Modding the Sennheiser pc350 headset - Page 13

OK.. im going to give it until the 30 day is up for return until I start my mod. but I really dont see how people could HATE these. When I first played mw2 (1st 4 hour session on the headset) I was very discouraged. Now that I have about 30 hours on them, 22 or so gaming and about 8 music, they have drastically improved! The biggest break in difference I've experienced with headphones. I'm happy to say that, with 30 hours on em, the pros of these blow away my previous turtle beach hpx, and sennheiser HD 280. The bass is much stronger though still a light and not as tight as I'd prefer. The screechy sound, which I'd place around upper mids or low highs, has toned down to a very acceptable level. I'm interested in possibly having a seamstress put a soft cloth or velour on the part of the pads that touch your head because I do think that would help some things, mainly comfort, although these are the best fitting cans I've used, I do like cloth pads. I will have pics of my mods the days I do them. Think im going to start with 2, 1/16" holes at the top of each cup and some sort of dampening material. Ive already taken an earcup apart and it seems extremely easy to do this mod. Look forward to updating you guys. Thanks again everyone!

Im going to do a personal opinion comparison of these without the mod, after 30 hours of use. Against the turtle beach hpx and sennheiser hd280 (I know my comparisons aren't the best but the only others I've used for gaming are the turtle beach x1's and those aren't worth any sort of mention). Keep in mind im a console gamer so these were all being pushed by the astro mixamp, in stereo for music and dolby headphone for games. so here it goes..Comfort: BY FAR the best fitting! Everything about the pc350 is extremely comfortable. surprisingly light, clamp just right, huge earcups. The only small complaint is fixable, I wish it had cloth or velour pads. I will try to get a nice material put on just the part that touches your head or get the 595 pads. Sound: for music it crushessss the Turtle beach hpx and is close to, but different then the 280. I would say that if the bass was tighter it would be better in every way, but its not. I do find more detail/nuances in music though so the 350 are my music cans of choice. Gaming: I find you can hear slightly more detail all around in the 350 compared to the other two. Playing a full sized game in mw2 when there are harriers and/or helicopters can seem chaotic at points because of this but the directionality is quite incredible! Even through the sound of a helicopter you can still pick up on footsteps and literally be shooting before a person walks around a corner. I mainly play team doubles (2vs2) on game battles (double Dutch rudder, 110-29 hehe) and picking up on any movement becomes effortless since their is much less to pay attention to. I give these headphones a full recommendation to any gamer that doesn't have $300 for just the headset (beyer's). I had to buy the mixamp and the cans so I spent $250 and couldn't justify the extra $180 sadly but the PC 350 bests the turtle hpx and senn HD 280 in everyway overall. Also, to all you console gamers, throw away your astro a40's and (ew) x41's. The turtle beach hpx is better, and the sennheiser PC 350 are even better then all of them.

By "throw away your astro a40's" I meant just the headphones NOT the mixamp. The mixamp really is a great little tool, I even use it on my PC (please dont bash me too hard guys! Please! Lol) Because im not into PC gaming much therefor dont have a great sound card in my machine.

Sorry to threadjack like this, but I have a pair of HD448 from Sennheiser, which I just opened up and this is what I found inside:

They're also light on bass and I was wondering if maybe I should go for it and open a hole in the casing. What's your experience with filling up the holes? Does the sound return to default? In case the mod goes horribly wrong I'd like to be sure I can remedy it.

hey, i was just wondering where i could get some PXC 450 and HD 595/555 pads in Australia?

Hi all,

I'm really looking into trying this. Basically I went from using an xtremegamer sound card to a xonar essence st. Since then the bass has been non-existent, I guess because there is no bass increase option in the sound properties anymore, even though yes I can increase the bass through the xonar's audio center EQ, however using any of the dsp's or dolby settings will reset the EQ to default.

I'm just wondering is this mod one of the cures for my problem?

Bump

I just did the mod with a thumbtack. A little pressure and it slides in. I made two holes and even though they are tiny because of the thumbtack size, the sound improved a lot. I am much happier with the headphones thanks to this mod. In addition, the earpads from the 595 work wonders. Makes you feel almost no congestion affects of the closed system.

Same here, I actually used a tiny screwdriver instead of a drill or a tac, and it was very difficult to puncture the plastic - I punctured it in the same place as the photo. But the two tiny holes made a huge improvement in bass. I actually just bought them, and am not convinced that I'm impressed with the sound even with the mod. I will try burning them in some more, but will probably return them at the last possible second and get better headphones or a PC360.

Also, I talked with several Sennheiser reps about the pc360 release, and finally a seemingly higher-up called me back with info and told me that it was most likely coming out the week of may 24th - and early June at the latest.

I dont like my PC350 at all, they are detailed more than any other headphones i have, but all my other ones cost me a 1/3 or less from these.
They are not fun to listen to, and the bass is just plain bad, i did this mod and only drilling one tiny hole in each earpiece was enough for me, i noticed a bass increase but "increase" doesn't mean it became better, just bigger, i could have just equalized it in my computer for the same result. SENN, I AM DISSAPOINT.

I did this mod last night -- 3 holes with a hot nail -- half a cotton ball of padding. The result is amazing and I had to register here just to say thank you.

earpads

Switching earpads helps to. The default ones are just to closed. I ordered a pair of the hd595 ear ones and they are much better. You wont feel congested anymore, downside is its a little more open, but still more closed than the hd595 set so its pretty good balance.

Thank yoooooooooou!

I have to say, that even though I've visited Head-Fi.org before, I didn't plan on actually registering anytime soon... But after seeing this thread and trying out this mod I just HAD TO.

Let me start at the beginning. I'm primarily a gamer. I have an Asus Xonar D2X on my gaming rig and was using it with a pair Creative HN-700 Noise Cancelling headphones (I got both for a song at a clearance sale). But after reading rave reviews about the PC350's great sound quality when it came to positional audio in games, I just had to order me a pair. I also ended up selling the HN-700's.

I was stoked when I finally got them and I loved the look. I hooked them up to my rig and immediately gave them a test run. Although positional audio with Dolby Headphones was near perfect, I was very, VERY disappointed with the lack of bass. This became all too apparent when I put on some songs. My favorite genre being metal, the lack of bass was a real deal-breaker for me. I mean, I had read that the headset was lacking in bass well before I purchased it but I assumed that with a good card like the Xonar, it wouldn't really be a problem. Painfully, not so. I played around with the EQ settings but to no avail. The fact that the HN-700 had been a bass-heavy headset only made the it's absence more apparent.

A friend of mine actually came over to listen to some music and on listening to a track I played him on the PC350's, his very first comment was (even thought he knew nothing about this headset) - "Why is there a complete lack of bass?". True story.

Finally, by happenstance I came upon this gem of a thread. Although I'm not a hardware-oriented modder by any stretch of imagination, the tutorial looked simple enough... so I figured I'd give it a shot. Not having any power tools at home and not wanting to play around with fire (literally) and use hot nails, I decided to use the thumb-tack method. Worked perfectly! With a little pressure and a few twists, I managed to easily puncture 3 small holes in each can. I tried the headset out and noticed a definite improvement... but it wasn't enough. So I took it apart again and this time used two small screw drivers to manually enlarge the holes till I managed to get them to a good ~2mm in diameter. I put it back together, routed the headset through my sub-woofer's headphone out and... HOLY ****! THE BASSS!! It's ALiiiiVE! It's as if I was listening to a completely different headset!

I've never used audiophile-grade headphones before so I can't really compare but the sound quality just completely blew me away! Everything about the headset was now finally PERFECT. Everything. The highs, the mid-tones and now the bass... so sexy, that when amped the headset literally thumps and BOOMS I've rediscovered music. I'm now going back to listen to all my albums again because I'm now hearing things I'd never noticed before! This disappointment of a headset has now turned into one of the best investments I've made in a LONG time!

Thank you Hero! I registered on this site (as you'll see from my post-count) JUST to thank you! You are da MAN!

P.S. I'm from Sri Lanka

God Bless You. Peace.