NAD RP18 and Yahama YH-1 / YH-3 Orthodynamic

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Apr 21, 2020.

  1. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    I found a complete backup of "Planartarium" on my old drives too

    and I realized this morning that I mentioned the Brits, Germans and Japanese but sadly neglected our Russian friends - if not for them some of the great modern ..OPPO.. now extinct ..DROP-PANDA.. perhaps to be born again orthos

    some might recognize the driver similarities

    [​IMG]

    Their Amfiton/Echo TDS 15/16/7 and lets not forget the rarest of all H25C

    [​IMG]
     
  2. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Yup. I just wet my pants.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Thunderpants! Those were the days when it really was a hobby. That meet organized by @CEE TEE where one dude came with backpad and dropped off a bunch of Grados, of every sort including Joe Grados. And then the other dude with a backpack of vintage AKGs when AKG loved to experiment with odd stuff like passive radiators and hybrid two-ways.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Quick update. These are the Yahama YH-3 that I may have preferred over the YH-1 posted earlier. The measurements don't look all that different. Again, I wish I had all the knowledge I have then now for better measurements. Maybe more lively? More airy? Could be different dampening. I wish I had a picture. These were intricately modded with a bunch of tiny holes in the back.

    Yahama YH-3 RD-modded measurements
    Changstar V1 "Open" Coupler
    yh3fr.txt8310.jpg
    yh3 l.txtc123.jpg
    yh3 r.txt451e.jpg
     
  5. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    This thread is a great homage to @rhythmdevils . Great to see it here!

    Speaking of older orthos, just pulled out my @dBel84 modded YH100s: 20200423_134214.jpg
     
  6. Thujone

    Thujone Friend

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    Got me digging through my headphone bin for my stock HP-2. They're quite capable, and comfortable. Been meaning to do some modding for years.

    Took a quick measurement for the hell of it. Comparing to the HD6XX because, well, I thought the FR was uncanny. Sorry about the shit brown color on distortion measurements, too lazy to figure out how to change it.

    [​IMG]

    HP-2 distortion
    [​IMG]

    HD6XX distortion
    [​IMG]


    They aren't perfect, but not bad for something like $30 used. Great engineering. You'll see from the L+R comparison that the quality control could have been better:
    [​IMG]
     
  7. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    I see your YH100 and raise you YH1

    upload_2020-4-23_16-31-19.png

    @zerodeefex nowhere as near as much a sex symbol as your mighty self

    regarding the YH2 / HP2 - one of the easiest to mod and get sounding good and often found cheap = have seen one as low as $18 and I quite often buy them to give away to folk.

    the small driver yamaha HP50 and fostex T10 are still some of my all time favourite ( but the HP50 is seriously uncomfortable )


    ..dB
     
  8. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Look at these beautiful specimens (the man and the headphones).
     
  9. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

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    those old NADs are literally insane with just a pad swap

    REMATCH.png

    they really seem to like HiFiMAN velours. driver gets this "downward slant" type fr with insane transients and midrange decay and clean high treble that is not overbearing or harsh

    RP18S.png RP18I.png
     
  10. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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  11. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    sorry but there’s no fuckin way they’re that flat stock. Yamahas sound like trash compacted rubbish stock. Just a big warm fuzzy mess.
    :(
     
  12. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    Might be a heavily modded one out in the wild, wouldn't surprise me if some of the ones on the 2nd hand circuit have seen some work.
     
  13. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  14. Wulfsta

    Wulfsta New

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    Saw this post the other day and decided to dig my T50v1 pair out of storage to take some pictures.


    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    I don't feel like pulling them apart right now to get pictures of the drivers.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2020
  15. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Actually now that I think more about it the small driver Yammies have more variation. I ONCE heard an up tuned YH3 that needed only minimal mods to clean up resonance and bring up the top end a little more. I kinda begged the guy to sell them to me cause he had no idea what he had and I thought they might have more modding potential. And a modded regular YH3 would still be better Than his stock. But no dice.

    I’ve owned many pairs of YH3’s an never heard that again. Consistently fuzzy rubbish.
    But could be he got lucky. I avoid yh2/hp2 because the housing is inferior to the 3 and they have the same drivers and tend cost more.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2020
  16. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    you should do some spring cleaning in your storage and send those to me for safe keeping. ;)
     
  17. gurubhai

    gurubhai Friend

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    Agreed on the variations with these vintage orthos. The small driver Yammies are not alone in this department though, I have seen plenty of variation between the HP-1 and NAD too.
    About the Yamaha HP-1, few reasons for variations were wear and tear,driver variant, status of damping foam etc. But by far, the biggest variation seems to be different kind of pads. Some of these have pads which tend to peel off and reveal the fabric underneath, some have thicker vinyl and some are somewhere in between.
    The NAD apart from Kapton and mylar driver variants differ due to the differences in those yellow damping foams at the back. I have noticed different thickness and size of those yellow discs which significantly affects the sound.

    BTW, one way to get a HP-3 with better top-end is to transplant HP-2 / YH-2 drivers in the HP50 shell. The HP-2/YH-2 drivers are in general much more consistent than YH-3/HP50.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    There, I fixed it. Warm fuzzy mess.(Green Line)

    upload_2020-4-28_10-40-19.png
     
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    In certain ways, that design puts modern orthos to shame. Solid piece of a magnet with holes instead of magnet chunks glued on to a metal frame. Magnets on both sides. Fine traces. Diaphragm fixed at the center, not only at the circumference.
     
  20. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

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    This is mostly dependant on pad condition, quality control and which of the 439835832 silent revisions you managed to snag. LOL

    • YH-1 Sample A: soft, intact pads
    YH1A.png

    • YH-1 Sample B: flat, cracked pads
    YH1B.png
    • HP-1 Sample A: Anisotropic version, flat/cracked pads
    HP1ANISO.png

    • FR comparison of all 3:
    YAMAHACOMP.png

    The differences mostly boil down to the amount of bass extension relative to the midrange and the high treble extension. As long as the pads are supple you should get decent treble air. Not all that much darker than an HD600, and less warm.

    HP1COMP.png

    All of these headphones are a bit dark for my tastes, with the combination of that upper midrange bump + low treble dip ultimately being the deciding factor in not keeping them. I should also note that the 2-4kHz bump + peakage is the result of a driver-borne resonance and likely has something to do with the diaphragm smacking into the magnets. No amount of additional backwave damping was able to bring the treble up much without causing other issues. I kept the YH-1 "A" unit to toy with swapping the driver into another housing, but have yet to get an acceptable result from that.

    With all that being said, each of them had quite good technicalities and staging, with the anisotropic version being the best by far in this regard.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2020

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