The JVC HA-S500.. Appreciation, fan thread. - Page 250

Personally i find the stock pads more comfortable than ath pads but the sound is definitely more open with the ath. I'm using the pads of my esw9 and i must have small ears as my whole ear fits in the pad.

I will probably pick up some senn pads to compare as well.

Currently i am at my inlaws but i left the s500s at home plugged into selections from the alan parsons soundcheck cd, drum and bass volume 9 and the tron soundtrack.

@dsnuts

Don't find the link to my mix page in the OP yet, many people said that my sets are good for burning these babies in.

Here it is again in case you missed it:

http://mixcloud.com/liftedandreas

Awesome, thanks mate!

Btw, I posted my initial impressions of these headphones few pages back too... hope you can add that to the OP too

Thanks again mate!

Btw, my trance mixes can be downloaded in 320kbps highest quality here:
http://laserkissedvibes.4shared.com


Edited by Lifted Andreas - 12/15/12 at 2:36pm

Hi,

 

thanks for all the pad and other mod ideas posted in this thread, been fun times trying different configurations on the now three 500s in the family.

 

These phones really are something special in terms of value for money and for doing mods. Thought to share my findings again. Sorry, a bit of a long post, but hopefully useful for anybody modding or further explorations of mods:

 

My favorite configuration on the oldest pair with hundreds of hours of use so far, primarily used iPod Classic and to some extent the other stuff in my sig to test the sound:

 

• added a flat round 2 mm thick cotton swab (simple cosmetics stuff) inside the cup behind the driver covering the whole cup bottom

   --> reducing the level or maybe unevenness of the high mids or highs which caught my ear (I dislike prominent mid-high and treble and esp. treble distortion) by reducing reflections

• ATH pleather pad

   --> reduce the bass compared to stock, HD25 and Noontec Zoro pads by unblocking the bass ports and maybe by reducing the bass lense formed by the stock pad with smaller diameter hole

   --> increased sound stage a bit and comfort

   --> highs a bit shrill/prominent and mids tend to get shouty on higher volumes, due to larger hole

• added with a HD25 pad foam disc on the ear side of the pad

   --> reduce the highs and mids a bit bv attenuating them with the foam

• taped over the bass ports under the pad and also the slot for sliding the pads in place

   --> restored some of the bass when the mids and highs became a bit too much with the ATH pads

• HM5 pads over the ATH pleather pads, kept in place with the O-ring

   --> much bigger soundstage with increased height and depth, and comfort is out of this world, due to moving the drivers away from ears

   --> again, changed highs to be a bit shrill/prominent and mids too shouty

   --> the O-ring sealing in effect the vents from inside the cup and pad to the groove for the pads seems to emphasize the low bass and/or tighten the bass, tried this also without HM5 pads

• added a 2 mm thick flat cotton swab thick cut to fit the inner diameter of the ATH pleather pad on the ear side of the pad

   --> reduce the highs and the mids by attenuation. A larger diameter swab made the sound veiled, this seemed to strike a balance between detail/clarity and reducing the mids and highs

 

I tried to modify many other ways but seems I cannot improve this configuration with anything I have thought of so far short of starting to do irreversible mods or mass loading. Things I tried and did not like:

• bblocking one or both of the bass ports on the back of the driver

   --> bass reduced a bit, but felt that this was unnecessary with the ATH pads and may have reduced the soundstage

• only velour pads of ATH or HD25

   --> bass disappeared, shrill highs, shouty mids

• only HM5 pads with or withou O-ring

   -->  shrill highs, shouty mids

• HD25 pads

   --> still a bit too much bass

   --> soundstage smaller and mids took a step back

• disconnect and reverse the cups and try to have the pads angled towards back of the head with various cotton and cardboard pieces under the HM5 pads to get even better soundstage

   --> comfort and positioning not good, sound got skewed with the angling however I tried

 

Things to try still

• only HM5 pads padded with cotton. I suspect that the highs and the bass may still be a bit too much for me, as well as the bass
• ?

 

The remaining issue I have with the above configuration is that the sounds gets a bit shouty/mid emphasized when turning the volume up from normal low level listening. Any ideas how to fix that would be appreciated.

 

And I cannot help wondering whether angling the drivers towards the back of the head a bit would not provide an even better soundstage.

 

All based on my ears, my equipment, my brain and biases, YMMV.

Unfortunately I don't have any other pads here to test them so I must order them. So far I don't find that necessary the ATH pleathers, maybe after a test I would change my mind!

Cheers mate!

Any chance you can add that download link to the OP too?

Thanks.


Ah ok, well I've only just ordered myself some ATH Pleathers this weekend.

Let's hope I'll get them before Jan, however I doubt it. :/

LMAO! Great picture

[ I think that is Dsnuts there on the front in the vibrant blue shirt.

 

That's me walking on the tracks wondering if i need to jump on.]

 

Has anyone got any internal shots of the driver itself, or even a diagram I'm intensely curious.  As well what's up with the special Neo magnet, sounds different than normal.

 

Yeah i started reading a ton of pages , will keep on going though the train looks slow 

 

found a couple shots. disregard the above, but how can you  it's that blue shirt ....

Edited by nick n - 12/16/12 at 5:12am

the pads are mainly for inccreasing comfort

after burning them in at just over 350 hours, and i listened to them once when opening them, the ha-s500 are amazing
highs have smoothed out, has the right amount of bass too
this is off laptop dac too
waiting for centrance m8...

edit: laptop dac really do suck
on quite a few songs, the highs are pretty sibilant, but switching to iphone 4 corrects it
Edited by fuzzyash - 12/16/12 at 6:35am

Yeah mate, I'm using Behringer UCA-222 with my laptop and the sound is pretty good.

Centrance??

release date should be january
heres the thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/622939/the-centrance-hifi-m8-thread
and heres their blog: http://centrance.com/products/new/blog/
kinda pricey at $700 retail but i hope this shoud be my end-all portable amp/dac

Thanks mate, that should be interesting.

However that price tag puts me off straight away, lets hope the quality will be astronomical because if it isn't I'm not even gonna consider it.