I recently purchased a pair of MSR7B’s from Amazon in their Cyber sale. I own many headphones but was looking for a good portable closed back headphone. My “go-to” headphones are the Nighthawk Carbons and Sivga Phoenix but these are both open backs. I also own a fair few closed backs including Nad Viso HP50, Beoplay H6 2nd Gen and Meze 99 Classics.
What intrigued me about the MSR7B’s were the fact they can be run balanced as all my listening is done via my Fiio M11 and/or Q5S or BTR5.
Basically, out of the box these were quite hot at high frequencies. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good amount of warmth and treble, but I just found this a little bit of a distraction. So I persevered and experimented with some different pads. The stock pads are not bad but I did find them a bit uncomfortable after more than 30 minutes. But the treble harshness was the main drag.
So I did a google search for pad swaps/mods for these headphones and found this thread and I am so pleased that I took time to read thoroughly through it because I have found some fantastic information and advice, otherwise these headphones would have been history and returned to Amazon!
To cut a long story short, despite being extremely sceptical and worrying about invalidating my returns warranty, I painstakingly followed the
@tolis626 mod to remove the inner felt ring which I performed without any fuss. I also replaced the stock pads with Brainwavz Angled Sheepskin pads.
Wow, wow, wow...what seemed on the surface as a nitsh1t, minor adjustment mod has transformed this into a game changing headphone. Since applying the mod these headphones have not left my noggin! And the Sivga’s and Nighthawks find themselves in temporary semi lockdown retirement!
There is so much I love about this headphone now following the mod and pad swap - bass has a natural warmth with a tad more (and more realistic) rumble. Treble is no longer ringing or substantial, it’s a bit further back than it was but is still apparent and natural. When you hear a snare you definitely hear a snare and cymbals have s nice exacting shimmer. Mids have opened up a bit, vocals are bit more relaxed but not out of kilter with everything else. Soundstage is slightly wider mainly due to the pad swap where the angled pads open the sound up a bit more.
If I was to use words to describe these headphones then I would say “musicality”, “timbre” and “engaging”. IMHO they outperform all the other closed backs I own or have owned. For example, the Meze 99 Classics sound more bloated in sub bass and mids compared to the MSR7B’s and therefore have now been retired. Even when I use the 99 Classics with a balanced cable and different Pads they cannot compete with the MSR7B’s. These are that good that they are currently keeping my open backs (Sivga Phoenix and Nighthawk Carbons) on the bench, which is some feat for a closed back headphone that costs at least a 1/3 of their RRP!
Just one final word - with the M11 these headphones are extremely easy to drive but find that using High Gain provides that extra bit of oomph. I’ve also found that playing DSD files raises the whole audio experience, listening to Dark Side Of The Moon DSD128 vinyl rips is absolutely sublime and competes with my experience listening to vinyl through my Record player and amp!
This is what makes me find this hobby so fascinating that sometimes you can pluck a jewel like this from a reasonable shallow dig in terms of cost, £125/$168 is an absolute steal!
I would just like to thank this community and show kudos for the pearls of wisdom and comments raised on this thread, I am really glad I read them!
Best regards, a happy new MSR7B owner
