W5000 Fitz Mod Guide - Page 7

For the sake of curiosity I'll mod my W5000s into F5000s for the german head-fi meet on 3/17.
My sonic memory is quite bad and therefor I do need the direct comparison.
At the meet there will be a few stock W5000s, and this way we will get some additional impressions of W5000s vs. F5000s from experienced head-fiers.

I can't get that blue tack stuff locally, but I hope Uhu tack is similar and will do the trick.

Ah well, the mystery of audio perception.
The K1000s are no slouch either, but to my ears the W5000s are clearly superior as far as microdetail is concerned.

BTW, where did you get this blue tack stuff in Germany?

We bought it in paper shop. It is white, and cut into stripes of square pieces.
I just presset stripes in fingers and layed around silk inside headphones.

Where is that German meet happening ?

It's in flat red paper package, made by Pritt I guess, I'll check you exact details later on.


--G

Pritt
MULTI-FIX
HAFPUNKTE
(Henkel)

I assume it's made in germany.
I got it in regular paper shop in City Point Kassel.

I have gotten shocked by all of my ATH headphones which I have own at some time. The ATH-W1000, ATH-A900LTD and now the W5000. I have to say much less with my W5000 than the W1000. Lots of this has to do with the level of humidity in my house at the time.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by GASTAN View Post
I modded W5000 with blue tak, left out both white and gray material and still no good. Now F5000 sounds kind of hollow, or weiled. I got a feeling there are no mids, and bass is still not as good as on RS-1 or HD650
What do I do wrong ?
Also every now and then I got the feeling I got electro -shocked to my right ear (that happens seldom when I try to press cups against my ears and position them to get some bass in)



Also I still got the feeling K1000 are more detailed.

--G
____________________________
The static shock is definitely weird, although I think I read something once about somebody else experiencing it with AT phones, because of the metal screen on the drivers or something?

cosmopragma

I am glad someone else will do this comparison. Please also note the relative widths for the headphones you use in your comparison.

I keep on going back and forth between the two. I really like them both. I like the airy sound of the stock W5000 headphones. I also enjoy the slightly darker sound of the modified headphones. So for me at this point I do not think there is going to be a clear cut winner in this comparison. It may even depend more on what music and my mood that I am in during the listening to which sound I favor. But there is a definite difference in the sound presentation between them.

1.5 cents update

after modding to F500 status for over a week, i can honestly say that i realy enjoy the 'new' sound. IMO, it adds to everything and then some to the stock W5000......except (why is there always that word???) for 1 issue. i find that the F5000 has lost the magical 3D soundfield that i value so much on the stocker.

the F5000 has the same 3pointed soundsource effect that i hear on the HD600 and almost everyother cans i've heard instead of the all encompassing elliptycal effect. depth and sound layering is still good - its the width thats the issue for me. cant realy explain this but im sure W5000 owners mite understand.

fitz, anychance that peeling off some of the around the drivers blutack (1/2 of less) mite change the sound sig back to the 3D effect or is this all me and only in my head? any comment?

Well, problem is, stock was honky and way too much highs. no bass.
Today my modded W5000 sounded pretty much like 650 (more detail and brighter). I see what IronDreamer was reffering too (getting similar results from other headphones)
I guess I will give modded some more time (today I actually liked them more than HD650 and RS-1 which was odd, as the other way I liked RS-1 the most.

Well I think this does suggest that the modded W5000 is much darker than stock since it compares with the HD650 but brighter and more detailed..

What I have gleamed from previous reviews is that the darkness of the HD650 is a real strength. I have also gleaned that some of the real strengths of the W5000 is it's detail and an airiness (brightness if I may use that term in this context) that goes toward its major strength of soundstage. Combining both of these strengths into a single headphone should make for a real winner.

So GASTAN how do you compare the soundstage of the F5K to the HD650 and the stock W5000?

scottiebabie:

I don't think that it looses all of its great soundstage after being modified but it does close up some. Maybe this is where I keep going back and forth on in my comparisons as well. I do enjoy that airiness and soundstage that you speak of but I am also enjoying the added depth/weight/darkness which the modded version brings to the headphone. I think your take is very much like my own.

One other thing I would like to know when others are doing this comparison or modification is what is the amp that you are powering your headphone from?

Let us not forget the ATH-A900LTD. For those of you with them make sure you sample the changes that these modifications do to these headphones. I feel that this change is much more a delta than the W5000 to F5K. And this is in the positive direction. Based upon the above maybe the ATH-A900LTDs are more like the HD650 than the W5000s. Less detail and less bright with bigger bass line sounds like it to me. More fuel for the fire here.....

What no one wants to take this on?????

What no takers on what I said at the bottom of my last post...quoted again below.

I thought that I would get a rise from someone...

After the mods on the A900LTD I think it would be a nice comparison for some fair minded individual to compare it with the HD650...especially with the quick comparison that scottiebabie did on the F5000 compared with the HD650...and how I compare the F900LTD to its stock version and the distance it travels with these modifications.

Any takers...

unfortunately i no longer have an a900ltd but if you don't mind doing the comparison, i can send you my recabled (diy silver coated copper cable) hd650 for comparison. i'm not sure if this would be an apples to apples comparison since i don't have the stock cables. maybe someone could lend the stock hd650 cables?

I will have to think about this...sounds like a good opportunity for me to have some quality time with the HD650 though. Maybe, SK138 could do the comparison on it when he gets back.