Could the HD600 be 'improved' with a little tweak?

[Beagle]

With most Sennheisers, you will note that the parts basically 'snap' into place. Hence the easy user replacement option.

But do you suppose this might have a degrading effect on the sound, and that tweaking so that the drivers are 'decoupled' from the surround housing might be a good idea? The Grado RS-1 does something akin to this, with the drivers glued in place using a flexible non-brittle substance. They are not in direct contact with the wood housing. There is a bit of a shock (resonance) absorber there.

When parts are just snapped into place, are they not more subject to rattle or resonance? I was toying with the idea of placing a thin layer of some substance like Blu Tak between the edges (sides) of the HD600 drivers and the plastic housing and see if there is a notable improvement. It could be easily reversed.

Any thoughts on this possible resonance factor? The HD600 sounds fine as it is but when I consider how resonances affect the sound of headphones, tonearms, cartridges, speakers etc, it makes me wonder. Is there a trade-off in sound to accommodate easy replacement of parts?

 

[ManiacSmile]

Beagle,

are you talking about snapping the velour pads back on the spot when you do the foamlees tweak? If that's the case then I think the foam itself provides that sealing effect. If you do the search on that tweak you can see that the resulting sound people got out of it had similar qualities that you described - resonance in the low level range.

 

[Beagle]

Here is an ARTICLE with some ideas and headphone specs and applications. Enjoy. One thing which I feel is often missed when people discuss headphones is the shape of head and ears people cannot abide having pressure directly on the ears, or phones actually stuffed into the ears.

There used to be a significant arguement in some circles dealing with artificial head recording or whether diffuse-field or direct-field
such as these have to colour the sound as your outer ear would. A certain model may suit one individual very well, but for another give peaks of resonance. I guess proper auditioning is a must.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by ManiacSmile Beagle, are you talking about snapping the velour pads back on the spot when you do the foamlees tweak? If that's the case then I think the foam itself provides that sealing effect. If you do the search on that tweak you can see that the resulting sound people got out of it had similar qualities that you described - resonance in the low level range.

No, I was actually referring to some sort of damping between the actual drivers and the housing. The drivers are just 'snapped in'. Plastic against plastic must contribute some minute amount of resonance which should affect the sound.

 

[Zanth]

This sounds like good logic to me. I mean...for the relatively low cost of the HD600's it would be great if they could sound even better than they already do. A tweak here...a tweal there...it's all good.

 

[Beagle]

Well I guess I oughta try something. I have a couple of things in mind. But if something nice happens, it's gonna be that old story about the Little Red Hen baking the bread...

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Isn't the carbon fiber housing extremely resistant to vibrations? I thought it was and therefore the material of choice for the flagship 600, and the reason most hear a difference between them and the 580 which used more plastic.

Either way, I am very curious to see if any of these mods has a positive effect on the sounds that the cans produce. I hope they make a noticeable difference and that the 600s take a leap forward in their presentation. They're already in many homes, so soemthing like this might make a lot of happy people even happier.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador Isn't the carbon fiber housing extremely resistant to vibrations?

Yup. Unfortunately, the only carbon-fibre on the HD600 is on the top of the headband and the bails that hold the plastic driver housing 'chambers' (that 'speckled' area). That whole area that surrounds and encases the drivers is moulded plastic.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Thanks for the info Beagle. I guess that your experiments have more potential than I originally thought. HAve fun and report back in wth what you do and find.

 

[skippy]

john grado actually mentioned something about resonance control in the senn hd580. grado labs created a modified version of the 580 that included some tweaks on resonance control. it'll probably never see the light of day. i'm not too sure if using blue tack is the correct way to control the vibrations though.

 

[pikawel]

"By means of newest simulation software the membrane geometry in the suspension area has been optimized, resulting in clearly reduced harmonic distortion. Moreover some modifications on the damping elements provide a reduction of the membrane travel, reducing intermodulation distortions and resulting in a very positive sonic presentation: The bass has much sharper contour, and with an increased presence the listener gets even closer to the acoustic event. Pity this masterpiece will not be brought to production until this coming late summer."

From the HD650 thread... maybe you'll make yourself an HD625 with your 'reduction of the membrane travel.'

 

[ServinginEcuador]

AH, pikawel beat me to the punch. I guess you could try copying the treatment done to the Senn 650 on your 600 to see if that gives you any ideas.

 

[Beagle]

I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but I have an idea which involves using the carbon fibre strips from a hockey stick. Just gotta find a broken one, a SHER-WOOD CARBONE-FIBRE model.