[Nolbert0]

Preface

I've made feeble attempts to find this elsewhere on this forum so my deepest apologies it this was already posted before. This is me popping my thread cherry so please (at least) be mildly gentle...

I got the HE-400i as my first venture into the world of planars. My only 'serious' (read open back) pair of headphones thus far were the AKG K712. As much as I love the sound stage etc. etc... I really missed the bass (but I don't think I'm a bass head - am I in denial?). After looking around, I noticed that this lack of bass was a common trait to open backed headphones. So the first conclusion I came up with was that the lack of bass was just the 'neutral' sound but thinking about it, I've never heard any respectable pair of speakers that were that light on bass. Then, I heard people raving about 'planar bass' so I bought the HE-400i online because it was on offer. Needless to say, I was... a little disappointed. This subsequently sucked me into the dirty world of pad rolling. My previous experience with changing pads were less than favourable so I left that 'can of worms' well alone until I read that the HE-400i benefited greatly from angled pleather (famed, dare say notorious) MH5 pads. Neck the red pill and down the rabbit hole I go.

Objective

In this quest for more bass, aside from the fact that lambskin (or whatever animal that soft leather if from, as opposed to pleather) and memory foam was the best material, I figured that the deepest pads produced more bass. But none of the pads I tried gave me enough bass. Particularly sub bass (or bass extension?). This was temporarily remedied by lifting the cups slightly away from from my ears releasing the seal around my ears. So I came up with this solution...

The Mod

I had some small hair ties lying around for tidying cables etc. so I put 2 together and hooked one end to the yoke and the other around the cable socket to lift the bottom end of the cup away from my face (jaw?). It just so happens that it gave the right amount of tension that I can set the vertical angle that the cups sit against my head. The subtle differences in angle change the bass impact and volume, particularly the sub bass. Depending on the track, or more likely album, the bass levels can be changed on the fly. This is a non-intrusive mod that is also ridiculously cheap. This also works with the stock Focus pads but to a lesser degree.

One word of warning is that the comfort levels do decrease somewhat as there is a slight pinching just above your ears but I suppose that's to be expected considering the nature of the mod.

As mentioned earlier, I'm really sorry if somebody else thought of this first. Other than that, tell me what you think.

Noli

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

Preface

I've made feeble attempts to find this elsewhere on this forum so my deepest apologies it this was already posted before. This is me popping my thread cherry so please (at least) be mildly gentle...

I got the HE-400i as my first venture into the world of planars. My only 'serious' (read open back) pair of headphones thus far were the AKG K712. As much as I love the sound stage etc. etc... I really missed the bass (but I don't think I'm a bass head - am I in denial?). After looking around, I noticed that this lack of bass was a common trait to open backed headphones. So the first conclusion I came up with was that the lack of bass was just the 'neutral' sound but thinking about it, I've never heard any respectable pair of speakers that were that light on bass. Then, I heard people raving about 'planar bass' so I bought the HE-400i online because it was on offer. Needless to say, I was... a little disappointed. This subsequently sucked me into the dirty world of pad rolling. My previous experience with changing pads were less than favourable so I left that 'can of worms' well alone until I read that the HE-400i benefited greatly from angled pleather (famed, dare say notorious) MH5 pads. Neck the red pill and down the rabbit hole I go.

Objective

In this quest for more bass, aside from the fact that lambskin (or whatever animal that soft leather if from, as opposed to pleather) and memory foam was the best material, I figured that the deepest pads produced more bass. But none of the pads I tried gave me enough bass. Particularly sub bass (or bass extension?). This was temporarily remedied by lifting the cups slightly away from from my ears releasing the seal around my ears. So I came up with this solution...

The Mod

I had some small hair ties lying around for tidying cables etc. so I put 2 together and hooked one end to the yoke and the other around the cable socket to lift the bottom end of the cup away from my face (jaw?). It just so happens that it gave the right amount of tension that I can set the vertical angle that the cups sit against my head. The subtle differences in angle change the bass impact and volume, particularly the sub bass. Depending on the track, or more likely album, the bass levels can be changed on the fly. This is a non-intrusive mod that is also ridiculously cheap. This also works with the stock Focus pads but to a lesser degree.

One word of warning is that the comfort levels do decrease somewhat as there is a slight pinching just above your ears but I suppose that's to be expected considering the nature of the mod.

As mentioned earlier, I'm really sorry if somebody else thought of this first. Other than that, tell me what you think.

Noli

I'd like to encourage you to also post his in the Mod thread
|https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...l-your-full-sized-headphone-mods-here.867426/

 

[Nolbert0]

@Cruelhand Luke Thanks for the link. Posted there now.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

@Cruelhand Luke Thanks for the link. Posted there now.

awesome, thank you for contributing!