[mrarroyo]

Not only does the HFI-780 w/ a re-cable sound good but they are very engaging and fun.

 

[qib]

Hi aameford, i was wondering if you can mod this with the dynamat original sheets as well? Is it the same thing? I'm contemplating on buying these headphones and modding them myself rather than send it to ALO or S2. Lack of money forces me to go this route. Im hoping you've got pictures for the modding process so i can see if its difficult or not.

 

[aamefford]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qib /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi aameford, i was wondering if you can mod this with the dynamat original sheets as well? Is it the same thing? I'm contemplating on buying these headphones and modding them myself rather than send it to ALO or S2. Lack of money forces me to go this route. Im hoping you've got pictures for the modding process so i can see if its difficult or not.

qib - I used the Dynamat Extreme - which I think is just plain old dynamat dressed up for the 10KW car audio crowd. I got mine at the local Best Buy (US chain electronics store - look for the guy with tatoos and lots of piercings that works in car audio, he'll know where it is!). I just found a detergent cup off some liquid Tide (US laundry soap brand) That was just a pinch bigger than the cups, mashed that into the shiny side of the dynamat, and cut just inside the resulting circle. I cut triangular or rectangular notches for the screw standoffs, punched a couple holes with a screwdriver for the diode board (haven't removed it yet), mashed the dynamat in real well, put the diode board back in over it. I had some polyester felt laying around, so I cut circles about 70% the diameter of the cups, and teased the felt out to thin it, and put that in, and reassembled the cups. (I did them one at a time). I then cut the vinyl stuff with scissors after pressing paper against the baffle plate and rubbing it to get a template to cut out and trace on the vinyl stuff. I used the vinyl on the front because it isn't as gooey as the dynamat, and the foam earpad covers go right up against it. You could probably use dynamat on the back of the baffle board to same effect. I just wanted to kill resonance on the baffle board with damping and to cut both resonance and standing wave in the cup with the dynamat and the felt. So far, I like the result a lot. By the way, I knocked the project out in an hour or so, sitting on my bed, it is pretty easy. I'll shoot picks of the damping mods when I open them up for the recable in ah... a while. I have a 4 year old that takes most of my time, and a job and wife that claim the rest!

Next up is the recable and pulling the diode board. I got these planning to mod them as a project. They sounded like fun, and a good deal came along just as I was gonna get a pair of Pro 900's...

So far - WELL worth the time. These cans sound really nice, and continue to grow on me. I recommend scoring a used set to mod. There was a pair in the FS forum yesterday or today for around $160, which is a good deal. I traded my Senn HD580's with the 600 grill 650 cable mods for mine, so $160 is a nice price.

 

[qib]

Hey, thanks for the tips and instructions! (Bookmarked!) Look forward to those pictures. And please take your time, no pressure... I might have to buy them new though, since its 125 pounds here i might as well. Will probably try and wait for a good deal to come by on the fs boards. The only thing pulling me back from buying the ultrasones is the many ultasone-haters around making it seem like these are simply hyped up phones. Oh well, its either these or the beyer dt150 for me. I'll make the decision soon enough, i hope.

 

[burgunder]

qib could you provia link to the 780 for 125 £? I'm not able to find them cheaper than 140.

 

[qib]

I got it from avforums, apparently if you call ultrasone up you can get it direct from them. And it supposedly costs £125.

 

[aamefford]

BP125 converts t oabout $185 US. I think cheapest here (US) is now over $190, so that is a pretty decent deal, I think.

Note I'm not a fan-boy of the HFI 780. It is a pretty nice can at the price, once it spends two or 3 weeks in a drawer breaking in. The damping helps a lot IMHO, and is mandatory as far as I'm concerned. By all reports (and there are a BUNCH of 'em!) a recable is virtually mandatory as well (I haven't proven that to myself yet). I suspect that there are better sounding stock cans at the price, and better sounding cans than the modified ones at their price. That said, as a project for fun, these are turning out to great for me.

 

[qib]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aamefford /img/forum/go_quote.gif BP125 converts t oabout $185 US. I think cheapest here (US) is now over $190, so that is a pretty decent deal, I think. Note I'm not a fan-boy of the HFI 780. It is a pretty nice can at the price, once it spends two or 3 weeks in a drawer breaking in. The damping helps a lot IMHO, and is mandatory as far as I'm concerned. By all reports (and there are a BUNCH of 'em!) a recable is virtually mandatory as well (I haven't proven that to myself yet). I suspect that there are better sounding stock cans at the price, and better sounding cans than the modified ones at their price. That said, as a project for fun, these are turning out to great for me.

Hmm from what you say, i might avoid this now. Its just that from the many (MANY!) threads i've read on these well hyped headphones, the descriptions of these sound like the most grado-like closed cans i could find. All i want is an airy forward punchy bass closed can that sounds like the grados i love. Maybe its too much too ask... Heheh, oh well... More threads to read i guess.

 

[Dangermouse2003]

I called ultrasone about a month ago for pricing after I heard they sold them for £125, they told me £190 is now the price thanks to current exchange rates. I got my pair off play.com instead - £150 delivered, gotta love the channel islands

 

[aamefford]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qib /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm from what you say, i might avoid this now. Its just that from the many (MANY!) threads i've read on these well hyped headphones, the descriptions of these sound like the most grado-like closed cans i could find. All i want is an airy forward punchy bass closed can that sounds like the grados i love. Maybe its too much too ask... Heheh, oh well... More threads to read i guess.

Remember, mine is one of many opinions out there, and only one. Also, I am enjoying the 780's, but as much for the project as the end result. I didn't like them stock. Closed Grado isn't a bad description, except the Grado mids famous, and the 780's don't match them to me, yet.

 

[xaval]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aamefford /img/forum/go_quote.gif I added some dynamat to the back of each cup, a fairly small amount of polyester batting between the cup and driver, vinyl based damping material:

1 - I've ordered the Beyer pads and they are on the way - check!

2 - I'm sourcing the Dynamat on a local car audio store - almost check!

3 - Now, what exactly is "polyester batting"? My English is quite reasonable, but I'm afraid this is totally beyond me

- non check...

4 - vinyl based damping - also a bit lost here!

As for the recabling, I'll have to see if I can get this done by the guys that locally take care of may audio gear... this will probably the last thing I'll do mainly because of the cost. I can imagine the ALO thing to be very exciting and all but it will cost more than the cans which is unreasonable. I don't want to drill the cups for an Y option so, which could be some more cost effective options?

These cans have been running almost non stop for a full week now and the last couple of days the sound hasn't changed much if at all. Anyway, I'm falling in love with them for the portability and isolation factor, besides the engaging sound obviously and I plan on doing these things in sequence to measure all the benefits with no rush. As they are now I love them already "enough" but if the Beyer pads do tighten up the bass a bit and give a bit more air to the highs I could even stop there.

I had the idea that these could be a closed Grado version so I took them just the other day to my local Grado dealer for a comparo and although I enjoyed the RS1s (anything below was a no-no for me) they don't offer that much more quality to my ears in absolute terms and considering they retail at around 800€ here... LOL!

 

[aamefford]

Polyester batting - in this case, a polyester felt that is fairly loosely woven, and nominally maybe 3/8" thick. I just teased it out to be thinner. I think it was for an upholstery project of my mom's. It fell out of a box when I was helping her move and I snagged it. Any fabric store or upholstery shop should have something that will work. Even bulk polyester or some other pillow fill or upholstery stuffing should work fine. Check the kwkarth thread referenced later in this post for some ideas.

I provided a link for the vinyl type damping material. It has a black leather textured vinyl face, and a sort of rubbery backing. It is like dynamat, but less "gooey" on the back. I mainly used it because I had some. I saw someone post about it here, and just bought a couple of sheets. You could certainly use dynamat, either on the front as I did, or somewhere on the back. The object is to damp out any resonance in the metal driver plate.

I used the "Kees Mod" that lives in the "How Bright is an Ultrasone Pro 900" thread and the kwkarth mod on the Ultrasone Pro 650, and the Markl mods that are posted and linked here at head-fi as my inspirations. Germania also has done and documented a bunch of similar work that was quite helpful.

I will also shout out to warrior05, who was very pleasant and helpful in an email. He does this work professionally as well, so I will leave it at that. If anyone wants to pay someone a reasonable price for similar work, warrior05 is a great guy by all accounts, and folks seem really pleased with his work. I contacted him because I was considering letting him do the work instead. His price was quite fair, when you consider the labor involved. I wouldn't do it for someone else for any less, that's for sure!

As for recable, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I started down this road because I figured I could get similar results to APS, ALO and S2 with minimal cost and have some fun doing it. So far, so good, I think.

 

[xaval]

Thanks a bunch for your efforts here aameford. I'll surely read further down those threads you mention to milk as much stuff as possible and report back as soon as I have anything further to add.

 

[xaval]

Ok, just got the Beyer pads yesterday and been through a couple of hours worth of music. I did get a bit of what I was expecting : tighter bass and extended highs... but I'm sort of having mixed feelings!

These are all minor changes in sound presentation:
Bass - Tighter and more articulate. Sound lost a bit of it's base foundation. Acoustic instruments are now more convincing and sound more woody and also have more body. On the other hand, electronic bass is less thunderous, less in your face and more in your body.
Mids - Less forward (not recessed!) and increased instrument separation or is it more detail? Great!
Highs - Lost a bit of the artificial plasticness and got more extended, clearly better decay.
Overall, the cans lost of bit of the fun factor, hence the mixed feelings. I'll stick to them for a few days to get used to them.
Clearly, these pads tame a bit of the Ultrasone sound, but they do seem to lose a bit of the "something about Ultrasone" sound.

Edit : Waaaaaaaay more confortable then pleathers!

 

[mrarroyo]

I just added dynamat to the back of the HFI-780 and a little piece on the magnet. Before closing I placed a bit of cotton inside the cups.

The bass is still as deep but it seems better defined and tighter. Perhaps the resonances have been reduced and account for the change. When I lay my hands on the cups they do not vibrate as much as before. The mids/treble seems to be more prominent or perhaps I should say less subdue.