Lad27
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 23, 2006
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So, what is Denon AH D2500? Take the donor D2000, recable them with D5000 cable and replace plastic cups with woodies and voila - here we have new cans.
For this project you'll need following items:
1. Donor Denons AH D2000 - mine undergone markl mod on earpads (taper version) plus I added extra cotton stuffing into headband in order to further increase already high comfort factor.
2. Wood - there is mind boggling variety of wood easily sourced from online vendors. The turning blank for one cup shall be at least 4x4" and at least 1.5" thick. If it is only 1.5" thick the blank needs to be glued on another piece of od if you don't want to end up with chuck hole on top of the cup.
I've sourced Western Australian she-oak turning blanks from eBay. It is a hardwood (liked by every boat builder), but it is still relatively light, has nice figuration, and has that nice goldish-red color changing with different light angle. Do not go with soft wood like huon pine because there is part of the cup that needs to be turned very thin and soft wood will probably not hold that edge very well.
3. PM friendly Headfier who's got spare D5000 cable and buy it from him. Buy some good Neutrik plug as well.
Recabling job was the easiest part for me, total length of cable is now 1.5 m. BTW the D5000 cable is much, much better stuff than the original tangle-whore cable of D2000.
4. Befriend you local wood turner.
5. Give the original plastic cup to him to come up with measurements, instruct him to keep to depth of cup the same. Note here: I didn't want to mess up the Denons sonic signature, which I like. I'd assume that deeper cup will do something to the sound, but I didn't have time nor guts to experiment too much in this regard. I actually like the size and shape of the Denon cups, so decided to play it safe.
5. Supply beverages to keep your friend and yourself refreshed and motivated.
6. Have your camera ready, so you can share it with fellow headfiers and avoid "this-thread-is-useless-without-pics" posts in your thread.
And that's how it started; Roshan contemplating "point of no return" move:
Now inside of cup is turned and sample coat of some of his high speed polish applied.
Couple of hours later, after lots of sanding and smoothing, several coats of polish are applied.
Finished cup drying out. Time to have a beer or two, congratulate on job well done and admire the beauty of the wood grain. More beers.
And finally, few pics of Denon D2500.
And how they sound? Most importantly, the mod didn't affect the Denon's sound signature. I didn't end up with a bass monster, anything like it.
I can certainly hear improvement in trebles, no graininess, nice and smooth, but sparkling. Midrange and bass is just as same as on D2000. I cannot detect any bass bloat or extra vibration (and and cranked it pretty loud at times) as reported by some D5000 owners.
So, all in all, I'm happy that I created something unique, cans are really good looking (IMO) and I'm happy with the sound. Cheers!
For this project you'll need following items:
1. Donor Denons AH D2000 - mine undergone markl mod on earpads (taper version) plus I added extra cotton stuffing into headband in order to further increase already high comfort factor.
2. Wood - there is mind boggling variety of wood easily sourced from online vendors. The turning blank for one cup shall be at least 4x4" and at least 1.5" thick. If it is only 1.5" thick the blank needs to be glued on another piece of od if you don't want to end up with chuck hole on top of the cup.
3. PM friendly Headfier who's got spare D5000 cable and buy it from him. Buy some good Neutrik plug as well.
Recabling job was the easiest part for me, total length of cable is now 1.5 m. BTW the D5000 cable is much, much better stuff than the original tangle-whore cable of D2000.
4. Befriend you local wood turner.
5. Give the original plastic cup to him to come up with measurements, instruct him to keep to depth of cup the same. Note here: I didn't want to mess up the Denons sonic signature, which I like. I'd assume that deeper cup will do something to the sound, but I didn't have time nor guts to experiment too much in this regard. I actually like the size and shape of the Denon cups, so decided to play it safe.
5. Supply beverages to keep your friend and yourself refreshed and motivated.
6. Have your camera ready, so you can share it with fellow headfiers and avoid "this-thread-is-useless-without-pics" posts in your thread.
And that's how it started; Roshan contemplating "point of no return" move:
Now inside of cup is turned and sample coat of some of his high speed polish applied.
Couple of hours later, after lots of sanding and smoothing, several coats of polish are applied.
Finished cup drying out. Time to have a beer or two, congratulate on job well done and admire the beauty of the wood grain. More beers.
And finally, few pics of Denon D2500.
And how they sound? Most importantly, the mod didn't affect the Denon's sound signature. I didn't end up with a bass monster, anything like it.
I can certainly hear improvement in trebles, no graininess, nice and smooth, but sparkling. Midrange and bass is just as same as on D2000. I cannot detect any bass bloat or extra vibration (and and cranked it pretty loud at times) as reported by some D5000 owners.
So, all in all, I'm happy that I created something unique, cans are really good looking (IMO) and I'm happy with the sound. Cheers!
