Arianugraha’s Ortho ESW-9


Power requirement is fairly modest. Arianugraha listens to it out of his Ipod Photo (4th Gen) with no portable amplifier. At home he uses the Pete Millett Starving Student Millet Hybrid amplifier, which adds quite a brilliant soundstage and separation.

I asked him some questions about this particular headphone:

What was your previous headphone before this ortho?
I owned an Audio Technica ATH-2 (Orthodynamic).

How did the ESW project start?
I was not satisfied with the performance of my previous orthodynamic headphone, the ATH-2. I sold it, and I wanted to find another orthodynamic. At that time, Questa offered his ESW-9 orthodynamic headphone for sale, and I decided to take it. Questa had initially fitted a SFI 32Ohm driver into a replica ESW-9 housing, which was his project for a portable headphone. But he acquired an Fostex T-10 headphone, which he seemed to like better, hence the sale of the ESW-9 orthodynamic. The ESW-9 started as a replica ESW-9 headphone, which Questa had fitted with an SFI 32 Ohms driver. The wood panel on the housing, which is actually made of plastic painted with wood grain pattern, is then replaced by real wood panels made by calico. After that iQem did the initial damping work on the headphone.

What happens after the sale?
When I got the headphone, I noticed that there was a channel imbalance, which was caused by uneven damping. So I opened up the headphone and attempted to remedy that problem. That was the my first experience with damping mods. The SFI 32 Ohms driver is the same driver that is used in the ATH-2 headphone, and I felt any differences between the two headphones must be caused by the different housing (the ATH-2 is a semi-open design), the damping, and the headphone cable used.

What other mods did you do after that?
The first mod that I did was to replace the pads with an ATH-2 pads, because I didn’t like the comfort of the original pads (the replica ESW-9 pads). The next modifications were done to improve the housing build quality. Keep in mind that this is a replica ESW-9, and the build quality is pretty low. So I replaced the screws inside the housing to make it more sturdy and to have better access to the internals. I also improved the dampings inside while trying to achieve the particular sound that I’m want.
After all the changes, the most noticeable difference is in bass control. In the ATH-2, the bass control is a little flabby, but that’s much improved on this headphone. The soundstage is smaller than the ATH-2’s, mainly due to the closed housing that I used. The ATH-2 is also warmer, where this headphone is less so. And finally, this headphone has more sparkle on the treble than the ATH-2, which may have been due to the blue dragon cable.

I think Arianugraha should be proud of his headphone. It has a very pleasing sound, close to perfect frequency balance, and a very musical sound without any strong coloration. Questa, the previous owner, claimed that his T10 Fostex is even better than this, and it’s been gaining quite a reputation in our local circle. The T10 is the creation of DIYer BoilermakerFan, and I’m going to take a listen to the T10 once Questa got his second T10 from BoilermakerFan.


5/5 - (1 vote)
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4 Comments

  • Reply April 19, 2012

    Haqq

    where to buy SFI  32 ohm driver?

    • Reply April 20, 2012

      Mike

      I will ask him and get back to you.

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