[borrego]

I have completed my "Black Pearl" mod to both sides of the HE-500 drivers. The improvement higher volume or transient is quite obvious. Only now the HE-500 is able to take advantage of the HE-560 angled pads to move the sound stage before my head. Before I cannot tell much difference on sound stage between using HE-560 angled pads or the stock HE-500 velour pads.
 
The cymbal sound has the most improvements. Before the mod, cymbal sounded quite one dimensional and I can tell it coming. Now it has got more layerings.
 
Overall it is worthy of my time spending 4 hours gluing 160 4mm half-ball beads to the HE-500 grids.

 

 

[Maxx134]

I have completed my "Black Pearl" mod to both sides of the HE-500 drivers. The improvement higher volume or transient is quite obvious. Only now the HE-500 is able to take advantage of the HE-560 angled pads to move the sound stage before my head. Before I cannot tell much difference on sound stage between using HE-560 angled pads or the stock HE-500 velour pads.

The cymbal sound has the most improvements. Before the mod, cymbal sounded quite one dimensional and I can tell it coming. Now it has got more layerings.

Overall it is worthy of my time spending 4 hours gluing 160 4mm half-ball beads to the HE-500 grids.  

I would assume your mod uses "dispersion",
While the felt uses "absorption"..
I wonder what the lcd method implies.

 

[jerg]

I would assume your mod uses "dispersion",
While the felt uses "absorption"..
I wonder what the lcd method implies.

Neither, the LCD Fazors are waveguides (of the soundwaves originating from the diaphragm, toward the ears).

 

[borrego]

I would assume your mod uses "dispersion",
While the felt uses "absorption"..
I wonder what the lcd method implies.

 
I chose using beads to disperse the reflection mainly because I don't want to mess with the frequency response. I don't have any measuring tools thus it is difficult for me to understand what the felt will do to particular frequency. The other reason I don't use felt is because of the uneven glue stains already there on the HE-500 driver grid, I really can't think how I can apply the felt evenly  flush on the grids.
 
I think the main function of the LCD Fazers are wave guides, but I think they also serve the function of dispersing reflections.

 

[SoundDragon]

Just tried the fuzzor mod on my HE 500, modded with Jergpad v2.5 (minus the vent+adhesion mod), it takes the HE 500 to another level. I used some sound dampening foam that I had from modding T50rp's cups; had to cut the foam thin as they were too thick, almost touching the mounting ring when attached to the metal brackets. The foams were a bit harder to cut with exact precision as they would cave in while trying to cut them in thin pieces and create uneven sides, but was easier to avoid hard 90 deg angles and were easier to mold them a certain amount.
 
Thanks to jerg for coming up these mods, really enjoying the improved HE 500s

 

[BuLLeT_BaiT]

It seems to be tricky get a hold of stiffened adhesive felt in Australia. Would 1mm non-stiffened adhesive felt work? Or does that run the risk of absorbing rather than guiding waves? I also have a bunch of normal stiff felt and silverstone acoustic foam from T50RP modding. Otherwise I may use the sound dampening foam method that SoundDragon used.

 

[LarsHP]

The idea using felt is to absorb treble and reduce diffraction, not to guide sound waves. I have used felt and double sided adhesive tape with success. However, it is much easier if you have felt with adhesive on the back.
 
Make sure you cut very accurately. Too wide and you will loose too much treble. Too slim and the effect will diminish - especially regarding diffraction.

 

[BuLLeT_BaiT]

Cheers clearing up my confusion LarsHP. I did the mod with stiff felt and double sided adhesive one driver at a time to compare the differences. I'm not quite sure how to explain the changes, but wow, it's probably the most obvious improvement out of all the mods I've tried so far. A slight ringing or reverb in the treble region has disappeared. It leaves the highs sounding cleaner and more detailed. I feel it brings a tiny bit more focus to the mids and lower end. Thanks to Jerg for yet another amazing mod.

 

[Shazb0t]

Does anyone offer the service of doing this mod?

 

[BuLLeT_BaiT]

I'd say it's worth trying it yourself as it is fully reversible and only requires $2 in supplies. Its not hard by any means, it just takes a couple of hours. Gives you a chance to listen to some of those other neglected headphones.

 

[daerron]

Jeez, you guys are a bad influence. If I'm not stealing my wife's liners and cutting holes in them for different grill mods on the HE-500 I've now also stolen the carpet felt adhesive pads! If she finds out I'm blaming Jerg... 

 What we wouldn't do in the name of good sound.. 

 

 

[daerron]

Here are the end results... Really owe Jerg a BIG thank you for all these excellent mods! They've really transformed this headphone into something really amazing.
 
 

 

 

 

[ThurstonX]

  Here are the end results... Really owe Jerg a BIG thank you for all these excellent mods! They've really transformed this headphone into something really amazing.
 
 

 

 

 
Someone's bound to nit-pick, so I'll go first.  Ideally you want the felt strips to be as uniform as possible (3.5 - 4 mm is about right), with no overhang.  Thinnish self-adhesive craft felt and decent precision scissors (Fisker, e.g.) will get you there.

 

[daerron]

 
 


Someone's bound to nit-pick, so I'll go first.  Ideally you want the felt strips to be as uniform as possible (3.5 - 4 mm is about right), with no overhang.  Thinnish self-adhesive craft felt and decent precision scissors (Fisker, e.g.) will get you there.

Yep, that was the first side I tried, made a bit of a mess of it. The other side looks a bit better. First effort was just curiosity to see whether the mod really actually does something, so I did the one side and listened to the difference on one unmodded driver and one with the mod. The cutting knife, though necessary, is not ideal as its tricky to cut the felt straight. I do feel this felt material works well though, especially since it has a bit of height. Still haven't managed to get the edges of the felt bent as much as I wanted to. I'll clean it up when I got a bit of more time, but the result is already pretty impressive. My wife normally didn't care for the HE-500 at all, but she didn't want to hand the headphones back this time, that is a pretty good sign.

 

[ThurstonX]

 

Someone's bound to nit-pick, so I'll go first.  Ideally you want the felt strips to be as uniform as possible (3.5 - 4 mm is about right), with no overhang.  Thinnish self-adhesive craft felt and decent precision scissors (Fisker, e.g.) will get you there.

Yep, that was the first side I tried, made a bit of a mess of it. The other side looks a bit better. First effort was just curiosity to see whether the mod really actually does something, so I did the one side and listened to the difference on one unmodded driver and one with the mod. The cutting knife, though necessary, is not ideal as its tricky to cut the felt straight. I do feel this felt material works well though, especially since it has a bit of height. Still haven't managed to get the edges of the felt bent as much as I wanted to. I'll clean it up when I got a bit of more time, but the result is already pretty impressive. My wife normally didn't care for the HE-500 at all, but she didn't want to hand the headphones back this time, that is a pretty good sign.

 
Slight revision: I did use the thicker Creatology adhesive felt for the same reason you cited.  It's actually easier to work with than the thinner stuff, and if you do the final step of running something rounded to shape the edges, you can see it work on the thicker felt.
 
Yes, it does have a nice effect