Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7b Impressions & Discussion Thread

[tolis626]

Ok, today was surgery day. I made a huge mistake: not listening to the msr7b again before performing the procedure. Especially as I am really spoiled lately, headphone-wise. So I can only say that afterwards the sound was good.

I did some things differently than Tolis626:

• I kept the felt ring
• I used plasticine (Play-Doh) for the cups instead of dynamat
• I partly kept the yellow insulation ring. Partly, because I made it about half as thick as original. And I put cotton (from cotton balls) behind it to fill up the 'driver room'

Just like the original Tolis-mod, this is not hard to do if you are a little handy and if you have patience.

Glad you like it!

That being said, removing that felt ring has been the single biggest difference maker for me. If you use pads that are any bigger than the stock ones (and let's face it, most of them are), it being there just ruins the sound in some way or another. Most noticeable difference is in the subbass. With the stock headphones and stock pads or Brainwavz sheepskins (angled and flat) the subbass was kinda maybe there, but I had to go looking for it. Good thing I only had the HD 58x to directly compare back then, because otherwise I'd be deeply disappointed. Nowadays with how I've got the things set up, their bass makes even my Argons and newly acquired LCD-Xs sweat. It's actually hilarious.

PS: That being said, I've been drooling over the LCD-X for years and I finally pulled the trigger. They're every bit as glorious as I remembered them being. I had tried them a couple of times at audio shows and they've been my favorite headphones ever since. That I can even put the MSR7b in the comparison is a testament to their actual quality.

 

[JackLeville]

So, if I remove the felt ring, I should not worry about getting too much treble?

 

[tolis626]

So, if I remove the felt ring, I should not worry about getting too much treble?

Nah, removing it did nothing to mids and treble, at least to my ears. All that was affected was the lowest of low mids and the bass.

 

[JackLeville]

Corrective surgery succeeded. The headphone felt nothing.

 

[tolis626]

Corrective surgery succeeded. The headphone felt nothing.

HA! "Felt" nothing, because you removed the felt ring? No? Ok.

So, whatcha thinking?

 

[JackLeville]

Post-operative tests have still to be completed. But vitals seem good.

 

[tolis626]

Post-operative tests have still to be completed. But vitals seem good.

That's what I like to hear. Now go blast something with a lot of bass.

 

[JackLeville]

Ok, as said, I'm not properly A/B'ing. Just some thoughts after testing in the best possible circumstances I have:

• there must definitely be more bass, as there is more sound pressure - well, there is noticeable sound pressure, which I can't remember having on these
• (still?) enough voice forward to my liking
• highs are not piercing

What I find really great about these - can't tell if it's the modding or not - is the "live performance feel"(LPF) these have these have. Especially when listening to recordings of live performances in spaces up to a small theater size (genre: )

An even bigger soundstage would further enhance this. But soundstage width wise, I cannot complain, as these feel to me even a tiny bit wider than my Bokehs.

All in all, these are great headphones for the price, punching a fair bit above their price. And given their rather compact size, these will remain my travel companions for a long time.

 

[Inserthouse]

Hello everyone and salutations from Tokyo, Japan.
I am finally back to using my ATH-MSR7b’s after some time. They had been collecting dust because I am primarily an IEM user. I really appreciate the sound quality of these cans. Also with the MSR7b’s, I don’t have to directly insert them in my ear hole haha.

 

[ghostgun]

I don't know if anyone of you is going to be interested, seeing as not many people are interested into this headphone, and even less are willing to mod it, but here goes.

I was letting the MSR7b with the ZMF cowhide pads go toe to toe with the Argons, and I started favoring the Argons again. Sure, the MSR7b were more "fun" and to my ears more detailed, but they lacked the depth of the sound of the Argons, the seperation, and most crucially, they got "noisy", for lack of a better word. Sure, they were fine for simple beats, where they slammed like there's no tomorrow, but if I pushed the volume or, god forbid, I dared to play my preferred metal music which, let's face it, is somewhat busy, they fell apart in comparison to the Argons. I was clearly dealing with excessive reflections in the cup, which is a problem that was exacerbated by the ZMF pads for whatever reason.

So I ordered some stuff, got my hands dirty, and just plastered the whole thing with Dynamat (baffle and cup), removed the yellow sponge disk from inside the cup and filled both chambers with teased cotton. Nothing extreme to be honest, and completely reversible, even if a little tedious. The results? Holy crap. The peaky highs calmed down and became smooth (instead of muffled when placing filters in front of the driver), the midrange became fuller, the bass got cleaner and I think has more impact. And then I decided to push the volume. The sound was clear no matter what. I even put my Loop earplugs in and blasted the volume until I could feel the bass slam in my teeth, and I still got no congestion, no distortion that I could discern and the sound was more "refined", like a more expesive headphone. I did lose a bit of soundstage, but it remains far larger than what I would expect from small closed-backs.

I'm probably talking at a wall at this point, but I highly, HIGHLY recommend going down this route. I took inspiration from t50rp mods, so by no means is what I've done the be all and end all. There's probably infinite possibilities that I haven't explored, but oh man am I happy I bit the bullet.

I've been using these headphones since 2021 and I absolutely love them. They have been the only headphones I've used since. I've used Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, and other AudioTechnicas, and I completely stopped using them / gave them away / sold them, all for the MSR7Bs.

I've been listening to more metal / punk recently and I've noticed that at the higher volumes, I'm seeing a little bit of distortion. It's never really bothered me much, but now that I've had these for a while, I'm tempted to start modding them to see what I can do about that distortion.

Do you recommend this still? Has there been anything you've learned that you would recommend I do differently if I were to follow in your footsteps?

Thanks!

 

[JackLeville]

@ghostgun have a look at the last coupe of pages. Tolis626 still recommends modding them, and even going a step further

 

[tolis626]

I've been using these headphones since 2021 and I absolutely love them. They have been the only headphones I've used since. I've used Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, and other AudioTechnicas, and I completely stopped using them / gave them away / sold them, all for the MSR7Bs.

I've been listening to more metal / punk recently and I've noticed that at the higher volumes, I'm seeing a little bit of distortion. It's never really bothered me much, but now that I've had these for a while, I'm tempted to start modding them to see what I can do about that distortion.

Do you recommend this still? Has there been anything you've learned that you would recommend I do differently if I were to follow in your footsteps?

Thanks!

Well, I've been in almost the same boat up until recently. I bought the old MSR7 in... I don't know anymore. I wanna say 2016? Don't quote me on that though. They and then the b have been THE most used audio gear I've ever had.

Now, as @JackLeville mentioned above, you'll find most of what you'll need in the last few pages. Point of the matter is, modding these things is easy and rewarding. You don't have to do what I did, there's a lot of possibilities. My current setup for them is the one described a few pages ago, with the felt ring and sponge removed, with added Dynamat lining in the chamber and cotton damping. All that with the ZMF cowhide oval pads. Only thing I've changed is I added a piece of felt in front of the driver to tame the upper mids/lower treble a bit. What came out of this is just glorious. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine.

I do have to say, if you start messing with the internals, changing to better/bigger pads makes a huge difference. Not only to the comfort, but also to the sound. I never imagined a portable closed back producing that kind of soundstage, but they do. And yeah, the comfort is incomparably better to stock, especially with my large-ish protruding ears.

What I would do differently is something I will probably end up doing in the near future, and that is lining the interior with felt. Like, Dynamat/plasteline on top of the housing plastics and then cover that with some felt to reduce unwanted reflections. That and I want to experiment with more pads. Brainwavz sheepskins (angled and straight variants) are great bang for the buck. I'd love some Dekonis but I don't know which would be a good fit. And right now I am waiting on an order of ZMF sheepskin ovals, a pair of sheepskin Verite and two pairs of Universe (one sheepskin, one suede) pads. They aren't all for the MSR7b, but I'll try them all on them just in case one stands above the rest. I'll keep you guys posted.

EDIT: ZMF pads arrived. I'm gonna be sticking with the cowhide ovals. Verite and Universe pads just don't fit on the MSR7b, they're too big to stay on and don't sound that great even if you do manage to get them to stay just long enough. The lambskin ovals are just as glorious as the cowhides but sound a bit worse imo. As my headphones are now, they sound a bit muffled on the top end, bloated in the midbass and lacking in the subbass (by comparison only). They would probably work better with the headphones closer to stock, without all the damping, but I'm way past that right now. Cowhides are back on and it's absolutely amazing.

Headband is the Dekoni one for Beyerdynamic. It's a hassle to get on and you need to completely remove the stock one, but mine was falling apart anyway and this feels much better than the stock one.