Item: Recabled rare/vintage Yamaha HP-50A Orthodynamic headphone
Location: 9km West of Melb CBD
Price: $80 + Postage
Item Condition: Used in good form but yellowing on the plastic housing of the ride side. It is in fully working condition and sound great as-is
Reason for selling: Too many headphones. Way too many. Running out of space to store them.
Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Bank deposit.
Extra Info:
I bought these off the US ebay in late 2014 for $145 shipped to my door. The HP-50A is the mono wired model of the HP-50S which is wired for stereo. The only difference between these two models is the wiring scheme inside the headphones. I have re-wired this headphone to stereo, other than that it is identical to the HP-50S except the model number.
I have not applied any dampening modifications to the internal headphone because it takes a bit too much away of what makes these headphones unique. These are not very commonly found and rare so it is sometimes good to retain the quality that makes them different.
These are made in Japan by Yamaha which was spawned from the original design of the HP-1 headphone by Mario Belini, these are from the late 70's to early 80's, the HP-50A originally came with Yamaha organs. These don't need an introduction on what they are capable of and what they are, Yamaha was I believe the first to put the planar magnetic driver technology into a headphone (with the mastermind designer assistance of Mario Belini).
The ear pads are good condition and give a good seal (important for low-end sound frequency reproduction), the headband is in good condition (to ensure originality of aesthetics and comfort) and I have re-cabled them with a single entry stereo cable that was supplied from my Sony MDR SA-3000 headphone, I could've made these into dual entry but I hate to drill an extra on the left channel housing. The cable tip is 3.5mm which comes with a screw on 6.3mm TRS tip converter.
These will run but definitely not optimally just borderlining 'ok' or 'good' out of your standard onboard PC motherboard audio output nor will it be powered sufficiently off your ipod or phone. These are rated at the following specs:
Rated impedence: 150 ohms
Frequency response: 20-20000 Hz
Diaphragm: 12 micron polyester
Magnet: Sintered Ferrites, 46mm diameter
Rated input: 2W
Sensitivity: 93 dB/mW
They sound best powered off a dedicated/external amplifier. They have an impressive mid range and low-bass output for the size of the drivers.
Pictures:
