The vintage Ortho thread

That SBAF comp?

 

This is the T20mk1 the sexiest headphones when worn (as opposed to on a desk) of all time.

 

Yes. I'll finish testing later tonight.
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Yamaha YHD-1. No mods, just pad roll. Voicejoy pads, nice and cheap (these might fit Porta Pro btw). Cutting them in half width might help as would damping mods.

 

^ Removed all that mess. Driver showed traces of very light crinkling and possibly very light warping. Measures and sounds fine. No bass rattle with test tones either.

The measurements are with velour pads. Not yet concerned about the deep bass imbalance, may be a bad seal. The Hifiman pads are just held in place with friction and pressure from clamp, not perfect.

Sounds good, a little too strong and fatiguing up top but an improvement over Aria's mod. These should be nice with less porous pads... And new enclosure.

 

Voicejoy pads cut to half width. Like Porta Pro, so much agreeable sound in a neat little package.

Undetermined if 3kHz is an issue, from first impressions maybe pushes vocals a little forward (nasal, honk, etc.). Could be a benign or mitigated supraural pinna thing as well theorized by @purr1n in Grado RS2e thread. I know Porta Pro has a 5kHz peak but that I don't mind so much because its kinda fun and not painful.

Undetermined if I'm going to damp for more speed and resolution. Will cost me the extra warmth which might be also helping hide 3kHz peak.

1 of 2 RP18 kapton is now sold to @dBel84 . The 2nd RP18 will remain but early thoughts in stock enclosure is that its not a surefire upgrade over Fostex T30, both good. Too early though to say without RP18 also transplanted to a HFM enclosure ... soon.

 

YHD-1. The cups rotate in all directions so very comfortable and location of pressure on ears is adjustable because the cups hold position.

 

Nice find on the voicejoy pads, they look made for the headphone. Best thing now would be to spend some time with them and see how you like them with all genres of music over time.

 

aaa

Will do. I listened for an hour after posting lastnight. I think I prefer the bassierness of full pads. Would allow room for damping without becoming too lean sounding.

 

Don't throw that cotton-like fabric away! It's a very nice material for a lot of mods.

 

I recommend damping the driver only with such an open design, and filling the cups with resonance control only, no damping on the cup vent like that unless you're trying to achieve something specific. There are a bunch of cheap, comfy Aliexperess pads that work well with these if you want links.

 

I am bass head so its not so easy trade off quantity for quality. Listening to my test track playlist, with damping cant say there is a deficit in bass (beyond neutral - I like warm though) and i can't say there is an obvious improvement in transients etc (just probably too slight for me to easily detect and not having spent enough time with either configuration). YHD drivers are very sensitive to damping. The thicker pads do boost 10kHz plus but that doesn't bother me too much like 7-8kHz (which is nicely depressed on most vintage orthos), but I do sense a very slight pierce fatigue which could be ringing or 2-3kHz peak. Some guitar and vocals do sound extra detailed (colored) like Grado which do have that 2khz peak but YHD1 is not to the same extent (doesnt have enough spicy treble).

@spoony I thought it was regular felt. Aria confirmed it was not. Something called Arctic Bamboo something. I've seen it mentioned before in ortho round up. Even though the poofiness is normal (not moisture absorption) they were still caked around the edges in newplast clay so I threw out right away.

@rhythmdevils You may borrow after I transplant, and you may tinker with mods of course. I tend to keep damp mods very minimal because its a tradeoff in bass quantity and because I have low attention span and patience. The RP18 has T30 and T10 studio clamp so needs transplant.

 

Uncut pads (with damp) vs cut in half width (with no damp). Based on graph would take option #1. That upper mids peak is scary. Would need @purr1n measurements to find if there is ringing at that spot. Above that, treble sounds a lot cleaner than Yamaha HP/YH series but YHD1 is open back so that helps a bunch.

edit: Really only heard one fatiguing track and may be partly tracks fault. YHD-1 is nice. For perspective: prefer over 6XX, any Grado modded, and all other vintage ortho except T30 (RP18 still under construction). But this is a preference thing. 6XX bass is poop. RS2e + ttvj dx too bright. Hemp too low-res. More perspective: I probably prefer modded open cup TRX00 to everything else Ive heard, and GenG is a direct upgrade to that sound.

edit2: No damp extra fat bass is preferred. 2-3kHz is intrusive and needs the masking effect of the midbass bump. Its not headache inducing so its liveable, similar to Porta Pro in bass quality and quantity (from iphone). A/B comparison would be interesting. Porta Pro is great btw

 

Ok, pics of the T-20 MKII? Maybe MKII ver. 1.0.





Open cell foam was in there stock. Just a disc behind the driver about 1/2" thick.

I added the clay, which is probably overkill in this instance. I then put polyfill behind the driver, but not much change can be had. Here you can see it and he PMx2. The PMx2 is more linear in the bass and less peaky up top, although the T-20 is twice as hard to drive. Only other mod is ZMF Ori pads.

 

Your T20 frequency response graph looks good to me. Youve got dips in benign to good spots, no overblown peaks or humps mids thru highs. Bass is above all. Righteousness. Yeah, there is a bit of a bass roll off (or a midbass bump depending on your preference). Maybe try more damp and see what happens.

PMx2 has got to be much nicer though right? @dBel84 has a grandfather of Oppo headphones the H-25C with factory neo magnets.
https://sudonull.com/post/18841-Sov...-path-of-Levitsky-and-the-planars-in-the-USSR

 

I try more damp, but it is already tough as nails to drive. Moreso than LCD-2C or HE500. I don't even look at the volume on my Gilmore, but it is way up there. It would certainly benefit from balanced due to this, I just need to find the right balanced socket to use. I like the single entry balanced like the ModHouse one.

The PMx2 is certainly faster and much more refined. It too is a circular ortho, albeit openbor semi-open. They have similar timbre, although T-20 does have more of a dark tilt with a catch of air. Very smooth peaks - never harsh.

 

@Azimuth What are we looking at here exactly? It appears to be the backside of the front baffle and driver, but is there some damping layer covering the back of driver because I dont see any driver magnet holes.

 

in some of the old fostex versions, they have this natural fibre paper covering the driver - this is likely stock.

 

I believe all T20v2’s have this stock damping. Every one I’ve opened has and I’ve opened up quite a few.

 

I see. The texture looked metal like a magent. I was wondering if we were seeing some rare misprint.

YHD-1 listening past two days resulted in mild headaches by end. Maybe Im just listening too loud which is not unusual when Im testing a new headphone that I like. Maybe midbass and/or 2-3kHz is too much.

 

@dBel84 is correct. It is paper. It is just dirty.