[Mach3]

The removable cable mechanism on L5000 is fabulous.

Sad that I love the A2DC (Audio Designed Detachable Coaxial) connectors more so than the actual sound the headphone produces.
All dynamic, planar should use that connector as a standard.

 

[purk]

I prefer 3.5 mm connectors. Much easier to work on.

 

[goldwerger]

After looking around for a while, I finally found someone who could replace the ATH-L3000 stiff permanent stock cable with standard 3.5mm connectors - @Matez from Forza Audioworkds did a spectacular job fitting a Japanese connector pair inside the cups (in nice black and gold colors). Secure and high quality, I can now plug in any cable for future use.

I know others have recabled this headphone, but as I first unsuccessfully looked for someone who might have installed standard connectors, I'm sharing this in case it may be helpful to others. Thank you Matt for also cleaning out the old foam and for taking great care in this work. Much appreciated!

(shown with ZMF Universe Lambskin solid pads and Forza Noir Hybrid HPC cable)

 

[protoss]

@goldwerger

Legendary headphones

 

[purk]

I think the modded did a great job installing the 3.5 mm jack. Still I prefer soldering the upgrade cable directly onto the drivers due better sound quality.

 

[mulveling]

That mod job looks amazing!

 

[Saberpunch]

For the past 2 weeks, I had my fun with the Caldera. Then my body started getting pale and I needed my daily rotation headphone fix. So I went back listening to the L3000. People were talking about pad rolling the Caldera so I thought I give pad rolling the L3000 a try. Yo… I thought I don’t believe in pad rolling, but dang does the Cowhide (slim) ZMF pad fit so perfectly with the L3000! The bass guitars had more presence and I became more aware of it in the songs. Sub bass gets a little more slam. I feel like clarity might have lower just a tad bit and soundstage is a little more squish in. I overall really enjoy the Cowhide pad a lot with the L3000. I didn’t tried Caldera suede as that staying on my A800 and the Caldera thin pad were disappointing on the L3000. The thin pads loses too much bass for me on L3000, it kinda defeat the purpose of why I like the L3000 a lot.

 

[iamoneagain]

For the past 2 weeks, I had my fun with the Caldera. Then my body started getting pale and I needed my daily rotation headphone fix. So I went back listening to the L3000. People were talking about pad rolling the Caldera so I thought I give pad rolling the L3000 a try. Yo… I thought I don’t believe in pad rolling, but dang does the Cowhide (slim) ZMF pad fit so perfectly with the L3000! The bass guitars had more presence and I became more aware of it in the songs. Sub bass gets a little more slam. I feel like clarity might have lower just a tad bit and soundstage is a little more squish in. I overall really enjoy the Cowhide pad a lot with the L3000. I didn’t tried Caldera suede as that staying on my A800 and the Caldera thin pad were disappointing on the L3000. The thin pads loses too much bass for me on L3000, it kinda defeat the purpose of why I like the L3000 a lot.

I’m surprised you tried this. When I had the L3000, I had to change the original pads with stock replacements and remembered have a hard time getting the new pads on. I was so glad that it wasn’t something I had to do again.

I have a Caldera on order, hoping it satisfies. I’m not much of a fan of headphone rotation. When I had the L3000 it was my only home headphone for 12 years.

 

[Saberpunch]

I’m surprised you tried this. When I had the L3000, I had to change the original pads with stock replacements and remembered have a hard time getting the new pads on. I was so glad that it wasn’t something I had to do again.

I have a Caldera on order, hoping it satisfies. I’m not much of a fan of headphone rotation. When I had the L3000 it was my only home headphone for 12 years.

Changing the pad wasn't that bad for me. I never use a ZMF pad before, so I am not too sure how they all fit, but the Caldera pad seems to fit the L3000 like a glove. I just slip it on and done.

About having a headphone rotation, I'm probably a outlier on that. I was originally a sneakerhead and own like 20+ shoes at a time. I always like wearing a different pair at least every week. The reason was to preserve the sneaker as much as I can so it will degrade way slower over time. My sneaker habits pretty much transfer over to my headphone habits where I would feel guilty using the same headphone everyday knowing its degrading faster with each use. Especially since the L3000 is like super rare now, I'm trying to be extra careful with it lol.

 

[iamoneagain]

Changing the pad wasn't that bad for me. I never use a ZMF pad before, so I am not too sure how they all fit, but the Caldera pad seems to fit the L3000 like a glove. I just slip it on and done.

About having a headphone rotation, I'm probably an outlier on that. I was originally a sneakerhead and own like 20+ shoes at a time. I always like wearing a different pair at least every week. The reason was to preserve the sneaker as much as I can so it will degrade way slower over time. My sneaker habits pretty much transfer over to my headphone habits where I would feel guilty using the same headphone everyday knowing its degrading faster with each use. Especially since the L3000 is like super rare now, I'm trying to be extra careful with it lol.

I sort of had a worry the L3000 would fail, so I sold it while still in great shape. The matching amp failed but I know electronics is different than the headphones themselves. Lucky ZMF has a lifetime warranty on their drivers and think everything can be swapped out. So not too worried about the constant use.

 

[Saberpunch]

I sort of had a worry the L3000 would fail, so I sold it while still in great shape. The matching amp failed but I know electronics is different than the headphones themselves. Lucky ZMF has a lifetime warranty on their drivers and think everything can be swapped out. So not too worried about the constant use.

12 years of constant use is still a pretty good run. And it was still working at the time you sold it, so that's really good for the L3000. Thats also really cool you had the amp for it as well. I think I have only seen 1 person in this forum that has the matching amp for the L3000, but I also joined this forum pretty recently to be fair. ZMF having that lifetime warranty is so nice, I wish all my favorite headphones have a warranty like that. I hope you like the Caldera! Its not best in technicality, but its a really fun headphone to listen too. Kinda like the L3000 where it won't win awards in technicality, but its just a really fun headphone to listen to. Both still have totl technicality though.

 

[goldwerger]

Yo… I thought I don’t believe in pad rolling, but dang does the Cowhide (slim) ZMF pad fit so perfectly with the L3000!

I’m using the ZMF Solid Universe lambskin - and it’s amazing with the L3000 (I also have the Caldera, and in general ZMF perforated pads don’t work as well as their solid pads for closed back headphones). I highly recommend the above!

About having a headphone rotation, I'm probably an outlier on that.

I’m the same, as are many many folks on head-fi.. I love changing headphones to mood, genre, and for fun

 

[Saberpunch]

I’m using the ZMF Solid Universe lambskin - and it’s amazing with the L3000 (I also have the Caldera, and in general ZMF perforated pads don’t work as well as their solid pads for closed back headphones). I highly recommend the above!



I’m the same, as are many many folks on head-fi.. I love changing headphones to mood, genre, and for fun

Thats good to know. I’m kinda loving ZMF pads right now. They are so comfy and they actually do improve sounds even if it’s minor improvements. But it’s like noticeable minor improvements to me. I’ll probably look into their solid pads.

 

[iamoneagain]

12 years of constant use is still a pretty good run. And it was still working at the time you sold it, so that's really good for the L3000. Thats also really cool you had the amp for it as well. I think I have only seen 1 person in this forum that has the matching amp for the L3000, but I also joined this forum pretty recently to be fair. ZMF having that lifetime warranty is so nice, I wish all my favorite headphones have a warranty like that. I hope you like the Caldera! It’s not best in technicality, but it’s a really fun headphone to listen to. Kinda like the L3000 where it won't win awards in technicality, but it’s just a really fun headphone to listen to. Both still have totl technicality though.

Good to know about the Caldera. I actually had the DCA Expanse, and while definitely more fun than the Stealth, I found over time I wasn’t enjoying my music as much. It also had this weird closed in feeling but more like noise canceling headphones feeling.

I sold the L3000 because I was looking for an open headphone after all those years of use a closed one. Prior to that I had the Grado PS1 and loved the openness and the way it handled electric guitar. At that point in time I needed closed and found the L3000 was one of the best with electric guitar and also the most fun closed headphone I heard at the time. Maybe it would have made more sense to keep it and just get an open headphone to compliment it but couldn’t really afford another top of line one without selling first.

 

[Failed Engineer]

I'm looking for an L3000 if anyone is selling or have a lead. I'm looking to pay fair, not collector price though. Strongly prefer recabled to balanced as the amps I plan on having forever and use with the L3000 are only balanced output.