Fellow Head-Fi'ers, it is my sincere honor to unearth what I truly believe to be one of the most groundbreaking headphone mods of recent history. Introducing the "AM&R Mod" for the SoundMAGIC HP 100. This is an internal mod  for the HP 100 headphones with the option for balanced mode (highly recommended), and will also be available for the HP 150.
 
PREFACE:
Let me start out by saying that I have thoroughly tested these out / compared them for one week before writing this review. And this is a headphone I've previously owned for going on 2 years - so take my word this review was not written hastily. After several days I have finally chosen the perfect word to describe the sound from this headphone mod:  SENSATIONAL! Every time I listen with these headphones I'm instantly transported to the location of the recording, and it never fails to brighten me up!
 
Regarding the equipment used:
These impressions are based almost entirely off a balanced connection to the Cavalli Audio Liquid Carbon amp in high gain, with Gustard X12 DAC being fed well-mastered lossless files directly by a PC via ASIO in direct tunnel mode. Later I will discuss difference between its' balanced / unbalanced sound (as well as before/after mods).

 
BACKGROUND:
The initial idea to mod the HP 100 was mine - I mailed my pair of HP 100's to fellow Head-Fi'er @Packdemon - a local California headphone mod extraordinaire who I've had the pleasure of meeting at the last two meet's I've organized. My request was simply to convert this headphone into balanced mode, and find a way to tame the spiky treble and the boomy bass. But to my disbelief, the result was much greater than I ever expected! 
 
He had taken this mod to SoCal Can Jam 2016 and had had impressed a lot of people with it, including the staff of SoundMAGIC themselves (more below).
 
After 10 years of searching for the "perfect" closed-back headphone, I can finally say without a doubt this is the closest thing to "perfection" I have ever found. And that is after trying about 20 closed 'cans including all of Denon's line, all Fostex line, all of Mr. Speakers line, all of Beyerdynamic's line, Oppo, etc. The only two closed headphones that have come close to this were Beyerdynamic DT 1770 and Fostex TH-900 of which cost much more (will cover this in comparisons section)... and the (discontinued) Sony MDR-R10, but that surpasses headphones of all types I've heard.
 

 
SOUND IMPRESSIONS:

1. Overall:

Vivid, energetic, lush, intimate, detailed, very punchy / dynamic, clear, well balanced, refined and slightly dark-leaning. This is the TOTAL AUDIOPHILE EXPERIENCE!
 

1. Mids:

This is definitely one of it's main strengths! The mids I get from these are lush, intimate velvety and downright delicious! It's the kind of sound you would expect from a flagship that was burned in for many years, or from a closed headphone costing many times more.
 

1. Bass: 

Weighty, punchy & pleasing. The bass response on this mod was the first headphone I've found to perfectly straddle both basshead and neutral simultaneously. The slight bass emphasis adds just the right amount of bass when the recording calls for it, and with bass heavy music this thing becomes a bass cannon traversing deep, deep down the basshead territory. But make no mistake - I myself am not a basshead at all, yet these suit me quite well! 
The bass is much more refined than before modding (see comparisons below)
 

1. Treble: 

Well detailed and vivid. These may not be the most organic or detailed in the treble realm, but for 80% of the recordings I've thrown at it, this realm seems very well done (see more in comparisons)
 

1. Soundstage: 

Absolutely up there with the best soundstage I have ever heard in a closed back! Every time I put these on I get very lifelike, expansive, 3D soundstage that makes me question how this is possible from a closed 'can!
 

1. Dynamics / punchyness: 

Astoundingly good! This too is one of it's strengths! Great slam and near perfect PRaT, making it lovely especially for electronic and pop music.
 

1. ISOLATION:

Another one of it's strengths! This mod uses a very special earpad replacement, and I'll tell you with utmost certainty this is the best isolation I have ever had on a headphone, short of using industrial earmuffs. I can still hear things like the stoke of my keyboard and murmer of voices down the hall, but at a much lesser amount than stock. The isolation is twice as good as my other closed cans (Denon AHD 1001, Shure SRH 940 and Beyer. DT 150), especially at cancelling out high frequencies. 
 note: please refer to user @Packdemon for the details. All I know is that these are $40 earpads, feel / fit wonderful and have a special memory foam.
 
SUITABLE FOR: 
Casual music lovers and audiophiles alike. Does great with movies / vocals as well. OK for studio post-production mastering but maybe not for studio monitoring, as the details / instrument separation are a nuance behind for this realm.
 
SELECTED COMPARISONS:

1.  Vs. Sennheiser HD 650:

This was one of the most strinking things to me: After one year with the 650's at top, this mod has (nearly) unseated the HD 650!
 
Out of the Liquid Carbon amp in balanced mode, the modded HP 100 takes the lead with dynamics, midrange and bass quantity, while the HD 650 reigns supreme in soundstage, instrument separation and treble quality. 
 
* With the HD 650, the treble on the comes across as more lifelike / airy / organic and separated, and the soundstage is slightly larger.
* With the HP 100 mod, the impact seems slightly punchier, midrange is lusher and the bass is more weighty / full.
 
Throughout this past week I've found myself gravitating towards the HP 100 mod about 80% of the time, save for when a song was mastered too bright or too dark - I then preferred the HD 650 as these do a good job at masking extremities in recordings.
 
Overall I've found:
* the sound of the HP 100 mod to be "surrounding you and inside your head", while 
* the sound of the HD 650 was more only "surrounding you from a slight distance"
 

1. Vs. Mr. Speakers ETHER-C:

  While this is only a distant by-memory comparison from the two times I've tried the ETHER-C, by memory it seems that the modded HP 100 has everything that's good about the ETHER-C including the refined / full bass, lush, velvety mids, yet this mod also has better treble quantity
 

1. Vs. modded Fostex TH-900:

  While this is also only a by-memory comparison, it seems that the overall sound of the TH-900 actually wins in terms of purity / neutrality / dynamics, yet the modded HP-100 has about 6x better noise isolation is is around 1/3rd the price.
 
BEFORE / AFTER MODS:
Now THIS is where it gets interesting folks! This is what turned the SoundMAGIC HP 100's from a zero to a hero - literally. To be quite blunt, I shelved my pair of HP 100's, and it has been sitting at the bottom of my drawer for a year, for hope that someday just maybe a better amp would come along that would make these shine to their potential. After some lengthy listening sessions, I found the original HP 100's to be fatiguing with spiky / piercing treble and with bass that was very boomy - though thankfully it was never as much as the likes of ATH M50 or Momemtum's. Hence why I sent these out for this mod. And if there's only one take home point, here it is:
 
Make no mistake, the modded HP 100 is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT HEADPHONE! It truly must be heard to believe. The THD (distortion) of the lower frequencies hovering around 70hz have been reduced almost completely, the spiky treble has greatly subsided, the mids now have a delicious lushness, the impact is vastly improved (thanks to the balanced mode), and I now have a soundstage that is huge (probably thanks to the earpads), whereas before the soundstage wasn't particularly noticeable.
 
I had also done an brief A/B comparing the original versus new earpads (both after the internal mods), and I still found some substantial differences:
The bass definition & tonality of the mids improved, along with better isolation.
(see graphs below)
 
The modded HP 100 in balanced vs. SE (normal) mode
(tested using an adapter and with the same amp):


 

1. Balanced mode: better bass definition / dynamics, energy, soundstage & overall refinement
2. SE mode: while this still sounds excellent, it's slightly lacking in all areas mentioned above, and now the bass seems slightly recessed and highs slightly peaky

 
ETC.
My friends, this is a truly sensational headphone and I urge every audiophile to try this mod at least once in their lifetime!
 
While the details of this mod were only vaguely described to me as using dynamat, filling the bass ports, using a special earpad and the balanced cable / rewiring - I encourage you to contact user @Packdemon for more info. on how he can customize a pair for you!
 
Current HP 100 / 150 owners: feel free to send him your headphones to him for this mod
 
For anybody else: Good news! @Packdemon (Lyova) is currently in the process of ordering stock headphones wholesale from the manufacturer directly, in order to fulfill future orders of this mod at a reasonable price!
 
This modded HP 100 makes a trip to CanJam SoCal 2016:
 
As I was told by @packdemon who had brought it to this meet:
 

1. He took this modded headphone around to try it throughout the day, and everybody who tried it said they were very impressed. He also showed it to the staff members at the SoundMAGIC booth and "they all loved it"

 

1. The HP 100 mod "sounded phenomenal on the Liquid Carbon and Liquid Gold", and it was one of the best headphones he heard all day at Can Jam

 

1. Out of all 5 of his modded headphones he tested, including a modded Beyerdynamic T1, the HP 100 measured the best, with the least distortion.

 

1. Renowned Head-Fi'er @Stillhart also tried this modded HP 100. He is a former owner of the stock version, and he was quite impressed as well.

 
right side before / left after mod

 

 

 
Before / after mods (notice the significantly cleaned up distortion at bottom)

 
FR graph - modded
 

 

custom cable he made by request

 
and here is the man behind this mod showcasing some of his other works (Lyova @Packdemon)

 
 
 
CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS:
Lyova is able to customize for you: 
- the sound. Just tell him when inquiring about the mod your preferences and he will do his best to customize it for you in terms of bass / treble refinement. 
- earpads: He can also custom install an earpad of your choice, but I strongly recommend the one done in this mod.
- wiring: choose either single or double-sided wiring, and detachable or non-removable. 
- cable: choose either balanced or SE cable, 4-pin balanced XLR, dual 3-pin balanced XLR, TRRS or kobiconn.
            + customize the length and cable type (wire material & gauge)
    Or you may do as I had done and get a 1/4" male to 4-pin balanced XLR adapter to get the best of both worlds:
 

 
- choose either HP 100 of HP 150: 
I have owned both models and to me the differences were that the HP 100 is somewhat more bass neutral and has a more compact travel case. Both headphones are made of the exact same driver, the only difference being the shape / outer design of the cup, and either version would be perfect for this mod:
 
Here's a photo of the stock HP 150:
 
 

 
SUMMARY:
After days of listening, this modded can never fails to impress me at how vast of a night / day difference this mod has made! I also find also find this modded HP 100 perfect for travel (long trips but maybe it's too large for daily commute), as the noize isolation is top notch and the stock travel case included is very compact... 
 
I may be able to answer a few sound related inquiries, but please direct most questions to Lyova, especially technical related queries.
 
PS- I would like to mention that I am truthfully not doing this for a profit. I will make no money off any orders for this modded headphone. I do however recognize a super talented local headphone modding hobbyist and fellow Head-Fi member, and I noticed how he is really hurting for business... I am doing this only to share the love of this phenomenal sound, and to hopefully do something good for a friend!
 
So now, get some of the best sound from Can Jam with the HP 100 AM&R mod! It's sensational refinement!

Albeit i just skimmed through (sorry about that lol) what exact mods did he do? Does he have like a build thread on this? I am REALLY REALLY REALLY interestted

Lyova will respond shortly. He is hoping to offer this as a service and to keep his formula under wraps, and I would say having him as an experienced craftsman do it for you would give the best / easiest result. Feel free to read the whole post, there's some cool shiznit in there 

Great, where can I order one?

User @Packdemon can build one for you, with your HP 100 / 150, or with a brand new one from him after his supplies come in from the manufacturer. He is sleeping now though (4am in California)  
 
Listening now on this one-of-a-kind mod and I'm still not missing my flagship HD 650! 

decentlevi said:

User @Packdemon
 can build one for you, with your HP 100 / 150, or with a brand new one from him after his supplies come in from the manufacturer. He is sleeping now though (4am in California)   

Listening now on this one-of-a-kind mod and I'm still not missing my flagship HD 650! 

Click to expand...

Fantastic Levi! I'll contact him about it. Looking at the modded frequency response, it looks like a more laid back sound signature due to the scooped upper mids?

I'm also quite interested in the technical details of the mod. While I would have nothing against paying to get a pair modded (or even a second pair), I suspect the shipping costs would be rather massive, considering I live in northern Europe.
 
If it's something I could try myself, I'd be very interested in hearing the details though..

I really appreciate the detailed review that you gave @DecentLevi. I'm glad that you enjoyed my mod so much. If any of you guys are interested, then I certainly could do the mod for you. And that can be either on your existing HP100/150 or a new one if you didn't already have one. Feel free to message me with any questions or requests if you'd like. 
 
No promises yet, but I've currently been messaging the guy I meet and the TexFX/SoundMAGIC exhibit at CanJam SoCal 2016. Hopefully, I can convince them to supply me with HP150 headphones at the price that a certified vendor like Amazon might get them for, so that way I can keep my prices relatively low. Just keep your fingers crossed.

packdemon said:

  I really appreciate the detailed review that you gave @DecentLevi. I'm glad that you enjoyed my mod so much. If any of you guys are interested, then I certainly could do the mod for you. And that can be either on your existing HP100/150 or a new one if you didn't already have one. Feel free to message me with any questions or requests if you'd like. 
 
No promises yet, but I've currently been messaging the guy I meet and the TexFX/SoundMAGIC exhibit at CanJam SoCal 2016. Hopefully, I can convince them to supply me with HP150 headphones at the price that a certified vendor like Amazon might get them for, so that way I can keep my prices relatively low. Just keep your fingers crossed.

Click to expand...

No chance of a write-up on what methods you used in the mod? The shipping cost is what bothers me..

@DecentLevi was one of the 5 modded headphones that were tested/compared the Tari modded HD-800's? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts comparing the two...

Hey Mikoss, long time no see (forgot where we met before). No I haven't tried the Tari modded HD 800's, sounds quite neat though! The other modded headphones were all from the Beyerdynamic line, though only Lyova would know which ones.
 
Hey everybody, Lyova has some good news to share with you about this modding project.
 
I am also very interested to read impressions after anybody else gets the same opportunity to try this mod from Lyova (@Packdemon), and see if they share my same sentiments... I'm very confident they will, and don't forget you can have him customize the sound of this mod according to your sound preferences, as well as the cable type / connection / length, etc. Actually I found my provided cable somewhat microphonic so I would recommend a different or thinner cable than the one used on mine.
 
Also, @Stillhart maybe you can chime in - how did you like the sound of this mod? And what type of wire would you recommend as being less microphonic, agile and hopefully reasonably priced?

anticute said:

 
No chance of a write-up on what methods you used in the mod? The shipping cost is what bothers me..

Click to expand...

Well depending on the amount of mods desired [e.g. new isolation earpads (memory foam, or more premium silica gel & memory foam), isolation increase base decrease mod, treble/reflection decrease mod, and additional cable mods] I'm probably just going to have the standard price of slowest shipping be free with the included cost of service. For example, lets say if all the mods/parts in total cost $200 or more and that the cheapest method costs $30 (with the next fastest ones being $40 and $70), then I'll just have the shipping be free (with the subsequent ones costing $10 and $40).

decentlevi said:

 
I am also very interested to read impressions after anybody else gets the same opportunity to try this mod from Lyova (@Packdemon), and see if they share my same sentiments... I'm very confident they will, and don't forget you can have him customize the sound of this mod according to your sound preferences, as well as the cable type / connection / length, etc. Actually I found my provided cable somewhat microphonic so I would recommend a different or thinner cable than the one used on mine.
 
Also, @Stillhart maybe you can chime in - how did you like the sound of this mod? And what type of wire would you recommend as being less microphonic, agile and hopefully reasonably priced?

Click to expand...

The reason I chose that wire for you want only because you liked lower wire gauging (yours can probably power a 500 watt speaker), I did warn you in the past XD My recommendation for those that are sensitive to cable microphonics is for you to allow me to choose the proper gauging for this headphone use case scenario. Wires are innately microphonic, so the higher the gauging the more they transmit cable sound when touched. Other factors include the material used to insulate the wire. Just trust my expertise and you should be fine in this regard.

Yup, it looks like you should be able to get a modded version of HP 150 or 100 for not much more than, or possibly even cheaper than a brand new one! And if using your existing headphones, of course it would be much less.

decentlevi said:

  Yup, it looks like you should be able to get a modded version of HP 150 or 100 for not much more than, or possibly even cheaper than a brand new one! And if using your existing headphones, of course it would be much less.

Click to expand...

We'll see. Maybe cheaper than a brand new ones if it was full price, but the HP150s sold on Amazon are fairly cheap for those not interested in my mods done to control bass, increase isolation, increase comfort, decrease treble, and/or change the wiring. The original headphones are a lot warmer sounding and fairly brighter than the ones I modified for Levi. If you are more interested in that over mines which are a lot more neutral (though doesn't have to be depending on the mods done), then this mod is probably not for you. Mines will cost more because it has more. I'm not trying to compete with the price of the original HP100/150. Though I would rather try to compete with headphones in a similar class (in terms of performance, not price), like the DT1770 or TH-X00, while offering increased isolation that the other two don't have at a much lower price.