The vintage Ortho thread

Accessory House lambksin pads. These pads have been quietly revised and don't look like one's in photo. No longer come with a plastic lens and face-side foam is now flat but still angled.


Bass is faster and more textured on the RP18 kapton. The T30 could use more damping... I've hardly messed with these much since driver transplant as I had kind of burned out on modding vintage ortho. These are just basic recipe: foam, felt, damplifier pro. I added an extra layer of felt right before measurements as I felt they sounded a little lagging compared to how I remembered them in stock enclosure.

See what I mean when I think underdamped compared to how I had them in stock enclosure (see below), should be more linear with more bass extension and tighter transients.:

 

Fostex T30 in HFM enclosure with x damping and Defean hybrid pads in 110mm (too big, purchased originally for BLON BL30 mod). That 8kHz peak looks murderous.

 

Accessory House lambskin (new-style) pads with more damping applied. The raggedy variation in frequency response is just intentional varied pad positioning to try and measure a more average sound. And then I also am not properly installing any of these pads because it takes too long to use the HFM mounting ring with so many pads to test. The reason for bass roll off vs stock enclosure is still undetermined. Could be underdamping, could be an air leak, and I guess could be that the new larger pads that fit HFM enclosure have too much ear chamber volume for the smaller driver. I have the old pads from the old T30 stock enclosure mods I could try to test that theory.

m3 = mod3: is using micropore tape as a damping material. Usually not recommended for vintage ortho as its often overkill (not porous enough). Never tried micropore with T30 driver and wanted to see what happened. Haven't listented with my own ears yet, will update with impressions.

 

These are Defean hybrids like earlier but in a smaller size at 90mm. I forgot that the stock T30 came with a felt ring filter around the outer edge of the driver face-side. Well, these smaller pads basically recreate that since they are a size too small and the inner edge of the pads add a small lip over the edge circumference of the drivers... Pretty drastic difference and pretty awesome as you can see. The AHlambskin pads I didn't like because they had slower bass release and compressed the soundstage. These cheap hybrids are very comfortable, most comfortable pads I've ever tried, without seeming to have any sound quality drawbacks. Or is there? They are a little bit wider / thicker than the Defean velour. Will have to order Defean velour in same diameter and compare.

The mod3 damping is good. Sounds clear and quick again, hi-fi.

 

That’s a pretty sweet looking FR! Kudos.

 

In your part of the world and able to be auditioned:

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649780482-sansui-ss-100-omni-dynamic-stereo-headphones/

 

it must be destiny, and I will not ignore the master's call. sent him a message

 

If you do buy then get in contact with @takato14 . He is very knowledgable and could offer some tips. Only person Ive seen on forum recently with a SS100. Ill ask him a simple question about a vintage headphone and he’ll come back with info, measurements, impressions, and advice. Its not instant, but he responds.

 

RP18 drivers transferred to HE-X4. Just need to solder.





Tape for safety.

 

Impressions later when I get a chance to listen tonight. Applied exact same mods as T30: damplifier pro, foam, felt, micropore. Different pads though; Defean velour 100mm.

 

I like how these two sound (rp-18 kapton and t30) but still room for improvement. Ordered more Defean velour and hybrid pads to for tuning. T30 a bit too warm. RP18 a bit too not warm. RP18 bass hits harder. T30 is cleaner. In terms of detail, RP18 has advantage in midrange (vocals, guitar). T30 though warm+dark, cymbals sound more delineated with more spacial depth. Bass texture I feel goes to T30. However, much of the difference in bass and mids detail could be due to frequency response. Don't want to spend much time comparing until I have final tuning for each. Hoping hybrid pads are best for both because they are so comfy. They have the most surface area for spreading pressure and the foam is very soft. As-is I would prefer T30 easy.

 

Padrolling RP18 kapton HFM mod1:


^ dh75 = defean hybrid 75mm, undersized and wears like a supraaural which lead to some bass leak during measurements (why 2 & 4 are not shown)


^dh115 = defean hybrid 115mm, oversized which maybe lead to some bass leak during measurements


^ Accessory House lambskin new-style, look nice aesthetically


^ BLON BL30 pads, they are fabric and slightly oversized.

Hifiman focus-a pads would not work because the adapter ring loses seal against the screws on driver baffle.

Didn't try any of these myself yet. More pads on way. Negative slope frequency response is ideal. 1-3kHz bumps I think may be slightly fatiguing, RP18 has a tiny bump there with dv100 pads, if not linear then a dip would be preferred. RP18 I've not played with damping much (mod1...) so might be able to improve still.

* These are all left-side only measurements with varied positioning.

 

Tried some of the pads from the above post and skipped some.

1. dh75 I didnt bother because they look so ludicrously undersized and would be detestable.

2. dh115 I didnt bother because I am allergic to the 8kHz bump in the measurementz. Anyway I have some dh pads on way in proper HFM size of 105mm and expect theyll work nicer.

3. Didnt like AHln for same reasons I didnt like these pads on T30.

4. BL30 pads sound most natural but wish there was a little more bass. Perhaps damping mods could help but Id like to avoid for a bit longer because boring. A plus is BL30 pads have very wide ear holes which improve soundstage considerably. BL30 pads extending listening is fatigue free.

T30 + RP18 are both very satisfying. Could stop here. Thanks ortho ninjas.

 

Yamaha HP-1 box next to a Hifiman box for comparison.

And suprise lucky me! Was not advertised. I just wanted a standard version. Nice! Aniso









Ive not tried yet. But they will be going out (stock) with Fostex T30 and NAD RP18 (both modded) for short loaner tour tomorrow.

 

Mint like never used. Sound good. Yummy Yammy mids.

 

those are in excellent condition , lucky find on the aniso set too !

 

I tried them briefly. Make a very slight crinkle sound when repositioning ear pads on head but I dont think its a membrane crinkle sound like with that failed YH-100 (that sound was also muuuuch louder). I think its because these have never been used. So I think what I am hearing is old crusty glue coming apart from behind the pads where they are glued on to the plastic frames. I dunno. Only an issue when repositioning and hopefully stops. Id add some damping for more bass but otherwise not bad. A little forward vocals for my taste but killer with electric guitar. Theyre staying stock for tour as sort of a introduction to people who might be curious in picking one up from eBay but are not keen on modding. These can be valuable unmodded too since they are cheap and closed back (utility).

edit: The very slight crinkle sounds seems to be the foam in the pads. I don't think I've ever had a Yam with foam still intact within the pads, they're always completely flattened and/or deteriorated like the damping foam within the cups. I'm sure with each touch the foam is disintegrating just like what happens when you open the cups.

Going to pack up now. No measurements. My Vali2 seems to have died yesterday (squealing sound but not from bad tubes) so I need to finish building the PASS ACA so I can use desktop rig and EARS again.

 

I have some flat plate coupler measurements comparing stock HP1 (red/blue) to modded:


It’s very lightly modded—I couldn’t find a good rear damping material as anything other than stock foam made them sound overdamped, but there are a few pieces of micropore acting as treble reflectors behind the driver. The hole drilling seemed to do the brunt of the work taming the 2-3kHz spike though. They’re a very pleasant headphone!

 

That's very interesting. Do you have CSD or any other decay type measurements of before/after?

Please describe your headphone inventory so I might bother you with more questions. For example, how do you feel about your modded HP-1 compared to your HD650? And have you tried any other vintage ortho? What happened to your Fostex TH900 driver experiments and can I have them? Thanks @Ishcabible

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any other measurements but I did drill one cup at a time and tested for the differences and the drilled cup sounded much shoutier.

The black silk HD650 really, really gets me with their midrange timbre and I’ve yet to find anything else at any price that beats them in midrange for me, but the Yamahas do sound a little faster, for better or for worse.

Right now, I have the following:
AKG K4
Audeze LCD4
Audeze Sine
Aurorus Audio Australis Proto
Aurorus Audio Borealis Proto
Bang and Olufsen U70
Beyerdynamic DT220
Beyerdynamic DT770 250ohm
Beyerdynamic ishT1 (T1 mod I made, drivers in DT770 housing and a lot of damping to make them more downward tilting)
Cascadia Audio Planar
Etymotic ER4B
Grado PS1000 Biodyna Driver Swap
Sawafuji Frankenphone in Fake ESW10JPN Housing (Smeggypucks, though I lost them ages ago)
Sennheiser HD650 Black Silk
Sennheiser HD800 Low SN, SDR and SBAF liner
Yamaha HP1 (non-aniso)
Yamaha HP3

The TH900 mod is in the possession of Eudis of Aurorus, which is eventually going to be put into a new housing.

I’ve also owned a basically NOS YH100 (awfully shouty and grainy, didn’t last long in my house), YHD-2, YH-2, TDS-16 (Smela version), several revisions of LCD-2, LCD-3 pre-Fazor, and most of the older Hifimen (HE400i V1, HE5, HE5LE, HE500, HE560 V1, HE6 4 and 6 screw, HE1000 V1) so feel free to ask anything!