[Gnomie]

This is my first post on the forums so please bear with me on this. I have been watching these forums for a while now and used guides for modding a pair of Sennheiser HD 429's that I own, and I am trying to apply the same principals to a set that I got just a few days ago. I am a fan of impactful bass, but I do not want earth shattering bass like so many people my age.

My setup is usually just a Motorola Moto X with rocket music player, which does roll off on the low end, but every where else, the clarity is great for me.


The head phones I bought were a pair of Sentry HO410's and they were a little lacking on the upper end, so I switched out the pads for the ones on a set of Sony headphones I had laying around without a cloth filter on them, which improved the sound a bit. I also opened up some bass ports to get a little more low end too.


However they still lack something, and it is hard to describe for me since I am new to this. It is somewhere in the upper end, because I here it when listening to Empire by shakira (the violins in the background are a little recessed). I also notice it in the soundtrack for Divergent by Antonia pinto.


I know that they are cheap 10 dollar headphones, but I figured they would be easy to mod and get better sound from later. Does anyone have any ideas for me?


P.S. I also use the Sony MDR-XB50 IEMs as a reference, and I do use the EQ some to tweak the sound to my liking, even though many people say it can distort the sound.

 

[Gnomie]

Does anyone have any sugesstions?

P.S. If I am bumping too often, let me know (still new to forums in general, not just this one).

 

[H20Fidelity]

We have a DIY forum, you'll most likely get some better ideas there. 

http://www.head-fi.org/f/6/diy-do-it-yourself-discussions

This section is for IEM and portable headphone discussion.

My suggestion is to buy new headphones, no not because yours a cheap, but because each headphone is tuned to a specific curve, only so much magic can be done to alter their frequency response. 

Something like the Takstar PRO80 is a nice budget headphone. 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Takstar-PRO80-High-Quality-Headphones-For-Record-Monitoring-True-Sound-/290961279924?pt=AU_DJ_Gear_Lighting_Equipment&hash=item43bea4cbb4&_uhb=1

Thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/585356/the-takstar-technical-pro-gemini-greathon-thread
 

 

[Gnomie]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know exactly where this belonged so thanks for the direction. Should I try to keep this thread going, or will a moderator move it for me?

 

[H20Fidelity]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know exactly where this belonged so thanks for the direction. Should I try to keep this thread going, or will a moderator move it for me?

You can click the red flag in the first post and ask for it to moved to DIY section.

 

[Gnomie]

So can anyone in this new section help me out here? I realize that probably no one else here has these headphones to mod themselves, but I was hoping that there might be some sort of universal mod that may help these headphones. If not, a recommendation for a set of budget portable headphones with at least close to as good sound quality as my sennheiser HD 429's would be great.

 

[vantt1]

So can anyone in this new section help me out here? I realize that probably no one else here has these headphones to mod themselves, but I was hoping that there might be some sort of universal mod that may help these headphones. If not, a recommendation for a set of budget portable headphones with at least close to as good sound quality as my sennheiser HD 429's would be great.

Is it at all possible to install a second physical driver in it? Like this 40 mm woofer and 14 mm tweeter configuration:
 

 

[Gnomie]

Unfortunately it is not possible. The cans are just big enough for the drivers they have now.

 

[vantt1]

Unfortunately it is not possible. The cans are just big enough for the drivers they have now.

That sucks. With the existing cavity that you have now, you can't do much aside from adding acoustic barriers or swapping the speaker drivers.

 

[Gnomie]

I supposed I kind of expected that. They were cheap, but I needed a set of compact head phones that could easily fit into my backpack for college this year. It is just a hassle to bring my sennheisers in my bag since they are fairly bulky, and they do not fold. However, I didn't want ear buds because they get uncomfortable after extended use. These were the best I could find fairly cheap that also fit the rest of my needs.

 

[ostewart]

T-Peos H100 II don't have too bad MIDs, and sound best with comply tips

 

[Gnomie]

I do want head phones that sound good and are compact, but I don't want to get another set of IEMs. I would like a set of small, on-ear head phones. Thanks for trying to help though.

 

[nikongod]

If you want "recipes" Koss Portapros or KSC-75 are your friend. They are quite affordable, have well documented modification path(s), don't look quite cool or expensive enough to steal, and they sound pretty much like what you describe yourself wanting.
 
In the meantime try adding small resistors (20-200ohms) to the headphones you have now. Sometimes it changes the sound towards what it seems like you are describing. No, I don't know what resistor to use. You have headphones nobody else has ever tweaked (I did not search, but I assume you did and found nothing) so, you are kind of on your own here. Experiment! Post up what you find out to help the next guy. 
 
It is worth note that a lot of "fashion" headphones look good, and sound like "who teh fukc cares, they were made to be looked at not listened to" and no amount of effort will bring them up to any reasonable level of quality. No, I have not heard *your* headphones, just generally. 

 

[ostewart]

Small on ear with good sound, SoundMAGIC P21