nick n
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2011
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Of possible interest to some lone solitary searcher in the future:
( and good for curiosity's sake )
I just picked up the Electrets I ordered from that german version auction site.
Named specifically PREFER Brand ES-801DD Direct Drive Professional Series Electrostatic Stereophones Japan ( made in Japan- yep the J.A.Pan company ) He had it listed as 80100 but it's 801dd same as the Maruni.
All of that IS actually on the outside earpieces, and it's a mouthful to be sure.
These are alternately seen once in a triple blue moon under the Maruni Brand name.
Who actually oem'd them is anyone's guess at this point. Certainly not common.
Here's what I could find on the history of the company, translated from the only site I could find of substance. Not much really. Mentioning a different can there, which I am going to go look for even though it's most likely dynamic ( yikes )
"Prefer Headphone HiFi Headphones HD-66V Black - Silver Ummels Company BV, the founder of Brand Prefer, was founded in the Netherlands in 1964. Ummels BV was in his early days, the distributor of Sony products in the south of the Netherlands. Later, this centralized distribution and Ummels BV launched its own range of products with the brand Prefer. Through its activities in the audio field was bekannt.Die Worldwide Prefer Prefer brand manufactures a wide range of quality cables for the audio and video, and audio mixers, amplifiers, limiters, preamps, microphones, etc. Prefer recognized in the early years, the market for one High-quality audio and video cable was available and, together with some well-known manufacturers its own range. Prefer products found their origin in consideration with the retailers and the market demand. Prefer emphasizes high quality of the individual components in order to produce a reliable product. Prefer working with the retailers as a distribution system and could such a good warranty and technical service guarantee"
One other solitary review I found other than in here, but of the Maruni version:
"The Maruni Japan ES-801 is an electrostatic headphone.
Steven C (December 2002): The full model name is "ES-801 Direct Drive - Professional Series Electrostatic Stereophones" ... which gives a clue about the age. My best guess is a 70s vintage. They are constructed as follows:
The Marunis are now finding service as monitors on my mixing desk. They sound extremely neutral and quite musical - for their age, the bass and treble response are surprisingly accurate. Their only limitation seems to be somewhat low sensitivity, compared to modern AKG and Sennheiser dynamics that I've used.
If anyone can offer advice on best amplification for home use, I would be grateful...
Eric M. (February 2003): Hi, I have a pair of these and I am using them on my Michaelson and Austin TVA 10 pentode valve amp and they sound very good.They are comparable to my Koss pro 4a's." <==== hmm soon to find out what they are like compared to other stuff I have.
The construction is solid and hardly uses any plastic except for the silver earside baffles, and the black of the housings. Even then the black plastic is extremely solid and you'd mistake it for density of metal when you knock on it unless you looked close.
Feel very solid and are a lot larger than I had figured. Modern cans could really take a lesson from the construction quality and materials.
I think they are classy looking, pictures don't cut it.
The metal headband actually has an excellent ratcheting mechanism to adjust them ( ball bearing and spring? ), and the clamping force is minimal. Real leather earpads and headband padding.
Runs off a 6.3 TRS plug and contains the transformers in the cups where the part that attaches to the headband assembly mounts. They crammed it in there pretty tight.
So that's why it's called Direct Drive = no adapter box it's all built-in.
I plugged em in and my heart sank. Intermittent left side. Deoxit carefully applied on inside contacts then playing around with the slight adjustment of the TRS plug depth tells it's a lame plug. ( just like the issue in the review )
99% sure. Phew!!! but need to solder on a new one to be sure, at least I know this does audio/paranormal show voices beautifully. ( Paracast )
Everyone at least likes pictures so:
On to the pics and description of the guts.
Size comparison to a typical multibit screwdriver and decent details of outers:
Earside baffle shot minus pads ( there's a pad in the background ), and metallic driver dustguard/protector membrane inside that faces ear.
Backside of driver in it's housing and we see yet another application of the mysterious yellow woolish material for damping behind that. Driver back has an aluminum cross bar support (?) pretty much flush with driver surface.
Pulling back the woolish dampening reveals the transformer, and what seems to be 2 layers of thin black fabric that acts as a dustguard/ color darkener/sound dampener (?) over top of the exterior metal mesh on the cups as seen in the first 2 pics there. You can see the cross section of the tiny transformer there. Wasn't going to attempt pulling that out.
Will reterminate with a decent metal TRS with metal strain relief in the next day or so. It will suit these better.
I think I finally learned patience. Wow.
( and good for curiosity's sake )
I just picked up the Electrets I ordered from that german version auction site.
Named specifically PREFER Brand ES-801DD Direct Drive Professional Series Electrostatic Stereophones Japan ( made in Japan- yep the J.A.Pan company ) He had it listed as 80100 but it's 801dd same as the Maruni.
All of that IS actually on the outside earpieces, and it's a mouthful to be sure.
These are alternately seen once in a triple blue moon under the Maruni Brand name.
Who actually oem'd them is anyone's guess at this point. Certainly not common.
Here's what I could find on the history of the company, translated from the only site I could find of substance. Not much really. Mentioning a different can there, which I am going to go look for even though it's most likely dynamic ( yikes )
"Prefer Headphone HiFi Headphones HD-66V Black - Silver Ummels Company BV, the founder of Brand Prefer, was founded in the Netherlands in 1964. Ummels BV was in his early days, the distributor of Sony products in the south of the Netherlands. Later, this centralized distribution and Ummels BV launched its own range of products with the brand Prefer. Through its activities in the audio field was bekannt.Die Worldwide Prefer Prefer brand manufactures a wide range of quality cables for the audio and video, and audio mixers, amplifiers, limiters, preamps, microphones, etc. Prefer recognized in the early years, the market for one High-quality audio and video cable was available and, together with some well-known manufacturers its own range. Prefer products found their origin in consideration with the retailers and the market demand. Prefer emphasizes high quality of the individual components in order to produce a reliable product. Prefer working with the retailers as a distribution system and could such a good warranty and technical service guarantee"
One other solitary review I found other than in here, but of the Maruni version:
"The Maruni Japan ES-801 is an electrostatic headphone.
Steven C (December 2002): The full model name is "ES-801 Direct Drive - Professional Series Electrostatic Stereophones" ... which gives a clue about the age. My best guess is a 70s vintage. They are constructed as follows:
- machined aluminium shells with black plastic spacers
- chrome steel and black leather headstrap in the traditional STAX/Herton/Teledyne style
- coiled lead with a 3.5mm TRS (phono-style) stereo connector.
The Marunis are now finding service as monitors on my mixing desk. They sound extremely neutral and quite musical - for their age, the bass and treble response are surprisingly accurate. Their only limitation seems to be somewhat low sensitivity, compared to modern AKG and Sennheiser dynamics that I've used.
If anyone can offer advice on best amplification for home use, I would be grateful...
Eric M. (February 2003): Hi, I have a pair of these and I am using them on my Michaelson and Austin TVA 10 pentode valve amp and they sound very good.They are comparable to my Koss pro 4a's." <==== hmm soon to find out what they are like compared to other stuff I have.
The construction is solid and hardly uses any plastic except for the silver earside baffles, and the black of the housings. Even then the black plastic is extremely solid and you'd mistake it for density of metal when you knock on it unless you looked close.
Feel very solid and are a lot larger than I had figured. Modern cans could really take a lesson from the construction quality and materials.
I think they are classy looking, pictures don't cut it.
The metal headband actually has an excellent ratcheting mechanism to adjust them ( ball bearing and spring? ), and the clamping force is minimal. Real leather earpads and headband padding.
Runs off a 6.3 TRS plug and contains the transformers in the cups where the part that attaches to the headband assembly mounts. They crammed it in there pretty tight.
So that's why it's called Direct Drive = no adapter box it's all built-in.
I plugged em in and my heart sank. Intermittent left side. Deoxit carefully applied on inside contacts then playing around with the slight adjustment of the TRS plug depth tells it's a lame plug. ( just like the issue in the review )
99% sure. Phew!!! but need to solder on a new one to be sure, at least I know this does audio/paranormal show voices beautifully. ( Paracast )
Everyone at least likes pictures so:
On to the pics and description of the guts.
Size comparison to a typical multibit screwdriver and decent details of outers:
Earside baffle shot minus pads ( there's a pad in the background ), and metallic driver dustguard/protector membrane inside that faces ear.
Backside of driver in it's housing and we see yet another application of the mysterious yellow woolish material for damping behind that. Driver back has an aluminum cross bar support (?) pretty much flush with driver surface.
Pulling back the woolish dampening reveals the transformer, and what seems to be 2 layers of thin black fabric that acts as a dustguard/ color darkener/sound dampener (?) over top of the exterior metal mesh on the cups as seen in the first 2 pics there. You can see the cross section of the tiny transformer there. Wasn't going to attempt pulling that out.
Will reterminate with a decent metal TRS with metal strain relief in the next day or so. It will suit these better.
I think I finally learned patience. Wow.