The Quality Guru
Blah! he says.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2002
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I recently received the Maple wooden earcups for the HD600/650 headphones, and after a rather easy DIY installation process (which only requires a phillips screwdriver and ten minutes of your time) I must say I'm pleased with the sound of these babies. A general disclaimer: YMMV!
FYI, I have the Equinox cable on the HD600's, which, IMO, makes for a much more fluid and organic sound. Also, the woodies I ordered are the vented sort (with vents which can be sealed to provide full isolation - see Headphile.com for photos if you don;t know what I'm talking about) and are carved at standard depth (similar to the depth of a pair of Audio Techinica ATH-W1000's or W2002's). I tried various configurations with the wooden cups until I was truly pleased. Also, when I refer to the "stock HD600's," I mean the HD600's with no woodie cups, but *with* the equinox cable.
To evauate, I used a Harmon Kardon CDR20 or a 20GB Apple 4G iPod, connected via a SIK line-out and Canare Mini-Mini, driven by a Ray Samuels SR-71.
First, I experimented around with the open vent vs. the closed vent configuration. The sound with the open vent is alright, but IMO, not as good as a fully open HD-600. I'm not sure by what mechanism this occurs, but the sound is slightly muddier, IMO. It has the wider soundstage of the stock HD600, but lacks the detail of the completely open or closed (w/ wooden cups) HD600. Perhaps the sound is muddier because of the increased bass response with this config, though hard to say.
Next, with the vents sealed by the covers, the sound became very different in comparison to the stock HD600. I fell in love with this combo at first. The sound had a new degree of clarity and space between instruments that te HD600 lacked. I could place voices more easily; they seemed now to emanate from a distinctive location now. There was so much more 'slam' (akin to the Grado 'slam' and 'groove' one hears in the RS-1) and a heightened bass response. It was in the drums on rock/jazz music that this slam was evident; it just added this new element of drive to the music that I thought was exclusive to Grados (not Joe Grado's HP-1000 series, though). But after about an hour's time, the disadvantages of this combo became evident. Sibilance was greatly increased and the high end was heightened so that these headphones had become fatiguing; that same 'slam' and clarity/crispness imparted to the sound by the cups were now working against these cans, giving them this annoying tizzy sibilance and had given me a mild case of tinnitus!
So how did I alleviate the above problems? Dampening with cotton balls! I 'fluffed' (pulled on them so that they were larger and flatter) six jumbo cotton balls and put three balls in each cup so that the cotton was evenly distributed across the entire internal surface of each cup. Just FYI, I could probably have stuffed three more cotton balls in each cup, but it turns out that three balls in each cup was the perfect amount of dampening for me.
How did the sound change? It was similar to the sound of the completely closed HD600 w/o dampening; however, it served to alleviate the tizzy high end. They were indeed a touch brighter than the stock HD600's, but not so much that fatigue or tinnitus resulted. The bass response was also lessened, as was the amount of 'slam,' but there was still more slam than the stock HD600's. Also, all of the clarity and crispness, and the ability to seperate insruments better than the stock HD600, were all still existent.
The verdict: highly recommended. IMO, much better than the stock sound in many respects.
FYI, I have the Equinox cable on the HD600's, which, IMO, makes for a much more fluid and organic sound. Also, the woodies I ordered are the vented sort (with vents which can be sealed to provide full isolation - see Headphile.com for photos if you don;t know what I'm talking about) and are carved at standard depth (similar to the depth of a pair of Audio Techinica ATH-W1000's or W2002's). I tried various configurations with the wooden cups until I was truly pleased. Also, when I refer to the "stock HD600's," I mean the HD600's with no woodie cups, but *with* the equinox cable.
To evauate, I used a Harmon Kardon CDR20 or a 20GB Apple 4G iPod, connected via a SIK line-out and Canare Mini-Mini, driven by a Ray Samuels SR-71.
First, I experimented around with the open vent vs. the closed vent configuration. The sound with the open vent is alright, but IMO, not as good as a fully open HD-600. I'm not sure by what mechanism this occurs, but the sound is slightly muddier, IMO. It has the wider soundstage of the stock HD600, but lacks the detail of the completely open or closed (w/ wooden cups) HD600. Perhaps the sound is muddier because of the increased bass response with this config, though hard to say.
Next, with the vents sealed by the covers, the sound became very different in comparison to the stock HD600. I fell in love with this combo at first. The sound had a new degree of clarity and space between instruments that te HD600 lacked. I could place voices more easily; they seemed now to emanate from a distinctive location now. There was so much more 'slam' (akin to the Grado 'slam' and 'groove' one hears in the RS-1) and a heightened bass response. It was in the drums on rock/jazz music that this slam was evident; it just added this new element of drive to the music that I thought was exclusive to Grados (not Joe Grado's HP-1000 series, though). But after about an hour's time, the disadvantages of this combo became evident. Sibilance was greatly increased and the high end was heightened so that these headphones had become fatiguing; that same 'slam' and clarity/crispness imparted to the sound by the cups were now working against these cans, giving them this annoying tizzy sibilance and had given me a mild case of tinnitus!
So how did I alleviate the above problems? Dampening with cotton balls! I 'fluffed' (pulled on them so that they were larger and flatter) six jumbo cotton balls and put three balls in each cup so that the cotton was evenly distributed across the entire internal surface of each cup. Just FYI, I could probably have stuffed three more cotton balls in each cup, but it turns out that three balls in each cup was the perfect amount of dampening for me.
How did the sound change? It was similar to the sound of the completely closed HD600 w/o dampening; however, it served to alleviate the tizzy high end. They were indeed a touch brighter than the stock HD600's, but not so much that fatigue or tinnitus resulted. The bass response was also lessened, as was the amount of 'slam,' but there was still more slam than the stock HD600's. Also, all of the clarity and crispness, and the ability to seperate insruments better than the stock HD600, were all still existent.
The verdict: highly recommended. IMO, much better than the stock sound in many respects.
