Retrovert
03-07-2015, 07:07
I ended up here looking for info on rebuilding headphones and stayed for the free coffee and doughnuts.
I like phones because of the sound and because I live in an apartment and so can't (well, shouldn't) use speakers at night. When I were a lad, and dinosaurs walked the earth, my father had a pair of Koss HV/1's which I liked, but not having anything to compare them too didn't realize just how good they were. I just liked them better than the speakers. Since then I've bought (as original owner) the Sennheiser HD420 (over the ear) which, when the cord died (special connectors on the end) I replaced with the AKD 240DF, and a few years later then found a cord for the Sennheiser in a junk bin for a dollar which successfully resurrected them. I just picked up a pair of Superex PEP-71 electrostatics from circa 1971 (uses Stax-3 drivers) with the powered driver box from the original owner, which needs to have all of the deteriorated foam removed and the shriveled earpads replaced with something better.
What I find funny about headphones is how everyone I know hates them until they hear the good ones and then they use them all the time. After trying to borrow a pair from me on permanent loan, of course.
I'm also assembling a surround sound setup for music and home theater using vintage separates, including a Harman AVP-2 surround decoder, sound processors (dbx 3BX, Boombox subharmonic restoration, Hughes AK-100 soundstage widener, etc.), my old Heathkit preamp, and small transistor amps. That's way more fun AND sounds better than using a mass-market integrated, and costs about the same. I need to do some major recapping and upgrades on opamps to get it all working, of course, since the electrolytics are long dead and the opamps weren't the best even when new and certainly not compared to the ordinary ones from today. I never could have afforded this stuff when it was new, but now it's quite reasonably priced (some was even free!) since everyone is moving to the latest and greatest highly integrated units.
Anyway, I'm happy to have found AoS.
I like phones because of the sound and because I live in an apartment and so can't (well, shouldn't) use speakers at night. When I were a lad, and dinosaurs walked the earth, my father had a pair of Koss HV/1's which I liked, but not having anything to compare them too didn't realize just how good they were. I just liked them better than the speakers. Since then I've bought (as original owner) the Sennheiser HD420 (over the ear) which, when the cord died (special connectors on the end) I replaced with the AKD 240DF, and a few years later then found a cord for the Sennheiser in a junk bin for a dollar which successfully resurrected them. I just picked up a pair of Superex PEP-71 electrostatics from circa 1971 (uses Stax-3 drivers) with the powered driver box from the original owner, which needs to have all of the deteriorated foam removed and the shriveled earpads replaced with something better.
What I find funny about headphones is how everyone I know hates them until they hear the good ones and then they use them all the time. After trying to borrow a pair from me on permanent loan, of course.
I'm also assembling a surround sound setup for music and home theater using vintage separates, including a Harman AVP-2 surround decoder, sound processors (dbx 3BX, Boombox subharmonic restoration, Hughes AK-100 soundstage widener, etc.), my old Heathkit preamp, and small transistor amps. That's way more fun AND sounds better than using a mass-market integrated, and costs about the same. I need to do some major recapping and upgrades on opamps to get it all working, of course, since the electrolytics are long dead and the opamps weren't the best even when new and certainly not compared to the ordinary ones from today. I never could have afforded this stuff when it was new, but now it's quite reasonably priced (some was even free!) since everyone is moving to the latest and greatest highly integrated units.
Anyway, I'm happy to have found AoS.