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- Oct 12, 2014
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Disclaimer: This is not an official Beyerdynamic product, nor is this a DIY guide.
"A truly high end audiophile grade headset," this is a statement that I sadly have not been able to make about any product. They never seem to have all of the features that I want in a high end headset, and they never have what they need to be a high end audiophile grade headset. Most have fairly low resistances which I don't think could be justified for the typical audiophile desktop home setup. Quite a few have semi- or fully- open backed designs, which for me can't be justified with use of a microphone that is next to your face (unless if it has great ambient noise cancellation and your volume is perhaps low with say a semi- and not fully- open backed headphones). And none of them have the detailed sound quality of a T1 or HD800 (none of them are even in that price range), at best there are perhaps headsets that are are par with the Beyerdynamic DT line in terms of detailed sound. And the last thing that makes a pair of headphones into an actual headset: the mic. I'd say that the majority of microphones that are integrated with audiophile grade headsets generally aren't that good, granted when gaming I don't necessarily care how I sound to my friends so long as they can understand me, but I'd still like for there to be a standard set in place for headset mics because I don't like hearing my friends voices being carried as fuzz audio and I know that as fellow audiophiles they think the same thing about my voice. I don't like having add-on solutions like modmic either because I don't like having a second cable and it makes me mad having a magnet so close to my drivers (even if the distortion is very minimal, I already pay top dollar just to not hear that) when they could have designed the modmic to have a clasp or ball-in-socket method of attachment.
Basically, the full list of requirements that I have are:
Since nothing like this was out there I decided that I'd just create my own:
Here's the full list of components used (I ordered most of the individual parts directly from Beyerdynamic Germany):
These mods weren't done with an absent mind. I understood that since the original T1 driver was designed for a semi-open backed housing, placing the drivers into this housing caused the bass drop significantly. Two things were done to fine tune the bass to increase it back to it's original levels while still being in the COP housing. First, I enlarged the bassports (not too much though, otherwise this would basically still be a semi-open backed headphone) and set the bassport to position 4. Second, those leather earpads are non-perforated memory foam pads that help create a better seal, doing this significantly increases the bass relative to the rest of the sound. After that it was just a matter of fine tuning the bassports until the bass was perfect. This headset actually is dampened, and sounds a lot better than my undampened T1. I found this kit to be the best dampening for this particular build as nothing else work sonically and because of the tight fit:
My impressions on the sound of this compared to a regular T1 is that this sounds quite a bit louder, it has a significant more amount of isolation, the soundstage illusion is a bit less, and they more or less actually sound the same other than the hot treble spikes not being present in the Custom T1. I'd say that overall out of the two this one is far more comfortable.
Since this isn't a DIY guide or anything I won't be posting on how to make this in the comments. I won't be making a DIY thread either unless if you guys were REALLY interested since that would take up quite a bit of my time. If you have any questions, requests, criticisms, or helpful advice about these headphones, then feel free to join the discussion down below.
"A truly high end audiophile grade headset," this is a statement that I sadly have not been able to make about any product. They never seem to have all of the features that I want in a high end headset, and they never have what they need to be a high end audiophile grade headset. Most have fairly low resistances which I don't think could be justified for the typical audiophile desktop home setup. Quite a few have semi- or fully- open backed designs, which for me can't be justified with use of a microphone that is next to your face (unless if it has great ambient noise cancellation and your volume is perhaps low with say a semi- and not fully- open backed headphones). And none of them have the detailed sound quality of a T1 or HD800 (none of them are even in that price range), at best there are perhaps headsets that are are par with the Beyerdynamic DT line in terms of detailed sound. And the last thing that makes a pair of headphones into an actual headset: the mic. I'd say that the majority of microphones that are integrated with audiophile grade headsets generally aren't that good, granted when gaming I don't necessarily care how I sound to my friends so long as they can understand me, but I'd still like for there to be a standard set in place for headset mics because I don't like hearing my friends voices being carried as fuzz audio and I know that as fellow audiophiles they think the same thing about my voice. I don't like having add-on solutions like modmic either because I don't like having a second cable and it makes me mad having a magnet so close to my drivers (even if the distortion is very minimal, I already pay top dollar just to not hear that) when they could have designed the modmic to have a clasp or ball-in-socket method of attachment.
Basically, the full list of requirements that I have are:
- High impedance (600 ohms if possible)
- No noise leakage
- Closed-backed
- An adequate seal
- Adequate clamping pressure/force
- Non-perforated leather earpads
- Detailed sounding high end drivers with a fairly neutral sound signature
- A decent sounding mic
- Mic has to pickup sound below 50Hz to catch all of the overtones of my deep voice
- No separate mic cable (other that the two heads at the ends)
- No magnetic attachment mics
- An overall comfortable design
- All non-synthetic materials are preferred
- Soft, but dense viscoelastic foams are preferred (e.g. memory foam)
Since nothing like this was out there I decided that I'd just create my own:
Here's the full list of components used (I ordered most of the individual parts directly from Beyerdynamic Germany):
- A used Custom One Pro (for it's housing, jack, and metal band)
- Black Leather Beyerdynamic HS 800 aviator headband
- Black Leather Beyerdynamic HS 800 viscoelastic (memory) foam earpads (that are not perforated)
- Gen.1 T1 drivers (there was no Gen.2 at the time)
- T1 ironing bracket and sliding kit (mostly for aesthetics, but it is a little bit more comfortable since the ear cups have greater rotation)
- Beyerdynamic COP Headset Gear Custom One Pro Microphone cable
- A few other cables for when I am using my desktop mic or smart phone
- A Custom Cans Mass Loading and damping kit
- And a decent 3 channel (R+, R-, and an additional ground) wire cable to route in between the ear cups (I enlarged the wholes to make it fit and sealed it with a rubber gasket)
These mods weren't done with an absent mind. I understood that since the original T1 driver was designed for a semi-open backed housing, placing the drivers into this housing caused the bass drop significantly. Two things were done to fine tune the bass to increase it back to it's original levels while still being in the COP housing. First, I enlarged the bassports (not too much though, otherwise this would basically still be a semi-open backed headphone) and set the bassport to position 4. Second, those leather earpads are non-perforated memory foam pads that help create a better seal, doing this significantly increases the bass relative to the rest of the sound. After that it was just a matter of fine tuning the bassports until the bass was perfect. This headset actually is dampened, and sounds a lot better than my undampened T1. I found this kit to be the best dampening for this particular build as nothing else work sonically and because of the tight fit:
My impressions on the sound of this compared to a regular T1 is that this sounds quite a bit louder, it has a significant more amount of isolation, the soundstage illusion is a bit less, and they more or less actually sound the same other than the hot treble spikes not being present in the Custom T1. I'd say that overall out of the two this one is far more comfortable.
Since this isn't a DIY guide or anything I won't be posting on how to make this in the comments. I won't be making a DIY thread either unless if you guys were REALLY interested since that would take up quite a bit of my time. If you have any questions, requests, criticisms, or helpful advice about these headphones, then feel free to join the discussion down below.
