Thursday, October 27, 2011

A very rare electrostatic headphone

Maruni ES-801 Direct Drive - Professional Series Electrostatic Headphones were one of the two headphones I borrowed from an audio sales technician friend in 1979.

Description (sounds like one of the two I borrowed):

  • machined aluminium shells with black plastic spacers
  • chrome steel and black leather headstrap in the traditional STAX/Herton/Teledyne style

However if these are electrets, like the Maruni's I've seen pictures of, I can't see how they would be transparent.  They have a phone jack and no energizer, therefore electret (not electrostatic) design.  I think these were the ones that were convenient but didn't sound great.  I remember agonizing over the convenience, I wanted something more convenient than my Infinity's, but I also wanted it to sound good, and these Maruni's sounded dull like old Koss Pro3a's, IIRC.

The ones that sounded great, even more transparent than my Infinity's, may have been the Jecklin Floats.  They are the right color (brown).  Though somehow, I didn't remember the transparent phones I borrowed as being Jecklin Floats.  I do vaguely recall talking to my friend about them, he certainly had a pair for himself, but wasn't inclined to sell them, and therefore wasn't inclined to let me borrow them either.  It's possible he finally let me borrow them for a night.  But there could also have been some other electrostatic phone he let me borrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment