Good generic mods for headphones?
May 25, 2015 at 3:04 PM Post #16 of 29
To be honest, I don't know what headphones I've got! I threw away the packaging a while ago, and I never wrote it down. 
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When I go to add a picture, it says: your account doesn't have permissions to access this page or something.  . . what is that about?
 
May 25, 2015 at 4:02 PM Post #17 of 29
These are what they look like with all the mods:
Nycyj80.jpg

 
These are the custom pads (soc mod):
mQS7PxE.jpg

 
This is the the cup behind the driver looks like (cotton stuffed mod):
FPqeXqe.jpg

 
This is what the driver looks like from behind:
Pf3OkkD.jpg

 
This is what it looks like without the pads on:
FSUQPe1.jpg

 
So, I've got some questions:
- What does the cotton stuffing do to the sounds, other than preventing the rattling noise previously?
- What would putting plastic or something in front of the driver do?
 
May 25, 2015 at 4:27 PM Post #18 of 29
Ah, I think you might have these - http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-zx100
 
By the looks of the headband, that's the one... but I used to own a set of these (before gutting it, and putting in new drivers and giving it to my brother) and I don't remember the baffle being that detailed.
Could just be a memory lapse.
 
Here's my old work just for reference.
(don't use it as a guide, it's a very old mod that actually didn't sound that great, and it's a totally different driver anyway, so it will get different results)
  
 
The headband and the inside of the cup seem identical, but your baffles are clearly more vented than mine... a design update perhaps?
 
 
Anyway, back to your mods.
To me that looks like it might be too much cotton wool, you could probably put in less than half that and you should get more bass without it being too muddy.
OR, if you're feeling a bit adventurous you could pop ALL the holes in the back of the driver and simply stuff in more cotton wool if there's too much bass until you're happy.... but there's no going back from that kind of destructive mod without a good stock of micropore tape (thin breathable white medical tape).
 
You probably don't have any, but cotton make-up removal pads are much easier to work with than clumps of wool since you can control how much you put in much easier. 
Also with these cups you probably want to slightly mass load the inside of the cups. This worked well for the AKG K518, so it's certainly worth a try.
 
Also since your baffles are very well vented, you might want to try covering up vents (simply with masking tape since it's most easily removed without tearing the venting fabric).
This should help tame the bass in different ways to damping... however covering up ALL the vents is not advisable as the vacuum is dangerous to the diaphragm which will bend/creak when you push the cups against your ears.
 
EDIT - Oh, and it should have the model number on the INSIDE of the headband somewhere
 
May 25, 2015 at 4:47 PM Post #19 of 29
There wasn't a model number on it, for some reason.
That's what I thought it was, but the outside of the cup was really shiny on mine, but not on the ones that came up on google.
 
I was thinking of popping all the holes, and just stuffing it with cotton until I fine tune it. Without a EQ, the songs don't really have a lot of bass to them, so I'm sure it couldn't hurt to much. I do not have micropore tape though. . .
Would I have to get rid of the rest of the covering around the driver to mass load?
 
May 25, 2015 at 5:03 PM Post #20 of 29
 
Would I have to get rid of the rest of the covering around the driver to mass load?

You don't really want any of the blue-tack or plasticine to be ON the driver directly.
Especially since this driver has a vent in the magnet... you could get away with a small ring of damping around the hole, just have to be more careful. Not a big deal really.
 
Most of the mass load should be applied directly to the baffle around the driver like this:

 
May 25, 2015 at 5:37 PM Post #23 of 29
Mostly tames the treble, but adversely cripples resolution, clarity and sense of 'air' and space (soundstage).
I wouldn't advise it for this headphone which is already scraping the bottom of the resolution barrel.
 
May 26, 2015 at 3:15 AM Post #26 of 29
I've heard that people will put the bottom of a aluminum can into the cup? What the heck does that do?

Such a hard surface of that kind of material would act primarily as a sound-reflector. 
Honestly, I imagine this will create lots of unwanted resonances and peaks especially in the treble. I've never heard/read of anyone here on head-fi doing that.

That's basically the opposite of acoustic damping and the most likely the worst kind of tuning. 
Of course I've never tried it... it's just a guess. 
 
Also you'd need at least a rotary tool to cut the aluminium to the right size... I guess you don't have one of those. (urgh... and mine broke last weekend -_-)
 

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