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Stock vs Mod
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OK, finally getting to hear them myself, here's my impressions of my newly modded MD2000 compared with stock (apart from my magnum opus Pretty Polly vs Bad Suzy review, elsewhere here).
I wish I could hear a stock A/B to be sure, but as I recall I loved the bass of the stock but it simply overpowered the mids completely. So I
love the modded bass, much tighter and more controlled, and more separation of frequencies.
You
feel the deep bass, you hear the higher bass. Still just a bit too bloated for me, but way, WAY better. And still just as fat, fun and funky! Huge improvement for me, because of what they allow the mids and highs to do: be themselves.
Now a critical part: the mids are closer, cleaner, and blow away the stock. This for me is everything, because I listen to Vocal Trance where the beautiful female vocals are supposed to be intimate and breathy, husky, and can so easily be way overpowered by the deep thumping lower bass. Wow! What a difference. Worth doing the mod alone.
The highs, well, I remember them being a bit tinny and harsh in the stock pair, and somewhat rolled off to boot. Now, they're just there. Nothing sparkly or special, they just do what they are supposed to do. Again, if I could EQ it I'd pump down the mid bass to clean it and still keep the POW of the lower bass (if that's possible?), to allow the highs more breathing room. But it's still overall a vast, vast improvement, improvement.
Another thing: the comfort to me is way better. With the fatter pads, the headphones stay on my head better. They don't slip off when I look up or down, or move my head too fast. Really hated that about the stock D2000 and D5000 units. (Mark also tightened my loose mounting screw - nice!).
In addition, and this is important, the stock units caused my ears to actually physically hurt within a short listening time, because they were so close to my ears. I think the air pressure of the driver caused them to have pain. With the fat pads the drivers are farther away, and it doesn't do that anymore. I would not have been able to keep them otherwise. I can't totally tell for sure without an A/B comparison, but I think Mark's claim of a broader soundstage also accomplished by the pad mod is also true. The soundstage is really great with these. I remember them being good, but this great I'm not sure.
For the price Mark is asking, it's totally worth the doing the mod IMHO. Since I got such a great deal on the can, I ask myself, "Is this a $300 set of cans?" And as I think you'll agree, "Heck yeah it is!"
I'm very happy. Yeah, it's boxy, but I get used to it because especially a good quality amp brings out such life and detail in it that almost makes up for it. Again, for the price. Could I get a $600 pair of open cans that sound better? Probably, sure, but then I'd likely sacrifice the bass AND the practicality of the closed design.
Just like my ER-4 - utterly perfect and flawless sound... without the fun, fat bass and groovin' danceability that keeps you rockin'!
Now keep in mind, that mine is Mark's rock-bottom basic mod. With wider wood cups, and speciality cables, who knows how good this guy could sound? Maybe the other issues we both have would be dramatically improved.
All I know is listening to the MD2000 with the Mini Millet tube vs straight Nano creates two totally different cans. One AWESOME and one crap. The Millet just WOW HOLY COW ZOWIE AHHHHH HELP ME HANG ON and the Nano, well, shucks.
So I'm curious as to what higher quality modifications could do, though I could never afford it so I'm stopping here.
