[easypeasy]

Fender headphones are way cool

 

[necropimp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BowerR64 Anyone got any pictures of rare headphones? I thought these were kinda cool. The Fenders are very warm and would be good for playing guitar threw from an amp. They dont have much highs so there wouldnt be any hiss. The ibanez have a nice full sound. Not sure what these were for, maybe some kinda guitar practice portable amp. Still kinda cool.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/519677/

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/519633/

i instantly recognized them...

 

[Nights_85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by romesaz "stereo" "TDS - 3" and thats the right cup what...ARE those? well, besides being russian

In Soviet Russia, headphones listens you!

Hugz: Who knows maybe one day there'll be a head-fi meet in Sydney or Brisbane, if that ever happens I'd bring my stuff (low-fi as it is)

 

[wualta]

Wow. Where else but in this thread would I find another owner of not one but two of the most technically unusual headphones ever made, thanks to Pioneer's all-too-brief flirtation with PVDF-- polyvinylidene fluoride film. That's the stuff they used in the socalled High Polymer tweeters in the HPM series of speakers. They're not electrostats, they're not isodynamics, they're not dynamics. They're... piezoelectric. They turn electricity directly into sound. You can win bets with 'em: "Betcha can't tell me how these work!"

[Geeky tech info on PVDF's very unusual properties here.]

Gallo Acoustics still makes a PVDF tweeter.

Nights_85, I thought I was one of the few with an example of Pioneer's HPM headphone line, but you've got me beat. I have the SE-500, which looks exactly like your SE-300. No bass, but great to look at and historically significant.

As of now, they're all about 30 years old. I wonder how long it'll be before an adventurous company tries this principle in a headphone again? Maybe the late '70s really were a mini golden age of audio.

UPDATE: Whoa ho! A Japanese company called TAKET has made a Heil AMT [Air Motion Transformer] out of piezo film. Your choice of add-on tweeter or headphones. For the price of a used car, you too can yell Look Ma, no magnets!

FURTHER UPDATE: Quote:

Originally Posted by taymat I have Rotel RH-930 headphones that I got from ebay. They're electrostatic or isodynamic I think, and are over 25 years old accoridng to rotel. Well they sound good considering they're that old, but have little bass and get beaten by modern cans.

Taymat, your photo has disappeared over the past 2+ years, but what I originally thought was a clone of the Pioneer SE-700 piezoelectric turns out instead to be a clone of the Toshiba/Aurex HR-810. It's an electret electrostatic, but a rare (i know of only one other mfr.) kind. The electret material is on the stators and doesn't move, the opposite of what you find in a normal electret electrostatic. The step-up transformers are built into the plug, and there's an impedance selector switch to match the 'phones to your equipment. They join the few known electrostatic headphones able to plug directly into home stereo gear without an adaptor box. I have the upscale HR-910, and you're right, the bass is diffident but can be improved. The mids and highs on mine are in Stax SR-X territory. A fascinating electret capsule design that went nowhere in the marketplace and Toshiba bet an entire line on it. Toshiba must've tried OEMing the HR-810 for Rotel to get sales up, but it was no go. Too bad.

.

 

[Nights_85]

I sometimes wondered how in hecks name these things worked, I wonder if they actually sound better hooked up to speaker terminals instead like K1000s. Its good to know there's FINALLY someone else out there with these headphones, Ive found that the 300's have a bit more bass than the 700's but they sound more unrefined....

 

[saint.panda]

Sennheiser HD 1000 Charleston
http://ipodstudio.com/photopost/show...at/501/page/12

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nights_85 ...I wonder if they actually sound better hooked up to speaker terminals instead like K1000s...

Well, give it a try and let us know. As the article I cited says (and keeping in mind that Pioneer probably bought their PVDF from what was then Pennwalt Corp), there's not ever going to be very much bass because of the mechanical properties of the film, so don't overdrive the old dears, because the film loses its properties when it gets hot.

PS: mkmelt recalls his Pioneer phones sounded better via speaker outputs, but that the phones weren't reliable (due to the reason cited?). Search using the term <piezoelectric>.

 

[kank_39]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProFingerSk8er of course they are, but I dont believe too many of MDR-D11W were ever made. (anyone else with a pair of D11W please raise your hand )

*Raises hand*

What? MDR D11W is rare? I got mine like 4-5 years ago so does that mean i have a gem in hand?

I'm not too sure about the states but over here in SIngapore, it's true that Eggos are now rarely seen.

 

[Nights_85]

In response to a hypothesis I posted a little earlier about plugging my pioneer se-700s into the speaker terminals of an amp I have made a conclusion:

Yes it does work, they do not distort when the level is turned up and they sound exponentially better than the crappy headphone socket on my amp (Teac AG-6500... an oldie but a nice one)

Does anyone know if doing the same thing to the AKG k340's would be safe... Ive managed to find one somewhere and Im thinking of buying it, and I doubt the headphone socket on my amp will cut it

 

[Enverxis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta Nights_85, I thought I was one of the few with an example of Pioneer's HPM headphone line, but you've got me beat. I have a pair of the SE-500s, which look exactly like your SE-300s. No bass, but great to look at and historically significant. As of now, they're all about 30 years old. I wonder how long it'll be before an adventurous company tries this principle again? Maybe the late '70s really were a mini golden age of audio. Walt Brand

A friend of mine has a pair of Pioneer SE-4s, and he loves them.

 

[Wil]

kank_39! if u see anyone with the D66 anywhere in Spore, it's prob me! haha

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nights_85 In response to a hypothesis I posted a little earlier about plugging my pioneer se-700s into the speaker terminals of an amp I have made a conclusion: Yes it does work, they do not distort when the level is turned up and they sound exponentially better than the crappy headphone socket on my amp (Teac AG-6500... an oldie but a nice one)

Does the quality of the bass change/improve at all?


Quote:

Does anyone know if doing the same thing to the AKG k340's would be safe...

Sounds like adding some dropping resistors might be a good idea, shouldn't hurt, but I don't own the K340s. Philodox?

 

[the_villain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nights_85 Behold some damn hard to find stuff fresh from the 70's.... I seem to have a thing for vintage audio, these headphones (bar the floats) sound OK but not great, those pioneers (700's on left 300's on right) require alot of juice to power em and the sharps have ALOT of bass to play with (seperate woofer and tweeter in each cup), sound good with EQing.. the floats on the other hand sound forward like my grados and slightly more detailed... I like em, pity theyre kinda uncomfortable

Very, very interesting cans. Very well made. And who stole the design from who? Beyerdynamic and Pioneer? The middle can looks exactly like a Beyer.
Impressive collection for a man fron down under.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta Sounds like adding some dropping resistors might be a good idea, shouldn't hurt, but I don't own the K340s. Philodox?

Well, I havent tried this with many amps, but with aerius' tube amp we used the speaker outs to drive the K340 as the normal headphone out did not have quite enough power. He has set up a headphone out that comes off the speaker outs of his amp though so this was easy. With a normal amp you would need to make an adapter of some kind I would think.

 

[Capt. Z]

To bad, I don't have a picture of some very old cans I had as a kid. They were actually a two way design - twi drivers in one cup. The "tweeter" output level could be adjusted with a small volume pod.

Can't remember the name either.

SOm eold German cans.