Vic forth headphones.. Anyone fix a blown driver?

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BBeyer

BBeyer

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One side of my Vic firth headphones blew out.. Has anyone located replacement drivers for these phones and if so where?
 
All I can find is a few guys online that have upgraded them with better drivers from Senheiser and such.. Thats the route I may take.
 
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I don't know how well they would fit other models but Direct Sound (Extreme Isolation Headphones) has replacement speakers for $29 and $39, although shipping is $11.95. You should be able to find some other brand models on ebay too.
 

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BBeyer,

Headphone drivers are exceedingly proprietary in terms of form factor and other physical attributes. This isn't like replacing a generic driver in a speaker cabinet. Unless Vic Firth specifically offers a replacement capsule / earpiece, you'll likely have trouble fitting another driver into your existing earpiece. A lot of headphone earpieces are made of plastic these days and I see many of the drivers molded right into the earpieces. This isn't to say you can't remove the drivers, but you'd need to be extremely careful not to ruin the driver during removal. These drivers are very, very delicate; it doesn't take much to put them out of round or to puncture them.

If you can't get an exact replacement from Vic Firth, the other problem you'll have is matching the existing driver's sonic specs. I'd say that's a tough thing to do. If you sub in just one driver, the frequency range, frequency curve, and efficiency of that driver are all likely to be radically from the other driver, making your headphones sound off balance. It's probably a better idea to replace both drivers. The new drivers may or may not fit into the existing earpieces nicely. As noted, there are no standard form factors as with 10, 12, 15, and 18 inch drivers for regular speaker cabinets. You'll likely have better luck replacing both earpieces (drivers and all) and seeing if these will attach to your existing headband. At that point, I'd likely ask myself... is the hassle worth it? It's simpler and more time efficient to buy a new pair of headphones. Only you can answer the time / hassle versus buying new question. Then again, maybe Vic Firth provides replacement drivers and/or earpieces (meaning, a combined driver and earpiece). Give Vic Firth a call. Or, have your dealer call Vic Firth for you. That will answer this piece of the puzzle. Good luck. :)
 
Roadappledrummer said:
Don't bother. I use these and they're great
30 bucks!?
I wish I knew about those before..

See what I did was go to banjo center and purchased a new set of Vic firth phones.. With the intent to put the old ones in the package and send them in for warranty....(these ones broke a long time ago while they were still in warranty and I never knew where the receipt went)
So the markings on the side of the new set are slightly different, and my concience got the best of me and I decided not to try and scam the warranty, haha.
I did take the old set apart and transfer one of the drivers from the new set, before my concience talked me out of it..
So anyway, now I'm going to have two sets of them.. I should have just looked into new drivers in the beginning because it's so easy to crack the earpieces apart to take the drivers out.
At this point I'll probably just email Vic firth and try to get a driver or two from them.

The guy I saw who swapped different brand drivers in actually researched the specs on them before choosing them, and he said they sounded great, so I was just going to be lazy and copy what he did. (He did have to modify the Vic firth driver mounts to hold the new drivers)



Howard Leight 1030110 Sync Noise-Blocking Stereo Earmuff - Safety Ear Muffs - Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-1030110-Noise-Blocking-Earmuff/dp/B004U4A5RU
Click to expand...
 
Lol! I couldn't believe for thirty bucks how good they were. The sound isolation is great and allows me to keep my play along music at a comfortable level. The sound quality is pretty good too! I'm gald I took a flyer and tried these out...they're an indespensable part of learning tunes for my band.
 
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