[GREQ]

These are not getting any head time at all tbh. Mainly because their clamping pressure is so high. Has anyone figured out a way to soften the clamp? I had them stretched out on a couple of thick textbooks, but it didn't really work.

This really depends on the type of plastic the headband is made from.
If it's a thermosetting plastic, there is probably no way of changing the clamping pressure.
If it's a regular thermoplastic, it can be 're-set' simply by re-heating. This could possibly be done by carefully pouring boiling hot water over the headband while it is being stretched.
 
But this is only a wild idea/theory. I've never tried anything like that, and I don't think I fully recommend it either.... I just can't think of many reasons why NOT to try it other than splashing the driver and destroying it, but I'm also happy to know if someone else has any nice ideas on this too.

 

[WoXxi]

Hello everyone,

 
I want to recable my AKG K518DJ .
 
Is it possible to find someone who make this cable ready to solder and shipping in Europe please ?
 
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/16/1429110844-post-30591-0-67821200-1406141437.jpg
 
Thank you.

 

[GREQ]

  Hello everyone,

 
I want to recable my AKG K518DJ .
 
Is it possible to find someone who make this cable ready to solder and shipping in Europe please ?
 
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/16/1429110844-post-30591-0-67821200-1406141437.jpg
 
Thank you.

because in this hobby there's no such thing as overkill 

 

[WoXxi]

  because in this hobby there's no such thing as overkill 

 
What do you mean?

 

[GREQ]

What do you mean?

Higher end cable for low-end headphone.
I'm not judging, I think they're very good headphones.

 

[WoXxi]

  Higher end cable for low-end headphone.
I'm not judging, I think they're very good headphones.

 I just want a better cable than the original which is too thin, too long and crap... that's all.

 

[fiddler]

I hope this would be interesting to all fans of this headphone, as well as people looking for great bang for buck in closed on-ear.
 
I got a used pair of 518DJs and although I generally liked the sound, there were just a couple things that bothered me. The mid-upper bass was strongly emphasized, giving it a bit of a wooly impression, and overall the tonality was rather dark. Removing the foam, as you know, lets through a bit more of those highs, and that was the first thing I did. It still wasn't quite enough for me, so I decided to pop these open and look inside.
 
The mods are detailed in this imgur thread here:
 
http://imgur.com/a/FExeh
 
I haven't done the Blu Tac mod - I suspect this can help "clean up" the bass a bit more, to make it a bit faster and tone down the cup resonance a bit. In terms of overall tonal balance though, I'm very happy with where this is at now. I think removing the rubber coupling piece behind the driver was probably the most important for getting rid of the upper bass hump - it was essentially sending vibrations to the rear wall of the housing, in an attempt to create that "DJ" sound with overly emphasized bass. The rubber also seemed to reduce the dynamic range of this driver somewhat. I'll have to A/B with a stock version to be sure. The bass port mods were also key here to tuning the overall signature.
 
The end result is that these are no longer a bassy headphone at all. You will be surprised at how neutral they sound now. It's like the AKG engineers took a relatively neutral driver unit, and tried their damndest to build a bassy DJ headphone out of it. Ripping out all the things they did to achieve the bassy tuning is the essense of this mod.
 
Right now they're tonally more accurate than Sennheiser Momentum 1 over-ear, probably more neutral than HD25-1, has more clarity and detail than Creative Aurvana Live! 1. Although the mods improved soundatage, it's still not as spacious sounding even compared to Momentum, but I'm willing to accept that compromise for this price.

 

[ostewart]

  I hope this would be interesting to all fans of this headphone, as well as people looking for great bang for buck in closed on-ear.
 
I got a used pair of 518DJs and although I generally liked the sound, there were just a couple things that bothered me. The mid-upper bass was strongly emphasized, giving it a bit of a wooly impression, and overall the tonality was rather dark. Removing the foam, as you know, lets through a bit more of those highs, and that was the first thing I did. It still wasn't quite enough for me, so I decided to pop these open and look inside.
 
The mods are detailed in this imgur thread here:
 
http://imgur.com/a/FExeh
 
I haven't done the Blu Tac mod - I suspect this can help "clean up" the bass a bit more, to make it a bit faster and tone down the cup resonance a bit. In terms of overall tonal balance though, I'm very happy with where this is at now. I think removing the rubber coupling piece behind the driver was probably the most important for getting rid of the upper bass hump - it was essentially sending vibrations to the rear wall of the housing, in an attempt to create that "DJ" sound with overly emphasized bass. The rubber also seemed to reduce the dynamic range of this driver somewhat. I'll have to A/B with a stock version to be sure. The bass port mods were also key here to tuning the overall signature.
 
The end result is that these are no longer a bassy headphone at all. You will be surprised at how neutral they sound now. It's like the AKG engineers took a relatively neutral driver unit, and tried their damndest to build a bassy DJ headphone out of it. Ripping out all the things they did to achieve the bassy tuning is the essense of this mod.
 
Right now they're tonally more accurate than Sennheiser Momentum 1 over-ear, probably more neutral than HD25-1, has more clarity and detail than Creative Aurvana Live! 1. Although the mods improved soundatage, it's still not as spacious sounding even compared to Momentum, but I'm willing to accept that compromise for this price.

 
Great to see people still modding these, cheap and after a few mods very capable portable headphones

 

[fiddler]

I decided to extend this mod to try to combat a bit of the harshness in treble that reared its head after "opening it up" in all the previous mods, namely by doing the well-known blu-tack mod. I covered most of the earcup, and also mass-loaded the baffle with some blu-tack in strategic locations. The result is surprisingly slamming tight bass, and the tizziness in the treble is entirely gone. I went to a store today to a/b this against a stock copy of K518, and the difference is pretty amazing. I compared it against stuff like Sony MDR-1A, MDR-100AAP and Momentum 2, and only the Momentum I felt was a strong competitor. Momentum still has a bit better bass quality, and more soundstage, but on the other hand the modded AKG has better midrange timbre and treble extension, so I would dare say it's a tie. Pretty strong showing from a $50 headphone! I won't have any regrets in giving my Momentum 1 to my wife and using these as my portable beaters from now on.
 
I would rate in order of importance:
 
1. Removing that awful rubber thing that transfers lots of midbass resonance to the earcup, and simultaneously kills some mids and highs. This mod by far changes the character of these headphones the most.
2. Tuning the bass ports with tape (and removing the original film). People could open the ports more to lessen the bass, or close to increase. I currently have a pretty warm tuning.
3. Blue-Tac to tighten bass, and dampen nasty treble ringing.
4. Removing the front foam. I can imagine somebody might keep this in if they want a darker sound.

 

[94Peter]

You're modding K518DJ to sound less bassy? You'll rot in hell for this
 
I have a different question: how to make sure that K81DJ/K518DJ stay bassy? In other words: how to preserve the original clamp that provides much of that sweet bass? I had two pairs, and the first one got too loose after a short time, whereas the second pair was too loose from the get-go. If I'm going to buy those again, I need to be sure that there's a way to preserve the huge bass that these provide.

 

[Luigi Milazzo]

I tried all the combination of mods, but the removal of rubber circle introduce a little distortion in the bass. So, once put it in place i found that the film removal is the key to wide up the mids and the highs simply taming the bass a little, but with that pleasant vibration of the cups due to the ribber circle. i think that the highs aren't piercing at all