[hans030390]

Hey guys, I've modded my Denon D2000 headphones into open-back headphones. You might have seen in it this thread.
 
You can read the thread for further details if you'd like, but I'm posting this here to see if anyone has any suggestions as to how I might be able to make them less bright/aggressive. They're not bad, really, but a bit too bright for my tastes at the volume I like to listen at. When I'm using iTunes for music, I've found that a slight drop off starting at 4Khz really helps (1dB drop or less at 4Khz, less than 2dB drop at 8Khz, and less than 3dB drop at 16Khz).
 
I am planning on recabling them, and some people claim different cables can provide slightly different characteristics. So, there's one option to help round off the top end. Any suggestions? I'm not looking to spend much on cables. I was considering the Mogami 2534.
 
I could also experiment with putting fabric or something behind the mesh on the cups. Normally, how would that affect the sound? What specific materials might be good to try, and what differences would they likely have on the sound?
 
There's also the earpads which are raised off the frame of the headphones now. I'm not sure if there's anything I could do with them or something that might help with the higher frequencies (thin fabric between the earpads and drivers?).
 
I'm also wondering if any dampening or such would help out with this. If so, what material works well for this?
 
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[NA Blur]

First let me say that you are not the only person I have heard that has problems with the AH-D2000's high end.  Tyll claims to here peaks in the treble, but  to be the upper end is neutral at best.  View the graphs below.  How can they have any bright treble.  The highest it goes is 0dB.
 
Pay special attention to the SR-225i compared to the AH-D2000 here.  The 225's clearly have peaks in the treble which almost everyone hears as brightness.  The D2000's remain below the line.
 
Could you give us a track that really shows the D2000's brightness?  I have listened to my entire library and cannot hear it.

 

[hans030390]

Quote:

First let me say that you are not the only person I have heard that has problems with the AH-D2000's high end.  Tyll claims to here peaks in the treble, but  to be the upper end is neutral at best.  View the graphs below.  How can they have any bright treble.  The highest it goes is 0dB.
 
Pay special attention to the SR-225i compared to the AH-D2000 here.  The 225's clearly have peaks in the treble which almost everyone hears as brightness.  The D2000's remain below the line.
 
Could you give us a track that really shows the D2000's brightness?  I have listened to my entire library and cannot hear it.

 

Do note that my D2000s have been modded into open headphones, and I included a link in my original post. I never really had an issue with the D2000's treble when it was closed. They were sparkly, yeah, but that's fine with me. But, as you can see in that graph, we could call the midrange the "baseline" of the sound. With that, you could then say the treble is unnaturally boosted along with the bass in comparison to the mids. When you make them open, the low end is brought much more in line with the midrange. I'd imagine it still keeps the peaks in treble, hence them sounding aggressive when open.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

You may try experimenting with felt covering portions of the open area. I found that to make a beneficial difference in some modded Beyerdynamics. 

 

[hans030390]

Did you have any particular findings that worked better than others (types of felt, placement and positioning, etc.)? Really, I just need to get rid of some of the HF peaks. A general roll-off, as I've done with EQ, works well enough, as I don't have a good way to measure where the peaks are at in particular.

 

[hans030390]

I'm currently experimenting with placing material between the earpads and headphone frame/driver. Currently, I have a thin sheet of cheap tissue paper (off-brand Kleenex with two ply layers separated) in there, and that seems to help somewhat. I'd like to experiment with other material/fabrics, but I'm not sure what would work well. I'm thinking the peaks are right around 4KHz, 7KHz, and 10KHz. There are other random peaks extending beyond that, but I can't pick them out specifically. This is going off EQ experiments and the stock D2000 frequency response graphs.

Any suggestions?