[jerg]

  Thanks for the reply, I'm blocking the slits by 1mm or less in some places, but mostly not, is that too much? How can I tell?

Well the tolerance for errors is really low (the openings between the magnets are only about 4~5mm), even 1mm blockage is ~20% of the opening blocked. It's better that you cut the strips a tad thinner than wider relative to the magnet widths.

 

[purplegoat]

alright I'll go back through and make sure nothing extra is being blocked!
 
edit: fixed it up with tweezers, doesn't seem faster or more clear than originally but it seems less harsh so that's nice!

 

[purplegoat]

Just pulled off all the felt off in a fit of a passion wanting to make sure the fuzzor mod makes a difference. (I had to A/B it at least once, and while I think I did a good job last time I'm hoping to do an even better job the third time..)
 
Anyway I just wanted to throw in that without the fuzzor mod these cans suddenly sound ringy and hurt my ears. the fuzzor made the sound more distant and unfocused (but more clear) but that may have been my error, I'm going to try thinner strips of felt this time.
 
Conclusion: fuzzor mod is a must.

 

[nwguy]

I feel like this mod could also be done to magnepans, but that may be a bit off topic

 

[cskippy]

HE-6 owners are you removing the felt fabric that Hifiman puts on the back top quarter on the side that faces the ear?

 

[purplegoat]

I did that and I believe that is the recommendation.
 
 
Has anyone tried with soft adhesive back felt vs. stiff? I heard that it is superior

 

[Anaximandros]

I am interested in this mod for my HE-500. How thick is the felt usually? I can get 1mm, 2mm or 5 mm thickness. I guess 2mm thickness should be fine, but I need a 2nd opinion

 

[LarsHP]

  I am interested in this mod for my HE-500. How thick is the felt usually? I can get 1mm, 2mm or 5 mm thickness. I guess 2mm thickness should be fine, but I need a 2nd opinion

Get as thin felt as possible - and make sure you cut precisely.
Too wide and you loose too much treble. Too slim and it doesn't "round off" the sharp edges of the metal grid.

 

[Anaximandros]

 
Get as thin felt as possible - and make sure you cut precisely.
Too wide and you loose too much treble. Too slim and it doesn't "round off" the sharp edges of the metal grid.

 
Thank you very much for your reply. I bought the felt with 1mm and 3 mm thickness, with the 3mm thickness I can get a nice triangle shape I think. Have to test it

 

[borrego]

It took me 2 hours gluing 80 half ball beads to complete 50% of my "Fazer Bead"  mod:
 

 
Had to be extremely careful not to accidentally drip any glue onto the driver diaphragm. Now have to wait 1 day to have the glue completely dry off, then I shall compare to the other driver without the mod.

 

 

[jerg]

  It took me 2 hours gluing 80 half ball beads to complete 50% of my "Fazer Bead"  mod:
 

 
Had to be extremely careful not to accidentally drip any glue onto the driver diaphragm. Now have to wait 1 day to have the glue completely dry off, then I shall compare to the other driver without the mod.

 

Ooooh. Pretteh.

 

[ThurstonX]

  It took me 2 hours gluing 80 half ball beads to complete 50% of my "Fazer Bead"  mod:
 

 
Had to be extremely careful not to accidentally drip any glue onto the driver diaphragm. Now have to wait 1 day to have the glue completely dry off, then I shall compare to the other driver without the mod.

 

 
Funky looking.  I wonder if it will have a similar effect to the fuzzor mod.  I'm way too chicken schiit to be gluing things above the diaphragm, esp. on my 3rd pair of HE-500s.  Also, I've done the fuzzor mod enough to have become quite proficient at cutting and applying felt 

 

[borrego]

   
Funky looking.  I wonder if it will have a similar effect to the fuzzor mod.  I'm way too chicken schiit to be gluing things above the diaphragm, esp. on my 3rd pair of HE-500s.  Also, I've done the fuzzor mod enough to have become quite proficient at cutting and applying felt 

 
I also thought the planner driver structures were delicate, not to mess with, until I removed the earpads and saw how HIFIMAN brutally applied heat gun glue on the magnet grid. You can see a few beads are out of perfect alignment in my picture. It is because of those spread out HIFIMAN glue stain blocking my work.
 
I bought my full mod kit from here for less than US3. It is a kit meant for putting bling bling crystal on cell phone case: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.140.k4cRvA&id=8690219105&_u=f4r4gfd7838




 
I shall do listening comparison tonight. My objective is to reduce reflection (3rd order distortion?), without changing the dampening. IMO, the HIFIMAN cup design is quite elementary, with so many parallel flat surfaces for happy bouncing sound waves.
 
It is the first time I modify headphones. I kind of apply my previous elementary knowledge of building my pairs of DIY speakers a few years back.

 

[LarsHP]

Using an angled earpad will fix the reflection problem in the lower frequencies and the felt will take the treble. I'm qiute happy with my HE-6 with the felt mod and Audeze micro suede pads.

 

[borrego]

This morning I have done some listening comparison between the the left driver with the "Black Pearl" fazer beads mod and the un-mod right driver of my HE-500.
 
The HE-500 is with the HE-560 production Focus pads. I use foorbar2000 for playback so I can activate the stereo channel reverse and stereo to mono down mix at time of playing for comparison.
 
To my surprise, the most obvious effect of the mod is sound stage. On the mod left driver side, the sound seems coming more from before my head and less coming from the side. I have confirmed this by reversing channel. The sound stage on the left hand side has more depth and is more "out of my head". Sound coming from the un-mod right side driver seems more "substantial", where at times I can feel the sound is directly coming out from the driver diaphragm.
 
It is actually quite funny listening to this uneven sound stage. It is like you are sitting in on the right hand side in a concert hall, with the wall on the right closer to you. The musicians and instruments on the left is more away and spread out.
 
I was expecting to have music note coming from the left to be more "defined" like the people are saying with their LCD Fazer. But I don't feel that with my Black Pearl mod. I do feel the sound from the left decays a little bit faster now.
 
Overall the result is not what I was expecting, but I like the change of the sound stage effect very much. I expect with both drivers modified, the sound of the HE-500 will be more "out of my head".