[Andrew_WOT]

Would 1/16" front and 1/8" back be a proper thickness for this mod?

 

[vintageaxeman]

  does someone have the service manual for the t1? or some kind of disassembling guide for the entire driver cup at least?
 

 

 
Be careful, you can EASILY damage your T1's.

1. If you try to unbolt the magnet & diaphragm assembly and move it, even 1/16" or a millimetre, you will probably break the connection with the circuit board. The windings of the driver assembly are soldered by hand at Beyer once the driver assembly is fixed in position. ANY attempt to remove the driver will immediately break the gossamer thin copper wire and you will NOT be able to resolder it easily, and the heat from a soldering iron when trying to solder new cables to the circuit board can heat up the copper strip and BURN OUT the thin connecting wires to the drive assembly.

 ​

 

[roskodan]

personal experience?
 

 

[vintageaxeman]

er...yeah.

 

[roskodan]

how did you fix that?

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

how did you fix that?

 

[vintageaxeman]

...with a new part matched driver unit from Beyer.

 

[roskodan]

Quote:

 
i guess
 
 
Quote:

 with a new part from Polar UK. All fixed now...

 
i guess

 

[flaming_june]

Quote:

 
Back up in yo ass with the resurrection...
Cus it's 
DIE MOFO DIE

 

[roskodan]

just wanted to point something interesting...
 
when i saw the bunch of wires that get connected to the driver inside the cup i thought...
 
if they are positioned differently in each cup that's gonna affect "driver matching" somewhat...
 
and than shock...
 
analyzing  Zombie_X's video and photos and comparing with my t1s...
 
i realized that the t1 drivers are asymmetrically  wired

, on both
 
the tick shield wire is screwed on the left driver (the one with the green wire) on the lower screw while for the right driver (the one with the red wire) on the upper one
 
the left wires where clearly more firm and distanced from the driver when the cup cover (on which the driver is screwed on) laid in the cup

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Holy mother of god, this mod is awesome, this is what Beyerdynamic should have done at the factory. My only thought that they skipped it because of the bigger angled Tesla driver that does not leave enough room in the cup for the dampening material they traditionally used in DT880, but this is just wild guess.
 
More detailed break down on things I've done:
1) ordered 1/8" and 1/16" self adhesive felt from thefeltstore.com:
- F5 1/8"
- F50 1/16"
They also have ebay store so you can save a buck or two by ordering from there
2) Cut one circle out of 1/16" and one out of 1/8". The dimensions and instruction on cutting can be found here, don't skip on paper template, it might take a couple of trials to get the size right.
3) Cut each circle in half, cut out center piece and affix thin felt half to the cup behind the front of the driver and thick behind the back.
4) Repeat on second cup.
 
They sound really awesome now. No direct A/B as I don't have second pair but using DT880 and HD800 as reference the immediate things that jumped on me:
- Bass has more solid foundation now, going lower and sounds "fuller", before it was kind of "raspy". Now it's easily HD650 amount, definitely bassier than HD800.
- Mids are fuller and juicier, I can't detect any recession there.
- Treble still sparky on the very top when material calls for it, but not peaky at all and more "polite", I can crank up volume significantly higher almost like with orthos w/o incurring any listening discomfort
- Sound is smoother all way through, no peaks or resonance I can hear.
 
To put things into perspective they sound like improved, more exciting version of HD650 now, not DT880.
 
Thanks to OP for discovering this awesome mod.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Has anyone experimented with dynamat instead of felt?
Felt does make them quite warmer but even thin kind kills air making them sounding more closed in than DT880.
I am currently experimenting with Dynamat, seems like soundstage wasn't affected at all but treble is evened out, they are still bright but not in spiky fashion.
Need to spend more time with them.
 
EDIT: Not good, Dynamat made them sound thin, bright, and dry, very detailed though.
Back to the drawing board.
Ended up with full circle out of thinnest 1/16" felt, so far seems like it's the best balance, bass came back, treble tamed down, vocals gained some weight and sound more natural, no noticeable changes to soundstage, still as spacious as stock.
Could be because I use high wool content (95%) felt, that must have better sound adsorbing characteristics, thus even 1/8" in the back was too much, 1/16" all around seems to work great.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Illustration of what I ended up with.
As mod is very felt type depended, this is what I used - F50 1/16", same thickness all around, 64mm outer diameter, 25mm inner.
So far this sounds the best with extra weight but w/o compromising the air and openness of T1.
 

 

[Argo Duck]

^ good stuff Andrew. Look forward to how this latest mod turns out in a few days. Cheers!

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

^ good stuff Andrew. Look forward to how this latest mod turns out in a few days. Cheers!

I believe I hit the jackpot with this one.
So far I went through:
- Half circles felt 1/8" back, 1/16" front  (increased bass, added weight to mids, significantly tamed down the treble, but killed air, phones started sound more closed in in comparison to DT880)
- Full circle Extreme Dynamat (dried out the signature, increased details, still bright, gutless bass, sound too clinical)
- Full circle felt 1/16" (increased bass response, smoothed down treble spike (no more wincing on bright material), vocals sound more natural, still plenty of air and room around instruments, sondstage seems to be the same.
 
The last incarnation of the mod sounds so balanced, fixing excessive brightness and not affecting "good stuff" that I'll probably stop tinkering for now.