[Sirfoxx]

Hello--

I recently acquired a pair of Stanton Sixty-Five four channel headphones. For whatever reason, all 4 speakers are blown out in them... I am in search of replacement drivers, and have it narrowed down to three different ones. I am just looking for opinions on them, or possibly another suggestion of speaker choice. Original driver diameter is 40mmx17mm(?) (dont remember depth, but there is spare room behind the speakers)

I havent decided how to wire them up yet either. There is a switch in one of the cables to go between stereo and quad (has two quarter inch plugs for quad usage), though I am not sure if stereo parallels the speakers or just disables two of them.

Also, would it be worth plugging the air ports on these, or possibly adding sound material behind the speakers? On my Sixty's, I ended up replacing the blown 2 way dynamic speakers with 2 way car speakers, and plugged the airports based off a really old forum post that said doing so really helps with lower frequencies. I don't have an unmodified set of sixty's to compare against, so I'm not sure if plugging the air ports helped or not...

#1: http://www.newbdnc.com/wp-content/uploads/datasheets/BFC-D45-7-32-012.pdf
I like these cause they have the lowest Fr, and have the most data available about them Frequency response seems decent as well. If they were paralleled, that should bring the resistance down to a reasonable 16 ohm.

#2. https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data Sheets/Tymphany/HPD-40N16PET00-32_Spec.pdf
Similar to #1, though the frequency chart is blank :/

#3: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/334/AS04004MR-N50-WP-R-1628387.pdf
Originally found these, though they might be a smidge too tall for the cup. Has a higher Fr than the other speakers, so useable audio range may be slightly less. Resistance is 4ohm, so paralleling these may not be the best idea.

I would greatly appreciate any input on the matter!

 

[Sirfoxx]

Is there a better place i should be asking these questions? This is the 2nd thread i've started about this topic with no response on either :/

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

I don't think you are hearing crickets because no one wants to help you, I think you are hearing crickets because know one knows how to help you.

Headphones are usually designed to work with very specific drivers. If you slap another random driver in the headphones, the chances that it will perform well are pretty small. It's basically a crap shoot.

The best I can do is tell you that number 3 would be a horrible option.

 

[Sirfoxx]

I don't think you are hearing crickets because no one wants to help you, I think you are hearing crickets because know one knows how to help you.

Headphones are usually designed to work with very specific drivers. If you slap another random driver in the headphones, the chances that it will perform well are pretty small. It's basically a crap shoot.

The best I can do is tell you that number 3 would be a horrible option.

I find that peculiarly strange with how large this website is, and how knowledgeable people seem to be here. At least I thought so anyways...

Why is #3 a horrible option?

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

I find that peculiarly strange with how large this website is, and how knowledgeable people seem to be here. At least I thought so anyways...

Why is #3 a horrible option?

It's a large website of people who like to buy stuff. The amount of people who really get their hands dirty is a very small minority. It's also worth considering that I have seen/heard hundreds of headphones, and I have never seen those headphones before. I am really kind of at a loss for how to give you good guidance. The best I can do is play process of elimination.

Number 3 is bad because it would need a crap ton of power to drive. You would several watts to drive those drivers with a huge amount of current. Not that many headphone amps exist that would be capable of working with those drivers.

I would just go buy some cheap drivers of aliexpress and try them out first before you dive too deep into this mess. If it sounds ok, we can try to figure something out. If it sounds like crap, you might be SOL.

 

[Sirfoxx]

It's a large website of people who like to buy stuff. The amount of people who really get their hands dirty is a very small minority. It's also worth considering that I have seen/heard hundreds of headphones, and I have never seen those headphones before. I am really kind of at a loss for how to give you good guidance. The best I can do is play process of elimination.

Number 3 is bad because it would need a crap ton of power to drive. You would several watts to drive those drivers with a huge amount of current. Not that many headphone amps exist that would be capable of working with those drivers.

I would just go buy some cheap drivers of aliexpress and try them out first before you dive too deep into this mess. If it sounds ok, we can try to figure something out. If it sounds like crap, you might be SOL.

Thats really disappointing, especially for the DIY section.

They're from the early 70's, were overpriced and not many quad amps were sold either. Prolly a good reason why you havent seen them.

What makes you say you need several watts to drive #3? If you did that, they would be at their limit since their limit is 6 watts. I'm not going to be listening to them at full blast all the time anyways.

What do you mean by figure something out?

The speakers are $5-7 a piece from a name brand reseller (digikey, mouser) so theres no point in getting them from aliexpress.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

The sensitivity if 84db per watt at 50cm. If you halve that distance to 25cm you will get 90db. If you halve it again you might get 96 db. Halve it again and now you are down to ~6cm away at 102db at 1 watt.

Let's say that by the time you get it right up next to your ear, and you account for losses and other random BS, you get a sensitivity of 105db per watt.

If we want the ability to hit audio peaks at 115db, you would need to double the power about 3 times since every time you double the power you get 3db of apparent gain.

1 watts to 2 watts would be 108 db, 2 to 4 would be 111db, and 8 watts would be 114. So at 6 watts you are probably 2-3 db shy of hitting 115db peaks. Not ideal, but not the end of the world either.

6 watts is a LOT for a headphone amp. For a headphone amp to put out 1 watt is kind of a big deal. Even the headphone jack on a receiver will not put out that kind of power. Furthermore, each channel would be 2 ohms assuming the drivers are indeed paralleled. Amplifiers do exist that could drive 6 watts at 2 ohms, but why do that to yourself. It would be such a pain in the butt and probably wouldn't sound good.

And while you might not listen to the headphones that loudly, a 2 ohm load is going to be difficult for most amplifiers out there at any wattage. I wouldn't bother with those drivers under any circumstance.

And the reason you might want to consider aliexpress is because they have a much larger selection of drivers than what mouser has available. Considering that out of your 3 options number 1 seems like its the only reasonable choice, I figure you might want to compare it against some other drivers.

 

[tomchr]

Your best option is probably to get the headphones repaired by the manufacturer. Alternatively, contact the manufacturer to see if you can buy the drivers. If you choose to replace the drivers with something else, you'll need to find drivers that have similar Thiele-Small parameters and a similar form factor as the original ones. That's a rather tall order. If you just mash any random driver in there, you're guaranteed to get sucky sound. Unless you're unbelievably lucky, in which case I suggest you play the lottery and buy a pair of Focal Utopia with your winnings...

Tom

 

[Sirfoxx]

Your best option is probably to get the headphones repaired by the manufacturer. Alternatively, contact the manufacturer to see if you can buy the drivers. If you choose to replace the drivers with something else, you'll need to find drivers that have similar Thiele-Small parameters and a similar form factor as the original ones. That's a rather tall order. If you just mash any random driver in there, you're guaranteed to get sucky sound. Unless you're unbelievably lucky, in which case I suggest you play the lottery and buy a pair of Focal Utopia with your winnings...

Tom

I highly doubt I can buy drivers as these headphones are pushing 50 years old at this point (found a catalog online from ~'74 comparing them to other quad headphones) and I dont think stanton is owned by the same company anymore.

What is thiele-small parameter?

I don't think these headphones will ever sound that good anyways. 70's spec can't be all that good compared to something new.

 

[tomchr]

What is thiele-small parameter?

They're parameters commonly used for driver characterization and selection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiele/Small_parameters

I don't think these headphones will ever sound that good anyways. 70's spec can't be all that good compared to something new.

Which sorta begs the question: Why bother with the repair. Unless you're just looking for a project.

Tom

 

[Sirfoxx]

They're parameters commonly used for driver characterization and selection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiele/Small_parameters

Which sorta begs the question: Why bother with the repair. Unless you're just looking for a project.

Tom

Why repair anything if you dont plan on using it? I like the looks of these giant cans and I'd rather have functional junk over nonfunctioning junk. When I repaired the sixty's I replaced the dynamic 2 way speaker setup with a 2 way car speaker. I compared the two drivers since only one side was bad, and they sounded pretty close to each other.

I can't imagine theres a huge range of sound difference with a driver of this particular size. However I don't much of anything when it comes to speakers. Hence why I'm here. I want to learn, but apparently no one here knows anything either

 

[tomchr]

Head-Fi doesn't have a large DIY following. You may have better luck on DIY Audio.

Tom