Aaron Friedman
100+ Head-Fier
I finished upgrading the Denon D5000.
To obtain full resolution left click once the picture at the link site:
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/2606369.jpg
Note that I view the Denon D50000 as forward relatively 2 dimensional with bass and lower mid-bass heaviness. To offset these characteristics I experimented with different wire configurations and 5 different Solder terminations.
To obtain full resolution left click once the picture at the link site:
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/2609295.jpg
To try to offset unwanted characteristics of headphones is hard enough. I tried numerous wire configurations which resulted in other characteristic faults. Hence, in order not to make this quest even more difficult I decided to go back and use the simplest wire configuration; simply raw twisted wire. Understand that the most neutral sound you can get is by using raw twisted wire. This way there is no Techflex, rubber heat shrink or any type of other material affecting the dielectric and thereby the signals frequency response running through the wire. Without all other interference this will provide the most neutral signal. The twisted wire used is UN-shielded braded 4x23.5 Cardas high purity soft annealed Teflon coated Litz wire.
Now that I neutralized the wire factor I proceeded by experimenting with different solders. Solders can have as much or more affect than the wire itself. After experimenting over the past 2 weeks by far what worked the best is re-soldering the driver hairline wire connection to the driver, the Cardas cable to driver and connector all with Siltech Solder. It has 5% silver and is generally a bit bright, with a relatively cool midrange and lower midrange and a light but very tight bass. I tried other solders (Cardas , IA-423, WBT….) but they simply did not offset enough the D5000 heavy bass mid-bass and its 2 dimensionality characteristics. Siltech brought these headphones much closer to neutral and transformed them significantly to be more musical. It made these headphones have dimensionality where it relatively had little before. Now the soundstage can compete against the likes of the K701. Vocals and instruments now have natural sounding timbers. Also this combination allows Instruments to come out of a near black background. This helps with distinction and the separation of instruments and vocals.
Do not get me wrong there is still plenty of bass and lower mid-bass. It just does not dominate to the extent it did before the upgrade.
To obtain full resolution left click once the picture at the link site:
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/2606369.jpg
Note that I view the Denon D50000 as forward relatively 2 dimensional with bass and lower mid-bass heaviness. To offset these characteristics I experimented with different wire configurations and 5 different Solder terminations.
To obtain full resolution left click once the picture at the link site:
http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/2609295.jpg
To try to offset unwanted characteristics of headphones is hard enough. I tried numerous wire configurations which resulted in other characteristic faults. Hence, in order not to make this quest even more difficult I decided to go back and use the simplest wire configuration; simply raw twisted wire. Understand that the most neutral sound you can get is by using raw twisted wire. This way there is no Techflex, rubber heat shrink or any type of other material affecting the dielectric and thereby the signals frequency response running through the wire. Without all other interference this will provide the most neutral signal. The twisted wire used is UN-shielded braded 4x23.5 Cardas high purity soft annealed Teflon coated Litz wire.
Now that I neutralized the wire factor I proceeded by experimenting with different solders. Solders can have as much or more affect than the wire itself. After experimenting over the past 2 weeks by far what worked the best is re-soldering the driver hairline wire connection to the driver, the Cardas cable to driver and connector all with Siltech Solder. It has 5% silver and is generally a bit bright, with a relatively cool midrange and lower midrange and a light but very tight bass. I tried other solders (Cardas , IA-423, WBT….) but they simply did not offset enough the D5000 heavy bass mid-bass and its 2 dimensionality characteristics. Siltech brought these headphones much closer to neutral and transformed them significantly to be more musical. It made these headphones have dimensionality where it relatively had little before. Now the soundstage can compete against the likes of the K701. Vocals and instruments now have natural sounding timbers. Also this combination allows Instruments to come out of a near black background. This helps with distinction and the separation of instruments and vocals.
Do not get me wrong there is still plenty of bass and lower mid-bass. It just does not dominate to the extent it did before the upgrade.
