HD555/H595 mod - Page 2

Looks good! Excellent job. I started with a big round circle of foam in the center, but I think your approach -- using strips of foam -- may be even easier.

You can also put foam on the angled/curved surface running from the wiring connector around the edge. You just can't put it on the flat horizontal surface.

How does it sound?

They are actually easier to take off than to put back on. To put them back on requires pressing firmly around the edge until you hear the plastic backing "click" into place. Then, working around the circumference until the pad is firmly seated all the way around.

Just finished the mod...I dunno guys, the first thing that appeared in my mind was, "Damn, that's a veil mod". To me they sound more like "Sennheiser house standart cans". Bass is def better, but i'm afraid if lost some higher highs?? Can't comment on soundstage yet...
Maybe we must not try to be wiser than Sennheiser?
All of that is just an initial impression. I'm planning to listen them to death tonight.

I miss my HD555's

You haven't lost any high frequency response because the direct sound from the driver is unchanged. What you have lost is much of the reflected upper mids/lower treble that is bouncing around inside the cup and arriving at your ear in multiple reflections through the driver baffle openings -- probably mostly in the 500 to 5000 Hz range. The big problem with the reflected sound is the time smearing.

The headphone will definitely sound "less bright" on first listen, because that reflected sound was adding significantly, especially at higher volume levels -- and not in a good way.

Try listening to a wide range of material. I found that the headphones are much more forgiving. A lot of recordings that were overly aggressive are much improved. The slight edginess on Norah Jones' voice is gone. Really bright recordings -- like Michael Jackson or Tina Tuner -- are no longer fatiguing. Well recorded acoustic stuff (Nickle Creek's first album is a good example) is amazing.

I've found some compromise. I'd recommend put the foam all over the place inside but not cover some of the holes of the inner grill (red marker on the pic-not cover this area). This way you'll maintain all the benefits's of hwc mod (elimination of reflected piercing upper mids/lower treble), and let the air flow and move just as fast as it intended to move originally (i think covering the holes with foam slows air flow a little bit). I think it made the mod even better.

P.S. BTW, hwc, check my sig

The way to think about the foam is that it is like an old-fashioned tone control for the reflected sound. It doesn't attenuate bass at all, but it does attenuate higher frequencies -- a slight amount in the midrange, increasing with rising frequencies. Anyone who has added or removed foam pads in front of the driver (i.e. removing the foam pad from HD-580s or adding one to the HD-595s has heard this effect).

The more foam you add to the inside of the HD-595s, the more you reduce the upper midrange reflected sound.

I doubt the foam inside the cup is having any effect at all above 10,000 Hz because I'm not sure that that super high frequencies can even survive all the reflections anyway. And, of course, it's not attenuating the direct high frequencies from the driver at all.

I first started thinking about this mod after trying foam in front of the driver in the HD-595s. It cured the upper mid range harshness, but the cost was a noticeable decrease in "sparkle" on things like cymbals. I also noticed that upper midrange harshness increased at high volumes -- a good indication that part of the issue was putting large amounts of energy into the reflected sound.

The one thing you want to be careful of is not using very thick foam that actually presses against the back of the entire driver -- showing an imprint of the whole driver after a while in the foam. This will actually change the mechanical loading on the driver. The goal is to just damp the reflections from the hard surfaces of the cup with thin pieces of foam.

Is this mod proven to expand the soundstage? Or is it purely cosmetic.(before people start ripping apart their poor HD595's/555's)

-Shade.

Soundstage and imaging is almost entirely a function of time response, specifically the precise arrival times of fundamentals and harmonic overtones at the ear. Those are the clues the brain uses to locate sounds. Any modification that reduces "time smearing" will increase the size of the soundstage.

On my HD-595s with the foam modification, far left and far right sounds often sound like they are coming from as much as two feet outside my head.

modShade, it's not ripping, it's a well-documented procedure. I've also feared at start, but it's pretty easy. Here's a link(right click-save as...):
http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser...ontage_eng.pdf

Am I supposed to take the outer grill (the black one) out with the hwc mod?

So do I. I should've spent more time with them before moving on.

No, don't touch it. Read the thread attentively.

Oke, thanks for the mod. I am pretty pleased with it. Like the bass and voices more.

Just a scientist's word: high frequencies have more energy and can withstand more reflections..