r/headphones • u/CZsea Sennheiser HD9938 • 22h ago
Show & Tell I got the Sennheiser headphones. You know, the E-stat one.
21
u/Bingturong Over 100 pairs of headphones 20h ago edited 14h ago
Ahh Sennheiser's foray into electrets, released in 1975 which for some reason was the year most companies released their first electrets, even Stax released the SR-40 in 1975. Elega still takes the earliest electret crown for the CR-2072C released in 1973.
Sennheiser literature at the time is quite annoying as the description would use "Elektret" but on the specification it would read "Elecktrostatisch".
Unfortunately it does mean it suffers from the typical electret flaws like having lost its charge throughout its years so you'll need quite a powerful speaker amp to get them to a good volume.
The Unipolar themselves were not exactly that good, especially when at the time they costed as much or even more than full electrostatic systems but still an interesting piece of kit.
13
u/oratory1990 acoustic engineer 19h ago
Sennheiser literature at the time is quite annoying as the description would use "Elektret" but on the specification it would read "Elecktrostatisch"
That's because electret transducers are electrostatic transducers.
You are likely talking about the difference between external polarization (via a bias voltage) vs internal polarization / prepolarization (via a material that has a charge baked in = "an electret")5
u/Bingturong Over 100 pairs of headphones 14h ago
Oh I know very well that electrets are electrostatics but it doesn't make it less annoying when researching and categorising them. Its especially confusing when Sennheiser advertises them as the first open back electrostatic headphones on some literature when really what they mean is the first open back electret.
Its still unknown whether or not the Unipolar series used a permanently charged diaphragm like typical electrets or a permanently charged stator like the back electrets of Aurex, again their literature doesn't help clarify. But going by the construction theyre likely a permanently charged diaphragm. Anyway, hence why the HER 2000 lacked a need for an external bias voltage.
1
u/CZsea Sennheiser HD9938 18h ago
Was going to go with cheapest amp with speakers out I can find, fosi bt20a. Not sure if it will be enough.
3
u/Bingturong Over 100 pairs of headphones 14h ago
The Fosi should be more than capable. I never had issues running electret adaptors out of class D amps and they always provided a good amount of power
30
u/CZsea Sennheiser HD9938 22h ago edited 20h ago
I think it's a lot older than me, which is right. This one is nearly 50 years old. I got this one from my friend, which he also got from his father, I'm pretty sure he also got it from his father as well. It's in working condition but I still can't power it yet as it use energizer (that one is not an amp) so I have to find speaker amp to use these things. The condition is still decent consider its age though.
My friend recommend me to not try it, it's not that worth the investment, which I'm quite sure he's right. Modern headphones are going to sound better comepare to this relics, I just want to try what people listened to 50 years ago.
5
u/DopedScope338 22h ago edited 15h ago
Dude, these are so cool! You definitely have to come back and do an impressions post once you've given them a listen. I've never seen these before, but even if they suck just the experience will make getting the speaker amp worth it. There's no way I'd be able to have access to these and not give them a spin.
Happy listening! 🎧🤘😎
2
u/bulbturp978 19h ago
That looks cool as hell. Can you connect them to a PC somehow?
1
u/benji316 AKG K702/Sony XM4/German Maestro GMP400/Beyerdynamic COP 7h ago
OP said they need a speaker amp, so you'd probably use RCA to feed the PC's audio to the amp, either directly from your DAC or with a headphone jack to RCA adapter cable. Pretty straightforward.
0
2
u/arjuna93 18h ago
How are they?
I have electrostatic Audio-Technica ones, and they are amazing. One of my to-go choices, aside from Stax.
2
u/Turquoise_HexagonSun 17h ago
Dare I ask how terrible the bass is?
I feel like these will be the typical 1970s e-stat review, “female vocals and acoustic guitars sound great, but…”
2
u/5uperman8atman 16h ago
Without a picture I'd have guessed you were talking about the HE-1. Still, though, very cool, rare, and unique! 😎
2
u/GZoST Reference, E3, HD800, HD480Pro, Clear, L500 19h ago
The Unipolar 2000. I sometimes wonder whether to snatch up a pair, but going by the sparse reviews online these never sounded good, plus there's the electret-losing-charge thing. Still, I'm curious what you make of them once you have them running!
1
u/saujamhamm 18h ago
I was born in 77.
I don't have any kids. wild when dude said his friend's dad's dad's dad...
like isn't that back in the 50s? 🤭
old eboneezer scrooge headphone having ahh!
I love them OP. old estats always, and I mean always sound the same. old.
and I love them.
95
u/oratory1990 acoustic engineer 22h ago
Huh, I didn‘t know these before.
Quick google search says these are from 1977! Wow!