[Fresno Bob]

PICKERING Model oa7 i beleave or zero-a-7 not sure
anyway im now the owner of a pair and they seem vintage i have added pics.

If anyone knows about these and has info please post thanks

They have not come yet just figured i would let you guys and gals see so i can get a heads up to what i have got on my hands. like i said they seem vintage dont know how old they are..

 

[EdipisReks]

how do they sound?

 

[Daroid]

It might be a long shot, but Pickering have been re-established now, focusing on DJ cartridges and DJ headphones. Perhaps they have some information collecting dust about those vintage headphone, or maybe they have connections to the old staff behind the original Pickering. When brands re-appear like that it is often just run-of the mill crap they produce - i.e. Digital cameras from Hasselblad or Jenoptik doesn't mean it is good, since they just have permition to use their names. But you might be lucky with Pickering. ( http://www.pickeringaudio.com )

I'll bet they are high impedance phones in the range of about 2 kOhms used for crystal radios. It would likely be hard to find an amp that has a voltage swing capability large enough for those headphones. Good luck

 

[Fresno Bob]

Daroid they are stereo headphones dont think they are for hamradios or anything like that. i will test them though when i get them..

 

[wualta]

Some OEM mfr. came up with a good-sounding cheap ~2" moving-coil driver with a cone made of clear plastic and in the mid to late '70s EVERYBODY (except Koss) sold a headphone with this driver, including Stanton (Pickering's alter ego) and Lafayette (yes, it was that long ago). The selling point was that this driver was extemely shallow (ie, thin), making the headphones very slim looking and stylish. Soundwise, they were very good for the price and for the time.

Let us know how they sound to you now.

The Lafayette ones used square aluminum enclosures that made it look like a miniature Jecklin Float. Bizarre, but they were cheap and sounded good.

Walt Brand

 

[EyeAmEye]

I like the vintage look to those, if they sound good, double bonus.

Seems Pickering is making DJ phones these days, that look cosmetically identical to the Ultrasones and the Ministry Of Sound DJ phones. Can't comment on driver differences and such, but the physical appearances of the three brands are identical save brand name and colors.

 

[Fresno Bob]

I will let you guys know how they sound when i get them, and if i need to rebable them i will let you know that as well.

 

[Fresno Bob]

well just tested them and they sound great. Might do with a re-wire and new pads. or leave them as is not sure yet.

 

[wualta]

Do they have any obvious weaknesses? As I recall, the bass was a little phasey and weak.

 

[philodox]

They look neat... kind of thin though almost like electrostatics.

 

[augustwest]

Wow, those take me back! I remember in the early 70's that some of the phonograph cartridge manufactures also marketed headpones. I had seen them in catalogs way back when, never heard them though. They are roughly contempories of the original Sennheiser hd 414 headphones. The ones that everyone loves to adapt the yellow replacement pads to fit Grados.

- augustwest

 

[tyre]

Pickering OA-7 headphones

I got these off of ebay a few weeks ago. They look nifty and sound better than I thought they would, although they aren't going to beat a pair of SR-60's anytime soon. The earcups are very thin, around half an inch including the earpads.

I have no idea if these are isodynamic's or not since it looks like the only way to disassemble them is by removing the adhesive earpads. Their impedance is around 100 ohms.

 

[max-9]

haha ...I remember those , I worked for stanton / pickering when I was a kid , I just burnt out my stanton dynaphase 60 quadraphonic headphones..they where 30 yrs old.
From what I remember those were mid priced , the stanton version were the high end.

 

[wualta]

Yep, those are the ones, all right. It's not a 'stat and it's not an isodynamic. It's just a very low-profile Mylar cone driver which is the direct ancestor of the ubiquitous Koss 40mm driver used in just about all the current Koss Head-Fi faves. As I said earlier, every headphone mfr. from Lafayette Radio to Stanton had a headphone using this driver back in the late '70s. They came on the market a good bit after the original Sennheiser HD 414, though.

We should tell Inkmo about these-- he's got the retro jones real bad and these wouldn't be too much of a slap in the face soundwise compared to some other '70s 'phones, and the style is there.

 

[tyre]

I suspect that the OA-7's are the same as the Stanton XXI "super slim" headphones mentioned in this thread, although I can't find a picture of them.

Here's a pair of Sears headphones that I've seen on ebay before. They look almost identical to the Pickering's except that they are specified as having an 8 ohm impedance. Weird, eh?

Quote:

We should tell Inkmo about these-- he's got the retro jones real bad and these wouldn't be too much of a slap in the face soundwise compared to some other '70s 'phones, and the style is there.

Actually, I think he bid against me in the auction.