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Post by jimbomak on Feb 5, 2012 15:25:59 GMT
Got my first hi fi in 1977. It was all Toshiba and came with Toshiba 4 channel headphones. ( 2 leads with 6.5 stereo jackplugs ) Huge big heavy things, tan coloured. Needless to say they got sidelined by my first pair of Sennheisers. I think they were hd 400. Great headphones for the time.
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Post by dalethorn on Feb 5, 2012 16:34:37 GMT
In the first photo, I bought the top middle two in the late 70's, along with Koss ESP-9's and Stax SRX MK3, and bought the bottom middle two in 2011. The second photo is from three months ago, and is missing the Grado PS-500, Shure 1840, GMP 8.35D, and Beyerdynamics DT-48A and DT-1350.
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Crispy
500+
"Done me wrong," it's the same old song" - forever
Posts: 631
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Post by Crispy on Feb 8, 2013 20:15:55 GMT
Big world out there... not a lot of Leak 3000's... Makes them something worth holding onto and "IF" you're going to listen to them then listen to them for what they are and enjoy that time and place in headphone history. You wouldn't re-varnish a stradivarius violin would you? Mike I have a confession to make. I was at my Dad's the other day and he was complaining that the cable on his Leak headphones were too short, and he did not want to use an extension cable. I said I had plenty of OFC cable that I could re-wire them with. He said go ahead. Anyway all was going well until re-assembly, when I noticed the metal part of the drivers were stopping the drivers fully fitting into the cups. So I decided to file them down a little for a better fit. (Should have gone to specsavers) I did not notice the thin voice coil wires and accidentally broke them see pics I only realized when there was no sound coming out of either side The question is can they be mended or not? I am not holding out too much hope on repair
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Crispy
500+
"Done me wrong," it's the same old song" - forever
Posts: 631
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Post by Crispy on Feb 14, 2013 13:32:37 GMT
No work today so I thought I would try to repair the two drivers I accidentally broke in modding my dads Leak headphones. I did not really have a clue what i was doing, but I went I into it with the attitude that they do not work now so they cannot get any worse On a closer look through a magnifying glass I decided that I would try to attach a single strand of ofc wire to the broken one, and simply guess where it should be attached to. A little bit of thought and working out made me attach the wires directly to the drivers one for signal one for earth. A make shift rig allowed me to try the driver without re-assembly - and to my amazement SOUND Round two, the other driver was given the same treatment and again beautiful sound I then re-assembled the phones and dressed the ofc cable with braided sleeving and a new 3.5 Neutrik plug and all was ready for a listen. Considering I have never re-cabled a headphone before in my life I am pleased with the outcome, even though it was quite a lot harder than I thought it would be. As for the sound - I honestly cannot say if the cable makes a difference or not, but they still sound good to my cloth ears Plus the whole point was, they are not my phones and my it was my dad who wanted them re-cabling, I would have used an extension cable So later on today I will pop them round to his house and get the verdict
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Crispy
500+
"Done me wrong," it's the same old song" - forever
Posts: 631
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Post by Crispy on Feb 24, 2013 20:58:00 GMT
I have chosen to put this mini review under "My First Real Headphones" simply because I consider these headphones to be the first REAL headphones that I have owned. To begin with I have to thank Ian (Rabbit) again for his kind generosity in giving me these headphones and he wouldn't even let me pay the postage - they arrived in absolutely immaculate condition as you can see from the photo, they are a credit to you Ian. On my first listen for about half an hour I was shocked, they seemed un-involving and boxed in and in the most important area for me the isolation was rubbish - no better than my Sennheisers. I thought surely not, I have owned Beyerdynamic's before and know they are not like this, so I thought I would have a longer listen and give them chance to warm up a bit. Later on I had a listen for about 2 hours and my face started to get a big grin on it - this is more like it. Everything started to click in place and open up, so musical, transient attacks so fast and lifelike and you could hear all the subtle little details, they started to become very refined - a bit like upgrading from a good MM cartridge to a good MC cartridge. The Beyers then started to show me just what my V2 is capable of, in particular the sound from the Russian 6H23N-EB valves. The sound through my speakers was always better than through my headphones, this has now changed and it is now making me question my soldering of the upgrade components used to make the V2 a pre-amp. The Mids are stunningly clear but the top and bottom ends seem a little lacking, the bass is a bit flabby and the highs just lacking that sparkle. The soundstage is quite wide for a closed back headphone with good instrument separation. I have now put the phones on a burn in cycle (Ian did mention that they were not very old) hoping this improves the top and bottom ends - even if it doesn't the phones are excellent and I now know why they are professional headphones. After about three hours of listening I became aware of the weight of the DT770's they are certainly heavier than any other headphone that I have owned but nothing that would put me off wearing them for long periods. They are very comfortable especially with the soft grey ear pads that totally enclose my big ears - no more sweaty leatherette. I may be asking too much in trying to find a headphone with total isolation from outside interference and the Beyers are definitely a lot better than my Sennheisers, only hearing the interference on very quiet passages. These headphones will now be getting a lot of use over the coming months/years until I find the holy grail of a headphone that has total isolation and exceptionally flat frequency response but also sounds stunningly good? Well I can dream eh? Again, thanks a million Ian and hope to see you back soon. Soon my Sennheiser HD428 headphones will be offered for free to anybody who wants them - I will post a thread later, but in the meantime anybody who is interested PM me. UPDATE: These have now found a good home and will soon be on their way to Singapore to my good mate Chong
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Post by kramer5150 on Mar 17, 2013 6:53:56 GMT
My first serious headphone investment was a senn MS100 and WMF-15. It was 1984-85 and I was 13.
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lini
Been here a while!
Groanings from Han(g)over
Posts: 191
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Post by lini on Mar 22, 2013 3:13:20 GMT
My first one was a Sennheiser HD420 - ok, but nothing to write home about. Whereas the first one I really liked was the AKG K240M I bought a couple of years later.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
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Post by madmac on Oct 8, 2013 3:42:45 GMT
My first decent headphones goes with a little story: Somewhere in '86, I guess, my brother-in-law had to buy my chrismas present and I asked for €12,5 headphones. But when he went to the shop he thought is was crap and went to another store to buy me decent ones. That's when I got my Pioneer SE650: I've used them with big satisfaction for many years to follow and two of my friends bought the SE450 after hearing mine cause back then it was a great sounding pair of headphones. I sold it a few months back because it needed some love I didn't give it.
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Post by madmac on Oct 8, 2013 3:47:23 GMT
The first proper headphones are this Sony CD MDR 850, in the 91 ...BTW, if any of us could suggest a reasonable alternative to replace the pads:Kind regards Hey there, I think the same thing I did with my MDR CD570 is possible here: I pulled some AKG earpads over the edges and it works fine. Sounds better now too cause the torn earpads "sucked up" much of the sound.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 8:07:28 GMT
I started with some cheap (£3 or £4?) store's own brand type of thing (Boots in the UK), then a litghtweight Scintrex design.. looked really good, sounded terrible. Then some little Audio Technica jobs (I've posted pics of these before) which still are pretty amazing with their strongest point being the out-of-head image they make.. but they are far too bass-light to be musical. They were my cycling-to-and-from-work 'phone for years. First REAL 'phones were the Sennheiser HD480s, which are still going strong and would look better with new pads. You can still spot versions of these in use on BBC broadcasts :-) usually modified so that the cable plugs can't be pulled out of the earpieces it appears. To me the 480s offer a laid-back sound. A maybe-too-smooth top end but over all a big speaker type sound. Good out-of-head effect and they are great with binaural demo stuff. I have even used these as binaural mics with some success! This is the Gramophone Magazine review: www.gramophone.co.uk/editorial/review-sennheiser-hd450-and-hd480-headphonesGramophone say the review date was 1998 but I think this is an error; I had these phones on my 40th birthday, 1993. Derek p.s. At the time I just never had the money for HD 414s.. would have loved some of those. Both my father and one of my brothers had the 424s. They were nice too.
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alex30
Been here a while!
Posts: 156
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Post by alex30 on Mar 2, 2014 15:33:34 GMT
Hi, My first pair were the sennheiser HD 420 SL which I thought were OK. My next were the AKG K702 and at first I thought these sounded really thin . I persevered and eventually my brain burned in to the new sound. When I tried to compare the old HD 420 SL to the K702 I could hardly believe just how cloyingly thick the sound was from the Senns. They were so muffled and bassy - in a nasty sort of way- that they went straight in the bin. I now love my AKG's and particularly value their clarity and fairly neutral sound.
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