High Impedance Head Phones like Vintage Sennheiser Model HD424 - Overview wanted

[tiefbassuebertr]

In the meantime there are a very wide range of headphones models, but I am not able to find a currently model with a high impedance above 1000 ohms.

Who can give me some advices concerning associated models?

The HD-424 from Sennheiser is only to get in used condition.

 

[tiefbassuebertr]

here some pics:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/118499/hd424-nice-vintage-cans

 

[speaker dave]

I still have a pair of HD 414 that I've had since the late 70s. I suspect the 424 is a glitzier version of the same.

They don't sound overly wide range but they do have a pleasant midrange balance.

David S.

 

[NZkeith]

Greetings from Christchurch, New Zealand..... Yes, ... Those old 414's and 424's are still great pieces of kit.... I have a rather vintage pair of 414's, have the original sales slip.... Cost R30 back in Cape Town, ZA in 1976... An average house cost +- R23,000 then, so they were not cheap !!!!
I would like to find some of the 424's 'flanges' to fit to my 414 bodies... Find the ear pressure just a little high and think that just maybe the 424 'flanges' might distribute the pressure just a little better over the whole ear.... ANY SUGGESTIONS from anybody !!!!!
Keep well and very best wishes to all over The Festive Season....
Cheers...... Keith

 

[sgrossklass]

I guess getting some used '424s is about all you can do these days. Those cans have been out of production since the early-mid '80s or so. It's been a while since I had mine apart, but it's quite possible that the wider "collar" was the main difference to the '414. (I'm not sure whether they kept the mechanics identical when changing to 600 ohm drivers. The metal endcaps had to go at this point.)

As for the OP's (yet unanswered) question, well, I don't think there are any other >1 kOhm cans around. Certainly not today, and even among historic models I can't remember anything non-Sennheiser. (They still made some specialty versions with 1.7 kOhms in the '80s, apparently for the BBC, but that's about it.) The voice coil wire must have been awfully thin even by headphone standards.

Interestingly enough, ye olde 2 kOhm HD424 actually is quite efficient, definitely playing louder than, say, the 600 ohm HD420SL. It's rather bass-light though ('414s with their thicker pads must be even more so). The larger pad area does help with comfort, but they're hardly suited for headbangers.