Name Those Cans!
- Thread starter boreas
- Start date
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
These cans aren't all that well thought of but I read an old thread on Head-Fi where a guy ("ziplock") had modified a pair and, afterward, thought they compared very favorably to his Beyerdynamic 770s.
The mods, as he performed them, are dead simple. It takes maybe 5 minutes and the transformation is remarkable. Here's what he did.
1. Remove the backs (one screw each).
2. Carefully remove the small foam plug in the pole piece. (I used tweezers instead of a toothpick. Recommended.)
3. Done. Leave the backs off.
When I read this I had to give it a try since I'd been pretty unimpressed with my Sonys.
Removing the foam is the biggest improvement. (WTF is it there for anyway???) The bass, weak and flabby before, was as tight and as strong as it could be but well in balance with the overall tonal character. The mids are strong and the highs are sweet and clear. It's as if the cans had been playing through a pillow before..... and they kinda were.
I wasn't comfortable leaving the backs off because of all the exposed wires. The difference with and without backs is more subtle than with and without foam but there is a difference. Without the backs there's much more air and a broader, deeper soundstage. Because of this I decided to do something to open the backs up but, at the same time, protect the wiring and drivers from inadvertent damage.
At first, I just "Swiss cheesed" the covers. It worked but not quite as well as without backs at all. Plus it looked sorta low rent. That's when I decided on the wire screen.
I took a 2-1/8" hole saw, located the center of the circular area of the covers and then removed a big section of each back. Before cutting, the backs look like this.
The source for the screening was one of those ubiquitous desk accessories made out of lightweight expanded metal, in this case, a letter organizer. I cut out circles of the material about 1/4" larger in diameter than the holes, placed them in position with the covers face down on a towel and then "domed" the screen by pushing on it with my thumb all around the perimeter of the holes. Then I ran a bead of JB Kwik around the edges of the screens.
All the air and the big soundstage returned.
I'm sure there are better cans out there, lots better, but these are really pretty damn good now, especially when compared to the stock MDR-V600.
Here's the thread from Head-Fi that got me going.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/247925/interesting-mod-for-the-sony-mdr-v600-56k
John
The mods, as he performed them, are dead simple. It takes maybe 5 minutes and the transformation is remarkable. Here's what he did.
1. Remove the backs (one screw each).
2. Carefully remove the small foam plug in the pole piece. (I used tweezers instead of a toothpick. Recommended.)
3. Done. Leave the backs off.
When I read this I had to give it a try since I'd been pretty unimpressed with my Sonys.
Removing the foam is the biggest improvement. (WTF is it there for anyway???) The bass, weak and flabby before, was as tight and as strong as it could be but well in balance with the overall tonal character. The mids are strong and the highs are sweet and clear. It's as if the cans had been playing through a pillow before..... and they kinda were.
I wasn't comfortable leaving the backs off because of all the exposed wires. The difference with and without backs is more subtle than with and without foam but there is a difference. Without the backs there's much more air and a broader, deeper soundstage. Because of this I decided to do something to open the backs up but, at the same time, protect the wiring and drivers from inadvertent damage.
At first, I just "Swiss cheesed" the covers. It worked but not quite as well as without backs at all. Plus it looked sorta low rent. That's when I decided on the wire screen.
I took a 2-1/8" hole saw, located the center of the circular area of the covers and then removed a big section of each back. Before cutting, the backs look like this.
The source for the screening was one of those ubiquitous desk accessories made out of lightweight expanded metal, in this case, a letter organizer. I cut out circles of the material about 1/4" larger in diameter than the holes, placed them in position with the covers face down on a towel and then "domed" the screen by pushing on it with my thumb all around the perimeter of the holes. Then I ran a bead of JB Kwik around the edges of the screens.
All the air and the big soundstage returned.
I'm sure there are better cans out there, lots better, but these are really pretty damn good now, especially when compared to the stock MDR-V600.
Here's the thread from Head-Fi that got me going.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/247925/interesting-mod-for-the-sony-mdr-v600-56k
John
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boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
Thank you, gentlemen!
So, I actually have two sets of these now, both modded. I got the second set so I could do a real-time A-B comparison..... but mostly 'cuz I just knew I was going to screw up somewhere along the way..... but, somehow, I didn't. When I finished the first set and did the comparison, I modded the second set the same way. So now I've got a spare pair!
One pair is Chinese and the other is Japanese. Oddly, the Chinese pair sounds just a tad better, a little cleaner, a little more present and a bit more gain. The workmanship is ever so slightly better in the Chinese pair too. Hard to tell but the difference is real.
John
Didn't know you were a headphone guy on top of everything else. This can only be a good thing. I prefer open-back 'phones myself and have tended to modify/destroy any closed-back 'phones that dare come near.
I was about to take a stab at explaining the intent behind the little foam plug, but when you said the bass tightened after its removal, I performed a balletic U-turn and started doing something else. I'll simply leave it to you to enjoy the backlessness of your V600s.
I was about to take a stab at explaining the intent behind the little foam plug, but when you said the bass tightened after its removal, I performed a balletic U-turn and started doing something else. I'll simply leave it to you to enjoy the backlessness of your V600s.
boreas
"If it sounds good, it IS good." E.K.E.
Hey, Walt!
I'm not exactly a headphone guy. I guess I'm more of a stealth guy. Headphones are my way of feeding the addiction in the face of a noise-phobic upstairs landlord. Cans eliminate the phone calls asking me to turn the music down.
Would have enjoyed seeing that pirouette.
I would like to hear your ideas on that foam plug though.A perhaps clearer description of the sound would be that the bass, with the plug in place, was diffuse though far from suppressed. Removing the plug made it much more articulate. You could tell you were hearing a kick drum or a string bass rather than some generic thud. The mids jumped right out too. It was the mids that were pretty weak previously. The highs became clearer, almost crystalline after being fairly tinny before.
John
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Okay, here we go. Normally, that hole the foam plug is occupying would be a vented pole piece for the magnetic circuit, and by supplying a small amount of acoustic resistance (ie, said foam), you'd be adding damping to the moving system (diaphragm) and bass would improve. Except in this case, it didn't, and the opposite occurred. Not too surprising, but it makes me want to get a pair and see what's really going on.
