[gelocks]

I really need to hear the Master and Dynamics MH40, so I can better rate the Alpha Dogs to other closed back headphones. Thanks for letting me know about the MH40 cans,

 
If you can try them, do so.
It's a more "aggressive" sound signature but pretty good to my ears at least. Still, as Tyll mentions, the Alpha Dogs are still kings of Isolation and no sound leakage (at the volumes I listen to...) along with possibly LFF Enigmas.

 

[wahsmoh]

I had the same issues with treble and bass that Tyll had... until I heard the AD with the Norne Vanquish cable. Dan I will see you at the San Diego meet :]

 

[pdrm360]

^^ I fixed this just by the Doggie Treats. 

 

[hans030390]

Well, since I already mentioned it, I wanted to go ahead and expand on details regarding the front damping change I'm currently running on my Alpha Dog. When it comes to the upper-mids and treble, I think these changes make the Alpha Dog sound more cohesive throughout the spectrum and better integrated, smoother, more natural, and perhaps a touch cleaner overall. And, yes, this helps reduce that slightly hard and artificial tonality I noticed stock. I really like how they sound like this! I could never get it quite to my tastes with the default damping materials and options.
 
This is a completely reversible mod, and it's fairly cheap and easy to implement. Again, this is based off the Anaxilus 2.0 HD800 mod, so I do not take credit for this damping idea. It just happens to work well on the Alpha Dog, in my opinion. While this should be risk free to try, I can't say Dan will offer any customer support for this tweak.
 
Materials you will need:
 
1. Creatology Adhesive Foam - This comes in colorful sheets. They're about 1-2mm thick and use a fairly dense, spongy foam.
2. Drawer liner - No idea what kind works best. Experiment! Just make sure it looks something like my example shot at the bottom of this post (you want that bumpy pattern with holes in it).
3. Some sort of adhesive for the drawer liner - I used a semi-permanent glue stick for easy application. Really, you only want the bottom of the drawer liner to adhere and have the foam exposed underneath it otherwise.
4. 1/8" charcoal open-cell foam - http://www.foambymail.com/CF0-125LF/1-8-inch-charcoal-regular-foam.html
5. Some sort of plastic baggie, wax paper, or something similar.
6. Semi-decent memory and storage skills if you decide to go back to stock down the road.
 
Steps:
 
1. Start by removing the stock adhesive acoustic foam around the front side of the driver. Take your time and be careful! You don't want to rip it in case you want to re-apply it.
     a) Adhere this to something like a plastic baggie, wax paper...anything that you won't have issues peeling it off of later...and put this somewhere you won't forget or accidentally toss it!
2. Cut out a disc of the Creatology adhesive foam, with a cutout for the driver, and put this in place of the existing acoustic foam. NOTE: This stuff is VERY sticky and will leave residue if you try to remove it after application. To avoid this, put it on and peel it off some sort of fabric or clothing several times to collect lint so that it retains its adhesiveness but won't have any issues being pulled off later.
     a) I don't know if it makes a difference, but I brought the foam closer to the edge of the driver than the stock foam originally was. The new material borders the edge of the driver until where the magnets become visible.
3. Cut out a similar disc of the drawer liner and put that on top of the Creatology foam layer. You should find a way to adhere it, as mentioned above, while leaving the foam cleanly exposed in the liner's openings. Try to make both channels as consistent as possible.
4. Cut a thin, long strip of the Creatology foam and put it on the inner side of the baffle "lip" that surrounds the driver and damping material. Just trying to cover exposed plastic areas! This can also help hold down the outer edge of the drawer liner.
5. Assuming you have damping dots on the front of the Alpha Dog, cut two rectangular strips of the 1/8" charcoal open-cell foam and place one strip to both the left and right sides of the damping dot or dots. If you aren't using dots, I'd encourage you to try a square that covers the entire front side of the driver. If you only use one dot, you could try a square shape with a cutout for the dot. Experiment! Cut these in such a way that friction holds them in place. You can also try a bit of adhesive material or double sided tape, just don't cover open areas of the driver.
 
That's it! And this should, in theory, still work with the felt damping discs if you still wanted those. You could also try using open-cell foam discs for damping purposes as well, but I wasn't too crazy about how that sounded on the AD (the rectangular strips mentioned above work well, though).
 
Here is a very quick, rough reference measurement of the stock left channel. Remember, my measurements aren't directly comparable with any other measurements out there, nor do I guarantee absolute accuracy with these. For example, that dip in the treble is probably just a measurement artifact with how the Alpha Dog + pads interact with my measurement methods. Anyway, not too important for the measurable changes. And all things said and done, they match what I hear decently. Stock:
 

 
With front damping changes:
 

 
The most measurable change seems to be the 1-6KHz area. This part was consistent with repeat measurements. Notice that it doesn't bow down quite as much as stock and seems better integrated with the rest of the response. The small slope/hump around 6KHz is also smoother and better integrated with the rest of the response. I think these things combined help them subjectively sound smoother, less hard, less glaring. (Yes, there are some absolute changes across the spectrum outside of the 1-6KHz area, but that area does seem to go through the largest relative changes.)
 
Let's see if we have any measurable resonance changes. Stock:
 

 
With damping changes:
 

 
Hard to say. Perhaps a touch cleaner in some spots, could just be measurement variance, though. The 200-500Hz area does appear to have its resonance a bit lessened, which may contribute to a slightly cleaner sound. Maybe not.
 
Here's a shot of the damping change to help out:
 

 
Good thing that isn't visible with the pads on, eh?
 
Anyway, given this is fully reversible (assuming one takes care and follows my easy and obvious pointers) and fairly cheap and easy to implement, I'd say this is damping config is well worth experimenting with. As I hear it, you might find this can bring another level of refinement and new sense of naturalness to the Alpha Dog without changing its inherent and positive characteristics. Enjoy!

 

[hans030390]

Also, in regards to the LCD-XC, impressions from folks I trust haven't been super positive. And Tyll's measurements of them were pretty kind of funky looking. Wouldn't surprise me if the Alpha Dog does better. Take that as you will. I think the AD is a pretty decent value. I'd have to sample many more closed headphones to say for sure.

 

[Byronb]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing Hans.

 

[neopac]

Hi Folks,
 
Now it's about 3 weeks that I'm a proud owner of alphaDog and i thought i could share my experience with you. Alot of things have already been said about this can, so i try to keep it sleek and simple.
 
prequel
i´m a "closed headphone listener" because of social needs, i want to share a room with my partner when listening without disturbing her with leaking music. i´ve favorited the UltrasonePro900 for this task and felt the need for a different more resolving headphone.
 
Amping
from my experience with the AD, he´s some kind of picky about amplification.
 
Chain: Laptop with Foobar or Spotify+ --USB--> Musiland Monitor02 --SPDIF--> EasterElectric MiniMaxDAC --Signal--> Amp
 
Dragonfly direct ( ~2x125mw into 32Ohm ) works pretty much ok, but sounds flat, when compared to a bigger amp
IBasso P3+ (~2x200mw into 32Ohm) works better than the Dragonfly to a certain Volume level, then starts clipping, when turned loud (did try a few OpAmps but they didn´t change that, Gain was on High)
6N11 Hybrid (BravoV2) ( ?mW but should have decent) although i like this little amp a lot and it works with all my other full-size Headphones, i didn´t like them with the AD at all. One strong-side of the AD is perfect control of low frequencies, it´s fast and extremely accurate... the AD looses all of this when used with this tube hybrid (tube is upgraded to a JJ Tube/ switching power-supply ditched for something better).
Matrix M-Stage -> as a Chinese clone of the great Lehmann BCL, this amp sure knows how to sound great. This amp has audible (subtile) changes with different OpAmps and i used to listen to it, with a classA biased OPA627 for L+R. I didn´t like this setting with the AD and tried "AD827","AudioGD Sun", "LT1028ACN8" till i was pleased with 2xAD797(AN).
 
Sound leaking
there is pretty much no sound-leaking with this headphone... this is just great... period.
 
Build Quality
..is decent.. MrSpeakers did a great job on the cups an painting.. flawless to speak (got the claret one and love them).. plugs are the best i´ve ever seen on a headphone..  i´ve got a bit mixed feelings about one of my pads, one is done very well, the other one looks... well... handmade.. very handmade with a "i had a bad day doing this" undertone... no influence in functionality at this early point, i'll have a look at this, i think -as the days go by- it could shift(worst case) it´s stuffing and alter it´s sound compared to the other one.
 
Comfort
the AD is a HUGE can.. i mean, ridiculously huge.. the clamp force is pretty strong... but the pads are so soft, that it´s no problem at all... in fact i find them comfy enough, to completely forget that i´m wearing them for a period of many hours... great.. downside of it´s form factor is, that he gets contact with a pillow under your head when you rest your head. no big deal but it pushes the pads on your ears, which lets then get hot easier.
 
Sound
I´m no fan of audiophile gibberish when it comes to describing a Headphone-Sound. The only thing that comes to my mind is, that you "buy" every note the AD puts in your ears. I don´t feel like listening to a headphone, when the AD is on my head, i just listen to sweet music, not reproduced thru a can, just music in and around your ears, so accurately done, that it doesn´t feel like a recorded copy. Hard to describe, it draws you into the music, the first second you put them on.
My wife gave me "the look" when i confessed here, that these are a pair of 600€ headphones and she kind of punished me with disinterest about my new toy. That was till i convinced her to try them out and listen to some tunes. William Fitzsimmons it was.. i started a song, checked the level, adjusted the AD to fit and put them on her head, it took about 2-3 seconds till she looked at me with big questioning eyes, like *what the hell is going on*. She then closed her eyes, put on a big grin and listened to nearly the whole album without removing the AD from her head. They now are best friends and i´ve been told, that this was a great investment ... lucky me
 
The AD is (imo) clearly a headphone that shines with acoustic/instrumental/orchestral music. That´s where he declasses everything i´ve heared before. A whole new level for me... but i think this is because its (nearly) perfect level of accurate reproduction of notes. Most of us know how instruments should sound, and it seems like, it´s very immersive if the headphone meets your idea of how it should sound. This is somehow lost with electronic music, i still think that the AD is nice to listen to EDM/TripHop/... but it´s for sure not his strong side.
 
Compared to the Pro900
I love my Pro900. It took me a lot of tries, to mod the cup with bitumen and felt to my liking and i ended up with a star pattern of adhesive dynamat bitumen sheets and different felt damping on the s-logik holes. Though not so regarded on this forum, i think it still counts to the best closed headphones for (well) electronic music.
 
Soundstage:
The Stage the Pro900 gets, is very deep and wide for a closed on and he beats the AD in the "music-out-of-your-head experience" category. What the AD does better in this regard, is the 3D positioning and separation of the different instruments. Though notes are closer to your head, then with the Pro900, the AD nails them perfect in place, easy distinguishable from the other instruments.
 
Sound:
well first... the Pro900 is a kind of BassHead Headphone and the AD isn´t. The Pro900 got a lot of energy going on in the sub frequencies, it lets your earlobes flap if the music demands it and imo that´s very important when listening to music like giraffage, booka shade, chrome sparks, extrawelt, and so on. I´ve got a lot of tracks where the AD just can´t deliver as the Pro does. On the other hand the Bass of the AD is extreme fast and accurate. Listening to "Oblivion OST (M82) - the library" the Pro900 can hardly keep up with the fast Bass notes in the second half and reproduce a more single Bass tone than hundreds of fast paced notes following the other.
Moving from the low frequencies to the mid and high, the AD is in an other league compared to the Pro900. Where the Ultrasone is a dark, mellow (but enjoyable) phone, the AD is so accurate and precise that it´s not really a competition between those two. --> i still prefer the Ultrasone for music that require alot of "slam", definitely the more "fun" Headphone, where the AD is like a totaly different beast, that is extreme immersive with intrumental and accoustic music and lets you loose yourself after the first notes.
 
that´s about it ... sleek and simple... as i said
 
cheers
 

 

[mrspeakers]

Not to detract from the interesting works "Hans" did, but a point of clarification. For measurement he uses BlueMonkyFlyer's in ear microphone. As every ear is different what he found may be personally but not generally accurate, or it may be generally accurate. Either way it's certainly an interesting and easy approach and if anyone else tries it I'd love to hear the results! Thanks for sharing it!

 

[sunneebear]

I have always been happy with the sound of the AD without the treats.  I ordered a set anyway to see what all the ruckus was about.  I believe that the AD is very accurately tuned and that many music is mixed too hot so the AD is just pointing out what is there.  So when the treats came I really felt they were unnecessary.  The most I ever used to have a balance between the hot and natural music is two dots.  After playing with the dots for awhile I did notice a little change to something other than control of the highs.  Placement of the dots had an effect on the air of the music.  It made the AD sounds even more like a open can than before.  So after trying out different spots I found this the best to my liking.
 

 
 
Then I thought, why stop there.  Lets try to widen the stage a bit.  Because I have a Ultrasone, S-Logic was the first thing that popped in my head.  So with one pad I cut a off centered hole and I liked it so much that I stopped trying out new mods. 
 

 
This has been my setting ever since I got the treats.  Now that I see is interest in AD mods I am sharing mine.  I think the change to treble is little but there,  the change to the presentation I think is a improvement to the original.  Then again it could be just me with my oddly shaped ears that is hearing the air and stage changes.

 

[TheChillburger]

So is there anymore news about the Alpha Dog Prime? I'm debating on buying a used Alpha or waiting for the Prime if it's going to go on sale in the next few weeks. Or maybe there will be an upgrade path like with the Mad Dogs to Alpha's?

 

[pdrm360]

  I have always been happy with the sound of the AD without the treats.  I ordered a set anyway to see what all the ruckus was about.  I believe that the AD is very accurately tuned and that many music is mixed too hot so the AD is just pointing out what is there.  So when the treats came I really felt they were unnecessary.  The most I ever used to have a balance between the hot and natural music is two dots.  After playing with the dots for awhile I did notice a little change to something other than control of the highs.  Placement of the dots had an effect on the air of the music.  It made the AD sounds even more like a open can than before.  So after trying out different spots I found this the best to my liking.
 
 
Then I thought, why stop there.  Lets try to widen the stage a bit.  Because I have a Ultrasone, S-Logic was the first thing that popped in my head.  So with one pad I cut a off centered hole and I liked it so much that I stopped trying out new mods. 
 
 
This has been my setting ever since I got the treats.  Now that I see is interest in AD mods I am sharing mine.  I think the change to treble is little but there,  the change to the presentation I think is a improvement to the original.  Then again it could be just me with my oddly shaped ears that is hearing the air and stage changes.

 
I personally found only one dot in the center is the best for me.  

 

[reddog]

Hi Folks,

Now it's about 3 weeks that I'm a proud owner of alphaDog and i thought i could share my experience with you. Alot of things have already been said about this can, so i try to keep it sleek and simple.

prequel

i´m a "closed headphone listener" because of social needs, i want to share a room with my partner when listening without disturbing her with leaking music. i´ve favorited the UltrasonePro900 for this task and felt the need for a different more resolving headphone.

Amping
from my experience with the AD, he´s some kind of picky about amplification.

Chain: Laptop with Foobar or Spotify+ --USB--> Musiland Monitor02 --SPDIF--> EasterElectric MiniMaxDAC --Signal--> Amp

Dragonfly direct ( ~2x125mw into 32Ohm ) works pretty much ok, but sounds flat, when compared to a bigger amp
IBasso P3+ (~2x200mw into 32Ohm) works better than the Dragonfly to a certain Volume level, then starts clipping, when turned loud (did try a few OpAmps but they didn´t change that, Gain was on High)
6N11 Hybrid (BravoV2) ( ?mW but should have decent) although i like this little amp a lot and it works with all my other full-size Headphones, i didn´t like them with the AD at all. One strong-side of the AD is perfect control of low frequencies, it´s fast and extremely accurate... the AD looses all of this when used with this tube hybrid (tube is upgraded to a JJ Tube/ switching power-supply ditched for something better).
Matrix M-Stage -> as a Chinese clone of the great Lehmann BCL, this amp sure knows how to sound great. This amp has audible (subtile) changes with different OpAmps and i used to listen to it, with a classA biased OPA627 for L+R. I didn´t like this setting with the AD and tried "AD827","AudioGD Sun", "LT1028ACN8" till i was pleased with 2xAD797(AN).

Sound leaking
there is pretty much no sound-leaking with this headphone... this is just great... period.

Build Quality
..is decent.. MrSpeakers did a great job on the cups an painting.. flawless to speak (got the claret one and love them).. plugs are the best i´ve ever seen on a headphone..  i´ve got a bit mixed feelings about one of my pads, one is done very well, the other one looks... well... handmade.. very handmade with a "i had a bad day doing this" undertone... no influence in functionality at this early point, i'll have a look at this, i think -as the days go by- it could shift(worst case) it´s stuffing and alter it´s sound compared to the other one.

Comfort

the AD is a HUGE can.. i mean, ridiculously huge.. the clamp force is pretty strong... but the pads are so soft, that it´s no problem at all... in fact i find them comfy enough, to completely forget that i´m wearing them for a period of many hours... great.. downside of it´s form factor is, that he gets contact with a pillow under your head when you rest your head. no big deal but it pushes the pads on your ears, which lets then get hot easier.

Sound
I´m no fan of audiophile gibberish when it comes to describing a Headphone-Sound. The only thing that comes to my mind is, that you "buy" every note the AD puts in your ears. I don´t feel like listening to a headphone, when the AD is on my head, i just listen to sweet music, not reproduced thru a can, just music in and around your ears, so accurately done, that it doesn´t feel like a recorded copy. Hard to describe, it draws you into the music, the first second you put them on.

My wife gave me "the look" when i confessed here, that these are a pair of 600€ headphones and she kind of punished me with disinterest about my new toy. That was till i convinced her to try them out and listen to some tunes. William Fitzsimmons it was.. i started a song, checked the level, adjusted the AD to fit and put them on her head, it took about 2-3 seconds till she looked at me with big questioning eyes, like *what the hell is going on*. She then closed her eyes, put on a big grin and listened to nearly the whole album without removing the AD from her head. They now are best friends and i´ve been told, that this was a great investment ... lucky me

The AD is (imo) clearly a headphone that shines with acoustic/instrumental/orchestral music. That´s where he declasses everything i´ve heared before. A whole new level for me... but i think this is because its (nearly) perfect level of accurate reproduction of notes. Most of us know how instruments should sound, and it seems like, it´s very immersive if the headphone meets your idea of how it should sound. This is somehow lost with electronic music, i still think that the AD is nice to listen to EDM/TripHop/... but it´s for sure not his strong side.

Compared to the Pro900
I love my Pro900. It took me a lot of tries, to mod the cup with bitumen and felt to my liking and i ended up with a star pattern of adhesive dynamat bitumen sheets and different felt damping on the s-logik holes. Though not so regarded on this forum, i think it still counts to the best closed headphones for (well) electronic music.

Soundstage:
The Stage the Pro900 gets, is very deep and wide for a closed on and he beats the AD in the "music-out-of-your-head experience" category. What the AD does better in this regard, is the 3D positioning and separation of the different instruments. Though notes are closer to your head, then with the Pro900, the AD nails them perfect in place, easy distinguishable from the other instruments.

Sound:
well first... the Pro900 is a kind of BassHead Headphone and the AD isn´t. The Pro900 got a lot of energy going on in the sub frequencies, it lets your earlobes flap if the music demands it and imo that´s very important when listening to music like giraffage, booka shade, chrome sparks, extrawelt, and so on. I´ve got a lot of tracks where the AD just can´t deliver as the Pro does. On the other hand the Bass of the AD is extreme fast and accurate. Listening to "Oblivion OST (M82) - the library" the Pro900 can hardly keep up with the fast Bass notes in the second half and reproduce a more single Bass tone than hundreds of fast paced notes following the other.

Moving from the low frequencies to the mid and high, the AD is in an other league compared to the Pro900. Where the Ultrasone is a dark, mellow (but enjoyable) phone, the AD is so accurate and precise that it´s not really a competition between those two. --> i still prefer the Ultrasone for music that require alot of "slam", definitely the more "fun" Headphone, where the AD is like a totaly different beast, that is extreme immersive with intrumental and accoustic music and lets you loose yourself after the first notes.

that´s about it ... sleek and simple... as i said

cheers

 

Great review sir, the Alpha Dogs are just great, glad your wife loves them too.

 

[Ableza]

"air" in music IS due to high frequency response.  Words like "air" are just subjective shorthand to describe something our ears perceive.  In this case, it's high frequency response.  So the dots or treats affecting "air" is not a surprise since that's what they are designed to do.
 
FWIW I prefer the sound of my Alpha Dogs exactly as Dan shipped them.

 

[reddog]

"air" in music IS due to high frequency response.  Words like "air" are just subjective shorthand to describe something our ears perceive.  In this case, it's high frequency response.  So the dots or treats affecting "air" is not a surprise since that's what they are designed to do.

FWIW I prefer the sound of my Alpha Dogs exactly as Dan shipped them.

Yes same here, I prefer my Dogs without any dots as well.

 

[hans030390]

Not to detract from the interesting works "Hans" did, but a point of clarification. For measurement he uses BlueMonkyFlyer's in ear microphone. As every ear is different what he found may be personally but not generally accurate, or it may be generally accurate. Either way it's certainly an interesting and easy approach and if anyone else tries it I'd love to hear the results! Thanks for sharing it!

 
Yup, and I invite anyone that is curious to learn more to PM me for details about how I take measurements (pretty lengthy and complicated process, though I do indeed use BMF's in-ear mic solution). I also have quite a few headphones measured that can help establish a reference point as to how my results might compare to other measurements and perhaps even how you hear things. Correlating measurements from any place to how you hear things is always...interesting and tricky.
 
I'd also be curious to know what others think if they try my tweak out! Easy, cheap, and reversible. Worst case scenario, you prefer stock and go back to that. Shipping is a bit expensive for the $1 sheet of open-cell foam (though it is great stuff to have around for damping experiments!), and I might have enough to spare for free for a few folks if interested. Other materials are on you.