Sony ECR500 & 600 - few Qs

[faust3d]

I was reading various Sony brochures, but still can't figure this out. Will ECR500 box work with ECR 600 and vice versa?

Does anyone here have ECR600 box? I will have two ECR500 boxes soon and would gladly trade ECR600 box for one of my 500 boxes it it will work with ECR500 to check out what the differences are.

[spritzer]

I've opened up both ECR600 and ECR400 drivers and they looked to be pretty much identical. There isn't anything more to an ECR adapter then a transformer with a rather high ratio to make up for the truly mammoth D/S gap of these phones so try it out.

[faust3d]

Well I would if I can find ECR600 box. For now I soon will have two ECR500 boxes What I find amazing about ECR500 is it's huge and detailed soundstage.

[spritzer]

I've never heard a working set...

[faust3d]

Wow, you are really missing out on a wonderful pair of headphones. I had ECR500 on loan for about a month and really liked them. I in fact liked them so much I had to go and find a pair no matter what Here is short description from the wiki that Wualta and I worked on:

Sony ECR-500 - Overview

Sony used a pentagonally shaped monopole electret diaphragm (about 6 microns thick) and sacrificed a bit of efficiency to space the stators far apart to give the diaphragm room to move (shades of the later Stax Pro electrostatics!); thus this headphone has more bass than even the contemporary Stax SR-X Mark 2 and 3, though it is not as flat and cannot play as loud. Minimal mechanical damping means the backwave of the '500 is unimpeded which gives the 'phones an openness that's ideal for listening to binaural recordings. An amazing headphone for the time and even for an electrostatic of the time.

General Description of the Sound

ECR-500 is a warm mid-centric sounding headphone with excellent detailed head-stage and natural tonal balance. Transient response is very good do to it's electret nature. Unlike many electrets from that time period ECR-500 has nice deep bass that extend low and is well defined and detailed. Overall level of details is below that of good electrostatic headphones like SR-Lambda but is on par with many good modern dynamic headphones.

ECR-500's presentation is very smooth without any harshness or strain, this together with good comfort makes them very good for that relaxed late night listing session.

[spritzer]

Don't I know it. I bought an ECR-400 from Japan which sounded nice but had a channel imbalance. It was thus scrapped for parts, the drivers were stored, the frame housed some SFI drivers (which Marc has now) and the transformers went to Justin for him to mess with. Then I bought the ECR600 which Gary has now and it never worked. The cable was decomposing when I got it (it was just a goo with some metal in it ) so I put on a Stax electret cable but it never played ball. My plan was to gut the drivers and turn them into an electrostatic (with probably 1kv bias) but Gary rescued them before I did that. He also got the ECR400 drivers.

[faust3d]

Don't I know it. I bought an ECR-400 from Japan which sounded nice but had a channel imbalance. It was thus scrapped for parts, the drivers were stored, the frame housed some SFI drivers (which Marc has now) and the transformers went to Justin for him to mess with. Then I bought the ECR600 which Gary has now and it never worked. The cable was decomposing when I got it (it was just a goo with some metal in it ) so I put on a Stax electret cable but it never played ball. My plan was to gut the drivers and turn them into an electrostatic (with probably 1kv bias) but Gary rescued them before I did that. He also got the ECR400 drivers.

Gary send me some drivers and ECR500 cable, I am not sure what they are ECR500 or ECR600. They are gray and have minor rips in dust covers. My plan was to house them in a new frame. Who ended up with ECR600 box?

I also have new edition ECR500 box and now have ECR500 with older type box coming in. Hopefully it works properly, but they guy said he tested it.

[spritzer]

Gary got the box as well as the ECR400 cable. Perhaps it is time to track down an ECR600 again an turn them into a full blown electrostatic...

[faust3d]

Hope you can find one. ECR800 actually was a full blow electrostatic with 200v bias, but I now believe this is the most elusive of all TOL electrostatic headphones. Even PMB500 turned up, yet no one ever heard of a working ECR800 yet.

[Smeggy]

I gave the 400 drivers and cable to someone else on the ortho list as it looked like I was never going to get to them. I have the the 600 box if you want it as a swapsie for a 500 box.

[Smeggy]

I'm wearing my 500 now and it's still awesome. I put some old Fostex T20 pads on them. Very nice indeed. They can show most new cans a clean pair of heels still.

[faust3d]

I gave the 400 drivers and cable to someone else on the ortho list as it looked like I was never going to get to them. I have the the 600 box if you want it as a swapsie for a 500 box.

Yeah! I will swap. I will PM you

[Smeggy]

cool

[faust3d]

Finally got my ECR-500. I was about to try ECR-600 box with ECR-500 and although the pins sockets look the same ECR-500 pins are a bit bigger and fit in ECR-600 box very very tightly and not all the way in. Did does anyone have a picture of ECR-600 plug? I want to see how it looks.

[spritzer]

The one on my unit had decomposed into some gel like material once I got them so no pics here.

[faust3d]

The cable did or the plug?

[spritzer]

Both did since they were made of the same/similar material. You can read about this glorious new material on the ECR800 page on TVK which was supposed to sound so good but had broken down into some sticky mess when I got them.

[faust3d]

Both did since they were made of the same/similar material. You can read about this glorious new material on the ECR800 page on TVK which was supposed to sound so good but had broken down into some sticky mess when I got them.

So the cable was the same as ECR800? Interesting. I read about it and have this info on the Wiki as well in addition to some other brochures and stuff. Since the plug fits I might try to plug it in just not all the way and see how ECR600 box sounds, if it sounds better I will need to figure out a way to make the socket less tight.

[spritzer]

Yup, the same olive green cable but only 4 conductors.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeezh.

[faust3d]

I tried ECR500 with ECA-60 (ECR-600 transformer box) and it works great, even thought the plug does not plug all the way in. Any ideas on how to adjust the sockets accept bigger pins without damaging it?

[spritzer]

I wouldn't mess with the socket personally, I would rather measure the socket/pins and make short jumper leads. Make sure they are properly insulated since there is a lot of voltage coming from those transformers.

[faust3d]

What cable is this?

It looks like ECR500 yet you manged to plug it all the way in. I am afraid to push it in since it seems very tight.

[spritzer]

It's my old ECR400 cable.

[faust3d]

It's my old ECR400 cable.

I have this one It seems to be the same as ECR500. So I guess I can just push it in using a bit of force. To be honest I think both boxes sound almost the same with ECR500, but I like the low profile of the ECA-60, other than that I don't think it makes much difference.