[itchyears]

Modded msr7b's (remove white felt pads, add papertowel or similar, and use Dekoni sheepskin pads) sound very impressive for $310. The pads are deeper, the felt removal adds bass and extension, and the paper towel cuts the harsh treble. It's a very nice combo. Source- I tried pretty much every aftermarket pad you can buy and tried toilet paper / paper towel/ and "attenuation pads" off ebay. The attenuation pads were very similar to paper towels.

That said, the clarity and smoothness of the d9200 and th900-MKII's are on another level. There is definitely a difference between these two and the modded msr7b's. Note, I really dislike the stock MKII pads.... but Dekoni sheepskin elite Fostex X00 pads make these sound great.

I've also tried the d7200, 2000i, and w900 (and others)..... I didn't find any of those to sound as good as the d9200 and MKII's.... and even the modded msr7b's sounded better imho.

Source- I've gone a little nuts trying HP's and had all of these and more on my desk up until about a week ago.

Just one guy's opinion on the internet.

Cheers, keep the opinions coming good or bad from anyone really

Just completed 120+ pages denon-ah-d9200 thread, so many in there have the MKIIs and still love their D9200s just that bit better. So much positive reviews really on 9200 I think they may be my end game pair but affording them is another mission ! Not sure if they leak noise badly also since the msr7bs no one can hear what you hear from 2-3 metres away which is quite impressive even with decent volumes.

 

[Mhog55]

Can anyone compare the MSR7B to Senn 660S? @Mhog55 ?

I just ordered the 660S as an open-back option with my M11P. I've been using the MSR7B exclusively with it for the past few months. I realize they are very different headphones, just mainly wondering how they compare regarding bass and treble extension. I've been using the MSR7B 4.4 balanced, and would be doing the same with the 660S. I've heard the 660S can be lacking in bass but are better when used balanced...

Appreciate any experiences, thanks!

I think the 660s compliments the Msr7b nicely. If you enjoy the AT, you'll likely enjoy the Senn. The 660s is a a little more neutral. I believe it's the appropriate choice for someone who is looking for an open back partner to the Msr7b.

 

[TubeStack]

I think the 660s compliments the Msr7b nicely. If you enjoy the AT, you'll likely enjoy the Senn. The 660s is a a little more neutral. I believe it's the appropriate choice for someone who is looking for an open back partner to the Msr7b.

Thank you! I actually just found an HD600 sale here in Canada, so I cancelled the 660S order and went with the 600 for $260 cheaper.

 

[TSelanne]

Cheers, keep the opinions coming good or bad from anyone really

Just completed 120+ pages denon-ah-d9200 thread, so many in there have the MKIIs and still love their D9200s just that bit better. So much positive reviews really on 9200 I think they may be my end game pair but affording them is another mission ! Not sure if they leak noise badly also since the msr7bs no one can hear what you hear from 2-3 metres away which is quite impressive even with decent volumes.

The d9200's sound wonderful IMHO. They are, however, like the MKII's, very poor with isolation. On a 5 scale, IHMO the MKII's get a 0 (they aren't really a closed-back HP, more of a semi-closed) and Denon's get a 1. I tried several experiments regarding isolation with a number of different HP's and unfortunately, the Denons and Fostex were some of the worst. The msr7b's were better, but not great. I think I rated them a 2 or 3 on my scale.

Not sure if you saw my post.... but after my lengthy search, I ended up going with the MKII's over the d9200's. I went back and forth for hours and hours with both of them.... tried all different kinds of music, swapping back and forth to compare. There was just something slighter better to my ears with the MKII's. Keep in mind, I am using them with Dekoni Fostex TH-X00 sheepkin elite pads, which make a big difference vs stock (I did not like the stock pads). If I had to keep the stock pads, I would've ended up with the d9200's for sure.

If you can float the $$, try both, and return the one you don't want. Amazon's return policy for anything purchased before Xmas is through Jan.31, so you'd have plenty of time to sit with them.

 

[TSelanne]

I’m sorry, but messing around with paper towels and toilet paper seems crazy to me. To take all that state of the art engineering and then spread toilet paper over it? It’s actually hilarious. But I guess that’s a whole other topic.

Yeah I can relate to your reaction, because when I first read @tolis626 posts about modding these, I thought the idea was a little nuts too. Same exact thoughts.... 'why mess up the engineering that's obviously gone into making these?' But instead of staying closed-minded, I tried it. And it worked. Quite beautifully I might add.

Do a few google searches and you'll find many people have experimented with all kinds of materials to change sound. It's proven that toilet paper and paper towels do work in reducing higher-frequency sounds, there are frequency graphs to show it as well.

Keep in mind, changing pads on any HP will change the sound signature, usually pretty dramatically, so making additional adjustments is all fair & square IMHO.

Bottom line..... don't knock it until you try it.

Looking at the frequency plots of the D9200 and MSR7b they are pretty evenly matched but the MSR7b has more above the Harman curve than the D9200 appears to, so you would anticipate it to sound brighter. Of course other things come into play but overall try them both and see which you prefer would be a plan rather than taking someone else's feedback? I include my own feedback in that too!

When you try them back to back, there is a clear difference in the quality. While the frequencies might be similar, the sound was noticeably "better" on the d9200. The trebles were much more smooth and refined, but equally as present, if that makes sense. Very similar case with the Fostex MKII's as well - still bright, but smoother overall than the msr7b. These two HP's also cost about 6x as much.... so keep that in mind.

I still revert back to the fact that, if I were on a budget and the most I could spend was $300, I'd go w msr7b's, Dekoni sheepskin elite pads, do the @tolis626 mod, and add some attenuation pads for the treble...... and I'd be very happy.

 

[itchyears]

The d9200's sound wonderful IMHO. They are, however, like the MKII's, very poor with isolation. On a 5 scale, IHMO the MKII's get a 0 (they aren't really a closed-back HP, more of a semi-closed) and Denon's get a 1. I tried several experiments regarding isolation with a number of different HP's and unfortunately, the Denons and Fostex were some of the worst. The msr7b's were better, but not great. I think I rated them a 2 or 3 on my scale.

Not sure if you saw my post.... but after my lengthy search, I ended up going with the MKII's over the d9200's. I went back and forth for hours and hours with both of them.... tried all different kinds of music, swapping back and forth to compare. There was just something slighter better to my ears with the MKII's. Keep in mind, I am using them with Dekoni Fostex TH-X00 sheepkin elite pads, which make a big difference vs stock (I did not like the stock pads). If I had to keep the stock pads, I would've ended up with the d9200's for sure.

If you can float the $$, try both, and return the one you don't want. Amazon's return policy for anything purchased before Xmas is through Jan.31, so you'd have plenty of time to sit with them.

Oh missed that comment but that is quite interesting you went with the MKIIs in the end over the Denon, since I just read 120 pages it almost felt like the many went from MKIIs to the Denon 9200s.

I think towards the 70-80 page mark many noticed just how different and better the Denons get when paired with the right dac/amp combo and right type of cable (usually copper) and many still tried their MKIIs but did not get the same improvements oddly, did you get a chance to try this out with different dacs/amps?

The isolation of both Denons and MKIIs have put me a bit off tbh one wonders if they are both semi closed backs! The msr7bs on medium volume even with open door and someone standing 2-3 metres away are hard-pressed to hear my music(tried it with a young and older person same results), so I rate the msr7bs to be decent with noise leakage in general.

Great idea to go amazon they do have the mkIIs in stock there is also (audiovisual uk) that do the denons and I believe can do a trial at home too so that maybe the better option for me.

 

[iFi audio]

I think towards the 70-80 page mark many noticed just how different and better the Denons get when paired with the right dac/amp combo and right type of cable (usually copper) and many still tried their MKIIs but did not get the same improvements oddly, did you get a chance to try this out with different dacs/amps?

Just a thought, but isn't it funny how our state of mind towards a product can change after reading 50+ pages of people who have it? How much of a rollercoaster it can be ?

Before joining iFi several years ago I remember how in case of HD 600 I went from hype to being picky to hype again to being confused to being tired to finally pulling the trigger. This forum, it's magic in a way

 

[itchyears]

Just in case any other msr7b owner is looking 'ahead' for a change of hps here are 2 excellent threads discussing closed back hps;

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-closed-back-headphone-thread-plus-reviews.939901/

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/denon-ah-d9200-2018-flagship-impressions-thread.882028/

 

[iFi audio]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-closed-back-headphone-thread-plus-reviews.939901/

The first post of this one and in general what @Malevolent put together is great!

Thanks for mentioning it here

 

[Mhog55]

The first post of this one and in general what @Malevolent put together is great!

Thanks for mentioning it here

No doubt

 

[tolis626]

@TubeStack
As @TSelanne said, the concept of messing with the work of some brilliant engineers is strange at first. My first thought when I had the original MSR7 opened up in front of me were something like "What are you doing you idiot? Sound engineers at AT made these for you to destroy? There's no chance anything good comes out of it. Just hope they still work afterwards!". But after working on them a bit I realized some things. It's a lot like messing with cars. Sure, the engineers designing them know what they're doing, but they are going for an end product that needs to meet some requirements. They are sure to have made some sacrifices along the way, knowingly making the product inferior in some ways to make it better in others. It's part of the design process. So, for example, let's assume that AT's engineers wanted these to use the stock pads so that they are comfy enough, but not bulky so that they can be portable. Having the pads as a given, then they would tune the sound to their desired signature when these pads are on the headphones. That doesn't mean that anything else is wrong, it's just that they had a target build and a target sound signature and made changes accordingly.

Now take another headphone as an example, the Drop + Beyerdynamic DT177x GO. One of the differences compared to the DT1770 is a foam piece right in front of the driver to tame their driver's insane treble. That was, in fact, my inspiration to move away from toilet paper on to foam pieces for controlling the treble (toilet paper, if it's not tightly in there can cause rattling when heavy bass is playing, foam solves this issue).

Where am I going with this? Much like the engineers designing these headphones, what I and many others here have done is tune the headphones to our liking given some other parameters. Like, for me the primary concern was comfort and I tried to improve that by changing pads, which made the sound worse, so then I tried to retune the headphones to sound nice with the aftermarket pads. And I'm really happy with the result, and so is @TSelanne, and others may be too. You'll never know until you try it, no matter how ridiculous it sounds at first.

 

[simon740]

Hello,
Will these headphones pair well with the LG V40?
I listen to 60% jazz, 20% blues, 10% EDM and 10% classical music.

regards,
Simon

 

[Mhog55]

Hello,
Will these headphones pair well with the LG V40?
I listen to 60% jazz, 20% blues, 10% EDM and 10% classical music.

regards,
Simon

Absolutely. The only caution I would provide is that the ESS chips in that phone can be a little harsh and edgy. Of course this is just my opinion, and you may not hear it. With the Msr7b and it's extended, pronounced high mids, I found it necessary to utilize a little EQ in that particular area. Other than that, they go together quite nicely.

 

[simon740]

Absolutely. The only caution I would provide is that the ESS chips in that phone can be a little harsh and edgy. Of course this is just my opinion, and you may not hear it. With the Msr7b and it's extended, pronounced high mids, I found it necessary to utilize a little EQ in that particular area. Other than that, they go together quite nicely.

Hmm. Thanks.
I should try. Let me mention that years ago I had a Hifiman HE-560 and a Gustard H10. I had borrowed the HD800 from a friend for a while. These are still my favorite headphones. They brought me closer to what can be experienced on speakers. At least for the kind of music I personally listen to.
But now I’m looking for something to start with. Up to € 200.

greetings
Simon

 

[Mhog55]

Hmm. Thanks.
I should try. Let me mention that years ago I had a Hifiman HE-560 and a Gustard H10. I had borrowed the HD800 from a friend for a while. These are still my favorite headphones. They brought me closer to what can be experienced on speakers. At least for the kind of music I personally listen to.
But now I’m looking for something to start with. Up to € 200.

greetings
Simon

Definitely a solid option