[Kabeer]

Hey guys.

Guess what.

Wooot Score! Now a photo of you wearing both simultaneously ?

Beautiful engineering in these.

 

[nick n]

Nice score. What are they like with the small caps-off-the-rears option?

 

[takato14]

Nice score. What are they like with the small caps-off-the-rears option?

Highly honky and resonant with the caps off. The caps actually contain the damping (one of Yamaha's "differential damping" units with the center damped looser) so they're 110% required for this thing to sound good. After finally getting one with the caps present I'm honestly not sure why they're even removable in the first place. Maybe because they look dumb? LOL

Both open and closed have obscene staging with an incredible sense of air. There is some slight ringing between 2kHz and 4kHz that makes them sound the slightest bit congested when it rears its ugly head but otherwise these things are incredibly fast and clear sounding.

The bass on this thing is uniquely speaker-like. Wish I could describe it better than that. Feed it juice and it just seems to keep going all the way to DC, much like a good stat does, but with way better dynamics due to the higher excursion.

The second pair is, deliberately omitted from the photos due to being much less complete. And in pieces. And with two shorted driver cables. And a bent headband. But! I will be working on it in the next few days. If anyone wants to watch me fix it I'll be streaming it on both twitch and my private discord server. I have some pretty cool plans for it. Hit me up in DMs for that info if you want it!

 

[matarua]

Can somebody help me with these - I own many orthos, and these seem to keep some of those ortho values - but I dare not take them apart - I can throw 100 percent computer volume in to them and they shine, deep bass and flat top end - more power they get the better the top end gets. I have piezo's tho that shine with vocals - but have very limited bass and highs - but can make vocals amazing - but these don't follow that path, they have a deep low bass that's not forward, and strong mids like piezo types, but don't present as such in the bass department. They are also so thin - thinner than a lot of my orthos, and also very hard to search for as the technical brand name is "Authentic" and out of Japan - Authentic auh-10e - leather headband is mint, cloth ear pads, mint, basically mint super super super slim unknowns that punch out clean non distorted deep & mid vibes, treble is there but not sharp.

And damn are they thin things thinner than anything...

 

[GREQ]

Can somebody help me with these - I own many orthos, and these seem to keep some of those ortho values - but I dare not take them apart - I can throw 100 percent computer volume in to them and they shine, deep bass and flat top end - more power they get the better the top end gets. I have piezo's tho that shine with vocals - but have very limited bass and highs - but can make vocals amazing - but these don't follow that path, they have a deep low bass that's not forward, and strong mids like piezo types, but don't present as such in the bass department. They are also so thin - thinner than a lot of my orthos, and also very hard to search for as the technical brand name is "Authentic" and out of Japan - Authentic auh-10e - leather headband is mint, cloth ear pads, mint, basically mint super super super slim unknowns that punch out clean non distorted deep & mid vibes, treble is there but not sharp.

And damn are they thin things thinner than anything...

Those look like the kind of ear pads that are secured on with a ring of double-sided tape.
Lifting up one side VERY slowly should reveal a bunch of screws in the baffle.

I'm only going off experience of disassembling hundreds of other headphones here; not this particular model.
So proceed with caution.

 

[matarua]

Those look like the kind of ear pads that are secured on with a ring of double-sided tape.
Lifting up one side VERY slowly should reveal a bunch of screws in the baffle.

I'm only going off experience of disassembling hundreds of other headphones here; not this particular model.
So proceed with caution.

Yes they indeed are, they are stuck with the type of glue made by the gods these days, they start to lift off for sure, but don't want to ruin the connection between them as they are pretty mint considering the age and in original condition - so loathe to do any damage - and yes am asking here as a matter of precaution because I don't want to go dismantle if somebody has seen these around before.

Lifting them up reveals the glue that's still tacky and doing its job, then I just see the foam pad that's in the center of the ear pad that seems separate, perhaps stuck down - and guessing from the large area of glue going around the outside that the opening for the driver would be around piezo driver sizing - and they are light too - so leaning away from ortho on these ones unless it's some small diaphramed version - they are also quite easy to drive but shine with more power - will have to test my other ones and do a side by side compare.

Thanks and will let you know if I discover anything more...

 

[GREQ]

Yes they indeed are, they are stuck with the type of glue made by the gods these days, they start to lift off for sure, but don't want to ruin the connection between them as they are pretty mint considering the age and in original condition - so loathe to do any damage - and yes am asking here as a matter of precaution because I don't want to go dismantle if somebody has seen these around before.

Lifting them up reveals the glue that's still tacky and doing its job, then I just see the foam pad that's in the center of the ear pad that seems separate, perhaps stuck down - and guessing from the large area of glue going around the outside that the opening for the driver would be around piezo driver sizing - and they are light too - so leaning away from ortho on these ones unless it's some small diaphramed version - they are also quite easy to drive but shine with more power - will have to test my other ones and do a side by side compare.

Thanks and will let you know if I discover anything more...

If anything, I'm actually highly sceptical of it's entry into this thread.
I won't believe it's an ortho until I see it
I've seen a lot of these VERY flat round headphones from other Japanese OEMs and they've almost always been dynamics.

 

[matarua]

If anything, I'm actually highly sceptical of it's entry into this thread.
I won't believe it's an ortho until I see it
I've seen a lot of these VERY flat round headphones from other Japanese OEMs and they've almost always been dynamics.

Thank you. Yes I was also sceptical due to the light weight but the thinness tricked me sorry. I will go with your experience on this and say they must be dynamic then and that explaines the deep bass that they have for such thin headphones - but not sure why there’s no distortion when the volume goes up and up. Perhaps just a hardly used old still working dynamic pair with materials that have lasted. Sorry for posting here if it’s wrong - should of been in the Show us your Vintage Cans thread first - in other news a pair of Audiotronic AHP66 came up on eBay. Seller wanting $250 tho I got mine for under $100 locally. So pretty chuffed. I used them for my side by side comparison and they are heavy and the soundstage puts you in the room with the band. Felt a bit dumb I had been tricked now by the Authentics apology to the thread. Sorry!

 

[nick n]

Oh don't apologize.
There have been many things discovered that were unknown before from people acting on hunches.
Not all old orthos are listed in databases or threads.
There may even be some yet to be discovered, variants or individual ones.
Even when people thought no orthos were made with volume controls, blammo a few show up with those in the past few years only.

These ones you have here I think are likely dynamic, and a version made by ( O.E.M.'ed ) the Japanese company ELEGA for other companies ( lots of them ).
There are all sorts of variations on the similar design.
If they didn't sound good though there likely would not be so many over the years ( my theory lol )
Of course Elega also had a couple orthos. Not many.
Never know %100 until you open them up or look through the earside baffle opening to see the driver front ( peel back a pad just enough to see ).
But I would say dynamic %99.342998.

Thanks for posting.

 

[takato14]

I usually refrain from posting stuff like this publicly but I feel like this is a special case.

Couple days of work. Reproduction parts for the YH-5m which change the cable detachments from their proprietary b/s to ODU minisnaps, a.k.a. HD800 connectors.

1:1 replica down to 1/4mm accuracy. Complicated little person. Knowing that someone actually drew this entire design out by hand back in the 1970s on a sheet of paper, one part at a time is the sort of thing that keeps me humble.

Starting a test print before bed. If it fits, I'll be ordering a full set of these in shapeways aluminum and starting their new cable right away.

 

[Philimon]

So here is the YHD-3 next to the HP-3. And remember how small the HP-3 is!


DISASSEMBLY:
Opening the YHD-3 cups was a giant pain. Because at first you think, ahh this is just like a HP-3 and procede to try and push open those clips....until you stupidly snap 3 of them like me.....

So after messing up most of it...here is my guide to open them (if anyone manages to find another).
1) Locate the three clips. And insert a small flathead precision screwdriver VERTICALLY into each clip and it should move them slightly. You HAVE to push all the way down vertically and only apply a v.small levering force.
If you dont push down all the way...you snap the clips.

2)Once you have done this, the baffle wont budge an inch....because Yamaha has stupidly glued the baffle on. Ok so you can approach this in different ways. But here is my way:
Use a hobby knife to make a small incision at the baffle/cup joint around where a clip would be.
Push a flathead pricision screwdriver in and gently lever. This should break the glue at that point. Then from there, use two flathead precision screw drivers to alternately gently lever the baffle off.

To reattach, you just push the baffle and push the clips back in gently.
If I had this guide....It would have been a hell of a lot easier. and the only downside would be a small incision.
Unfortunately cracking the glue means the baffle never seems to seal to the cup perfectly any more. I will probably keep some bluetak in the interface.

BITS N BOBS:


Note the driver number: 4559, which is curiously different than the YHE-50...any ideas?

The baffles needed a good clean from rotting gluey/sponge goop.
There is a nice rubber gasket for the driver. But there are some nasty holes underneath it...that you might wanna seal with something (I used blutak)

It might be worth noting the cable is some v.thin crappy looking thing...the ground wire doesnt even seem to have its own sheathing.....Maybe all the YHD's are like this.

My current rough damping scheme is:
Driver>moorbrook disc> moorbrook donut> moorbrook lining cup/vents > cup .

Its worth noting that the cup isnt really entirely open backed, its got the typical Yamaha treble reflector at the ball joint.

You will need some kinda pads for it, im temporarily using my flat worn out HP-50 pads untill I can find something.

The sound?
Well damping changes things ofc, and my damping is already getting rather heavy. With pads on this thing is very bassy. If your the kind to keep it underdamped and stick on reflex dots, you could have a bass MONSTER, but I dont like said method...

I love the sound though. After damping so much, the soundstage isnt thaaat big any more and its rather HP-50esque (which to me is a great thing) with a twist.

Now to find some pads....

Hi Kabeer and guardians of ortho,

Was wondering if you had any updates on this mod, particularly earpads since it seems you were still experimenting. @dBel84 gave me some tips on other forum, but he has a YHD-1, so was looking for any additional info. dBel84 also offered spare YHD-2 parts in case I break my YHD-3 when attempting to open. From @wualta comments he theorized the YHD-3 might be the better enclosure so would like to not break as best as I can. Also, dont have solder station so transplant mods Id also like to avoid if possible.

These are older posts from quick YHD-3 search so may not be valid.:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/orthodynamic-roundup.111193/page-1079#post-7215494
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/orthodynamic-roundup.111193/page-1079#post-7212977

There is another NOS YHD-3 on the bay. Mine was not sealed so a little cheaper. Same seller.:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-YHD...039478&hash=item28977c1bdc:g:gIAAAOSwLKhcNM9m

Thanks

 

[Kabeer]

Hi Kabeer and guardians of ortho,

Hiya, unfortunately I don't have much further than the posts you found, and it was so long ago I don't remember all details. I think I used iFrogz pads at the time, but I think I would go for pads without netting material, certainly trying different pads will be a large part of modding success with these, in fact I would be tempted to try mod them purely with pad rolling first.
The biggest thing is avoiding damage to the housing and clips when trying to dismantle a YHD-3/YHE-50. Even though I gave some tips in my post, im not sure its the ideal method. Someone else here may have found a better way of opening without damage, i can't remember who it was. @GREQ or @nick n perhaps?

 

[Philimon]

Yamaha YHD3. Stock mehsurements vs some Geekria Grado style pads as seen here.:

Those pads were first I tried. Will try others.

 

[Philimon]

HD414 pads no bueno.

Edit: realized not a fair comparison between HD414 and the Geekrias. What happened was in between pad rolls I decided to removed the stock cloth covers over drivers. The cloth covers were actually part of original pads but since the foam inside had disintegrated, it was just like a flat piece of cloth. Anyways, I found that the cloth piece was some maybe thin sticky-taped on. So removing the adhesive caused some little baffle "ports" to be revealed. This means the baffle was much leakier this measurement round.

 

[Philimon]

Redid the Geekria pad measurements but now with stock covers off.

Just finished listening to 6XXm before these, and the Yamaha's sound less meaty, brighter but less texture, less refined. Needs more warmth. Plan to fill baffle openings with some felt wool, then seal up with damplifier pro, then pad roll. YHD3 doesn't have a lip for pad install (which hurts getting consistent measurements), so might have to use double sided sticky tape for some pads.

Edit: Trying hard to not open these up because I dont want to accidentally break and I dont have the means to fix.