[xeroian]

Thank you for posting the extra photos. I can see what you have done now.
Your 1st photo confused me because it shows a dark black area below the light brown board and I wondered whether that was part of the mod or perhaps some kind of fixing tape.

By the way my P3s don't have nearly as much foam bulging in to the cavity as yours so that might explain why I am not unhappy with the sound. I will try to find some suitable board though. Perhaps this year someone will send me a Christmas card

.

 

[xeroian]

Update: my curiosity would not let me wait for the postman so I cut two 24mm by 5mm rectangles from the back board of a shorthand notebook pad.

Much to my surprise the mod seems to have given a greater sense of immediacy and space. I don't intend removing the board to check whether the difference is real or imagined but as I sit here listening to Lana del Ray it seems real enough

 

[devoker]

Quote:

Update: my curiosity would not let me wait for the postman so I cut two 24mm by 5mm rectangles from the back board of a shorthand notebook pad.
Much to my surprise the mod seems to have given a greater sense of immediacy and space. I don't intend removing the board to check whether the difference is real or imagined but as I sit here listening to Lana del Ray it seems real enough

I am glad it's useful

 

[xXxLOADEDxXx]

I THINK I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION! take off the pads and look inside. see all the foam bulging into the rectangular cavity where the sound travels? ok take your finger and tuck all that in out of the way of the sound. its amazing what this will do for your sound. i think this is the way it was designed to be but maybe it unfurls after leaving the factory or its not checked at the end of the line or maybe the hole is cut too small. may as well give it a try. i think it also helps the cans feel a little more comfortable on my ears and the pads look nicer from the inside. when i put the phones back a little more on my ear in addition to the extra tucking these things now sound great or errrr better.....  

 

[paulschulte]

I tried the paper insert suggested by devoker (post #15) but found the headphones to be still too bassy and muddy for my taste.  After playing around with a few different ideas I found that the culprit for me was the foam pads themselves: they were simply designed to add too much bass (imo) - try listening without them and you'll see what I mean.  In one of my experiments I inserted a credit card between the pads and the headphones (at the bottom) and noticed a dramatic improvement in clarity. I decided what was needed was some overall separation between the pads and the headphones.  Using some thin clear plastic (about half the thickness of a credit card), I traced the shaped needed using a marker then drilled holes for the posts and cut along the trace line.  The result: a dramatic improvement in brightness that comes fairly close in tone to what I get out of my B&W 684 loudspeakers.

 

[chailee80]

Thanks for the handy info, got a pair of p3's for cheap and the lack of brightness was very disappointing i was almost on the verge of selling them. The strip of cardboard made a very nice difference, i was too lazy to try and sit it between the foam so i just put it in the same position on top of the pad and then stuck the pad back on. The magnets hold it in position quite well and i no longer have to crank the treble up to the max to get a hint of brightness lol. Thanks guys!

 

[jaypark65]

My reference headphone is HD800. So, I just couldn't accept this muddy treble sound. 
There is a simple solution if you don't mind the look of pads.
Just cut the middle part of pads like I did.

 

[chailee80]

Dusted off the old P3's today and decided to play around with them a bit. Managed to squeeze the HD25 pads onto them and was surprised  to find they dont sound too bad. Bass still has a good impact but its not as muddy and doesnt bleed into the mids as much. Mids come across ok, they can sound a little off on certain tracks, maybe a tad hollow sounding at times but tolerable for my tastes. The highs are much improved, they still dont sparkle or anything but are nowhere near as rolled off as the stock sound. I couldn't listen to them with the stock pads but with this slight (albeit a bit ugly) mod they sound good enough that i can actually listen to them.
Update: Just tried them with the earpads off my Martin Logan Mikros 90s and they sound more balanced this way. Bass seems more controlled and defined, mids come across okay not too distant nor forward, highs are still rolled off somewhat but sound more prominent than with the stock pads.
 

 

 

 

 

[bb09]

Just bought a refurbished p3 and sound too muffly and bassy with the straight cable. However with ue iPhone cable, huge differece they sound very balance with lots of details revealing. Anyone with the same experience or do I have bad straight cable?

 

[anon305]

What cable the link doesnt work?

 

[Necron99]

Update time...

I was at the UK meet yesterday, and someone had a pair of P3s that I was able to listen to, and the owner made an interesting suggestion - turn the ear pads up the other way. My initial reaction was that it shouldn't make much difference, but for some reason, it made it sound much better, with the highs being improved massively. The only problem with doing this is that they aren't designed to be used that way up, as there's a slight recess to accommodate the cable plugs, and the magnets are not ideally located for that orientation, so they fall off easily. I'm not 100% sure what was going on, but it looked like with them upside down, part of the pad moulding appears to block the bottom of the grille covering the driver. I don't know if there's anything else going on though. Whatever it's actually doing, it definitely made a difference.

Based on that, I'd like to ask a favour of someone that has a pair of P3s and some tape that wouldn't mind trying a little bodging / DIY... IF there's someone out there that is willing to try, have a look at what part of the grille is covered with the pads on upside down, and try putting a small piece of tape (electricians tape would be good I suspect) in the same place, so the grill would then be partly covered but with the pads on the right way up. Hopefully that makes sense .

I'm not sure where the original idea for this came from, so if anyone has any links to the original suggestion, please share them. However, I'd love to see if anyone else has any success with either turning the pads upside down, or with putting some tape on the grilles.

Thanks,

Dave.

I'll be damned!