heb1001
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2015
- Posts
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I bought a pair of the original model C5 in-ear headphones a year or so ago and I was reasonably happy with them although when I compared them with some Shure se535s I found that the Shures had better treble and regretted not having bought them instead.
Recently, the C5s got blocked up and one side stopped working altogether. I tried cleaning them, and, in desperation, eventually left them playing overnight submerged in Bai Jiu (alcohol) - which helped a bit but not enough.
As a last resort, I used a fat needle to pick out the mesh and filter from the tips of the headphones to leave an empty hole. This brought the sound back to full volume but the sound was far too bright.
So, I trapped a layer of cheap 2 ply facial tissue between the tip of the metal driver part and the swappable rubber ear piece in each headphone as an attempt to replace the missing filter and then used scissors to trim the excess tissue from around the outside of the headphones. This is a bit tricky to do because the sharp metal tip of the driver tends to rip the tissue paper when you replace the rubber ear piece. It helps to start by pushing the tissue into the rubber earpice to form it to the right shape before inserting the driver. If you do it right, when looking into the hole of the rubber earpiece, you should see an unbroken piece of tissue stretched like a drumskin across the tip of the driver. The tissue is securely held in place by the rubber earpiece.
With this 2 ply tissue layer replacing the original mesh and filters they now sound ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!
I'm unable to do an A/B comparison with the original headphones because I only have the one set but they are a lot better than I remember them being before they went wrong and the clarity of the treble is, I think, now competitive with the Shures.
I have been running them like this for a few weeks and the tissue seems to last reasonably well across insertion/removal of the headphones. I experimented with a couple of different types of tissue and found, as you'd expect, that the thickness makes a big difference to the sound. My preference is for two ply tissue which is thin enough to be almost see through. Too thick and the treble is muffled. Too thin and it's too agressive.
So, the conclusions:
If your C5s get blocked and you can't find a way to unblock them you can try this mod (I don't think you can refit the original filters and go back so it's not reversible).
IMO you can improve the sound.
You can tune the treble to your taste.
The tissue mod takes about 10 minutes, lasts for weeks and you can easily redo it if the tissue gets dirty or broken.
Enjoy!
Recently, the C5s got blocked up and one side stopped working altogether. I tried cleaning them, and, in desperation, eventually left them playing overnight submerged in Bai Jiu (alcohol) - which helped a bit but not enough.
As a last resort, I used a fat needle to pick out the mesh and filter from the tips of the headphones to leave an empty hole. This brought the sound back to full volume but the sound was far too bright.
So, I trapped a layer of cheap 2 ply facial tissue between the tip of the metal driver part and the swappable rubber ear piece in each headphone as an attempt to replace the missing filter and then used scissors to trim the excess tissue from around the outside of the headphones. This is a bit tricky to do because the sharp metal tip of the driver tends to rip the tissue paper when you replace the rubber ear piece. It helps to start by pushing the tissue into the rubber earpice to form it to the right shape before inserting the driver. If you do it right, when looking into the hole of the rubber earpiece, you should see an unbroken piece of tissue stretched like a drumskin across the tip of the driver. The tissue is securely held in place by the rubber earpiece.
With this 2 ply tissue layer replacing the original mesh and filters they now sound ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!
I'm unable to do an A/B comparison with the original headphones because I only have the one set but they are a lot better than I remember them being before they went wrong and the clarity of the treble is, I think, now competitive with the Shures.
I have been running them like this for a few weeks and the tissue seems to last reasonably well across insertion/removal of the headphones. I experimented with a couple of different types of tissue and found, as you'd expect, that the thickness makes a big difference to the sound. My preference is for two ply tissue which is thin enough to be almost see through. Too thick and the treble is muffled. Too thin and it's too agressive.
So, the conclusions:
If your C5s get blocked and you can't find a way to unblock them you can try this mod (I don't think you can refit the original filters and go back so it's not reversible).
IMO you can improve the sound.
You can tune the treble to your taste.
The tissue mod takes about 10 minutes, lasts for weeks and you can easily redo it if the tissue gets dirty or broken.
Enjoy!
