I own the T70p since a month or so now in order to get something that sounds as good as my DT1350 but more comfy...
So the story is:
- When I got them I noticed excessive high frequency (a peak between 8 and 9 kHz), recessed middle range (not as much as the D7000 though) and lack of bass impact. But I also noticed an incredible transparency and no distortion at all, even when the complexity of the music was extreme (big modern orchestras). I was unhappy and disappointed anyway, as matter of fact I wanted to sell immediately, I couldn't send them back to beyerdynamic in Germany. (I am glad I didn't)
- I tried different other headphones (spending a lot in shipping costs, sending them back!) nothing, I couldn't find anything satisfactory or close to the transparency and the engaging sound of the DT1350.
- At some point I had a crazy idea trying to play around with the earpads in order to get a better impact. I reversed the earpads and I put some electrical tape to hold them in place. Wow not anymore a recessed middle range and not anymore sibilant highs, now the middle range is exactly like the DT1350 but tons more transparent and realistic (realistic in the sense that the timbre of the instruments is very close to what it should be), the lack of highs in the DT1350 is solved and also it is envolving as much as the DT1350. Still lack of impact in the bass range comparing with the DT1350 but after covering the reversed pads with some leather and inserting some foam on the top part that goes around the ears I almost solved the problem...now the impact is a lot better and as before the frequency is flat until 10 Hz. Also with leather wrapping and the little ring of foam, now they sound very spacious (airy) with clear perception of the ambience.
- So the little silly mod worked perfectly (trust me I tried a lot more things but nothing worked so good as this one, it is really a night and day difference in the frequency response), the problem is that the headphones now look a bit ugly (obviously). Being very happy of the sound I said to myself "why don't you get another type of earpads?" well I bought some genuine leather earpads for aviation £31!!. I couldn't wait to try them out...so once I got the beautiful pads it was a complete disaster, the middle range was almost disappeared, a lot of confusion in the bass range, total lack of cohesion of the frequencies. At that time I was convinced that the problem was caused because the inner part of the pads (the plastic one) was completely sealed, so instead of packing back the cushions and resell them, I decided to ruin everything and make some holes on the plastic inner part of the pads...very very bad Idea, nothing changed and the result was £31 wasted.
- At the moment with this little mod I am very very happy about the amazing transparency, the tonal balance and the comfort of the headphones. I can't figure out at all why the reversed ear pads trick works and nothing else does, all negative effects for all the other modifications. I was thinking to get some velour pads to roughly match the reversed earpad behaviour (of the standard T70 earpads), but I don't know which one of them to get, I definitely don't want other people around me listening to my music so I am not sure the velour pads would work in this sense. Allegedly there are two different types, one for open cans (dt880) and another one for closed ones (dt770). At the moment I don't want to waste other money so I'll stick with the ugly but very effective solution.
At the end of the day in my humble opinion:
1. Don't don't!! buy aviation earpads neither leather nor gel stuff, (they are basically tubes) I think those are designed for good isolation rather than for acoustic properties. I can with no doubt say that (at least with the leather pads) the sound gets really muddy and everything is totally ruined, this is how it sounds to my ears.
2. The headphones with this little "reversing" trick sound truly fantastic (I invite all the owners of the T70p to do this little trick, I'd like some opinion, no insults please
).
3. The T70ps sound very good just out of a normal player although I did notice a significant improvement using my Nuforce DAC/amplifier.
4. I have tried a bunch of other full size sealed cans including the famous D7000, in my opinion there is no comparison in terms of trasparency and acoustic instruments timbre, although I have to say that other headphones surpass easily the T70 in the bass impact performance (I am not saying that they are not punchy enough, but they are just right) for the rest I couldn't find anything comparable, with this trick they sound a lot better than the DT1350, also because of the superior ambience.
