The vintage Ortho thread

Stock Yammy HP-1 (non aniso) in the house. One word : Ugh !!

 

@Koth Ganesh : My PC has been dead for past few days, so I'll probably make a more substantial post later. But you can start with placing a circular piece of felt right behind the HP-1 driver and see if you like the change. Its basically what we used to refer as stage one mod at the HF Ortho thread and does make a significant difference for a really simple mod.
Edit : A much more advanced mod from the Ortho whisperer : http://www.head-fi.org/t/111193/orthodynamic-roundup/21735#post_9520153

 

Hmm, strangely, the HP-1 sounds better out (clearer and louder) of the Project Ember than out of the ZDS.

 

Sintered HP1 is a bitch to drive. Lots of power required. After modding, sensitivity gets even worse.

 

Abhishek, what amp are you using?

 

A custom 6sn7 OTL Amp, and that too is not enough for it
Aniso HP1 has better sensitivity while YH100 is the easiest to drive. For the sintered HP1 you'll need an amp with lots of gain such as Guru's smaller DIY tube amp which I am about to get next month

I have a modded sintered HP1, lemme know if you want to compare a stock to modded, I'll ship it across.

 

Well, OTLs aren't really suited to drive Orthos well. We can get away with it in some special cases but usually you would want a hybrid (like Ember) or a SS amp with these.
@Abhishek Chowdhary : I am not sure about that. The smaller 6dj8 amp has higher gain but runs the 6as7 at half the current of your big OTL. I was under the impression that you wanted it more for the reasons of portability, I doubt that it would drive a regular hp1 optimally.

 

Yeah, the OTL amp is more than enough for the aniso HP1 but is little relaxed for my electronic music collection. The 6dj8 has an aggressive signature in comparison that should be a good match with poorly mastered electronic music that have awfully compressed dynamics. And it being a lot smaller can act as a secondary system.

For comparison , on the Lehmann BCL HD800 at 8:30, HD650 at 7:30 and the modded aniso HP1 at 11 on the volume pot were equally loud.

 

So, have you gotten around to doing the measurements?

 

So that's why I noticed an immediate difference with the Ember. I should try it out of the Black Widow as well.

 

Abhishek, I believe you have my address. Just ship 'em in, man. Thanks.

 

A brief impression update on the combo of HP-1 and BW1 (and the Asgard 2)...both these amps need cranking up quite a bit (the volume pot is easily at 12 o'clock and sometimes even at 1). This is not the case with my Project Ember v1.

Edit: I still have the HP-1 in stock form.

 

i have a couple of locals selling some yamaha headphones. i heard the hp1's before and loved them but, never heard of these. there is a yh-1 for 50 bucks and a yh-2 for 35. the yh-1 looks to be bit better condition than the yh-2 listed but it is reasonable since seems like previous person used it as a multi-purpose headphone....anyhoo, if had to choose, which one? was thinking of picking up headphones again and these yamaha's pooping up must be a sign cause i never saw stuff like this locally before.

 

YH1 modded should be better.
YH1 is 55mm and YH2 46mm

 

YH1 replaced HP1 in Yamaha lineup when they dropped the prices in eighties.Its basically the same as hp1 in construction though, they both supposedly sound the same.

 

really? that's good to know! i try to get them then. probably contact guy in a bit or so....thanks for the reply and very much appreciate it.

 

good to know. thanks for the reply. much appreciate it.

 

my recommendation, buy both. Mod both and choose the one you prefer, it will be easy to sell the remaining one..dB