HD800 Cable Advice - Page 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwang411 

Are there any recommendations if I want a warmer sound?

I find the trebles a bit too harsh at times, and although the mids are good, I wish there's a bit more warmth to it so the vocals sound better.

Thanks!

Noticed the list of sources you're using; could these be partially responsible for the hash treble?
 

I want more bass, varmer mids and less treble. Any cable that'll make these specific wonders?  

Originally Posted by ardilla 

I want more bass, varmer mids and less treble. Any cable that'll make these specific wonders?  

You can have these wonders even almost for free (I know, that's less appealing...). It's not a cable that does it, though – but after this mod a Silver Dragon has proven to be an excellent match.
.

Yes, the HD800 mods with fabric going inside the earcup to the left of the driver are pretty effective.  You can try a lot of different materials, very thin cotton works well in my book.  

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

to Jazz for including a link to this HD800 mod thread

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/464042/want-more-bass-from-your-hd-800-easy-mod

which also includes a link to this prior HD800 mod thread

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/446585/hd800-modification-thread

which is real helpful to folks like me who read head-fi occasionally and miss some great ideas like these!

and when I saw this comment by IPodPJ

"Each HD800 varies in tonal balance. When at the last meet, I tried Uncle Erik's HD800 on a vinyl rig with my cable and compared them to my HD800 with the mod. His pair had a little more bass than mine did. So you won't be able to find one mod that will work for everyone, since all pairs of HD800 measure differently."

I was really happy, because my HD800s suffer from being too dark, not too bright --- they seem to emphasize the lower harmonics instead of the higher harmonics.  I installed the Silver Dragon V3 cable from Moon and that really helped a lot.  But I would very much like to know what you wizards think I could try to mod in the inner reflection surfaces that might take it the other way, brighter???

If some of you have ideas for this direction, would you PLEASE share them here???

Originally Posted by budx3385 

"Each HD800 varies in tonal balance. When at the last meet, I tried Uncle Erik's HD800 on a vinyl rig with my cable and compared them to my HD800 with the mod. His pair had a little more bass than mine did. So you won't be able to find one mod that will work for everyone, since all pairs of HD800 measure differently." 

I doubt that such massive deviations are the norm; the posted individual FR graphs just show marginal differences. My friend Kurt's new pair had the same sonic balance as mine when I auditioned it, just showed the initial unrefinement I recall from mine.

Since the main effect of the mod is the reduction of inner reflections, the reduced treble intensity is the result of reduced parasitic transient corruption – the direct sound from the membrane has the same treble content as before. Hence it is the better solution than a cable with the same treble-reducing effect, which reduces the sound as a whole, direct signal and parasitic reflections. That's not to say that all a cable does is amplitude-response modifications, though, but it's one important component, and it certainly can't eliminate earpiece reflections. So independent of the desired sonic balance I would try the mod anyway and then start from there in your case. The more so as it has a beneficial effect on the relation between mid-treble and upper treble. To my ears the original mid-treble emphasis has indeed somewhat outshone the upper treble – a phenomenon that's almost gone since the mod, not least because the 6.3-kHz peak now is perceivedly reduced to almost zero. Add to this the nice sparkle the Silver Dragon adds to the upper treble...

The only solution that comes to mind – if after the mod the result is still on the dark side for your ears – is active equalizing. Have you already tried different earpiece placements? I wear my HD 800 very low for optimal results.

JaZZ - thanks again.  I just replied to your answer in the HD800 bass mod thread

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/464042/want-more-bass-from-your-hd-800-easy-mod/60#post_6911013