The vintage Ortho thread

@gurubhai What did the damping look like inside your T10, assuming stock? Yellow material directly behind driver and a disk of open-cell foam behind?

I decided to swap out the T20v1 drivers into the T10, keeping the T10 magnets. Same drivers, but T10 has a better balanced sound, and since it doesn't have a weird, huge baffle, they sound even better with the small, on-ear pads. I did everything I could save for try to rewire that original T10 driver, but I think it's busted.

I'm finding I prefer whatever damping came stock inside my T10 and really just need to do some pad and front damping tweaks to get them sounding very nice.

Will post measurements later, but they'll make it pretty clear why I jumped ship so quick for the T10 and stole the T20's drivers for it.

 

Driver itself looked just like the others, from what my human eyes could tell. The metal rings on the edges for the +/- connection came undone very quickly though, and there's a spot the diaphragm itself isn't adhered to one spot of one ring. I can't see a good way to get it back together properly or, if that's not the issue, how to identify a fix for it. Could just be the cable, for all I know, and I might have made it worse mucking around with the driver. Not sure where I put my multimeter after the move...

Awesome, thanks for the info and advice. The yellow material seems to do a great job. I will dry thinner foam underneath that. I could see that working.

I took some quick measurements of where I had my T20v1 at. Ignore that I didn't match to 90dB or that some spots in distortion don't look perfect. The T20v1 in this state was sort of like a forward sounding pair of Slants (sort of), but without the really nice stage. This was with adhered CAL pads and some 1/8" open cell foam directly behind and in front of the driver. It sounded pretty good, I thought...



I thought I heard promise with the stock T10, but couldn't really tell with one broken driver. So, I measured what I could with the working driver, and...



Whoa! You can probably see why I had no qualms transplanting the T20v1 diaphragms into the T10. I kept the T10 magnets.

Note that it's very difficult to get the bass seal just right for measurements. Listening is a bit easier because, well, you can actually hear if you got it right or not. That was the best result I could get.

I don't know why this would be, but it's possible the T20 diaphragms I have aren't as bassy and may be more prone to resonance and ringing spots. However, that could also come down to the entire disassembly and the way I pieced things together. I tried to make it all as tight and lined up as possible, but it might not be as good as straight from the factory.

 

Yes, stock T10 measurements with the best seal I could get. Tough to get the extended bass to show, but if you position then just right on your ears, you can hear it. They are a little bright. See rising response after mids. The right placement helps negate this. Am looking into other pads to help.

 

Sorry, I wasn't asking for recommendations, just stating I would be looking into pads next. I saw your post.

 

Spot on recommendation for the on1 pads. Only have them in place with electrical tape around the edge of the headphone and pads, but once you get them centered on your ears and let them warm up for a good seal, they are very balanced sounding even with just the stock damping. I had a hard time getting measurements to show up right, though...

I also tried some aftermarket Beats Solo 2 pads, and while I am damn impressed by the quality, they were a bit too U-shaped and overly thick sounding.

 

Nope, for other reasons, I am not yet able to fully and properly adhere the pads to the T10, so I will wait to get final measurements.