What were your first set of headphones, and let's hear the story behind them.

fredcohiba

Super Member
image.jpeg Back in 1967 or 68 when I was just 9 years old and starting my love for music and the technical magic of sound reproduction, my dad bought an RCA console stereo. A 6 or 7 ft long behemoth. We always had music in the house, but this was the first stereo we ever had. Up until that point, there were multiple radios in the house but all were mono.
This console was purchased at an appliance, furniture and audio store in Milwaukee, I think the name was King Karl (nostalgia name perhaps for any Milwaukeeans old enough to to remember). I'm sure it cost him a month of his salary at the time. This was a big deal for us.
Along with the stereo, he bought or had thrown in on the deal, a pair of Superex Stereo-Pro headphones.
I spent many of hours listening to these headphones. I still remember my dad telling me, "Concentrate, and you will hear different sounds coming into your left ear and right ear". STEREO, man what a concept. It was a marvel for me at the time. They sounded so good to me, I remember listening to them any time I could. Even laying down on the floor in front of the RCA (as the cord didn't reach the desk) listening to the headphones doing homework.
I remember sneaking into the living room to listen to the headphones on that RCA late at night after everyone else was in bed. The issue was that when you plugged in the headphones, you had to rotate a switch on the RCA near the headphone jack that allowed both the headphones and speakers to operate simultaneously or just the headphones. So, every once and a while, I would forget to rotate that switch to play just the headphones, and wake up the whole house with loud music as I was oblivious to the fact that the speakers were still on. My dad had to come into a dark living room and tap me on the shoulder, scaring the crap out of me more than once. He looked mad at being awakened by my music, but I am sure when he turned around to head back to bed, he had a little smirk on his face too thinking, that little shit.....
 
Probably Trimm magnetic type, on a Philmore crystal set. Early-mid 1950s.
I remember listening to Fibber McGee and Molly on it.
 
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I had various headphones that were not memorable growing up (cheap on ear headphones or in ear headphones). First memorable set were Bose noise cancelling ones that my parents bought me. First set I bought myself were Panasonic RP-HTX7, which I loved, mostly probably for the retro style. They sounded good, but then I left them in Australia by accident (in my defense, I had moved out of my apartment, was staying with a friend for a couple days, went to a Gogol Bordello concert and then had to wake up around 4 a.m. to catch a taxi to start my MEL-SYD-LAX-SEA-BLI flights.)
 
Well, there was a time...many years ago, when I heard about taking two empty soup cans, and joining them together with a long strand of string and pulling it tight, and...

Does this count as early HP's?:D

Just having a good day, eh?

Q
 
Well, there was a time...many years ago, when I heard about taking two empty soup cans, and joining them together with a long strand of string and pulling it tight, and...

Does this count as early HP's?:D

Just having a good day, eh?

Q
A simple duplex sound powered telephone!
FYI ;
This is actually the ideal model for a proper polar correct reproduction sound system, where an acoustic "push" polarized impulse to the input end results in an identical "push" polarized impulse out of the receiving reproducing end.
 
A simple duplex sound powered telephone!
FYI ;
This is actually the ideal model for a proper polar correct reproduction sound system, where an acoustic "push" polarized impulse to the input end results in an identical "push" polarized impulse out of the receiving reproducing end.


Ya gotta be kidding!:eek:

Guess I was just ahead of my time. Sure hope I catch up to myself some day, eh?


Q
 
Back in the mid 70's when I was getting a feel for audio, my cousin stopped over to visit my parents. He heard me listening to my receiver/turntable over a pair of really crappy Lloyds speakers I borrowed from my parents All-In-One setup. He suggested if I cannot afford a good set of speakers, buy a good pair of headphones. Within a week, I bought a pair of Koss Pro4AAA headphones.
 
I built them myself from an article in Popular Electronics. It stated a pair of phones could be built for less than $5 (at 12 years old, that's about all I could muster). It consisted of a girls plastic headband, two 2" dia. plastic funnels, two 2", 8 Ohm drivers, some foam rubber, some fiberglass and wire.
First, I wired the drivers and ran the wires through the end of the funnel. Then I added a bit of fiberglass, used as damping behind the drivers. Glued the drivers into the funnels. I attached the funnels' cup hook holes to the each end of the headband. Cut out 'donuts' from the foam and glued them to the funnels as earpads. They didn't sound half bad, and I was quite proud of them.
 
Koss HV/1A's that were a Christmas present from my grandparents best friends back around 1976 or 77. Apparently I was playing to loud through the stereo plus I had aGibson electric guitar and Peavey amp at that point, too. I guess they needed some quiet time when I was home. I have a picture of that somewhere in a photo album. Seems like I'm sitting there with the HV/1A's on listening to the KISS Alive II album. :D
 
First it was two salt crystal earpieces, then two of those hideous white 'earphones' that came with transistor radios in the 70s. Then it was two gutted 2.25" pocket transistor radio speakers under my pillow and wired up to a radio.

I still have some of the original 1970s headphones as I started collecting them a while back.

My favourites were these in about 1981 and my ultra cool (at the time) National 'Way'. This was the world's smallest for a while (2xAA batts and a cassette for scale- they fit inside)- much nicer and smaller than Sony's original Walkman being sold at the same time. It's exceedingly rare now. You've gotta love the auxilliary battery pack to clip on your belt- it takes 2xD cells!

I paid for it with the money I earned afternoons after school, two days a week, repairing HiFi gear for a local pawnbroker.

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Unfortunately the soft rubber coated wires are all cracking up, the plastic has yellowed and the unit itself needs a major rebuild. A project for another day... :)
 
My first pair of headphones (as opposed to earphones) were the Sony MDR-XB300. I was bumming around a mall and walked into a Sony store that had headphones to try out. So I plugged in my iPod, played the song "Sampo" by Amorphis, and was absolutely blown away (probably from the bass boost, at least). Up until that point, I've only been used to cheap earphones. It was like Krillin turning super saiyan. It was like eating cheapass McDonald's cheeseburgers your whole life then one day eating a gourmet burger at a restaurant. Bought them right then and there.
 
Koss Phase 2 Headphones from 1974 for $60. Dealer had to order them for me! I remember the guys at the store had just gotten in their first pair of Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers and were excitedly setting them up. :)
 
I don't remember where I got them (probably Service Merchandise), but a pair of Koss Pro 4A headphones got me through high school and college. They had the liquid-filled earpads, that eventually collapsed. They sounded much better than the cheapo speakers on the stereo/amp combination that we had in the early 70's. They got lost in a move after I got married in the early 80's.
 
What were those inexpensive Sennheisers back in the early 80's with the plastic frames and yellow ear pads? I had those. They were really good sounding too for how cheap they were. I played the drums back then and used them mostly for that.
 
What were those inexpensive Sennheisers back in the early 80's with the plastic frames and yellow ear pads? I had those. They were really good sounding too for how cheap they were. I played the drums back then and used them mostly for that.
HD414. I have them too. Problem was, they were 2000 ohms, therefore, hard to drive. I wound up buying an 8 Ohm to 1000 Ohm mini output tranny from Radio Shack. Input to the 8 Ohm side gave enough drive on the 1000 ohm side to produce decent volume.
 
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