mod: Monoporice 8323 - Page 3

I found the blu tak and tape, stuffed some cotton balls in the cups, originally i was going to use some spray foam but i couldn't find the can...

They seem a bit "brighter" but the bass doesn't seem to have improved..they're still great portable cans, the most important thing if isolation and leakage.

I've done a bit more work with these headphones lately. Mostly just poking around and trying different things. I came across a combination of mods today that I was having a lot of fun listening to:

1. Dynamat inside the cups, including on the side walls. I covered the vents.

2. Creatology adhesive foam (thin) on top of the Dynamat

3. Acoustic stuffing inside the cups. This includes 2 layers of Acousta-Stuff with a layer of cotton in between. For the cotton, I simply teased a cotton ball up and used that as the layer of cotton.

4. Dynamat on the back of the driver magnet (no holes covered)

5. Donut of a specific type of felt covering that area around the driver magnet (the part where the OP covered half of the holes)

6. Adhesive foam (same as above) on the ear-side baffle. I covered the white material but left holes for the screws.

7. FA-003 or Brainwavs HM5 pads. They're a bit loose, but they work well and sound great.

8. The treble was a bit hot for me, so I placed a foam disc in front of the drivers (temporarily held in place with my ears and clamping force). For this, I just used the ear pads from the KSC75 and cut them up until I had the disc shape I needed. I also did the same thing with a super cheap headphone from Parts-Express, so I ended up having 2 layers of foam in front of the drivers.

There's no need to change the pads to get good sound from these, but I was pretty pleased with the FA003 pads on these. Like I said, they're a bit loose and seem to be picky about getting a good seal, but they sound good and are very comfortable.

The headphone is certainly fun to listen to. Plenty of bass with nice extension. Treble can still be a bit too sparkly and hot at times, but the foam discs in front of the driver really helps with that for me. Seems like they have a U shaped sound signature. Not perfect by any means, but I'm enjoying them. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armaegis 

I'm surprised you were able to bring up the treble enough to make it "hot". My impressions of the sound stock are very bass sloped with a rolled off treble.

The treble on mine was a bit subdued, yes, but it had a few hot spots that were somewhat covered up by the rest of the sound. Trying to bring out the recessed mids and even out the bass response made the treble issues more noticeable. I also seem to be more sensitive to peaky or elevated treble in some cases than others.

Might just be my particular combination of mods and the pads that make it more of a problem than it would be otherwise.

I removed the tape, popped through the vents and used blu tak around the enclosure, they sound a bit better now.

Just picked up these headphones to replace my slightly broken Koss Portapros.  I gotta say, they surprised me right out of the box, but the mids and highs were too grating to me.  The bass was just right but felt a bit uncontrolled.

I tried adding the tape over the vents, the tape on the backside of the driver, the acoustic foam, and the cotton behind the driver.  After that, the bass was there, but nowhere near as present.  The highs were harsh, but the mids were just right.  Everything just felt stuffy as a whole, so I cracked them open again and removed the cotton.  This brought back the lows to an acceptable area, the mids are crisp and the highs were good if not still a little harsh.  After EQing the highs down a touch, everything sounds great.  I might open them again and add some velour or felt and see what that does.

i want it stock.. i dunno if it's just my ears.. 

i even sold my srh 440 because i liked the 8323 more..

my current setup is.. iPod Classic 6G + Fiio E17 + MP 8323

how are these cheapos compared to ATH m50?.. 

I own both and I like the Ath-m50s much more, but the 8323 have a lot more price-sound value. The Ath-m50s are all around better and when amped and eq'd have a much deeper bass. I also find my m50s much much more comfortable. If your going to get the m50s make sure that you get them when they are on sale for like 110$, if they are 130+ look elsewhere (ex. ultrasone hfi-580) Along with comfort the Ath-m50s are more solid then the monoprice 8323. If you want a more "bassy" set of headphones since your name is "bassboy" i would get the audio technica pro700mk2. Another thing that the M50s have over the 8323 is the highs. The highs are simply amazing on them, while they don't wow me on my 8323. The 8323 are still great though and the difference in sound doesn't justify a 80$ difference, maybe a 30$ or 40$ difference.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asdfqwerty 

 

I own both and I like the Ath-m50s much more, but the 8323 have a lot more price-sound value. The Ath-m50s are all around better and when amped and eq'd have a much deeper bass. I also find my m50s much much more comfortable. If your going to get the m50s make sure that you get them when they are on sale for like 110$, if they are 130+ look elsewhere (ex. ultrasone hfi-580) Along with comfort the Ath-m50s are more solid then the monoprice 8323. If you want a more "bassy" set of headphones since your name is "bassboy" i would get the audio technica pro700mk2. Another thing that the M50s have over the 8323 is the highs. The highs are simply amazing on them, while they don't wow me on my 8323. The 8323 are still great though and the difference in sound doesn't justify a 80$ difference, maybe a 30$ or 40$ difference.
 

thanks for your quick reply man! yeah a friend of mine suggested me the Pro700mk2 ;) i haven't tried it though.. i'm scheduled tomorrow for an m50 audition ;D

i'll be giving my impressions tomorrow..

thanks again! and yeah i'm a die hard Basshead! hahaha! 

The ATH-M50s are definitely the better cans.  They are much better out of the box, more comfortable, better bass...pretty much everything asdfqwerty said.  BUT, they are $150+ depending on where you get them and which version you get compared to $30 shipped and maybe some other materials for mods.