@Reputator And to attest to the SE700's greatness some more - my pair has stayed my sole daily driver headphones for the last 2+ years! (Mainly 3 mods - the earpad swap for comfort+bass, recabling mod to resolve cutting out issues, and comfort leather strap sold to me @GREQ many years ago) I...

I was able to have my SE-700s do bass justice with upgraded earpads (the best I found to be these 100mm outer / 60mm inner diameter sheepskin earpads) attached using a ring of double-sided adhesive tape to create a seal - see link for brief guide. Some EQing-up is still needed to reach bass...

Ah okay my bad I thought you were still waiting for them to be shipped to you. IMO I wouldn't "chase" after the exact same earpads to replace the stock pads; earpad technology was much simpler back then and we've advanced in foam material (now everything is memory foam) as well as cover...

Hard to tell, you'll have to wait till you get it I guess before you can 1) take measurements about the earpad sizes, and 2) wiggle it around to see how the earpads mount onto the headphone (ideally it's a simple "lip" backing that hooks onto the rim of the driver casing, as that's the most...

Could it be possible that the original foam (probably not memory foam but something much less resilient) has fully disintegrated in the stock pads from all the years? I notice that sometimes with old headphones - the stock pad foams just rotted away to nothing, leaving a squishy outer earpad...

Pioneer SE-700 full-sized earpad mod (for comfort mostly). Got these 105 mm diameter lambskin earpads with good memory foam. Got some double-sided tape and cut it up like so to adhere the earpads strongly to the outer clear plasic shell part of the headphones Also cut out adhere-backed felt...

Personally my advice is just to do some general earpad-rolling if you want to get the most out of your vintage cans with deteriorated stock pads. I.e.: Measure the diameter of the earpads Make a note of the earpad-attachment mechanism (is there a lip that the pads wrap over, or is it by...

Pioneer SE-700 channel cutting out - recabling project update: Finally got the soldering equipment, heat shrink tubing, a donor cable (some old Hifiman headphone cable I had laying around), and the guts to do my first recabling! The operation took 3 whole hours mostly because I couldn't get a...

Good to know and makes a lot of sense, thanks @GREQ . I wanna try to go one step further and recable mine up to be balanced, will plan a bit more and buy tools/parts needed then :)

Interesting - how did you retain the brass pin while threading through (I'm assuming) a new cable? Are these all part of your new cable, soldered on new? I wonder if it would be feasible to work in a balanced 4-pin cable by soldering the left side as separate black leads...

Thank you for this tips summary - duly noted :) For SE-700 specifically and for the part where the cable enters the left driver and splits (label A), do you remember if there were any particular challenges/issues overcoming that? What did you do with / in lieu of the original rubberized tube...

Very cool haha. Any tips for a total novice to cable repairing?

Fascinating, I can see why pioneer stopped making piezoelectric headphones after this generation. Most buyers probably found it uselessly inefficient compared to most other cans back then. @GREQ did you happen to document your repair steps / any photos? I do not have tools handy for now but may...

Drank the Pioneer SE700 coolaid - what a hard pair of headphones to drive! This particular pair also came with channel-cutting-out issues (I pinpointed it to where the cable enters the left cup - temporary fix was some strategic ziptieing). But what a fast, airy and clean sound - really...

Interesting! I think that Ebay flooding of headphone suspension straps has long since died out lol. Same with Amazon. I guess it was a phase.

Woah! I commissioned this headband from you back in 2013 :xf_eek: (Just dug up my DMs). It's been 8 years, totally forgot haha. It worked well for the Hifiman HE-500s I had back then, but was in cold storage until my recent venture into these headphones. Did you make any more of these since...

These sounded so damn good after some invasive modding (new earpads with added perforations, internal cup damping, converting to open-backs), decided to nab a second pair! Pair #1 started with an A- tonality (that's what piqued my interest initially) but some nasty upper midrange ringing/glare...

An update on my Elega DR-140Cs: Drivers and cup damping... Drivers: The driver's (aluminum) front cover-piece is entirely glued to the actual driver. Not sure what the exact driver cone material is because can't see it, but the back side appears to be some sort of hard mesh fabric that's...

Oh yeah I see a lot of those gigantic cans with volume knobs on the marketplace lol. I'd concur with that at least out of the box with stock earpads for these Elegas. But with modern earpads I modded, they put my Sennheiser HD6XXs to shame, and I'm finding them doing some aspects (the bass...

Oh that's fascinating! I did some Google queries and did not spot any photos on the web of headphones with speaker-basket drivers, so it was mysterious for sure. I wonder what led to their popularity then and fading into obscurity after. Were they too big? I know a lot of JPN brands veered...

^ This little vintage headphone adventure also gave me a thought - what if a main factor holding back the SQ of countless otherwise amazing vintage headphones, is that they are missing some modern well-damped memory foam velour earpads? The SQ (in pretty much all aspects) of these particular...

Recently picked up an Elega DR-140C (late 1970s headphones under really solid condition), and after a few mods (headstrap mod + swapping in some modded modern earpads with damping holes) it is quickly become a new favourite for me. General characteristics: rich but not thick, renders vocals...

Yeah, Hifiman really should slow down their product cycles...accumulate more R&D into impactful new cycles, rather than this incremental, unremarkable cycling of new product release. Back in the day HE400, HE500, HE560 were very exciting, well-received releases, even if those products each had...

Only if Alex Cavalli is interested and willing despite his retirement, hehe. Then again, once an audiophile, always an audiophile.

Ordered! Oh Lord estimated delivery Feb 2018...I guess I will hibernate for half a year haha.