Afghan Vet
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2012
- Posts
- 274
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- 139
I think that my modded TH900 does not have the soundstage limitation, at least not to this extent.
It's true that my modded Stax 007 has better stage, and so does the HD800, and perhaps even the HE-6, albeit that is a close call, and I agree that even the modded TH900 may not be as good/neutral/revealing as the HD800 and HE-6 when they are properly driven, but:
- I don't feel like having a distorting wall; when sounds seem coming from a far distance with the 007, they do so with the TH900 as well, albeit closer. The carbon foam pad filling helps a lot with soundstage. If you care more about sound stage than mids, you can try using the original dampers (the grey foam ring around the drivers) rather than the felt dampers. The felt dampers can overdamp easily, and every cutout will likely sound different anyway, it's so sensitive to minor and micro-variations, and then every felt sounds different, even from the same felt sheet when cut from different parts of the sheet.
- the main strength of the TH900 is still that it is a closed design, and that's exactly what I need most in it in the office, or when watching late night movies at high volume
- it works wonderfully with portable DAC's, and while it does scale with good amps, I get most of the goods right at the start of the range, from a Resonessence Herus, or even a Sony Z3 phone
- the modded TH900 is fun, and for me much more fun, with better stage, mids, bass and treble than the non-modded TH900 .
However, when in the evening I put on the 007 (not so much the 009 nowadays), I melt away.
So that's the context, and I have made peace that after a year of tweaking, I have seemingly reached the "good-enough" limits of the TH900, and it is what it is and no more .
I will notify this forum when I find a better closed headphone for the above purpose (the LCD-XC is not, at least for me, although I did not try to tweak that one).
Thank you very much Zolkis for this remarks about the nuances of the headphones themselves and the mods.
Thank you as well for that 'perspective'......one of the things that is daunting at times when reading descriptions of performance.....'compared to what?'.......If it is the TH900 on a decent amp versus a full Stax set up, then that context provides added insight. Recently I've been reading a number of reviews on CIEMs.....niggle here, niggle there.......from reviewers that may have units that are 2 or 3 times the cost of the one I may be looking at.....compared to my iPhone buds, those niggles are nothing
So, I may eventually look into a cable change with my Fostex (cable termination to balanced to connect to the Taurus, and potentially cable composition), but I'm just planning on enjoying them