[RastaDolphin]

I highly recommend it.

 

[Assimilator702]

Quote:

How does the 700's soundstage compare to the Audio Technica ATH-A700 (both without mods?)

Everything on the A700 is better than the HARX700. I own both and for the 7 pairs of cans I own the AT A700 are my favorite if I had to only keep one pair.
 
The HARX700 ARE close to the A700 in that they aren't lush or warm but more neutral...soundstage isn't as wide as A700 and little more closed in. But I don't use cans for gaming so those attributes aren't as important for me in a closed can.
 
When I want open and wide soundstage I grab my ATH-AD700.

 
But the HARX700 are very decent cans......I'm shocked at how good they are when I haven't listened to them for awhile....even after comparing them to the Panasonic RP-HTF600 which is a more lush and warm sounding can and my #1 budget can.
 
HARX700 are a better overall can and are more neutral than the HARX900 which I know use for TV/movies.
 
I do find that the HARX900 pads are nice on the HARX700 so I've kept both for that very reason.....otherwise I would have sold the HARX900 since they do have some problems that are discussed in this and other threads.

 

[RastaDolphin]

You should open mod your Harx700s!!!!

 

[jaycee1]

I wonder how the a700's would stack up against a modded harx700.
 
The unmodded comparison isn't really fair since the jvc's are 1/4 the price. 

 

[jaycee1]

I did a "semi-open" mod on the 700's.
 
That is, I removed the cosmetic back plate (with the jvc logo) and the accompanying foam piece. I simply followed all of the steps on p. 11 supplied by rastadolphin; however...
 
...I did not drill holes or otherwise remove or modify the middle plastic plate in between the driver and the outer cosmetic plate (with the jvc logo). 
 
I don't have a drill, so in order to create holes, I'd have to use some less than subtle techniques to get rid  of the plastic material. 
 
I opted not to, for the time being.
 
edit: instead of using a small saw as rasta did, I may opt to drill a series of holes in the middle plastic piece. 
 
Results:
 
The sound signature has changed noticeably. The sound signature is far warmer with much more upper midrange and a bit of high end sparkle. It's probably a bit lighter on the bass as well, as a result. 
 
The previous problems I had with sibilance and low end distortion so far, are absent now. The sound seems far cleaner. 
 
A great mod which brings a bit of air and sparkle to your older recordings. 

 

[HiFiGamer1995]

I've been reading about the AKG K 240 Studio that RastaDolphin mentioned on is open mod and they sound amazing, plus they're going for $67 on Amazon and look way better than the JVC's IMO. How is their soundstage?

 

[RastaDolphin]

I do love my 240s. Between the two, they're close but different. If you look for clarity and detail, above all else, I'd say definitely go with the 240s. They have been a recording studio classic for decades for a reason. They're light (physically), have great clarity, and a pretty wide soundstage. I would, however, say the JVCs (at least the open-modded version) have an even larger soundstage impression, are warmer and more energetic, and have more oomph (and maybe a little more character) in the low end. They're also significantly more comfortable to me -- partially because the 240 drivers touch the rim of my ear, which is kind of annoying, and don't have the lush, cushy ear pads of the JVCs. The 240 ear pads are pretty firm and more leathery which tends to feel hotter quicker. With a little extra foam stuffed under the ear pads, the JVCs feel like they're sort of hovering above your ears.
 
I would say be cautious of discounted 240s, though. They are a widely counterfeited model, especially with companies like Superlux emulating / ripping off their design. Research where you're getting them from.

 

[jaycee1]

I've gone a step further and removed the felt surrounding the driver. 
 
When I opened these up again, I had a strong temptation to simply punch out the entire plastic center of the middle plate. It just begs to be removed! You can't replace the outer plate if you do so, however, so the plastic remained. :/
 
Results, Pt. 2:
These are literally not the same headphones. They sound a bit too treble happy without an amp now, but an amp shores up the bass nicely. Instrument separation and detail have improved markedly. There is still a slight issue with sibilance, however. These retain a 'laidback' sound signature, which for me, means that there is a linear relation between volume and the 'impact' of louder instruments; kick drums won't simply jump out at you from within the mix as they will with other headphones. This is neither good nor bad, just a particular characteristic of these headphones.
 
As I stated before, this mod does a very nice job of reviving those older recordings, bringing out the detail you knew was there all along.
 
These are a solid $35 investment. Invest in a screwdriver and 15 minutes of your time, and you can bring out the true potential of these headphones. 
 
ps: invest in an amp and burn these in, too.

 

[HiFiGamer1995]

My ears don't stick out very much and the cushions look deep enough for me (on the AKG's.) If I buy them I will get them directly from Amazon so I won't encounter a counterfeit.

 

[RastaDolphin]

I've found Best Buy, of all places, has a good return policy. I've gotten both the JVCs and the 240s from their website just to try out and return.

 

[Assimilator702]

I have my HARX700's modded with the felt removed.
 
I didn't feel the need to do anything else but since getting other headphones....and doing extensive listening tests with all genres of music early this morning...... I realize these aren't quite as good as I thought,
 
I would say for the past year the only music genre I listen to on my home setup is Jazz, Jazz/Fusion, Female vocals and music with lots of dynamics and space.
 
Most Metal, Rock, Electronic is on my computer setup with iem's. I get a better result using even budget level iem's on my computer setup which is fed to an older Denon integrated amp that has a very flat headphone out and is claimed to be able to drive headphones up to 600 OHMS.
 
I tried playing a variety of Metal last night on my home system and I literally wanted to throw out EVERY can I own....even my Panasonic HTF600 which are so lush sounding in a HD650 way with Jazz/Fusion and sounded like someone scooped out the entire 900 HZ to 12k region with a bulldozer...no life at all in the music like I was listening through a 20 FT thick wall of cotton.
 
The HARX700 just sound very congested and theres a HUGE hole in the midrange with severely recessed treble when playing most Metal.
 
Even my Audio Technica ATH-A700 and AD700 don't reproduce Metal very well....on my current setup.
 
Maybe changing DAC and adding a current amp would help. I either use the built in headphone amp in my SONY ES transport wityh my lower impedance cans.... or use the headphone out in an ADCOM analog preamp....those COULD be my limiting factors but like I said dynamic and laid music sounds WONDERFUL on my setup with all my headphones except for maybe the HARX900 which has a weird frequency response to me. PLaying Opeth Watershed with the HARX900 gave me the BEST results of 7 of my sets of cans which I found EVEN MORE disturbing since I've been telling everyone the HARX900 is no good for music.

 
It's VERY disturbing since with 20 or 30 of my discs the playback is VERY satisfying  with the HARX700....but once some Rock or Metal gets in the playlist I feel like someone replaced my HARX700 with a pair of $6 POS.
 
I can tell theres a problem with my other cans since my Sennheiser HD205 are VERY flat up to the upper midrange where they rise sharply. Theres not much bass impact from things like kick drums but the bottom end IS there to around 30 HZ.
 
Sounds to me like the Grado sound that many are in love with. I haven't verified that yet so don't flame if I'm off base. But playing Masters Of Reality Sunrise On The Sufferbus sounds better on the HD205 than anything I have due to the flat response up to the upper mids....and the rise that IS a bit HOT but gives a nice sparkle to hi hts and cymbals and of course things like finger sounds on guitar strings and drum head impacts.....I'm a drummer so I'm tuned into stuff like that which happens in any recording session and does get recorded but is filtered out when using substandard playback gear.
 
Maybe the mods WILL be on the horizon for me....but in the near future I'll be grabbing the proven performers for my home setup.....DT770....DT880.....M50....D2000...K702....HD600
 
Sorry if I got a little off topic and turned this post into a mini comparison but I want to share my thoughts and experience with my cans and how they relate to each other so others can make better choices with their gear. Also this demonstrates that every can is limited to the music genres they play well with.

 

[jaycee1]

I've been a skeptic regarding burn in. No longer.
 
I've logged about 200 hours of burn-in with the 700's and the sound signature has completely changed. Out of the box, they are relatively neutral with a bit of extra bass. Good headphones. However, they exhibited some nasty problems as well: sibilance (along with rolled off treble?!?), very limited dynamic range (esp. with percussion which had no snap and sounded VERY congested), some distortion in the bass, and a habit of 'highlighting' recording flaws such as microphone distortion. The soundstage was also embarrassingly narrow. 
 
Now, these sound nothing like they did out of the box. Highs are emphasized a bit, bass has tightened up a ton and vocals sound really wonderful. Just about every flaw listed above has essentially vanished. The soundstage is still far from spectacular but is now average. 
 
Granted, the fiio amp I have now has contributed significantly, but even after about 100 hours of burn in, a lot of the problems evident ouf of the box remained even with the same amp. 
 
On a related note, my igrado's are burning in very nicely. They required 60+ hours of burn in before they started to sound better. The treble and upper midrange are far more mellow than they were out of the box. 
 
There is really no way of predicting how many hours of burn in are required for any particular set of headphones. What's really sobering is that some headphones require 200 hours or more of burn in. 

 

[Assimilator702]

Well heres my take on burn in and anyone with a background in home audio or car audio will attest to this.
 
It's VERY simple and it makes me shake my head at some of these headphone guys that say burn-in is a myth.....the more expensive the driver is the less burn in will be needed and the less change will occur.
 
If a driver manufacturer is aiming for a certain price point long QC burn in sessions WILL NOT happen at the factory.
 
Headphone drivers are NOTHING compared to full size drivers. They're actually nothing more than a very light weight full range speaker cone....actually if you're used to playing with real speakers headphone drivers are more like paper thin soda cans when you really look at them.
 
it's very easy to understand the problems with making a nice FLAT set of headphones with no major frequency deviations.
 
 
With a more expensive driver....you bet your ***** the factory will run those drivers for hours to settle in the suspension and diaphrams.
 
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if a factory has the same driver without burn in that sells for a very low price per unit.....and that same driver burned in for hours and put through full QC test and have it sell for 10 X more just due to the QC testing.
 
Same thing with full size sub woofer drivers......they can't really do the QC testing needed to break in the driver at the factories so ANY reputable company will specify that the sub should be played at a low level for 20 to 30 hours while it's suspension settles and the adhesives heat cycle a few times.....it's really no different with headphones it's just at a much smaller scale.
 
It's really very simple and I'm just very amused at all the speculation when people have no H--Fi experience....after all thats were us big boys hang out.

 
We know whats going on.

 

[jaycee1]

Quote:

I highly recommend it.

 
I'm realizing that these headphones definitely have too much treble after the felt mod, burn-in and amp. 
 
Does the open mod restore some of the balance? If the open mod boosts treble, I'm pretty sure I should not try it. 

 

[jaycee1]

Quote:

Well heres my take on burn in and anyone with a background in home audio or car audio will attest to this.
 
It's VERY simple and it makes me shake my head at some of these headphone guys that say burn-in is a myth.....the more expensive the driver is the less burn in will be needed and the less change will occur.
 
If a driver manufacturer is aiming for a certain price point long QC burn in sessions WILL NOT happen at the factory.
 
Headphone drivers are NOTHING compared to full size drivers. They're actually nothing more than a very light weight full range speaker cone....actually if you're used to playing with real speakers headphone drivers are more like paper thin soda cans when you really look at them.
 
it's very easy to understand the problems with making a nice FLAT set of headphones with no major frequency deviations.
 
 
With a more expensive driver....you bet your ***** the factory will run those drivers for hours to settle in the suspension and diaphrams.
 
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if a factory has the same driver without burn in that sells for a very low price per unit.....and that same driver burned in for hours and put through full QC test and have it sell for 10 X more just due to the QC testing.
 
Same thing with full size sub woofer drivers......they can't really do the QC testing needed to break in the driver at the factories so ANY reputable company will specify that the sub should be played at a low level for 20 to 30 hours while it's suspension settles and the adhesives heat cycle a few times.....it's really no different with headphones it's just at a much smaller scale.
 
It's really very simple and I'm just very amused at all the speculation when people have no H--Fi experience....after all thats were us big boys hang out.

 
We know whats going on.

 
This is a great explanation.