Wharfedale DD1 Stereo Headphones

I thought I'd share my latest find - a pair of Wharfedale DD1 Stereo Headphones. I bought them for £1 at a car boot sale on Sunday. I'm currently listening to Beck's "Sea Change" (MFSL) and I must say, they sound pretty damn good!

Specs are as follows:-

Construction: Dynamic moving coil stereo headphones. 2-way system (i.e. separate bass and treble units) with electrical crossover network.

Impedance : 8-16 ohms.

Sensitivity (600 Hz): 100d for 1 mW input.

Frequency Response : 16 Hz - 22,000 Hz ± 3dB.

Weight : 0.6 Kilos.

 

Look retro in a cool 70s way.

 

If you think those sound good I can't imagine how good you'll find almost any modern headphone to be. However for £1 you can't argue much.

Wharfledale made much more interesting and really quite nice sounding orthodynamic/planar magnetic headphones too. Although they're considerably more rare than these DD-1s, which were also sold under different names by other companies. Including IIRC the Stanton Dynaphase.

 

Wow!! Those babies sure look old school...and I'm old enough to know. HA!! Nice find.
Enjoy them.

 

I usually use a pair of Etymotic ER•6 Isolator Earphones for portable listening; as you'd expect, these sound a lot better than the DD1s. But it has to be said, they're a lot better than I expected them to be.

 

My dad bought me a set of these when I was 12 at a Sound Exhibition in London (Olympia). (I am 54 now).... I had them until 6 years ago when my kids (very young) killed them....broke them.....
When I lived in the UK I found out that a little old man had bought all the spares from them after they stopped making them. I should have bought a bunch of spares....
Seeing you bought these for one pound just about brought tears to my eyes because I have never heard a set of headphones that matched them for playing the music I like.. (The Free, old school mates, Bad Company, Focus etc)... I live in Michigan now and don't get access to the same shopping options as in London etc... If by any chance you want to sell them, then I will buy them from you..... and I would be happy to pay you substantially more than you payed for them...Believe me they would be going to a good and very appreciative home..... Let me know.......thanks.....

If anyone knows of a set of headphones that can match the versatility of the DD1's where I can up the volume and never experience any distortion let me know...
Just as a side note, the reason I got them was my dad told me to put them on when we were at the exhibition....I could here a violin paying and started looking around for who was playing it.....I realized my dad was laughing and then understood there was no violinist....it was just quality of the headphones..... I will never forget that....

 

Orthodynamic headphones can give you that sort of sound. Clean sound. Can crank them up without causing breakup or distortions. Capable of smooth midrange and a lack of the sort of distortions that can cause listening fatigue. There's vintage ortho headphones that can be found. And modern ones. Modern versions would be the Audeze line, The HiFiMAN orthos, the soon to be release Oppo PM-1 headphone, and various modded versions of the Fostex T50RP (like the Mr. Speakers headphones). Some of the orthos are quite expensive. The Fostex T50RP can be gotten for under $100, but need to be modded to sound good (stock they have no lows and no highs).

 

Thanks for your response..... Yes some of them are expensive... $1800 is out of my range for headphones...The wife would do unmentionable things to me in my sleep I should imagine....
I found the upgrade vid on Youtube for upgrading the T50RP's (). It looks simple enough. Do you think with the conversion they would sound as good as the DD1's? I know that's probably a difficult question unless you have done this mod, but from what you may have heard?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Phil.

 

$1800 for a headphone is a lot. Fortunately there are good ones available for less than that. The planar driver technology will trickle down to the sub $1000 and sub $500 market, then eventually to the sub $300 market. There are already sub $1000 planars and sub $500 planars. We need more trickle down and more options in the lower cost end of the market.

My primary use headphone is an Audeze LCD-2. I like its planar sound and the characteristics of the planar sound it delivers. Low distortions, the sound doesn't compress or get more forward as it gets louder, smooth sound even when loud. Non fatiguing sound compared to typical dynamic driver headphones. One of the things I had to get used to with the LCD-2 was keeping conscious of the volume level. It is so easy to play it too loud because distortions that I was used to that I was listening too loud just aren't there. You can play it loud and not fully realize it is that loud. I was using an SPL meter to check what the volume level was at because my ears weren't a reliable gauge. With acclimation I learned to recognize too loud by ear and don't need the SPL meter to double check.

I have a T50RP that I modded. I did a version of the mod that is similar to the YouTube video. I did what is known as the DBV #3 mod, or something close to it. The mod is simple enough to do, though the instructions on head-fi are confusing and long. The video shows what is done. The tricky part is doing it well and getting both ear cups to sound the same (some very minor differences in how the cups are stuffed can make one side sound different than the other). It does get tricky and takes some experimentation.

If you like tinkering, are able to trust your ears for tuning the sound and figuring out what is right, the mod can be a cost effective way to get a nice headphone that has the planar style sound. If you just want a headphone to listen to then buy one of the Mr. Speakers modded headphones. You'll end up with a better headphone than what you can do yourself.

My own T50RP is out of balance right now because I can't leave well enough alone. I've now messed it up and will need to redo much of the mod. One of the hazards of having a headphone that is an experiment in progress that is never finished. If I'd buy a finished headphone from Mr. Speakers I wouldn't have this problem.

The planars are generally not that efficient and need a headphone amp that has a good amount of power. You won't be plugging it direct in an iPhone or laptop. A starting point for a powerful enough amp would be the Schiit Magni at $99 plus shipping.