I recently acquired a mint set of Pioneer SE255's - those BIG white ones with the shiny volume knobs on each ear cone; to go with my vintage Revox setup. Went purely on looks and was terribly disappointed with the sound - lack of low frequencies...dull. Being a complete newb, I went googling and started searching for better drivers - found none locally and realised that bringing it in will probably not warrant the cost and hassle. Then found a really shabby pair of AKG studio headphones at a 2nd hand shop - dremeled the drivers out and replaced the old electro dynamic drivers of the Pioneer(of which the paper cones were very aged and faded). My ever-so-cool looking vintage cans now have the most fantastic sound.... no overpowering bass like many modern headphones - great mids and definition - but the most fantastic thing is the sound staging. The old AKG's I found sounded nice when I tested them for their donor suitability, but somehow putting those same drivers into the larger ear cones of the Pioneer, with some damping - has resulted in the best depth and spatiality of sound that I have ever heard on headphones (maybe just aurally uneducated..) - but at very little expense and a lot of fun, new life has been breathed into vintage cans... :Whoohoo:
Driver retrofit on vintage Pioneer SE255's
- Thread starter nieldreyer
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