to get either a used or broken grado sr60 frame for the price around 50 dollars or less. Custom driver housing and the driver themselves shouldn't take more than that either, I hope. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. So hopefully, I could get a grado-SFI for around the same price as buying a vintage yamaha Hp-1.

 

[dBel84]

As a first trial experiment for folk in the US, I would encourage you to look at the H&S Zebra phone as a foster for the fostex T50RP (new)

EDIT:

well bang goes that idea - the zebrawoods are no longer available, I hadn't realised this

- a true pity as the ortho experiment I have in these is a true killer in performance. ( I dare to say but it is at the top of my current pile and didn't take much work (physical woodwork that is - tuning is always a beast to nail down) to get there )

SFI pucks are pretty straightforward but do take a lot of tweaking to get to sound right.

To me , this is all a worthwhile process as the evolution is not so much the ability to make a headphone but to teach your ear to trust itself and enable you to make subtle changes while being able to recognize what happens when you do so.

..dB

 

[gurubhai]

The only issue I have with my vintage orthos is the worn out pads.

The cheap ebay pads sound like cr$p & my efforts at get custom leather pads haven't born fruit as yet.
And their is no way that I can afford the O2 pads.
So may be the newer T50RP is the way to go, atleast I would get the new earpads & a good frame.

 

[ujamerstand]

Perhaps Sachu is willing to host a group buy for the custom O2 pads? Sachu, we're counting on you!

 

[gurubhai]

those Zebrawood would have made the job really easy. Sad to know that they are no longer available.

 

[cetoole]

Hey Don, just curious how you ended up damping the various 'pants you have played with? Prefer not to open these too often if it can be avoided, due to concerns about the wood threading getting damaged. Good stuff, just need to tame the midbass a bit more on mine without killing the low bass off entirely. Currently just have one of the ports plugged.

 

[sachu]

^^ i know that Don removed a layer of the red felt that Gary put in the ones I sent out on loan. They were very heavy in the midbass and lower bass. The mids were sucked out with the ighs rolled off (read darker than the originals).
I also remember Don saying that the TPs are very sensitive to damping schemes..
I had the same concerns as you about the threading going kaput with iterations on the damping scheme, the idea was to use blu tack or caulk to hold the baffle in place during tuning, don't know if Don went that route with mine.
The one thing with the kingwood TPs that I am not quite satisfied with is the gradual roll off of bass, but if that were to be reinforced I would probably lose linearity elsewhere, but am nitpicking now.

I do notice taht the midbass with the new cloned O2 pads was tamer, a more open feeling due to the ability of the leater to breathe compared to the original O2Mk1 pads. The O2MK1 also have a clamp, vacuum sealing effect compared to the leather pads.

Edit: I also have one of the ports on the original TPs plugged with acousta fill (poly fiber) which got rid of the weird echoy mids, tamed the bass a fair bit (it still hits harder and lower than the second TPs). The originals still have a resonance in the 3-4kHz region which unsettles me after listening to the more linear sounding TP. Good luck damping yours Colin..