[swaffleman]

As a lot of people have discovered, while an overall nice sound and amazing design, there's a sort of bass bloated-ness that bleeds into the mids with these headphones, and makes for a sort of muffled sound. For many, this is unacceptable in a 200 dollar headset, no matter how well designed.
 
Well, I did a lot of messing around, and I discovered that the actual drivers of the P3 are stellar. It's the pads that are causing the sound distortion. This may not be news to many of you.
 
I had an old pair of JVC flats laying around, and it was the first gen which had slightly bigger ear pads. They are almost the right size for the P3, maybe just a little on the small side. Anyway, I took the P3's pads off, complete with the magnetic plates they are attached to, and put the JVC flats pads on my ears, and put the headphones on (I didn't have them glued or anything like that yet, they were just being held in place by the pressure of the headphones).
 
What I noticed was that the sound did two things: 1, it became much brighter and more open. No muffle, no overly warm sound signature. The sound became much clearer and more articulate. 2, the  overall balanced improved drastically. The bass dropped by at least 30%. All of a sudden I could hear the mids. The bass was still rather good, as well. More than say, the PX 200s.
 
So I proceeded to tear everything off of the magnetic strips that go onto the P3 headphones. I tore off the nice fabric and foam. It felt bad, but I knew it had to be done. So, after an experiment with putting the magnetic plates back on without the padding, I then again put the JVC pads on my ears and tried out the headphones. The sound was still muffled and overly bassy.
 
How could this be? I believe the answer was in the magnetic plates themselves. In the back of the plates and around the opening, there was still a lot of adhesive fabric like material, as well as a rubber ring around the inside opening of the plates where the sound comes through. I took all of this off, and repeated the experiment with the JVC flat's pads.
 
BINGO! It turns out, for whatever reason all of that extra material on the back and inside of the plates were causing some sort of seal that was bloating the bass. Thinking about it more, I think it was the rubber right around where the speaker opening was.
 
So, I took the final step, and super glued the JVC pads to the plates. It's not as nice looking, but the sound has improved so much, plus I actually find it more comfortable, oddly enough.
 
Here's what the pads look like:


 

 
IF you have nicer pads laying around of the same size, they would also probably work. Also, this is completely reversible as long as you're ok with mutilating a probably expensive set of ear pads. The headphones themselves aren't being altered in any way.

 

[Double-A]

I've only ever tried the P5s (I owned them for a period of exactly 14 days) but those got very uncomfortable after about 30 minutes and I could not for the life of me get a good fit with them . I'm assuming that with the stock pads the P3s have these issues as well. If so, did modding these headphones give them good fit and good comfort?
 
EDIT: Also, are those new pads over-ear or on-ear pads? Never mind, I'm sure that they are on-ears as they are practically the same size as the P3 ear cups.
 
EDIT: I wish that I hadn't returned my P5s, I should've just tried replacing the stock on-ear pads with some over-ear pads to see if that would improve the fit and comfort but the idea never occurred to me. I replaced my P5s with another pair of headphones that I don't like and now I want to replace these "new" headphones as well

. Problem is, I can't return these headphones anymore as I've had them for too long and if I tried to sell them I would get next to nothing especially because of the fact that I don't have the ear pads anymore (they fell apart because they were poor quality) and I don't think I can get a pair of replacements because my warranty has expired and when I look on the manufacturer's website I can't find a page where I can order them. I'm frustrated at myself because I got myself some headphones that were way overpriced for the quality I was receiving.

 

[swaffleman]

I actually have an update.
 
I realized that the flats were awful. I thought they were more comfortable but after a while they became genuinely painful.
 
I found some ifrogz toxix headphones for 10 dollars today, while out shopping for supplies at home, and made a realization that the ear pads were a good size for the P3's.
 
So I got them, and they actually fit around the magnetic plates rather than me having to glue them on, so I ripped off the JVC ear pads and put the toxix's on.
 
The result is a much nicer looking ear pad that actually is very comfortable. They are very soft and much less stiff than the flats ear pads, plus they cover the plate on the outside so it looks nicer. These are a little larger, but to answer your question, they are on ear, not around. The P3's aren't big enough to support around ear pads with any practicality.
 
They get a bit of a better seal than the flats pads, so they isolate more and darken the sound a bit more too, but the sound is still a large improvement over what they sounded like with the stock pads (as nice as they were).
 
The only con is the silly design inside the pads, as you see here. But it doesn't matter to me!
 

 

[swaffleman]

  I've only ever tried the P5's (I owned them for a period of exactly 14 days) but those got very uncomfortable after about 30 minutes and I could not for the life of me get a good fit with them . I'm assuming that with the stock pads the P3's have these issues as well. If so, did modding these headphones give them good fit and good comfort?
 
EDIT: Also, are those new pads over-ear or on-ear pads? Never mind, I'm sure that they are on-ears as they are practically the same size as the P3 ear cups.
 
EDIT: I wish that I hadn't returned my P5's, I should've just tried replacing the stock on-ear pads with some over-ear pads to see if that would improve the fit and comfort but the idea never occurred to me. I replaced my P5's with another pair of headphones that I don't like and now I want to replace these "new" headphones as well

. Problem is, I can't return these headphones anymore as I've had them for too long and if I tried to sell them I would get next to nothing especially because of the fact that I don't have the ear pads anymore (they fell apart because they were poor quality) and I don't think I can get a pair of replacements because my warranty has expired and when I look on the manufacturer's website I can't find a page where I can order them. I'm frustrated at myself because I got myself some headphones that were way overpriced for the quality I was receiving.

You could try going for a pair of Sennheiser PX 200 II's. They aren't going for very much on amazon. Compared to my modded P3s, I don't think they are as satisfying, but they sound incredible for their size and price. Probably more clear and analytical than the P3s. Not as good low end bass, but the bass is more defined.
 
 
I have been wearing the P3s with the ifrogz toxix pads for two or three hours now and I have no discomfort. This is seriously a great mod! Y'all should do it.

 

[Double-A]

  You could try going for a pair of Sennheiser PX 200 II's. They aren't going for very much on amazon. Compared to my modded P3s, I don't think they are as satisfying, but they sound incredible for their size and price. Probably more clear and analytical than the P3s. Not as good low end bass, but the bass is more defined.
 
 
I have been wearing the P3s with the ifrogz toxix pads for two or three hours now and I have no discomfort. This is seriously a great mod! Y'all should do it.

Thanks for the suggestion but I really can't afford to be spending any money on headphones or amplifiers (or any other audio equipment) for the time being as I really need to save up for the college education that I want.

 

[createvel]

My first post..Hello
 
And had post about these cause i just got them and my girlfriend likes a bright sound and less distorted, but she loves these p3 (more than me) as they look awesome.
 
This is what I did to the p3 to make a huge difference in the sound characteristics. 
 
http://imgur.com/YDKzASA
 
By cutting the pieces in different shape they sounded different, kept changing them till I liked the sound.
 
This packaging foam which sounded the best for me, there was a balance and sounded neutral for me and more over this simple mod made a huge difference for my gf, she loved it.
 
(I am new and could not upload so here is the link to the picture)

 

[Necron99]

I actually have an update.

I realized that the flats were awful. I thought they were more comfortable but after a while they became genuinely painful.

I found some ifrogz toxix headphones for 10 dollars today, while out shopping for supplies at home, and made a realization that the ear pads were a good size for the P3's.

So I got them, and they actually fit around the magnetic plates rather than me having to glue them on, so I ripped off the JVC ear pads and put the toxix's on.

The result is a much nicer looking ear pad that actually is very comfortable. They are very soft and much less stiff than the flats ear pads, plus they cover the plate on the outside so it looks nicer. These are a little larger, but to answer your question, they are on ear, not around. The P3's aren't big enough to support around ear pads with any practicality.

They get a bit of a better seal than the flats pads, so they isolate more and darken the sound a bit more too, but the sound is still a large improvement over what they sounded like with the stock pads (as nice as they were).

The only con is the silly design inside the pads, as you see here. But it doesn't matter to me!

Thanks for this, I noticed when I flipped the original earpads the P3 sounded much better. I'll try this, a shame with 2 versions B&W didn't pick up on this!