[aasat]

I found very interesting photos of Victor HP-D70, drivers and pads looks identical to AKAI ASE-50
 

 

 

 

 

 

[dBel84]

Quote:

I'm back. Posted about these here. Apart from the lack of a treble peak, I actually enjoy the sound out of them from my iPhone + (wrong amp for these) Pico Slim. Very relaxing.

Welcome back. Those old ATH are worthy of a little love. If you haven't modded them yet, they have a LOT more to offer than when stock. I tired the pico with a selection of my orthos and it really wasn't designed for that kind of load.
 
 
Interseting driver aasat 
 

 
those tapered holes again ! 
 
..dB

 

[Currawong]

I'm definitely interested in modding them for better results. In the future I'm intending to get a better portable amp, so it would be nice to have a pair of light cans to take around with me for relaxing listening. Faust's wiki says something aboutdrilling holes in the baffle? The drivers appear to be glued in  I'm on my iPad and am yet to search this thread. 

 

[wualta]

I prefer not to recommend mods that aren't reversible, but I currently believe that the ATH-2 will only sound its best with that nice chrome grille/baffle either removed or heavily modified. Which is not to say you can't/won't enjoy them with a simpler mod; it just means that if you want to preserve the ATH-2's looks, there will be limits to how far you can take them sonically. But I have hope that someday we'll find a way around those limits. In the meantime, give that iPad a workout searching around for ideas. The bad news is that at this moment, ludoo's special search engine is finding posts and photos but then pointing you to the wrong locations in HF. Use it with Google in the meantime.

 

[Currawong]

Found your mod thread for them.. I've more-or-less done what you suggested and can pick up some improvements in the treble. Turns out one or other previous owner used tack or similar to "stick" the drivers to the baffle.

 

[wualta]

I believe that goo you refer to is factory goo, a medium strength contact cement. In retrospect, it was a cost-effective solution, since unlike a lot of wonder-materials from the '70s, it's held up. But I sure do prefer the arrangement the OEM of the Pro 30 used: a good tight clamp with a rubber gasket. Just pry slooowwly and it'll come off the baffle, but if you're not going to mod the baffle this won't even be necessary.
 
You might want to consider a strange alternative: using as a host-'phone a model released recently by Audio-Technica which caused us all a momentary burst of hyperexcitement until we realized A-T wasn't making orthos again after all and it was all just a big dirty trick: the ATH-RE70 Retro-Face. I'm not making this up. Looks just like the ATH-2 but the cup vents are dummies and it's a conventional dynamic driver inside. But you can get it in white, and the baffle looks thin, which is what we're after. Not an easy mod if you want to keep the nearly-unique semi-open back of the ATH-2, but at least others have done this transplant (using SFI drivers in the case I'm going to cite) and the modder makes nice noises about the result: http://nihonhut.com/?p=45  I can't be sure the baffle is as thin as it looks in the photo... does this mean I have to go buy an RE70 (REtro, '70s-- get it? >groan< ) to make certain? Argh..  and there must be a more elegant way to open that grille from the inside. Dremel? Drill holes? Hot scriber or awl? Argh.

 

[rhythmdevils]

I'm kind of skeptical of claimed success with the first random damping scheme using whatever materials were around the house.  Maybe they got lucky though. 

 

[wualta]

We should all maintain healthy skepticism at all times and in all circumstances. A good rule of thumb.

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

The bad news is that at this moment, ludoo's special search engine is finding posts and photos but then pointing you to the wrong locations in HF. Use it with Google in the meantime.

Uhm, HF changed all posts permalinks? I did not notice it, the search engine was ok until a few days ago... I guess what happened is they turned off redirections from the old style to the new style permalinks. Time to update the engine again. Pfffff

 

[funch]

Thought I'd post pix of my mod'ed T50's I call Plastic Pantz.
 

 
 

 

 

 

Cups are made from 3" ABS pipe caps from Ace Hardware.
 
 

Drivers are held to the baffles with three 2x20mm machine screws.
They thread through the existing driver mounts perfectly.
 

Baffles are 1/4" alder from Home Depot.
 

Pads are Beyer gels, with mounting plates of aluminum.
Simple twist-n-mount.
 
 

 

[Armaegis]

^ Very nice! I suddenly find my urge for power tools growing...

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

I believe that goo you refer to is factory goo, a medium strength contact cement. In retrospect, it was a cost-effective solution, since unlike a lot of wonder-materials from the '70s, it's held up. But I sure do prefer the arrangement the OEM of the Pro 30 used: a good tight clamp with a rubber gasket. Just pry slooowwly and it'll come off the baffle, but if you're not going to mod the baffle this won't even be necessary.
 
You might want to consider a strange alternative: using as a host-'phone a model released recently by Audio-Technica which caused us all a momentary burst of hyperexcitement until we realized A-T wasn't making orthos again after all and it was all just a big dirty trick: the ATH-RE70 Retro-Face. I'm not making this up. Looks just like the ATH-2 but the cup vents are dummies and it's a conventional dynamic driver inside. But you can get it in white, and the baffle looks thin, which is what we're after. Not an easy mod if you want to keep the nearly-unique semi-open back of the ATH-2, but at least others have done this transplant (using SFI drivers in the case I'm going to cite) and the modder makes nice noises about the result: http://nihonhut.com/?p=45  I can't be sure the baffle is as thin as it looks in the photo... does this mean I have to go buy an RE70 (REtro, '70s-- get it? >groan< ) to make certain? Argh..  and there must be a more elegant way to open that grille from the inside. Dremel? Drill holes? Hot scriber or awl? Argh.

Ahh, what threw me off was that you were showing driver pics from a different pair of headphones without any goo. I managed to pry the drivers out for a look. I ended up using some "magic sponge" microfibre cleaning sponge and it seemed to work well enough. The treble isn't sparkly like even the LCD-2s, but they are unusually pleasant to listen with for me.

 

[wualta]

 
Quote:

Ahh, what threw me off was that you were showing driver pics from a different pair of headphones without any goo.
I managed to pry the drivers out for a look. I ended up using some "magic sponge" microfibre cleaning sponge and it seemed to work well enough.

Yes, I used the photo of a Pro 30 driver just to throw you off guard!  Bwa and ha! I didn't pry out the drivers on the ATH-2 in that thread, but I owned an ATH-2 back in the '80s and I had pried the drivers out on that one. It's either contact cement or doublesided extra-sticky tape, and you'd swear that driver had been welded in there, but slow application of force eventually wins out. I'm glad you found another use for good ol' Magic Eraser melamine foam. Makes a lousy pry bar but cleans up residue and spilled grape juice just fine.
 
 
Oops, forgot to thank aasat for the JVC/Victor photos and Ludo for fixing the search engine. It's been working fine since this morning (GMT -5), and it had been working beautifully until a couple of days ago, then zonk, HF did something.
 
Oh, and the PlasticPantz looks really good. And it uses commonly-available, affordable stuff! My kind of mod! But how spendy are those earpads?
 

 

[wualta]

Oh, and somebody on that auction site is selling the ATH-RE70 with new miracle Retro-Face for $37 shipped, so one is on the way. Gotta know about that #$%# baffle.

 

[yipcanjo]

 
Quote:

Thought I'd post pix of my mod'ed T50's I call Plastic Pantz.
 

These are *amazing*, Funch -- and very much the look I want to go for with my T50RP mod!  So simple, clean, and great looking.  How do they sound?  What did you use for the outside post mounts?  Lastly, where did your re-cabling wire come from?  I'd like to order some.
 
I'm currently using the stock cups/baffles, but with the Rastapants 2 suggestions.  I'm considering doing a Smeggy-style "Thunderpants" job in a week or so -- using my father-in-law's lathe.  Using plain ol' ABS plastic would be fun too.  Probably a bit more "lively" using plastic, but certainly simple!
 
Nice work