[Astrozombie]

Quote:

I have modded my HTF600s and I don't think they can compare to the DJ100s right now

Wow wow wow! You mean to tell me these are better than my Favorite Headphones?!?

Well now i must try them!

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

I'm building my JDS with a gain of 6, do you think that'll be too much and I should move to a gain of 4?

Sorry, I'm not sure. They're not extremely hard to drive,  just picky with some amps. For example, they did not seem to like the E11. Even the E5 can drive them decently. Out of small portable devices there is not enough volume and the entire signature suffers. They're acceptable out of my Sansa View, but not loud enough to be usable IMO.
 
I'm testing them with my new E7 with E9. Hope it's a good match. Despite being really tiny and cheap, the E5 isn't as bad as I once thought. It actually drives most headphones better than the Nuforce Icon Mobile. The Icon does have a built in DAC though.
 
 

 

[tdockweiler]

Fiio E9 + E7 is definitely a no go for the DJ100 so far. DJ100 and the E9 by itself is fine..sort of. With the E7 used as a DAC the sound is painfully bright and fatiguing. Not sure why since both are supposed to be quite neutral. I even removed all mods just to be safe. Maybe just bad synergy or something. With my Nuforce Icon Mobile DAC the sound is fine.
 
One thing I noticed is that the sound on the E9 with the E7 connected has cut out twice in the left channel and it's not the headphone or cable. I had to remove the E7 and reconnect it.
 
I even tried a different USB cable! The DJ100 is almost never ever fatiguing for me. Certainly not the upper mids or treble. It usually gives my ears a bit when someone is singing really loud.
 
Maybe I'll use the E7 DAC part to my micro amp and see if it's as bad or better. I always felt the E9 was a fairly bright sounding amp, so maybe both is like a double whammy or something. Who knows.
 
My guess is that all this is overkill for the DJ100. Never figured it'd be this bad though. Guess I'll try the E7 as just an amp and see if the result is similar.
 
EDIT: Don't like the E9 + E7 for the DJ100. I think it's just a bit overkill and that's all. Seems it makes the DJ100 painfully bright and fatiguing. Very strange.
 
As just an amp, it's OK, but I prefer my Total Airhead. The mids on the Airhead are a very very tiny bit more forward it seems like. The E7 seems a little brighter, but not as painful as using the E7 with the E9. Detail level and soundstage size between the Airhead and E7 seems about the same.
 
One interesting thing I've noticed is that the Fiio E5 SEEMS to have very slightly more forward mids than the E7. Could be my imagination. Since the DJ100 isn't super hard to drive, switching between the E5 and E7 and there wasn't a huge difference. Obviously a harder to drive headphone would be different.
 
E9 + E7 for the HD-598 seems like a great match so far. I'll try them out too with my K501.
 
For amps for use for the DJ100, here's how I'd rank them:
 
Total Airhead > Nuforce Icon Mobile (not very powerful at all though) > Fiio E5
 
E7 and E11 are OK, but the above seem to sound better to my ears for the DJ100. I got the E7 for a cheap DAC, so it's not a big deal. When I have more money I want to get the Headroom Micro DAC.
 
I do need to try a PA2V2 for the DJ100. Anyone like that combination?
 
BTW I'm also using the HD-598 with the E9 and E7 and the sound is still kind of fatiguing. What the heck is going on?! I guess I'll rest my ears for a day.

 

[Zombie_X]

I wonder how the set you're sending me will sound on my system... It's very overkill for it for sure. I'll probably balance them if I decide to keep them and it bet the bass will become even tighter then.
 
Quote:

Fiio E9 + E7 is definitely a no go for the DJ100 so far. DJ100 and the E9 by itself is fine. With the E7 used as a DAC the sound is painfully bright and fatiguing. Not sure why since both are supposed to be quite neutral. I even removed all mods just to be safe. Maybe just bad synergy or something. With my Nuforce Icon Mobile DAC the sound is fine.
 
One thing I noticed is that the sound on the E9 with the E7 connected has cut out twice in the left channel and it's not the headphone or cable. I had to remove the E7 and reconnect it.
 
I even tried a different USB cable! The DJ100 is almost never ever fatiguing for me. Certainly not the upper mids or treble. It usually gives my ears a bit when someone is singing really loud.
 
Maybe I'll use the E7 DAC part to my micro amp and see if it's as bad or better. I always felt the E9 was a fairly bright sounding amp, so maybe both is like a double whammy or something. Who knows.
 
My guess is that all this is overkill for the DJ100. Never figured it'd be this bad though. Guess I'll try the E7 as just an amp and see if the result is similar.

 

 

[tdockweiler]

One guess is that the bass might be slightly bloated and the mids or treble will suffer, but hard to say. I'd suggest trying them straight out of a larger mp3 player if you have one. They're actually not that horrible straight out of my Ipod Touch 2G (which I never use anymore). They're actually not bad out of my Sansa View, but the volume is too low so I have to use an E5 with it. They're unlistenable out of my Iaudio 7 without an amp. Sounds pretty horrible. BTW I bought a Sansa Clip today for testing. This will be interesting..
 
On my Micro Amp (full size) the DJ100's bass is bloated a bit and the sound clarity drops a lot. Hate that combination, but I love that amp for harder to drive headphones. It loves my K501 and HD-598. Strangely my Sextett sounds weird with it.
 
With the DJ100 it's worth experimenting with amps. It seems that they just sound best without amp overkill. It loves portable amps.
 
It's just weird how the DJ100 sounds so different on all sorts of amps. I prefer them on one that has very slightly forward mids.

 
Quote:

I wonder how the set you're sending me will sound on my system... It's very overkill for it for sure. I'll probably balance them if I decide to keep them and it bet the bass will become even tighter then. 
 

 

 

[200poundsofamp]

Quote:

Wow wow wow! You mean to tell me these are better than my Favorite Headphones?!?

Well now i must try them!

Results may vary!
 
The DJ100 has lots of upper mids and the Panny has lots of lower mids, they sound really different.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Results may vary!
 
The DJ100 has lots of upper mids and the Panny has lots of lower mids, they sound really different.

Does the Panasonic have more bass than the DT-770 Pro 80? DT-770 Pro 80 would have been perfect for me if it had a little less bass. If I ever find another pair for $100 I'd buy them again.
I need to find a Beyer headphone with forward mids. Maybe the DT-860 is the one to try next.
 
Now I need to find out how similar the FA-003 is to the DJ100. Probably totally different in every way.
 
Somehow I think my Sextett has a lot of similarities to my DJ100. DJ100 just sounds more clear though and is harder to drive. Ok, kidding about the last part.
 
BTW I ended up returning the E7 for my DJ100. It made all my headphones brighter and more fatiguing than they should be. I ended up preferring the Nuforce Icon Mobile over the E7 for the DJ100.
With stock cable it may be less of an issue. E7 as an amp sure isn't all that powerful..kind of like the Nuforce Icon Mobile.
 
I reconfigured my DJ100 in the XB500 shell today too. It turns out the reason why the bass went out the window is that there was not a good seal around the driver. I hot glued it in place and suddenly the DJ100 became extremely bass heavy. It's almost as if I made myself an XB500 clone

 
The funny part out of all this is that to get it to sound like a DJ100 again I had to EQ down the mid-bass and bass like -4 db and crank up the treble. Kind of like what I need to do with my working XB500. Now I wonder if the XB500 driver in a DJ100 shell would sound like a DJ100. Only kidding..So the XB500 enclosure is definitely the reason for all that bass for the XB500 driver.
 
Maybe the XB500 driver will fit in my HD-497 shell. What the heck would an open XB500 sound like? Probably would be really horrible.

 

[Astrozombie]

Anyone compare these to the Superlux? Say...HD660?

 

[Zombie_X]

Got the DJ100's in today but am unsure if I like them more with the M50 pads or stock pads. I'm a bit more partial to the stock pads in all honesty but the bass with the M50 pads it tighter and there's a bit more clarity. I'll have to do more listening and then get back to you guys.
 
Anyways Dockweiler I think I'll take em from ya. Koss surely has made a nice smash hit here.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Anyone compare these to the Superlux? Say...HD660?

I have the HD-668B. Never liked it much until I recabled it. It still doesn't get any use and it's cups and dismantled in a box somewhere.
Both headphones are total opposites I think. HD-668B is more treble happy. HD-668B might have more mid-bass, but I'd have to compare them.
The HD-668B does have a ton of detail and a clear sound though. Fans of the DT-990 might like it. I didn't find it's sound all that balanced.
With gaming I found it rather worthless due to it's mids. For under $50 it's very good and better than many others at that price.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Got the DJ100's in today but am unsure if I like them more with the M50 pads or stock pads. I'm a bit more partial to the stock pads in all honesty but the bass with the M50 pads it tighter and there's a bit more clarity. I'll have to do more listening and then get back to you guys.
 
Anyways Dockweiler I think I'll take em from ya. Koss surely has made a nice smash hit here.

I like the M50 pads for the extra comfort, sound clarity and a tiny bit of extra treble. The soundstage seems to be far, far better too. Try to compare both pads during gaming and it's stupid easy to determine the difference quickly. I used Uncharted 2 for it. I love the DJ100 with M50 pads for gaming. I played through Bioshock 2 with the DJ100 years ago.
 
The mids with the M50 pads might be maybe a tiny bit less forward. Not enough for me to care. We're talking about maybe under 2% less forward maybe. I felt that with the M50 pads the sound is more balanced out a bit.
 
M50 pads are just so much better than even the V6 pads.
 
BTW I tested all my amps today and the DJ100 has some amazing synergy with the Nuforce Icon Mobile. I love that amp/dac for specific headphones. I always criticized that thing in the past, but it's amazing with the M50, DJ100 and D2000. You'd think that since it has slightly forward mids it's screw with the DJ100, but it doesn't at all.
 
DJ100 is nearly unlistenable on my E9 and Headroom Micro Amp. Too much bass! Sound clarity is the biggest difference between switching amps other than bass quantity.
 
Exchanged my Sansa Clip for a Fuze and got a LOD for it, so I'll be playing with that today. Should be perfect for the DJ100.

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Got the DJ100's in today but am unsure if I like them more with the M50 pads or stock pads. I'm a bit more partial to the stock pads in all honesty but the bass with the M50 pads it tighter and there's a bit more clarity. I'll have to do more listening and then get back to you guys.
 
Anyways Dockweiler I think I'll take em from ya. Koss surely has made a nice smash hit here.

BTW do they sound any different than your old pair? Sometimes there has been some reports of variations in sound quality between pairs, but it's hard to say.
Well, my Dynamat has stayed in the cup for a week, so I think it's safe to say it's totally worth it, but only as long as it's paper thin. I haven't tried any around the edges of the cup yet though. It may ruin the sound.
 
With Dynamat, M50 pads, Mogami and a good source/amp the sound on my pair is crystal clear now with well recorded songs. It seems like before it varied a lot more, but who knows.

 

[Zombie_X]

Yo,
 
With the stock pads they sound the exact same. I am very tempted to open them up and to disconnect the stereo/mono switch and even recable them to balanced. I bet the bass is much tighter when balanced.
 
Also their sonic signature doesn't seem to change on any of my amps, in fact they sound pretty nice on my Musical Fidelity X-CANV8P and really good on my Audio-GD ROC. But I think an amp for them might be overkill as they really don't need it. There isn't much difference when amped and not amped IMO but I always amp because I do want maximum performance from all my gear.
 
I tried V6 pads on them and it didn't sound to far off from the M50 pads. The main difference is that the bass has decreased and the treble becomes more forward and the mids loose some body. I want mids!
 
Anyways I'll probably mod them with Dynamat Extreme and some felt and acoustic stuffing. I won't do this yet because I need to pay you for them!

 

[tdockweiler]

Quote:

Yo,
 
With the stock pads they sound the exact same. I am very tempted to open them up and to disconnect the stereo/mono switch and even recable them to balanced. I bet the bass is much tighter when balanced.
 
Also their sonic signature doesn't seem to change on any of my amps, in fact they sound pretty nice on my Musical Fidelity X-CANV8P and really good on my Audio-GD ROC. But I think an amp for them might be overkill as they really don't need it. There isn't much difference when amped and not amped IMO but I always amp because I do want maximum performance from all my gear.
 
I tried V6 pads on them and it didn't sound to far off from the M50 pads. The main difference is that the bass has decreased and the treble becomes more forward and the mids loose some body. I want mids!
 
Anyways I'll probably mod them with Dynamat Extreme and some felt and acoustic stuffing. I won't do this yet because I need to pay you for them!

I think the main problem is that a lot of these smaller portable players can't drive them very well. With the Ipod Classic, 5G and the Ipod Touch they might be OK. On my Cowon Iaudio 7 (which is super small) they sound horrible and there is not enough volume. Sansa View is a little better. Not enough volume but doesn't sound as bad. I think it really depends on the portable device. So even an E6 or E5 would help.
 
I think one reason I always suggest amping is that too many people try these with such tiny portables and then wonder about the lack of bass. It'd be interested to see how they sound out of an Ipod Nano or my new Sansa Fuze without an amp.
 
It seems the biggest difference between amps for me is the mids being more forward or less forward. On the E5 it is a lot brighter it seems like. On the E11 the DJ100 is boring as heck. That's not how it normally is. The E7 was a little better. I think very warm sounding amps might hurt the sound and maybe that's why the E11 was a poor match. It seems like with these it's just best to have good amp synergy.
 
Maybe both of your amps are very very neutral? People keep saying this about all the portable amps I try and they always never are. Not even the E7 seemed to be.
 
I need to buy the PA2V2. I bet it may be a perfect match for the DJ100 and it's fairly cheap.
 
Feel free to do whatever you want to them! With the DJ100 just be careful to not overdo the mods. I've found it can easily screw up the sound. Best to start small. Maybe the more air inside the cups the better they sound. It's just a bit hard to figure out. In one of my other threads I've posted my results with various mods. It's possible to get these to sound very very bass heavy and also to make the mids so forward they're extremely fatiguing!
 
It seems like too much dampening material behind the driver and the mids are too forward. That's why I found out that the area behind the driver changes effects the sound the most. Anything on the back of the driver itself seems to kill the sound.
 
A small circle of Dynamat inside the cup seemed to work well enough for me.
 
I'd be very interested to see how they sound when recabled/balanced.
 
I actually suggest drilling holes in the shell for recables. The mono/stereo switch is a pain to remove and then you still need to cut off a section of plastic inside the cups to get a cable in there. With holes you can skip doing all that.
 
The stock wires in the cup are super thin. I killed my first DJ100 by sealing the cup and slicing a wire in half. It somehow blew the driver.
 

 

[Zombie_X]

I use a Zune HD and it does a mighty fine job and even at half volume I rarely have to turn it up more. Plus the Zune HD is a smoother sounding player and I like that. I can see how the ipod didn't do it as it's a weak player to begin with.
 
I was planning on putting a small ring of Dynamat Extreme around the inside of the cup (cut a thin circle out of a circle of Dynamat Extreme). Then I was going to use a small circle of self adhesive felt and place it in the center of the cup. The acoustic fiber would be an experiment on my end.
 
For the recable I was going to leave the right drivers wire alone but just get rid of the switch somehow. Maybe just snip wires (if there are any to snip). I didn't plan on taking out the routing wire at all. 
 
Quote:

I think the main problem is that a lot of these smaller portable players can't drive them very well. With the Ipod Classic, 5G and the Ipod Touch they might be OK. On my Cowon Iaudio 7 (which is super small) they sound horrible and there is not enough volume. Sansa View is a little better. Not enough volume but doesn't sound as bad. I think it really depends on the portable device. So even an E6 or E5 would help.
 
I think one reason I always suggest amping is that too many people try these with such tiny portables and then wonder about the lack of bass. It'd be interested to see how they sound out of an Ipod Nano or my new Sansa Fuze without an amp.
 
It seems the biggest difference between amps for me is the mids being more forward or less forward. On the E5 it is a lot brighter it seems like. On the E11 the DJ100 is boring as heck. That's not how it normally is. The E7 was a little better. I think very warm sounding amps might hurt the sound and maybe that's why the E11 was a poor match. It seems like with these it's just best to have good amp synergy.
 
Maybe both of your amps are very very neutral? People keep saying this about all the portable amps I try and they always never are. Not even the E7 seemed to be.
 
I need to buy the PA2V2. I bet it may be a perfect match for the DJ100 and it's fairly cheap.
 
Feel free to do whatever you want to them! With the DJ100 just be careful to not overdo the mods. I've found it can easily screw up the sound. Best to start small. Maybe the more air inside the cups the better they sound. It's just a bit hard to figure out. In one of my other threads I've posted my results with various mods. It's possible to get these to sound very very bass heavy and also to make the mids so forward they're extremely fatiguing!
 
It seems like too much dampening material behind the driver and the mids are too forward. That's why I found out that the area behind the driver changes effects the sound the most. Anything on the back of the driver itself seems to kill the sound.
 
A small circle of Dynamat inside the cup seemed to work well enough for me.
 
I'd be very interested to see how they sound when recabled/balanced.
 
I actually suggest drilling holes in the shell for recables. The mono/stereo switch is a pain to remove and then you still need to cut off a section of plastic inside the cups to get a cable in there. With holes you can skip doing all that.
 
The stock wires in the cup are super thin. I killed my first DJ100 by sealing the cup and slicing a wire in half. It somehow blew the driver.