Headphones

A pair of HE60 was given to me by a Thai friend. The phones must have been in storage for a long time as the vinyl on the ear pads come flaky off. So, I have to disassemble and clean the interior. Taking this opportunity, I take a few pictures. The diaphragm to stator distance is around 0.5 mm. There is nothing special on the stator surface. Wachara C.

But since it's my birthday, maybe someone can help without whipping me for being so stupid and lazy... "Hey Wayne. Can you recommend a set of in-ear monitor for my motorcycle helmet communication system in the $200 ballpark. I’m not listening to music on them; purely for Atom use for driver <-> passenger communication, and the occasional phone call. I’m looking for something that I can comfortably wear inside a helmet for hours at a time. Thanks. Nick. PS. How are you, I haven’t heard from you in a while." Seems to me that he's looking for custom IEMs on the lowest end of the food chain. Some…

In the "Measurements" thread, everyone could see that top-tier electrostatic and isodynamic headphones are more similar than different, having similar FR, CSD, square wave and impulse responces, isodynamics sometimes having better measured parameters. However, their sound is not the same. I have thought of 3 moments that seem to make difference between them. I must warn everyone from the start that I'm no specialist in these areas and everything below is wild speculation. 1) Air resistance and open area. ES drivers use very thin stator plates with high open area - more than 50%, it seems. There is minimum amount of trapped air and minimum stored energy. Isodynami…

So it's time for me to build a new home rig. I haven't been keeping up with the new stuff much. I stopped looking at gear around when the HD800 was FotM. I've been enjoying my ES3X for quite some time now but have been missing having proper cans. My budget is around $3k for cans and an amp. I might be able to stretch it to $4k, but would really prefer to keep it down. I will probably be building a DAC over the winter/spring. DIY isn't out of the question as I'm not in a RUSH to have a setup. (sooner the better though ) I will mostly listen to classical and folk when it's not just background noise. So as far as options I was thinking of these: HD800 or…

I was wondering what some headphone brands were that have vintage looking headphones. The ones I have on my list right now are Grado and Alessandro. Any help would be nice. That's really my only preference atm. Thx guys.

I've bought a new SR-003 in eBay and when I connect them to the Pro bias connector of a modified SRD-7 can listen to a small noise in the right channel, it is a small "backfire", as if the earphones were throwing a long fart. It is difficult for my to explain this noise in your language In the first moment I believed that it was a problem of the SRD-7, but when I disconnected the earphones I continued listening to this noise, I suppose that for the capacitive load of the cables. If I connect the earphones to the connector of low bias I do not listen to this noise. With music I don't listen this noise and the sound is good. These are the first electrostatic earph…

so this is just a rebranded HF-2 right? MSRP $595

Hmmm. From today's Lefsetz letter:

I accidentally cut the cable while doing yard work. Before I order a replacement one from UE, are there other alternatives? I have been out of the loop regarding customs. This despite the fact that it is the ear/headphone I use the most. Thanks!

Hey guys, Ive been lurking here for a few weeks now, trying to get the hang of your little bashing circle here... I just picked up a pair of RS2i's and although am not finished building my M^3 amp am very impressed with the sound coming out of them and my CMOY... What sort of music/ gear do you guys enjoy listening to these things with?

Gu Sensei's post of measurements of the SR-009s from a Japanese Stax thread raised some interesting discussion. While the measurements he posted are interesting as a conversation piece, there are questions about the quality of the data and methodology of the testing. The measurements are not nearly as useful as the type of through headphone measurements that our very own Tyll Hertsens has been making and posing over on the Inner Fidelity site. In the want for more objective data on stats, Tyll has graciously agreed to measure electrostats if we can send them out to him in Montana. The plan will be to coordinate people sending in their gear so that Tyll can measure…

Trying to find out the best Wireless Headset (or headphone with mic) The only requirement I have is: I don't want Bluetooth transmission, I don't want IR transmission, I don't want a docking station either. I need a microphone on the headphone/headset, and the smallest usb dongle possible for transmission. Not to big, not too small (no earbud-no full over-ear) The only reasons I don't want bluetooth is because of the known Video/Audio Sync issue found in any bluetooth headphones/headsets device, and the prices. Here's a list of models I found so far (yea only one, im' just starting to search..): RF…

The price is not yet a problem so I have no price range restriction, although I don't want something over 1000$... if you know what I mean. I want my headphones to be completely wireless (no wire, no usb dungle, no dock station). I want to be able to lay in my bed or walk into the house without the laptop with me (especially for Google/Skype Phone Calls) (this let me conclude that any IR (infra red) wouldn't be suitable since they require the headphones to be in sight of the IR signal transmitter to communicate. I will be using these both for phone call and listening to music as long as playing so games (so It requires a Mic for the phones calls and must have some decent …

The right driver in my HD650s is loose. If I wiggle the headphones around I can feel and hear it jiggling. Sometimes the cable gets a little disconnected and the music cuts out. It's starting to get annoying. I've never done anything DIY in audio, but I'm willing to try something to fix this. Any advice? Also, not sure if this should go in a different thread? Thanks all.

Y'all, I picked up a set of one owner K400 on a whim recently and am enjoying them a lot, at least as a change to the STAX. Having otherwise been a STAX owner exclusively for 25 years, what else is out there new that has a similar sound to the K400 and is say <$US400 (in the US)? I have a need for another set of dynamics. I'll go out and listen first to as many of the suggestions as I can. Amps will be Dynalo's. Cheers

First off, hello everyone, Recently I was doing a Re-cable on my AKG K-701's and I regrettably made a vital mistake and twisted the signal post on one of my drivers, snapping the small copper wire. Dejected with my horrible mistake I went of on a search for a proper AKG support line, much to my surprise every number I called resulted in no ringing for an extremely long period of time on any of the lines I attempted to contact them from (818 numbers). So naturally, the first thing I did was assume I should just email them, so I came across a gentlemen named Frank Rodriguez (frank dot rodriguez at harman dot com) whom was the "Customer Service Administrator". So I did, a…

The local Craigslist is choke full of "NIB" Beats. Somebody must be bringing in truckloads of Chinese knock-offs. We have had a ton of those white van speakers around here, now these. There must be 20 a day listed. Worthless either way, real or not. Is this the case around the other metro areas around the country?

Hello there! I felt like sharing some of my experiences on how the D5000 changed as time went by. Now, I was never a believer of burn-in. I tend to be extremely pragmatic in nature - I only believe in something once I see it happen. I never noticed any burn-in over the year I wore the HD280 and the Porta Pro. These are the headphones I own other than the D5000: An apple earbuds, the Koss PortaPro and the HD-280. I have not owned but have listened to the HD-650s and ATH-50s. Before buying the D5000 I read a lot about the comments. I was frustrated with how bass-anemic the HD280 was and while I loved the PortaPro, I was curious to see how a more expensive pair…

For the purposes of scientific discovery, I am tempted to acquire a set of K702 to hear if you can get blood from a stone. The K701 that I have heard at meets are strangely resistant to presenting a lifelike sound. I know that these cans have many (deluded) proponents, but, like Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, I trust my feelings. Is anyone running a K701 or K702 out of a beating valve-based system? I wonder if the only way to get a lame duck to fly is to feed it sweet, sweet harmonic distortion. TL;DR - curious headphone cat is curious

Yes, really I like the part about the "immortal life replacement program". That's just silly. And yet, marketing genius.

OK, I admit it. I have never been true "audiophile." Gnawed around the edges of it, and left rat turds (posts on these forums I guess). Rodent fixation ... sorry. But I do like consider and try new ("to me") stuff. If you can get by the gag reflex that many audio-fools have about EQ being the work of Satan, here is a question: Do you use, or have you tried, some form of active EQ with your headphones? Being the recent owner of a pair of Stax Lambda (two pair actually)...I ran across this thread (url if interested): http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial This for me was the ideal audio project because (A) it off…

Just stumbled across the German Maestro headphone brand while browsing another forum looking for a really good pair of closed back headphones for listening at work. Has anyone tried the German Maestro GMP 450 or GMP 8.35D? They're supposed to be really comfortable. Any comments on their sound compared with something like the Beyerdynamic DT770?

I looking for this headphones review but I can't find one because it's new. Can anyone give me suggestion?

I am a fairly new owner of Stax (about two months) and am very happy with my Lambda Pro. I also have a plain Lambda but haven't used it much yet. As some of you may know, I have been doing some renovations on the Pros, such as making DIY leather ear pads (really, just covering the stock earpads) with leather. This worked quite well. I am turning my attention to other things. Both pairs of headphones arrived without the dust covers. I've found some threads here that debate what material, or whether to even use them. Another fair target for my "upgrade everything possible to leather" has been the headband. I did this, but the results were quite disappointing. …

Great review of these closed headphones, Tyll. I was looking for exactly this kind of can for years, but I ended up with the Alessandro MS-1 (no regrets) because of the compromises in various products. There are so many posts asking (with different wordings): "what is the best closed portable headphone for me?" online, including this forum. Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, AKG, Beyerdynamic, etc. (this is before Shure and Denon came out with their new cans) all failed to meet my standards when I was shopping around. I wasn't a fan of IEMs (many people have an aversion to this style of headphone), although I did get a pair of Klipsch S4i for my iPod Shuffle 3G this Spring. T…