[radiohlite]

these cans have always bothered me with the spiked upper-mids, weird soundstage, and recessed upper-mid bass.  I was about ready to sell them, but figured: hey, one more try...
 
So I opened 'em up, looked inside to see what i could possibly do do affect the sound in a positive way, and finally decided to do this:
 
(sorry about the no pics. but i don't have a digital camera)
 
I filled the empty space behind where the driver sits with some foam.  Just some I found lying around.  I imagined it would kill some nasty resonances (and did!).
 
The plastic plate that the drivers are attached to has a lot of little holes all around.  I just 'plugged' them all with electrical tape, applying a generous amount (2 layers, in fact) to the whole thing.  Just making sure that the drivers were not blocked at all.
 
That's it!!  Closed them back up, put all the little screws in place, put the earpads back in place, and ran some sine waves to check...
 
I did a before-and-after frquency response check with my own ears.
Before the mod, 30-40hz was nearly inaudible.  Now it's up to level with the rest of the bass, which is also a good 2-3db louder than before.
The previous dip in the 150-400hz range has been nicely filled in.  Actually the entire response from around 30-40hz up to 1khz resembles the better Sennheisers.
 
Before, there was a horrible (at least to my ears) spike in the 2-2.5khz and 5khz regions.  Also, 3-4khz was pretty recessed in comparison.  After the mod, pretty much everything from 1khz to 7-8khz is nicely evened out.  It's not perfect, of course, but you'd be surprised these are the same headphones at all.
It seems the only 'problem' that remained after the mod was the 9-11khz spike, but after the major changes elsewhere, I can live with that. 
 
I proceeded to listen to real music now, and I was (am still) really impressed.  The coolest thing about this mod was that the Sonys have an actual soundstage now.  there's such a thing as instrument separation, depth, and texture (for lack of a better word).  I was actually smiling listening to these things!  which never happened before.
 
Of course, they didn't magically turn into Senn or AKG slayers, but for a little bit of tape and two pieces of foam I'm finding myself not wanting the more expensive cans for now.
 
I invite anyone who hates their MDR-V6/7506 to try this mod.  If you still hate them after that, well, I'll suppose there's something wrong with my ears.

 

[nhancakes]

Can you describe the foam some more? 

 

[lejaz]

 
Quote:

these cans have always bothered me with the spiked upper-mids, weird soundstage, and recessed upper-mid bass.  I was about ready to sell them, but figured: hey, one more try...

Your description of the frequency response of these h/p's coincides exactly with what I'm hearing. I'm shocked every time I read that someone calls them flat/accurate enough for mixing. Well, I was about to give up on them,. and now it appears there's hope on the horizon!

Can't wait to try the mod for myself. Are they hard to dis-assemble?

 

[lejaz]

 
Click on the above link(sony v6) to see the photo of the mod. Hardest part is probably getting the pads back on! You'll need a small phillips head screwdriver and some thin foam and a scissors and tape. That's it. So far I'm really liking the sound. It's definitely an improved v6. I'll have a more extensive listen later tonight. Many thanks to the OP for sharing the mod!

 

[Sambones]

Haha, wow. I've tried a few things, myself, and nothing seemed to help. I'll try this ASAP.

 

[lejaz]

It's good to get some needed warmth in these phones, but I think it's a trade off...you gain some and you loose some too. Now the snares seem a bit muffled like there's a dip around 1-2k somewhere...and the bass too sounds muffled and poorly defined, though good and strong. On the plus side most of the annoying upper mids peak is gone and the upper bass/low mids has come back giving them some warmth. Songs that were almost unlistenable before are definitely better with the mod. It may be good to experiment with different damping material and less or more tape.

 

[lejaz]

If you're doing this mod I advise extreme caution. So much for my V6's for now...just broke one of the hair thin wires. Hopefully my friend will have time to solder it back on for me. I want to experiment with removing some of the tape over the holes and maybe not killing the sound of the snares. These might be some pretty awesome headphones with the mod.done right.

 

[radiohlite]

yeah. sorry i was out for a while but my computer died and i only get on when i can go to the library.
 
pretty much what lejaz did there on the photo, except i put tape on both sides of the holes.  I guess any sort of damping material would work instead of foam too.  glad people liked it!

 

[chrisjackson]

A few Sony V6 threads appearing; thought I'd bump this. Anyone else tried the mod? I guess taping over the holes is the bit that tames the treble.

 

[salannelson]

I did this a while ago. It worked a little bit but I don't think it made a huge difference.
 
But I didn't tape over the holes. I also didn't put a whole lot of foam on the inside. Maybe if I'm bored tomorrow I'll tear them open.

 

[chrisjackson]

Quote:

I did this a while ago. It worked a little bit but I don't think it made a huge difference.
 
But I didn't tape over the holes. I also didn't put a whole lot of foam on the inside. Maybe if I'm bored tomorrow I'll tear them open.

Thanks for the reply. Well I just did the tape mod to a twenty year old V7 and deepened the padding on the earcups by putting ca 1/2" firm foam under the soft stuff (rubbed off the deteriorated black pleather stuff some time ago). Hard to tell for me how much difference it has made without A/B comparisons; guess I should have made myself more atuned to it before the mod. Doh.
One positive is that I've just listened through to a string quartet at high volume without cringing. Of course the "strident treble" issue I noticed could have been a knackered V7 problem rather than a V6 one; or recent conditioning with less trebly 'phones. I used the V7s for many years without feeling cause for complaint.
Anyone got two V6s and prepared to mod one? 

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Don't tape the vents and use sliverstone pattern foam on back of driver...

The moment you use tape, it will kill the cymbals peak completely and even create a dip there, making it muffled.

You need only a foam, which will damp the bavkwave, and the patterned foam kills the standing wave...

This will linearize the bass response(slight boost) and kill the driver ringing(people experiencing the treble).

It is neutral, just decay on treble is not good

Click on the above link(sony v6) to see the photo of the mod. Hardest part is probably getting the pads back on! You'll need a small phillips head screwdriver and some thin foam and a scissors and tape. That's it. So far I'm really liking the sound. It's definitely an improved v6. I'll have a more extensive listen later tonight. Many thanks to the OP for sharing the mod!