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Headphone Selection for Vintage System

O

OMahony

New Member
My young daughter (who's vinyl crazy) is asking for headphones for Christmas. I have been trying to do the reading to get an understanding of the headphone realm prior to making a purchase and am a bit stalled out.

May I beg a thumbnail education on what may be appropriate for her vintage system. She has a 1970's Marantz 2220 receiver with a Thorens TT. She is interested in full size headphones with a long cord. Budget on this is about $300.00 Thanks in advance for any tips. O'Mahony
 
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Well if Your Daughter is really into the vintage thing...

325px-Realistic_Headphones.jpg


Nothing is More Vintage that REALISTIC HEADPHONES!
 
The 600 Ohm K240's work very nicely out of receivers.

There are three models to choose from:

K240 Sextett (black with silver details, has K240 4-600 Ohm written on the silver colored badges), the first K240 model ever made, it first came out in 1975.
It has six passive radiators in each earcup and come in tree variations, earlier versions are more bassy then later versions.
They don't seem to respond too well to wear and tear though, so unless you can find one in good condition, it's probably best avoided.
They sound very musical and are some of the most popular vintage headphones around.

K240DF (all black, says K240DF on the badges) this is a ruthlessly revealing diffuse field equalized monitor headphone, not every ones cup of tea, but they tell you the truth.
Form a technical perspective, they are the best K240's around.

The K240 Monitor (black with golden details, says K240 Monitor on the golden badges) probably uses the same drivers as the DF's, but have some vents on the backside of the driver uncovered, where as they are covered on the DF's.
This makes the K240 Monitor more bassy and is probably the one that fits most peoples tastes.
 
Cruzah said:
Well if Your Daughter is really into the vintage thing...

325px-Realistic_Headphones.jpg


Nothing is More Vintage that REALISTIC HEADPHONES!
Click to expand...

I have the headphones pictured and they sound absolutely terrible.

K240s will give that vintage look and competent performance. You might also want to look at Grados which are all modern but have a vintage look. Entirely open design so they don't isolate and anybody else in the room can hear them clear as day but they sound awesome for the wearer. For about $300ish you could get the SR325i. Earcups are metal and the headband is leather. Lower models still sound good but with plastic earcups and vinyl headbands. Sennheiser's open backed headphones would be an alternative to the Grados. The HD595 should be in your price range. If she wants something a little more stylish the AKG Q701 Quincy Jones Edition is has a mid-forward sound and really good look. It may be "celebrity endorsed" but it's actually a very good headphone based closely off of the K701. Also open backed like the Grado or Sennheisers. A closed back model that's popular with us kids is the Audio Technica ATH M50. $150, built like a tank monitoring headphone that gets rave reviews, is probably overrated even, but is taughted as the real Beats beater for anybody whos concerned about sound over style. I hope that gives you some ideas.
 
i have a pair of Nova 10 realistic headphones... i listened to them twice... look kinda kewl but sound like crud compared to my HA-RX700 or ATH-M50 headphones... meh

in fact i just broke them out again.... man they suck..but they where $10.95 in 1975 i think.

will open headphones work ...i.e. are you going to have to listen to her records too if she gets open headphones?

if closed headphones are what she needs .. to be able to listen around others... I really like my Audio Technia ATH-M50 mentioned in the previous posting ...I just got mine about a week ago and I've been in love with them since i put them on.
 
I really appreciate all the reply's, and I apologize for my tardy response. Adda, thanks for the tip on Ohm value and vintage receivers (did some additional reading regarding that) I have looked at every model suggestion made and decided on the K240 series for now. I also didn't realize differences of open to closed back....smile.

My retro girl kid will like the vintage K240 series and it will enable me to surprise her with a headphone at a reasonable price and leave funds for other stereo plunder. She has likely done the reading and has some of her own ideas so I think this is a safe start. Again thank you for the reply's. O'Mahony
 
Please stay away form vintage phones. For $300 there are so many great choices. Keep reading, and demo some if you can.

cubdog
 
OMahony said:
My young daughter (who's vinyl crazy) is asking for headphones for Christmas. I have been trying to do the reading to get an understanding of the headphone realm prior to making a purchase and am a bit stalled out.

May I beg a thumbnail education on what may be appropriate for her vintage system. She has a 1970's Marantz 2220 receiver with a Thorens TT. She is interested in full size headphones with a long cord. Budget on this is about $300.00 Thanks in advance for any tips. O'Mahony
Click to expand...

Vintage Koss HV/1's are very comfortable, open design,great soundstage and deep bass. Most HV/1's out there need new foams which Koss corp has for 5.00 complete with shipping. They compare very well with many of the better modern phones I have heard.
 
Whoa this freaked me out haha seeing my family name

I second RamblinE on everything he said. I currently sport the Q701s but if she wants a vintage look the grados have it in spades. My preference is on open backed headphones but your daughter may be more partial to closed headphones and you'll need to ascertain this before any purchase.
 
Cruzah said:
Well if Your Daughter is really into the vintage thing...

325px-Realistic_Headphones.jpg


Nothing is More Vintage that REALISTIC HEADPHONES!
Click to expand...

Huh, those are rebadged Koss k/6 ALC's. They certainly have vintage looks...and sound, not the worst headphone ever, but honestly outclassed in every way to a modern offering.

The grados are not a bad choice, they look like a old crystal set headphone, and that's about as vintage as you can get. I have their lower-tier set, the 60i's, and they are a very fun listen usually, but I wouldn't call them strong on bass among other things. The cords on the grados are of decent length, and are very well made and thick. The genre of music that she'll listen to is kinda important to headphone selection as well.

By the way, headphone shopping is quite a headache, especially if you read head-fi, there's SO many opinons out there:D
 
id also recommend akg cans, i have a few sets , the k240 df, the k271 mk2 and the k702. all the pairs are fantastic and im sure will last years, the k271mk2's just get chucked about , in my bag on the floor, they have been used louder than loud at gigs and work just fine. i have accidentally sat and stood on them, the only thing that is worn is the cable. i mean they dont sound like the k702's but sound just fine to me , also closed backs come in handy . however the open back 240's will sound better.
 
There is another threat going concerning high impendence Headphones. With all of the vintage communication gear I have this is something I am interested in. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of choices for new high impendence headphones unless you want to pay some bucks for them. My go to place for this sort of thing is Headphones.com they have some but the cheapest set of cans is almost $400 dollars. Wouldn't a dedicated headphone amp take care of this? It would afford you more choices and improve the sound and the the same time. This would be a great fit for my Milspec stuff because the audio quality of most of it was a low priority it there but you have to intercept it up the line from the audio finals.
 
transmaster said:
There is another threat going concerning high impendence Headphones. With all of the vintage communication gear I have this is something I am interested in. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of choices for new high impendence headphones unless you want to pay some bucks for them. My go to place for this sort of thing is Headphones.com they have some but the cheapest set of cans is almost $400 dollars. Wouldn't a dedicated headphone amp take care of this? It would afford you more choices and improve the sound and the the same time. This would be a great fit for my Milspec stuff because the audio quality of most of it was a low priority it there but you have to intercept it up the line from the audio finals.
Click to expand...

Yes dedicated headphone amps usually have an output impedance under 10 Ohms.
 
Adda said:
Yes dedicated headphone amps usually have an output impedance under 10 Ohms.
Click to expand...

I would imagine they would have a switchable High/low impedence switch on the input. I am looking at a couple of vacuum tube heatphone amps that are in kit form. It just seems right to use such an amp with my vintage vacuum tune com' gear.:yes:
 
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