[zhyla]

Finally got mine today.  I like them.  The only decent headphone I have is a pair of modded D2000's and I don't have them handy for direct comparison but if I ordered the D2000's and these came in the box and I was a blind man I'd probably be pretty happy.  One surprise is I was expecting something more semi-open and these are not very open at all in my (fairly uneducated) opinion.  The isolation is decent, or maybe these just happen to seal to my particular head really well.
 
 
The pads are wretched.  Or are they?  I spent a few minutes stretching them radially (trying to make them bigger so they fit over my ears better) and now they're more comfortable.  I was able to stretch them more than I was expecting, maybe about 1/4" increase in diameter.  They did seem to sound significantly better after that, but that may be in my head, maybe they're burned in a bit while I was screwing with the pads, or maybe they just make a better seal now.  
 
I may still grab some 840 pads though my only complaint at this point is how hot the pads get.  Otherwise I'm completely happy with these bad boys.

 

[geetarman49]

enough of this ... i'm ready to order ... where's the seller, Cash?
 

 

[CashNotCredit]

Quote:

enough of this ... i'm ready to order ... where's the seller, Cash?
 

That is a very good question!

I e-mailed them a solid 2 weeks ago and then they acted interested...then they never really responded.
 
I think it's a communication gap. I tried explaining that each person here would be ordering their own set from them, and I think that they took that to mean "We're going to go out and order these on our own from another store." That way, they wouldn't expect me to buy all of them (as much as I love these things, I do not need 10! xD)
 
I'll try again.
 
Worst case scenario, we'll have to use Aliexpress. Darn!

 

[BBEG]

EFi and Shure pads inbound. My willpower ran out. (Using Aliexpress by the way.)

 

[Xprime4]

The e17 doesnt change the sound signature at all imo. Even at low level the headroom just make the drivers more dynamics so peaks in music sound more intense and the voices seems more intimated bass morr controled. The impact in treble is more precise too so snare and cybal don't reverb as mich as without the amp.

I May have trouble explaning myself because french is my first language so technicality about sound might be off when i try to translate it.
I was pretty mich into car audio prior to my home theater addiction and now headphone addiction. The way amping feel with car audio is exaclty what feels like in heaphone setup.

As for in car audio, headphone all seems to react differently to amping. The efi82mt still sound real great out of the ipod touch 3.5mm jack, but benefitALOT from CLEAN power.

The pro 900 aren't tolerable without clean power. They are less shrilling in the upper range with the e17, but that wont make a ultra bright headphone sound "lay back" (silk vs alluminium/titanium tweeter )

Oh and COC, While i remove the stock acoustic filter, the grey dampening around the driver pretty much "unstick" from the part that hold the drivers. I'll try removing it completly have you tried that?

 

[CashNotCredit]

Quote:

Oh and COC, While i remove the stock acoustic filter, the grey dampening around the driver pretty much "unstick" from the part that hold the drivers. I'll try removing it completly have you tried that?

I have not done that, but I have poked several holes into it.

My EFi is FUBAR at the moment, but that's just because I'm trying to convert them into an open-back headphone. Wish me luck!

 

[zhyla]

Any hints how these disassembly?  I feel like if I pry on them enough I'll be able to pop them open but would rather not risk damage.

 

[CashNotCredit]

Quote:

Any hints how these disassembly?  I feel like if I pry on them enough I'll be able to pop them open but would rather not risk damage.

• Remove dampening
• Remove 3 screws
• Pull the front of the enclosure away from the back (the two meet at where the pads go)
• Remove 4 more screws
• Pull the "endcap" off.

 

[zhyla]

Got it.  Any particular reason not to poke 3 holes in the damping so I can get at those screws easy for repeated disassembly?  It seems like the damping covered by the pads is useless.

 

[CashNotCredit]

Quote:

Got it.  Any particular reason not to poke 3 holes in the damping so I can get at those screws easy for repeated disassembly?  It seems like the damping covered by the pads is useless.

If you have the Shure pads, then by all means, remove the dampening. Things will sound a lot better.

Also, while you're disassembling, check out how they sound with the endcaps off. 

Holy cow.

 

[Jim McC]

Does anyone know how the ear space(and depth) compares to the ear space(and depth) of the JVC RX700? With the stock pads and the Shure pads? Thanks.

 

[Xprime4]

 
 
 
 
I've made some more mods and i'm turning these into bassier cans. I guess most of you won't want the bass i'm not getting out of these pretty versatile headphone
 
Since one of the stock paper dampening around the plastic that hold the driver was pretty much unstick while i remove the stock acoustical pad i decided to remove all of it
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
First test was no good. Pretty much all the lower end was now bloated with no more impact i like so much from these.
 
 
Since i'm alot into car audio  i have a large amount of damplifier and damplifier pro deadener laying around. I cut small rectangle to cover the hole that were left by the paper deadener.
 
I mold the damplifier a little so it don't cover the hole in front of the drivers and doesn't go past the cup
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I've run sweep from 20hz to 120hz and they seems pretty flat from 35-80hz, then there a small but noticable peak in the upper lowend range. It sound pretty much like stock with 840 pads but a 3db  flat boost in all the bass department.
 
 
 

 

[zhyla]

Like Xprime I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I wanted to avoid dealing with the the cloth damping's adhesive for repeated disassemblies so I ended up locating the screw holes and cutting the cloth over them.  
 

 
Take out those 3 screws and you've got the whole shebang to look at.
 

 
 
Closeup of main housing.  The bare wire thing with two loops is the tension spring for the cups, the little white piece is a cam that pushes against the spring when the cups are rotated.  The gray rectangle is a thin piece of foam, I assume for damping.  I assume if Somic thought it needed damping there that we can do better by putting down a piece that covers more of that surface.
 

 
 
Closeup of back side of driver.  They don't appear to use the same driver as the Somic MH-463.  I don't know much about headphones (which is why I took these apart) so I have questions... is there significance to the little holes covered by the white fiber?  And the similarly sized hole that is open where you can the diaphragm?
 

 
I did listen to the driver without the housing attached and it seems rather effective as an open back phone.  Unfortunately it doesn't looked like they can hold together without the outer cup bolted on.

 

[Xprime4]

Bad news,  it seems like the tinsel lead on the left driver flap on the driver now with subsonic freqs. i might have been too hard with the little wires while detaching the front plastic part that hold the driver. I went back into the headphone late at night and i just did it too quick
 
it's only noticable when i'm playing them loudly with a good amount of subsonics bass. I guess that pair will now be use a little less
 
But they are so great, i think i'll order another pair and be more carefull with dismounting them next time
 
oh and i would be able to compare modding difference more accuratly with two pairs

 

[cute]