[GU1DO]

Did you also try other pads like the Dekonis or Lawtons before? How did they compare to the ZMF?

yep ,, you can check it here
http://www.head-fi.org/t/763965/fostex-th900-mods/225#post_13276713

 

[analog'd]

 

  How can there be more mid presence if they are thicker than stock? 

 
IMHO it is achieved mainly by choosing the filling material, and the different reverberation patterns in the cavity.
 

How would you say the Dekoni pads compare to your modded TH900 pads?

I haven't included that comparison since no one else has my modded pads.
They are very different from the Dekoni: the lower plate is plastic vs leather, the housing is thin and easily worn protein-leather vs real sheep leather, the filling is carbon foam vs memory foam, the foam shape is different, the earpad opening is larger, and the pads height is smaller. The Dekoni pads sound more neutral (with less colorations), but my modded pads sound more dynamic and more fun. If you go on modifying the original pads, it will likely not sound like mine, but they will change in similar direction. It's up to you how to fine-tune the sound based on instructions and experiences described in this thread.
 
Basically the Dekoni pads are recommended if someone wants more linear/less colored sound from their TH900, time to time, and doesn't want to go into modding the originals. As changing ear pads on the TH900 is matter of seconds when used with the cheap plastic locking plates available from your Fostex dealer, this gives a two-in-one solution, and IMHO it's better at that than with either Brainwavz pads (all of which I still have, too).

zolkis is right on the money about the dekoni pads. more neutral. for me that tamed the highs which are troublesome for me on some recordings. but the cost is loosing part of the magic that these cans delivered to begin with. ditto the bass. zactly what Z was sayin, but again for me the taming of this can is also the murder of it's magic. sigh. am i destined to study the mods and attempt one? i know i can't afford to do lawton new cups. nor do i think these are the only can in town for me so that even if i had the disposable income, i might not make that choice. hmmm. need to wear them stock more and see if i keep them or not.  

 

[AndrewCanDo]

Question answered. 

 

[zolkis]

A textual update based on last two nights' measurement round: pads with oval (non-circular) shaped opening have much less midrange suck-out on the FR (at the expense of somewhat worse impulse response).
 
Examples of such pads: ZMF Ori and Eikon, Denon D7200, Fostex TX00 pads, Audeze, to lesser extent Lawton, Stax 009 and 007.
 
Some of these pads (e.g. TX00) measure better (in the FR) but sound worse than the Fostex pads.
FWIW I kept the modded TH900 pads (with carbon foam filling), and the original Fostex dampers.
 
So if you are up for modding the TH900, do the pad mods first. It's non-intrusive, you can get replacement pads for cheap. BTW the mod doesn't require stitching, just un-stitching (cutting open) the original ones, putting the new foam insert in, folding back the pads over them, and assembling the pads on the housing.

 

[jmills8]

A textual update based on last two nights' measurement round: pads with oval (non-circular) shaped opening have much less midrange suck-out on the FR (at the expense of somewhat worse impulse response).

Examples of such pads: ZMF Ori and Eikon, Denon D7200, Fostex TX00 pads, Audeze, to lesser extent Lawton, Stax 009 and 007.

Some of these pads (e.g. TX00) measure better (in the FR) but sound worse than the Fostex pads.
FWIW I kept the modded TH900 pads (with carbon foam filling), and the original Fostex dampers.

So if you are up for modding the TH900, do the pad mods first. It's non-intrusive, you can get replacement pads for cheap. BTW the mod doesn't require stitching, just un-stitching (cutting open) the original ones, putting the new foam insert in, folding back the pads over them, and assembling the pads on the housing.

Nice, how about a Video ? Pretty please ?

 

[jmills8]

Is there a place or someone that can put the TH900 Cups onto a Beyerdynamic headphone frame? I want the TH900 to press more onto my head.

 

[jmills8]

Wheres New Posts located ?

 

[jmills8]

Level 3 mod, level 1 , and stock TH900.

 

[stjj89]

I recently changed my felt rings out for the original foam dampers, turned to the bassiest position recommended by Whitgir. I think that it's tightened up the sound a little. I'm getting slightly deeper bass, and more punch/dynamics overall. This is a good thing to my ears.

My protein pads have worn out quite a bit now though. I am thinking of making a new pair. This time, I want to make my angled carbon pads out of a single 25mm thick sheet. zolkis, I noticed that you've revised your recommended dimensions for the ring:

Cut the resulting ring in two thinner, 12.5 mm thick rings (EDIT 22.Apr.2017: 14-20 mm high at the back, mine is 18 mm now)
Then, trim/round off a little bit the outer and inner top edges.
Then, trim the angle into it: in the front it should be 7-8mm high, in the inner side of front should be ~10-14 mm high, and gradually growing to 12-18 mm in the back.
​

May I know what made you change your rear height recommendation to 14-20mm? If I remember correctly, my angled pads are ~10mm high in the front, and ~24mm high in the back, and I've liked the sound and comfort from them. Also, does the differential between the inner and outsider sides of the front (7-8mm vs 10-14mm) make a difference? Can the front of the pad just be of one height?

 

[jmills8]

I recently changed my felt rings out for the original foam dampers, turned to the bassiest position recommended by Whitgir. I think that it's tightened up the sound a little. I'm getting slightly deeper bass, and more punch/dynamics overall. This is a good thing to my ears.

My protein pads have worn out quite a bit now though. I am thinking of making a new pair. This time, I want to make my angled carbon pads out of a single 25mm thick sheet. zolkis, I noticed that you've revised your recommended dimensions for the ring:

Cut the resulting ring in two thinner, 12.5 mm thick rings (EDIT 22.Apr.2017: 14-20 mm high at the back, mine is 18 mm now)
Then, trim/round off a little bit the outer and inner top edges.
Then, trim the angle into it: in the front it should be 7-8mm high, in the inner side of front should be ~10-14 mm high, and gradually growing to 12-18 mm in the back.
​

May I know what made you change your rear height recommendation to 14-20mm? If I remember correctly, my angled pads are ~10mm high in the front, and ~24mm high in the back, and I've liked the sound and comfort from them. Also, does the differential between the inner and outsider sides of the front (7-8mm vs 10-14mm) make a difference? Can the front of the pad just be of one height?

Dude could you please make a video?

 

[stjj89]

Dude could you please make a video?

Sure, I can try. It has previously taken me an awfully long time to cut the foam to the exact dimensions. I'm considering using a heated blade or a fancy heated string foam cutter this time to see if that makes this easier.

 

[hufnall]

Is this jack 6,3 mm (this original) for dismantling, or is this inseparable?

 

[zolkis]

During my experiments with various pads on the D7200, I have also tried some new stuff on the TH900, with very good results. The current best tips are the following:

1. Pads
The TH900 works well with various other pads, with quite big differences in sound quality. I tried about 20 different pads, but either in stock or modded form the Fostex pads produced the best results.
Stock pads that sounded good:
- Stax 007: with less bass, but more mids, smooth, nice sound, less treble peak
- TX00 pads, Chinese TH900 shallow, angled pads with oval inner opening: similar to Stax pads but cheaper
- TH900 pads with its own trimmed foam inlay: buy replacement pads from Fostex, open them up (see steps in this thread), take out the foam inlay, trim it about 30% in the back and about 50% in the front, put them back, fold the pleather back over the foam, enjoy. Sounds better than the former ones. Bass, stage, immediacy all improve.
- TH900 pads with carbon foam inlay: see steps in this thread. This is by far the best sounding mod. Even bass improves in clarity and impact, and there is less treble peak.
- Lawton pads modded so that the foam filling is cut to half height. Sounds much more open, lowest distortion, lowest 9 kHz ridge, smoothed out 500 Hz and 2 kHz notches. New reference.

2. Dampers
The dampers are the foam rings around the drivers. You can replace them with wool felt rings, see this thread for steps and experiences. Felt dampers improve midrange, but sound colored in a different way. I don't use them nowadays. Note that I have tried 3 pairs of original Fostex dampers and all sounded different! The original one in my TH900 sounded the best (most open) and that is what I am using now. They are inexpensive, so you can order a couple of them and see which works out best. AFAIK @playitloud uses his favorite felt damper, so YMMV.

3. Cups damping
This is complex, risky and brings marginal benefits IMHO. You can leave the cups alone. However, it's possible to optimize them. A few tips that worked well for me:
- the original damping was too much in my sample. I removed about 25-30% of the polyfill (comes off in layers). It improved transparency without inducing ringing.
- replace the original polyfill with very little amount of Twaron Angelhair (thanks to @playitloud).
Speaking about ringing, there are 2 main ridges on the TH900 CSD: around 1 kHz and around 9 kHz. The first sits between two notches at 500 Hz and 2-3 kHz, so it can be quite apparent in subjective listening. It can be damped by a number of ways, including the ones above. The Lawton Level 1 mods also target this, but IMHO they are overdamping the phone.
After about 2 years I noticed little to no ringing in the measurements any more. I took out all filling from the cups (Angelhair at that time) and notice I still don't get ringing. Looks like the wood changed or something, now I don't have anything in the cups and it just sounds cleaner and without any ringing.

4. Other wooden cups
I have tried other (TX00) wooden cups on the TH900, but I kept coming back to the Urushi cups since they sounded the most open and musical in my opinion. Other, denser woods (teak, purpleheart, ebony) all sounded more damped, with very little (if any) differences in measurements, but a noticeably different sound signature. Maybe a good thing for some, but I didn't like them as much as the original cups. I haven't heard any of the Lawton cups, I can imagine they make a difference, but the cost is too high for the change, in comparison with what changing or modding the pads can do.

5. Open back.
If you start doing cups mods and you take off the cups (heed the advice found here), then please listen to the TH900 without any cups. You would be surprised... they don't even show the two notches in the FR...
This opens up a lot of opportunities for open or semi-open back mods, if you don't need closed headphones (do you remember the D7000 with the center of the cups replaced by a metallic mesh?). The newest ZMF headphones may also inspire.
One request only: please, please do not destroy your Urushi cups . Get replacement cups or go into CNC territory yourself (you can get the work done by CNC communities as well).

 

[zolkis]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I managed to further improve the TH900 as well with modded Lawton pads, and it's very close to the modded D7200 now, a bit more colored in the mids and having bigger deep bass impact (but Denon has more midbass impact and more linear mids). I prefer the TH900 by a smidge, albeit often I find I enjoy the modded D7200 more. A tough call.

The steps to do it are not the simplest though:
1. get Lawton pads, and optionally go to step 8. If you are happy with the sound, forget the rest.
2. fold the inner flaps over the pads and open the sewing from the inner perimeter so that the dust grill comes off
3. the inner edge of the leather pads are glued to a plastic ring (quite bad design IMHO), remove it with care
4. now you can take out the foam filling
5. cut the foam filling in half height
6. put back one half in the pads, fold back the leather (from the inside), hold it on the housing and listen to it without gluing it yet. Test the upper and lower half of the foam, which one do you like more.
7. put back the foam of choice, glue back the leather (either using double sided adhesive strips or final glue - one that stays flexible)
8. assemble the pads on the housing (either by the rings or by adhesive stripes).

 

[stjj89]

Great work experimenting, @zolkis . Your write-ups are helpful as usual!