[HeadHigh]

I'm trying to make Sony mdr-r10 cups, I'm sure it will improve the sound of th900 significantly .

 

[zolkis]

  I'm trying to make Sony mdr-r10 cups, I'm sure it will improve the sound of th900 significantly .

 
That's excellent, please share your findings/details. I was contemplating to make a full R10 housing including front plate etc from wood. Maybe could gather some willpower to start doing it. The loading of the TH900 housing is very interesting, and complex for fine-tuning. Small differences may cause big effects on sound. Of course, optimally we should have a transmission line, which is not practical in headphones , but this one got close to the TL loading with most benefits and little of the side effects.  It's very good engineering in my opinion. 

 

[HeadHigh]

sure but I'm thinking what kind of wood should I use ?
 
I have  normal wood , I can get rare wood from japan , one of my friend is there .
I'm trying to find a way how to put fostex Th900 drivers on them.  one question : should I put more damping material or not ?
 
Thanks.

 

[Whazzzup]

sure but I'm thinking what kind of wood should I use ?

I have  normal wood , I can get rare wood from japan , one of my friend is there .
I'm trying to find a way how to put fostex Th900 drivers on them.  one question : should I put more damping material or not ?

Thanks.

You should consult the lawton web sight as a reference point for your diy mod. Lots of woods. Maybe someone who has tried different wood could comment. I have read some debates on the th900 thread about this very issue, from aesthetic to sq.

 

[zolkis]

I think the cups are fine. Shallow, but fine. Deeper cups would need more damping. From my speaker building experience, the least amount of stuffing you need the better: so the structure needs to be self-damping. For that purpose single wood cabinets are not good, you need crossbracing etc. That is why Lawton uses damping pads. My experience is that with these shallow cups the well chosen stuffing (i.e. felt) give better results. Alternatively you can use plywood, but needs to be very fine structure and layers done in star (not just cross). 
 
So I think it is much less complexity to start with the proven original cups, and first to make the front plate from wood, or thin plywood, and see how it behaves. I think - and that is just my guts feeling - that this would give better results than a bigger cup, since it is not bigger bass or sound stage I need (I can get those easily by increasing the internal diameter of the earpads and by using thicker felt for dampers). I am primarily after making a more refined midrange and treble. The front plate plays a key role in that, IMHO.

 

[goropeza]

I'm trying to make Sony mdr-r10 cups, I'm sure it will improve the sound of th900 significantly .

Is there a particular reason you think this? Im curious to know.

 

[AppleheadMay]

  I'm trying to make Sony mdr-r10 cups, I'm sure it will improve the sound of th900 significantly .

 
 

   
That's excellent, please share your findings/details. I was contemplating to make a full R10 housing including front plate etc from wood. Maybe could gather some willpower to start doing it. The loading of the TH900 housing is very interesting, and complex for fine-tuning. Small differences may cause big effects on sound. Of course, optimally we should have a transmission line, which is not practical in headphones , but this one got close to the TL loading with most benefits and little of the side effects.  It's very good engineering in my opinion. 

 
 
I had a LA7000 with Lawton cups which are deeper than the standard D7000 or TH-900 cups and together with his dampening mods and earpads experienced very nice results.
I did also make a (what I call LaLaNo7000 (Lawton/Lantinen/Norse) which had much deeper cups (on my special request), there are pics of it on this site. Apart from the deeper cups it also had the Lawton dampening and ear pads. The depth of the cups reflected that of the R10, it was just not possible to turn the exact shape of the R10 with a machine. The result was imo less good than with the Lawton cups that are already bigger than stock. It lost some of the sonic balance that both the stock and Lawton versions share.
So I would advise against such an experiment since it will cost you a fair deal of money to get the R10 shape and probably won't be what you were after unless you know very well what you are doing with dampening and can fine tune the sound to get the balance back these cans have.

 

[stjj89]

zolkis and playitloud, do you think that following carbon foam from eBay would work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-x6-1-x1-2-Active-Carbon-Bio-Sponge-Filter-Media-Block-Foam-For-Aquarium-Pond-/161226691714?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2589dc1482&rmvSB=true

 

[gurus]

or this one
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Filter-Bio-Sponge-17-7-x17-7-x0-98-Media-Block-Foam-pads-Biochemical-Sponge-bio-/270894125023?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f128c4fdf&tfrom=271100169448&tpos=unknow&ttype=price&talgo=origal#shpCntId

 

[zolkis]

zolkis and playitloud, do you think that following carbon foam from eBay would work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-x6-1-x1-2-Active-Carbon-Bio-Sponge-Filter-Media-Block-Foam-For-Aquarium-Pond-/161226691714?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2589dc1482&rmvSB=true

or this one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Filter-Bio-Sponge-17-7-x17-7-x0-98-Media-Block-Foam-pads-Biochemical-Sponge-bio-/270894125023?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f128c4fdf&tfrom=271100169448&tpos=unknow&ttype=price&talgo=origal#shpCntId

 
Looks like both would work. We tested 2 kinds of carbon foam, one sounded better than the others (the one which contained more active carbon, and also looked more black).
On these ones it is hard to tell whether it contains active carbon, and how much, or is it just sponge, also for active carbon usage.
If you want to be sure, buy the one from the amazon link, but these seem to be really, really similar.

 

[Salmoneus]

I'm sure this is beating a dead horse, but I would be very keen to see some measurements of the modded TH900 vs stock TH900 :-D

 

[zolkis]

I'm sure this is beating a dead horse, but I would be very keen to see some measurements of the modded TH900 vs stock TH900 :-D

Me too  
 
If someone has proper equipment to do it, please go ahead and do it.
 
It would be even better if someone living close to such a person would do the mod with a set I prepare and get it measured.
Judged by ear (horribile dictu: by listening to sweeps, and comparing it to my SR-009), I am pretty sure it measures better than the stock TH900, and that is pretty evident from music listening as well, but you can't be sure right?

 

[katulu]

   
I should note that do not mix this with any Lawton mods. That caused me a 2 months dead end side experiment. The Lawton mod is good on the stock TH900, for taming the bass, and it does work as advertised, but nothing from there works in this mod. Do not mix them - but if you're a tinkerer you'll try it anyway .
 
Also, in our experience high pads (Audeze, Lawton etc) don't work well with this mod, and in general with the TH900. The ear pads are integral part of the mods. See also http://www.head-fi.org/t/595683/fostex-th900-impressions-discussion-thread/6270#post_10241637.

 
 

Thanks for this post! Question: I tested for myself that the Lawton cup foam pads, and especially the Angle Pads, horribly rob the TH900 of subbass and bass, but I did not quite test the Lawton "stickers" for the back of the drivers or I could not really detect a subbass loss with them on. Did you determine that these would also hinder the sound in combination with your felt mod?
 
Did you try other cups, by any chance? I really like what my Lawton cups (spalted maple) did for soundstage and bass thump (still looking for perfect balance, hence the interest in this thread). I'm doing my own tests with materials I can get (is there ANY way we people in the USA could get the felts you use in your mod?) so this is certainly very useful and interesting. I sent my TH900 to be recabled (Norne Vanquish cable), and in the meantime got a stock pair to compare the sound as I tinker.

 

[zolkis]

Thanks for this post! Question: I tested for myself that the Lawton cup foam pads, and especially the Angle Pads, horribly rob the TH900 of subbass and bass, but I did not quite test the Lawton "stickers" for the back of the drivers or I could not really detect a subbass loss with them on. Did you determine that these would also hinder the sound in combination with your felt mod?

 
I have tested pretty much every combination of (parts of) the Lawton kit and my mods during 2 months, and I arrived to the conclusion that the Lawton kit works, our mods work, but the best is not to mix them. The olive pads in the cups are to some extent compatible with our mod, and the stripes intrude even less, but the point is that 2 or 3mm felt of the indicated source can solve the damping issues and don't cause overdamping.
 

Did you try other cups, by any chance? I really like what my Lawton cups (spalted maple) did for soundstage and bass thump (still looking for perfect balance, hence the interest in this thread). I'm doing my own tests with materials I can get (is there ANY way we people in the USA could get the felts you use in your mod?) so this is certainly very useful and interesting. I sent my TH900 to be recabled (Norne Vanquish cable), and in the meantime got a stock pair to compare the sound as I tinker.

 
I have not tried other cups, as the original one sounds good enough, and there is plenty (even too much) bass in the 20-40Hz region. Sound stage was increased by increasing the inner diameter of the earpad filling. I tried many dimensions and settled with the optimum. The sound stage is as big as with my modded Stax 007 (larger than life), and slightly bigger than with the SR-009, which is about right size. I prefer the SR-009 sound stage over the HD800 sound stage. 
 
About bass "thump" -- let's clear the terms. For me thump means delayed bass, and that is bad. With our mod there is plenty of slam and bass impact, but it thumps only when the music thumps. Even this mod has a bit overshoot in the bass, but just the amount which gives you a slight loudness feel, which is welcome with most music types. In turn, with the mod the bass is faster and deeper than with the stock TH900. As said earlier, the purpose of this mod was to make the midrange of the TH900 better - and we also happened to get better bass.

 

[stjj89]

It looks like my local dealer is taking forever to get back to me on replacement TH900 pads, and I think they might be on back-order by the US distributor. I do want to go ahead with the pad mod to see how it affects the TH900 though. If it turns out that I don't like the earpad mod and want to go back to the sound of the stock pads, can I pretty much re-stuff the pads with the original foam and have them sound like stock pads (without the stitching)?