[Theogenes]

Whats the ear padding and does it change the sound?

Beyerdynamic clear gel pads, now discontinued, unfortunately. Provides the best bass response of the pads I've tried, although it looks pretty terrible (b@stard child of a prophylactic and a jellyfish, to these jaded eyes anyway).

 

[Griploc]

Beyerdynamic clear gel pads, now discontinued, unfortunately. Provides the best bass response of the pads I've tried, although it looks pretty terrible (b@stard child of a prophylactic and a jellyfish, to these jaded eyes anyway).

They look really cool!

I like how the cable feature is swapable too!
I am having my t5ps recabled as i text this by james at stefan audioart(hardwired endorphin cable with ebony 1/4 connector). There must be some supplier that may still carry them

 

[TokenGesture]

Any one tried this with Chord Hugo?

 

[dsound]

I think when I get home tonight I am going to try a quick mod to the T5p's.  I love the overall signature of them but find the treble peak @ 8k to be a bit fatiguing. 
 
I'm going to try some dampening in the cup using some craft-stuffing. 
 
I got the idea from looking at the internals of the TH900:

 
Will post impressions/pics.

 

[PleasantSounds]

  I think when I get home tonight I am going to try a quick mod to the T5p's.  I love the overall signature of them but find the treble peak @ 8k to be a bit fatiguing. 
 
I'm going to try some dampening in the cup using some craft-stuffing. 
 
I got the idea from looking at the internals of the TH600:

 
Will post impressions/pics.

 
Makes a lot of difference indeed. May be worth experimenting with different materials. I settled on ~5mm packaging foam circles which seem to tame the reflections inside the cup just right.

 

[dsound]

Dampening mod done 

.  Took all of 10 minutes.  The hardest part was figuring out how to remove the drivers.
 
The materials used:
Some random type of Poly-fill that I grabbed from my wife's craft-supplies.
 
Here's a pic with the pad removed.  I've circled where there's a gap where you can use a small flathead (or spudger) to pop the driver out:

 
And here's the pic with the Poly-fill in place:

 
I haven't had a chance to listen to them yet, but will post impressions soon.

 

[dsound]

   
Makes a lot of difference indeed. May be worth experimenting with different materials. I settled on ~5mm packaging foam circles which seem to tame the reflections inside the cup just right.

Good advice.  When I get the time I'm going to make a trip to the craft store to get some Creatology foam/felt.

 

[dsound]

Impressions of T5p post-dampening mod:
 
Tracks listened to:
Beck - Blackbird Chain
Miles Davis - Freddy Freeloader
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
 
Upon first listen of the T5p with the Poly-fill in place, I immediately noticed that the treble was smoothed considerably with the 8k peak of the umodded T5p diminished.  On Miles Davis' Freddy Freeloader, Wynton Kelly's piano no longer sounded harsh.  Unfortunately, much of the treble detail that I loved in that track was no longer present, this was also true when listening to Beck's Blackbird Chain.  Prior to the mod, the acoustic on the track had a wonderful snap on the upper-registers that was no longer present post-mod.  
 
I cued up Daft Punk's Get Lucky to see if the mod affected the bass response of the T5p.  When the bass drum kicked in it had an impact that I had not heard before on the T5p.  The bass took on much of the characteristics of my HD600, warm with a bit of bloom into the mid-bass.
 
After more listening though, it seemed that much of what I had loved about my T5p was no longer there; the treble detail, the dry-analytical bass.   My unscientific solution to this was to remove most of the dampening, just leaving a thin layer.  This restored most of the details that were taken away with the original amount of Poly-fill while retaining the heightened bass response.
 
I would recommend this mod to anyone who is sensitive to treble at the 8k frequency and wants to warm their T5p's up a bit.  Best part is, it's (almost) a free mod and takes less than half an hour.  Just experiment with the amount of Poly-fill that you place into the cups until you get the sound you want.

 

[TripleZed]

I've just started looking at headphones and these caught my eye.
 
I'm guessing that the T5p benefit from having an amp, but do they still sound quite good just being driven from a pc soundcard (seeing as they're 32 ohms)? Or at least a DAC, without an amp?

 

[PleasantSounds]

  I've just started looking at headphones and these caught my eye.
 
I'm guessing that the T5p benefit from having an amp, but do they still sound quite good just being driven from a pc soundcard (seeing as they're 32 ohms)? Or at least a DAC, without an amp?

 
Any PC soundcard, as well as most mobile phones and portable players can drive them to sufficient volume level. But that does not mean this is the way to get the most out of them. T5p is quite detailed and revealing, and all the flaws of the onboard sound wil be obvious immediately.
 
Having said that, not all the PC onboard sound systems are equally bad. My laptop for example is quite dynamic and detailed, and only upon louder listening the background some noise is noticeable. 
 
DAC alone will not help you, as its output is not really meant for low impedance devices. But you can get a DAC/amp combo and it doesn't have to be large or expensive. I am very happy with FiiO E17, which delivers quite satisfying results, especially considering its size and price. 

 

[dsound]

Updated Dampening-Mod:
So my wife is awesome and brought back some adhesive-backed felt from our local crafts store.  I just finished replacing the Poly-fill with the felt and vastly prefer the sound of the felt.  There is tighter control over all frequencies with the felt in place while still retaining the treble attenuation and the increase in bass of the Poly-fill method.
 
Here is a shot of the product that I used:

 
I cut the two 2.5" circles from the sheet and adhered them to the inside of the cup.  
 

 

[Theogenes]

Very cool man, thanks for sharing!! I don't suppose you have any way of running before and after FR graphs, do you? (I realize this is a ludicrous question, but hey-- nothing ventured, nothing gained). 
 

 

[dsound]

  Very cool man, thanks for sharing!! I don't suppose you have any way of running before and after FR graphs, do you? (I realize this is a ludicrous question, but hey-- nothing ventured, nothing gained). 
 

I agree, there's no harm in asking.  Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to do any proper-type of before/after measurements.  I'm forced to rely on my ears.  The main goal of my mod was to reduce the treble peak in the T5p's and to my ears this has been accomplished.  Prior to the mod I would experience fatigue after ~15minutes, now I can comfortably listen for much longer periods of time (couple hours).
 
It's funny that you asked about FR graphs; last week I started 'casually' looking at oscilloscopes.  I know this would be a slippery-slope though, today an oscilloscope, tomorrow dummy-heads with microphones 

 .

 

[Theogenes]

  I agree, there's no harm in asking.  Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment to do any proper-type of before/after measurements.  I'm forced to rely on my ears.  The main goal of my mod was to reduce the treble peak in the T5p's and to my ears this has been accomplished.  Prior to the mod I would experience fatigue after ~15minutes, now I can comfortably listen for much longer periods of time (couple hours).
 
It's funny that you asked about FR graphs; last week I started 'casually' looking at oscilloscopes.  I know this would be a slippery-slope though, today an oscilloscope, tomorrow dummy-heads with microphones 

 .

 
No worries, man. I figured as much, but thought I would give it a shot . 
 
And whaddya mean about the o-scope? It's almost like you're implying that audiophiles have a tendency to overdo everything and mission creep themselves into the poorhouse... An odd assertion, I have to say. *snuggles back into Maytag box in rainy alley*

 

[dsound]

 *snuggles back into Maytag box in rainy alley*

 

  I would kill for a Maytag box, the ultimate in open-baffle living.