Yamaha HP-1 Modded - At LAst

elcoholic

Jet Fuel Genius
Subscriber
I bought some replacement ear cushions (Sony) better than 6 months ago. Hell it could be a year. I've been putting off changing them out and doing some mods for fear of screwing up these headphones that I've had since '76. Yesterday I finally opened them up. The mods - I dampened the driver with a felt-file folder stock-felt sandwich. I seated the 50 mm drivers and packed the perimeter of each with rope caulking. With a good seal from fresh ear cushions and the damping the bass response is better than ever and the highs are just south of overly brite. I did not add a reflex dot and I'm happy I didn't because they might be too bright - at least with the LPs I listened to so far - Supertramp, Crisis What Crisis and Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here. Today I'll try them at work with my iPod and the old Bogey. :music:
 
Wualta - I've read your stuff on these and other headphone all over the net. Fortunately the "screen" fabric was in great shape so I didn't have to mess with those. When I bought these for $200 in '76 it was quite an extravance, but I guess 33 years later $0.50/mo isn't so bad. I was in the get it done mode yesterday so I didn't take any process pics. BTW I did the leather headband replacement back when I bought the ear cushions. Here's a couple of phone cam shots though.
 

Attachments

  • 1116091019.jpg
    1116091019.jpg
    37.4 KB · Views: 208
  • 1116091021.jpg
    1116091021.jpg
    31 KB · Views: 178
I gave my estate-find $1 Yamaha YH-1's to a fellow who did much the same as you did, except that he also re-cabled them. When he had me listen to them after the mods, I just about had to pick my jaw off the floor! They had not impressed me at all before, but now I know the Yamaha Orthodynamics are well capable of greatness, and that is said by a Stax owner.

Well done!
 
I may recable them at some point, but for now they're just fine as they are. If you find another pair for $1 please send them my way. My ears are still Stax virgins, best probably to keep it that way lest they be instantly and irreversably ruined for anything else. But given the chance I'll take it. BTW a drop of bike chain teflon dry lube cured the pesky ball joint noise too.
 
Krytox

Great idea!

I love using bike stuff to help/cure non-bike stuff. You whip out a bottle of White Lightning or Krytech and they say "Where'd you get that?" and you just chuckle knowingly.
 
Elcoholic,
Where did you find the directions for these mods? I have not had much luck finding them for the yh1.

Thanks, Steve
 
I think the mod is the same for the YH1s. There's a couple of approaches and I went with the more aggressive damping. (felt-paper-felt). Besides Head-Fi there's a wiki (by Wualta me thinks) with a lot of good info on Orthos.

After this mod it became even more apparent that the old SS Bogen receiver at work wasn't cutting it. It's not in the cards to get a Meier Amp right now so I took my Onkyo TX-8511 from my home office system to work and OMG. I then put my Onkyo TX-8511 (perfect condition from Freecycle!) in the home office system.
 
Funny to find a thread talking about the bicycle product White Lightning.

An old favorite of mine, along with a few leftover Pedro's products and a few others....
 
There is a long, LONG thread on this subject over at Head-Fi. It's well worth a look.
Well worth a look I say! There is a specific search engine made by headfi member ludoo there. Makes it much easier to work through.

I think the mod is the same for the YH1s. There's a couple of approaches and I went with the more aggressive damping. (felt-paper-felt). Besides Head-Fi there's a wiki (by Wualta me thinks) with a lot of good info on Orthos.

After this mod it became even more apparent that the old SS Bogen receiver at work wasn't cutting it. It's not in the cards to get a Meier Amp right now so I took my Onkyo TX-8511 from my home office system to work and OMG. I then put my Onkyo TX-8511 (perfect condition from Freecycle!) in the home office system.
Yes the mods are the same for YH-1. Although keep in mind that there are batch differences, so you might have to fine tune to your particular pair after getting close.

Also the wiki (Wikiphonia) was not created by Wualta, it was made by Faust2d. Wualta is of course one of the major contributors there.
 
Not much cover, come to think of it; I've been slyly inserting the Orthodynamics into my amp reviews for awhile now. Yes, we ninjas (or us ninjas) of Team Ortho have an ulterior motive and a quest-- to slowly and painfully collect all the lost bits of info about this until-now neglected type of headphone, the Magneplanar-For-Your-Head. Elcoholic, as an original Ortho owner, is someone the Team wants to sidle up to.

With that in mind I neglected to thank elcoholic for confirming the original MSRP of the HP-1 as $200.

The good news is that after a long dry spell, old Orthos are once again coming out of the woodwork and selling for non-outrageous prices in online auctions, so if elcoholic's review of his HP-1 generates some curiosity, grab one for yourself, grab some felt and foam and get your mod on.

Sorry for the editorial. We return you now to your regularly scheduled thread.
 
Well I'm reviving this old thread because it's time to recable my HP-1s. I've ordered 25' of Mogami W2893 which will provide for a 10' fixed cable and a 15 ft extension. Will probablly go with Neutrik gold connectors pending strong recommendations otherwise. I am looking for pictures and advice regarding:

Single Siding vs Y Cabling
Cable Entry/Routing if Single Sided
Strain Relief @ Ear Cups (or whatever they're called)
Sheathing for Single Pairs
 
I can't help you with advise .. But I sure would appreciate it if you took some pix of the mods that you made before, while you have them apart to change the cable.
I have a set of YH1's that I would like to try this on.
Thanks, Steve
 
The Mogami cable came today! Tomorrow it's off to the electronics store for connectors and misc supplies. Any last minute tips?
 
I just dug out an old set of Yamaha HP-1 headphones I had lying around in a storage building. They were dirty, the ear pads need replacing and the head band adjustment (the piece that is a fabric framed in plastic) has cracks in the plastic frame. The main headphone frame and ear cup shells are all fine. I cleaned everything up, took them apart and tested the actual headphone drivers. They still sound great.

I would like to restore these headphones. I found the HP-1 refurbish web page by Joop Nijenhuis.

What is a good replacement for the ear pads now? The HP-1 refurbish page says to use Sony MDR-V200 ear pads (PN 2-115-667-01) but that part seems to not be available any more. There is a 2-115-667-02 available but I haven't found any information on its dimensions. The picture looks pretty much the same. What about Sennheiser HD HMD 25 ear pads?


Thanks
 
Last edited:
I used P/N 2-115-667-01 from PartStore.com @ $4.95 ea. The replacement part is 4x that much. I called to make sure it the new p/n was not for a pair. I just found and ordered the '02's for a rainy day from Sony for $13.95 ea. before they quadruple again. Let me know if you find something else that fits. Good luck.

https://servicesales.sel.sony.com/e...archOperation=partSearch&searchText=211566701

BTW - I didn't mount mine with adhesive like Joop shows. I very carefully stretched the flap over the outside of the housing for a friction fit to make it easier to remove them. So far so good.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom