[mmayer167]

there is some serious r & d going on here. I wonder how many headphone "engineers" are this dedicated

.  
 
M

 

[DaBomb77766]

Quote:

Wow, lots of great info.  Still not sure what I should use here in Canada though...I would presume that most of those materials would be rather difficult to get here?  Unless they aren't.
If they are though, what would be a good alternative that would be easy to get anywhere?  (for the damping material in the cups, I mean)

Hm - just found this:
 
http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=55319&vpn=RL-SF01&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology
 
Would that work, probably?

 

[dogears]

I wish (for the sake of this thread) BMF can join you guys in that Irvine meet Dunno where is Cloudbase

 

[mrspeakers]

BMF, while I appreciate the side/side, I have said multiple times that my mod is currently ONLY tuned for the O2 pads.  If you don't want to buy them, groovy, and if you love your mod, excellent, but if you aren't using the O2 pads it's not a Rastapants 2.  It's something that will definitely have a different sound because the pads have a major impact.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

You are correct, Hennyo.  
 
I did not replace the acoustic foam with plasticine around the cups' outer rings.  I don't know, nor do you, whether or not there is a significant difference between these two materials for this particular mod and their effects (if any) in handling resonances unless we've made the comparison.  Even if you (or I) heard a difference favoring one or the other, who's to say it's due to resonance attenuation, better seal, "factor X", or placebo?  I very much doubted, however, that there would be any difference so I chose to keep the foam in place.  I could be wrong.   Plasticine in the outer rings might be the catalyst that makes everything come together.
 
I used Creatology Stiffened felt from Michaels.  I bought both black and white.  I used white but figured the color would not have an effect on SQ.
 
One of the photos shows the naked cup with electrical tape over the bass port...hard to see in the photo.  

 
Measurements are kinda fun and graphs/plots are cool.  Do you think, though, that if a set of headphones, modded or not, sound really, really good to you but measure poorly, that means you were wrong?  Will they sound worse to you after you see their stinky measurements and graphs?  Flip side - what if you listen to a set of phones and think they sound awful but later see their stellar measurements?  Will they sound better after you see the graphs?
 
Edit:  I posted this from my iPhone and forgot to add the wink emoticon to show this is a little joke with no sarcasm or ill will intended.  I also overlooked your question about Paxmate under the ear pads.  I used a 3/4" donut under stock ear pads but had to remove the donut to get the Shure 840 pads to go on; and it was still difficult.  As noted in my previous post, the 840 pads worked better than stock by (I presume) better controlling the bass and clearing up the veil I heard in the mids and upper range.  I mentioned that mrspeakers' use of Stax O2 pads may account for the exceptional SQ he derived from Rastapants 2 that I could not try since I don't have these pads.
 
Quote:

Monumental effort... but those are not Rastapants 2.... They lack clay around the baffle lip, (this privides a gasket effect, rather than the acoustic foam effect.. Doesn't quite handle resonances the same. and you didn't mention weather or not you have acoustic foam on the earside. Also, I'm not sure if that's the same driver felt as what we're using as all of the ratapants 2 users have black felt... And also, but I bet you did this. Did you tape the vents up?
 
We're going to have these measured in 10 days or so on the 23rd. Mrspeakers, Luis, and I are all going to meet in Irvine and measure these up really quick.

 

 

[mrspeakers]

I just tried it to be sure, and as I expected the RP2 does not work at all with the stock pads.  Huge midrange hump, no top or bottom.  
 
I had sent a note to Hennyo predicting exactly this when I found out he didn't have the O2 pads.  The phone is peaky and not balanced, with a midrange boost, though Hennyo said removing the ear side phone helped with this...  
 
For those who have the O2 pads, the first time you put them on, you'll hear a big drop in the opposite way, the mids get sucked out.  The RP2 was designed to flatten this.  It works pretty well with the 840, but the bass isn't as powerful as I'd like and the top doesn't sparkle, though the mids are good.  I'd say the 840 is at 70% and the stock pads are not worth considering.  Should be easy to fix the 840, but the stock pads won't work with this config.
 
So PLEASE be clear, if you don't have O2 pads, it's OK but not awesome with 840, and the stock is totally not recommended.  I would really only recommend this if you have the O2 pads.  The original Rastapants were tuned for the 5000 and 840 pads. 
 
Since multiple people seem to have tried this with the 840 or stock pads, my apologies if I confused people.  
 
EDIT: stock pads were totally in my head, 840 kind of close in.  O2 deep and wide.  VERY different.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Measurements are kinda fun and graphs/plots are cool.  Do you think, though, that if a set of headphones, modded or not, sound really, really good to you but measure poorly, that means you were wrong?  Will they sound worse to you after you see their stinky measurements and graphs?  Flip side - what if you listen to a set of phones and think they sound awful but later see their stellar measurements?  Will they sound better after you see the graphs?  
 
 

It's a funny topic. I think my Paradox sounds better than it measures because there is a 10kHz peak that looks bad yet you can't hear it. However, before it was measured, I was terrified they would measure badly because to me, they were absolutely phenomenal.
 

 
 

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

there is some serious r & d going on here. I wonder how many headphone "engineers" are this dedicated

.  
 
M

Apparently not enough, or we wouldn't need to mod (or be able to with positive results)...

 

[wdahm519]

I think now we are getting the clash between a lot of people trying to have the best mod, and while we're not all competing, its hard to be passive about the fact that other people are getting stellar results with different configurations.
 
I'm really glad everyone has put so more work into this, and I get to reap a lot of the benefits just by reading about it and trying it on my own.  Thanks to all!
 
This weekend, I will be working to try and maximize the sound for the Rastapants2 Mod with 840 pads. I will be playing around with the ear-side foam and angling to see if there are certain ways to make the 840 pads sound 95% as good as the O2 pads, or just as good.  I will obviously be impossible to know without a set of O2 pads for comparison, so I will just try my best to get the "best sound" I can find.

 

[rawrster]

That's the great part about modding. You can tailor it to your tastes which is not something I can do with any other headphones in my possession.
 
The O2 pads were attempted to be delivered but no one was home to pick it up. I'm going to see if I can leave work early to pick them up at the post office.

 

[micmacmo]

Quote:

Hm - just found this:
 
http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=55319&vpn=RL-SF01&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology
 
Would that work, probably?

That URL hung on me, but this one takes me to the Silverstone acoustic foam. 
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55319&vpn=RL-SF01&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology
 
You can get plasticine and stiff felt at Michael's. 
 

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

I think now we are getting the clash between a lot of people trying to have the best mod, and while we're not all competing, its hard to be passive about the fact that other people are getting stellar results with different configurations.
 
I'm really glad everyone has put so more work into this, and I get to reap a lot of the benefits just by reading about it and trying it on my own.  Thanks to all!
 
This weekend, I will be working to try and maximize the sound for the Rastapants2 Mod with 840 pads. I will be playing around with the ear-side foam and angling to see if there are certain ways to make the 840 pads sound 95% as good as the O2 pads, or just as good.  I will obviously be impossible to know without a set of O2 pads for comparison, so I will just try my best to get the "best sound" I can find.

It's not that, if someone does a better job I'm happy to copy them.  However, when people make judgements on an improper implementation it frankly bothers me a lot that people who might have tried the mod never will because people got it wrong and judged a sound very unlike the actual design, and frankly really inferior.

 

[fishski13]

Quote:

Apparently not enough, or we wouldn't need to mod (or be able to with positive results)...

 

 
my Fostex are my new reference.  i can throw anything at them...and they deliver.  these suckers are seamless, effortless and balanced from bottom to top.  detailed without ever sounding etched but yet sound fast as feck.  natural transients and timbre without blurred tone - you "see" every ripple in the pond as/after the pebble hits.    

 

[kingoftown1]

I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but here's my mutt configuration:
 
- Two layers of Nexcare clear tape over the drivers, with two additional strips forming a "cross" resulting in 3 layers over openings 2, 4, 6, and 8; & 4 layers over the center space.
-Plasticine in the baffles, around the edge, and in the small areas around the driver.
-Silverstone over the baffles & in the earcup. 
-one slot of the cup vent covered in electrical tape (I covered the bottom one--haven't experimented with the others), then cover the whole vent with stiff craft felt.
-strips of Silverstone around the driver ear-side, making sure to leave the small port unblocked
-840 pads
 
These give me the clarity and more-or-less the neutrality I've been looking for without any midrange smear or honkiness, no excessive midbass hump, and finally an adequate amount of sub-bass.  I'd never been able to get a proper sub bass level before without destroying the midbass/lower mids.  There seems to only be one upper-mid peak left to deal with.
 
Note that I haven't played around with raising/angling the pads at all, so while soundstage isn't overly disappointing, it's definitely the weak point right now.  I'll be ordering some more Silverstone this weekend to try and sort some of that out.
 
I'd really like to thank mrspeakers, lff & hennyo for all their contributions to this thread.  The new configurations being discussed really do bring these headphones to the next level (that acoustic foam on the baffles makes a huge improvement).

 

[drez]

erm jsut a thought - but if the point of the dynamat is to increase the mass damping capability of the cups, why does it matter if it is attached to the inside?
 
Meh mods are still on hold as I am waiting for solder.