Quote:

Originally Posted by clarinetman 

I owned the 840 in the past, and I will say that I think the 940 is much improved. I will also say, like others have, it is amp dependent. I happen to think it sounds excellent with the Matrix M-Stage.

In the brief time that I tried them, I agree that the 940 is better. However I won't say it is "much improved", in audio one typically has to pay many times more to get anything "much improved". The 940 is more detailed and refined to me. Take the 940, add more mid bass and take away some details and airiness, you get the 840. Although their basic sound signature are similar. I don't have problem with its bass, my only complain is the treble can be a little sharp sometimes, the 840 is the same in this regard.

I also disagree that the 940 is low fi, I'd put it just under the DT880 and the like, quite easily better than DT770, and to compare a closed headphone to an open one is not quite fair.

Finally I've modded my headphone using some plastic rope I  found  on the house.

The two piece of rope I  used. Each end of rope are burned, because doing knots would take too much of the thickness  (otherwise the rope structure might be undone).

The rope thickness is roughly 1 cm, and each piece of rope between 23 & 25 cm.

One ear cup stuffed with rope:



You can compare the difference in depth between a ear cup stuffed with rope, and a normal, stock ear cup.



Now  I  enjoy the difference .
In fact it's a long time I  got the idea of increasing of ear cup depth (even before this thread) , but trying first with cotton balls encouraged me to do this mod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarinetman 

That's really interesting. How does it sound compared to the cotton balls?

Well, If I  describe the sound difference with cotton balls: more natural soundstage (no left / right dichotomy)
and I keep more of the "sound biting", "crunching" feeling that I think was a bit lost.
But I  think the difference in sound could be explained by the difference of depth, not the materials used.

At the very  least, with the rope, it's more comfy, because with less thick ear cups I  have less clamping force.
I  think that what matters is that pinna doesn't stick to the back of ear cup, and that even a little space help.
On the other hand , I  believe that too much depth in the ear cups increase the risks of reverberations
that we want to avoid. 

 

Do user confuse reverberations with soundstage? Headphones with bigger cups sometimes tend to have bigger soundstage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by john57 

Do user confuse reverberations with soundstage? Headphones with bigger cups sometimes tend to have bigger soundstage.

Reverberations are an element of soundstage in my view.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzraelDarkangel 

Reverberations are an element of soundstage in my view.

 

I agree with that. I trying to state that reverberations is not necessary a bad thing as previous poster stated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by john57 

I agree with that. I trying to state that reverberations is not necessary a bad thing as previous poster stated.

 

Yep reverberations can participate to the sensation of soundstage.  But I think high end  headphones are engineered to limit reverberations , because we are looking for sound fidelity. And when there's too much reverb, it's not good.

Unfortunately, despite the mod I realize there's still some sensitivity to ear cup positioning.
Depending of the position, it can makes sibilance worse.

I've been listening to , deadmau5 - Sometimes Things Get, Whatever.
And it was an horrible experience, until I realized that position of ear cups matter again.

Ssssometimessss thingsss get complicated.
 

And , this (Sara Bareilles - Bottle It Up) could be completely unbearable depending of position  too:

A corrections to previous post. Yep some rare track might seem more sibilant, but overall the clarity is better , and it's hard to revert the mod once it's done, because so much stuff are more enjoyable.  Also  I  thought the sibilance could be explained by the fact it's in the record, and with great clarity it might seem worse than if it's covered with slight muddiness.

Never listening to Blade runner soundtrack for instance, has sounded so good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AzraelDarkangel 

Reverberations are an element of soundstage in my view.

 

Reverberations? You mean the sound is bouncing off felt, foam and skin?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beagle 

Reverberations? You mean the sound is bouncing off felt, foam and skin?

I'm not sure about any reverberations at all, might be placebo,  I've compared with my hd595 it's fine.
 

I am glad somebody else found it too, there is nothing to steal anyway.  I already bought it so it just make it more fun!

Sorry to bring this thread back up.

I found this mod while looking at the Shure SRH1840 reviews on Amazon.com.

I have my SRH940 headband adjusted at level 1 because it's cracked at settings higher than that. Despite that, the 940's earpads has never quite formed a good seal around my head (there would be a small gap near the bottom of the earpad). Stuffing cotton balls near the bottom of the earpad "seals" that gap and I can definitely hear more bass, and better bass extension with this mod.

Pros:

- More comfortable

- More bass (impact and extension)

    - Bass increases by about the same amount as when my FiiO E7 has the bass boost set to 1

- More noise isolation

- Treble seems less sharp/harsh after contouring the earpad a la LCD-2 style

Cons:

- The cotton fibers sometimes get loose and end up on the earpad, which looks ugly

- I don't hear too much of a difference with treble though, which is slightly unfortunate since I am finding the treble to be a huge problem while commuting (it's really bright and fatiguing).

- The midrange seems to be slightly laid back after my mod; it's subtle, but noticeable especially with violins

Thank you for the suggestion none the less! :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by miceblue 

- The cotton fibers sometimes get loose and end up on the earpad, which looks ugly

And that's exactly why I suggest to use a rope instead. Moreover with a rope you can control thickness, and I've noticed change depending of the thickness.

I think with bigger thickness, the bass is more pronounced. But it affects treble too, that becomes less incisive. I'm wondering if it  doesn't sound similar to srh840, I've never hear them.

Anyway, it's hard to get back, once you tried the mod.