= Hifiman “Fuzzor” Mod = (Driver backwave felt damping modification)

[ThurstonX]

  Where do you got the materials needed for diy cable? Any instructions here? Thanks!

 
Depends where you live.  I've found no shortage of good parts in the US, which of course includes eBay from China/Hong Kong.  Your best bet is to start with this thread:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/676402/diy-cable-questions-and-comments-thread
 
That's how I got going.  There's lots to learn, but once you've got an idea of the basics, ask questions in that thread, though a careful read might yield all the answers as the questions come to you.
 
Have fun 

 

[yuhengtiger]

   
Depends where you live.  I've found no shortage of good parts in the US, which of course includes eBay from China/Hong Kong.  Your best bet is to start with this thread:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/676402/diy-cable-questions-and-comments-thread
 
That's how I got going.  There's lots to learn, but once you've got an idea of the basics, ask questions in that thread, though a careful read might yield all the answers as the questions come to you.
 
Have fun 

Thank you. I am in the U.S. 

 

[FredrikT92]

Anyone tried using like weatherstripping (idk what you call it in english)? That kinda foamish rubberish stuff, its much easier to cut clean, and "round off" the edges, u can cut the edges with a really sharp knife to get it more like Audeze's fazor tech. Im trying to find some, but I can only find it as tape, which isent the easiest to wwork with...

 

[LarsHP]

  Anyone tried using like weatherstripping (idk what you call it in english)? That kinda foamish rubberish stuff, its much easier to cut clean, and "round off" the edges, u can cut the edges with a really sharp knife to get it more like Audeze's fazor tech. Im trying to find some, but I can only find it as tape, which isent the easiest to wwork with...

Go to Panduro Hobby and get felt and "Shark Tape" if you can't get/find self adhesive felt.

 

[FredrikT92]

Finner noe felt på Claes Ohlson, men det er jo ikke noe bra... Vanskelig å runde av kantene

 

[nehcrow]

Here's a quick AutoCAD drawup I did for your benefit (if you want an accurate guide)
Print to 100% scale on A4 and do what you will (Open full-size and save as... before printing)
Paper has to be level with the backing paper to be accurate! Or you can trace the outline on the backing paper
This is to Jerg's specs on the front page, so if it's inaccurate I'll update it
 

 

[FredrikT92]

Whats the optimal thickness for this mod? 
I have some adhesive filt which are 4mm thick, im trying to find something even thinner, but its pretty damn hard. 

 

[knowhatimean]

I'm not so sure it is actually the backwave of the sound in the earcup / head interface chamber that may be causing frequency confusion/interruption inside the headphone. At least not if you are using a Velour type
ear pad.

I think the Fuzzor mod is correcting problems of clarity &/or indistinct transients due to the fact that it's damping,initial resonances that are being created by the excess energy of the movement of the driver. You would hope that the timed based occurrences of musical transients would coincide with how the driver produces them . For the most part they do,but the resonance coming off the parts of the driver have extended the sound of the proceedings notes played enough to disrupt some transients to develop or conclude. It's not really the damping that's clearing things up , it's the diffusion of the sound that's allowing transients to be unmasked!

With any of these "physical" mods I believe it becomes a matter of reigning in the mechanical energy of the headphone's design to work with the rest of the playback chain. As soon as my new HE-6 cable arrives , I hope to re explore this thread a bit !

 

[GLXLR]

Has anyone considered doing or have done a 3d printed version of the wave guides? I have access to some pretty advanced 3D printers.  If I have learned anything its that the wave guide's shape will greatly affect how some frequencies propagate to the ears.

My feeling is that using felt seems like the safer option where frequencies that travel along the wave guide's surface will be constructive so that the over all sound front will be more even. Then there are frequencies that are not affected or attenuate into the felt. Still wondering which is the best way to go and might try both with one method on each ear cup. I do feel that my main criticism of the HE-500s is their sound stage which I hope this mod will help with.

EDIT: I do mean instrument separation. Not soundstage

 

[knowhatimean]

Has anyone considered doing or have done a 3d printed version of the wave guides? I have access to some pretty advanced 3D printers.  If I have learned anything its that the wave guide's shape will greatly affect how some frequencies propagate to the ears.


My feeling is that using felt seems like the safer option where frequencies that travel along the wave guide's surface will be constructive so that the over all sound front will be more even. Then there are frequencies that are not affected or attenuate into the felt. Still wondering which is the best way to go and might try both with one method on each ear cup. I do feel that my main criticism of the HE-500s is their sound stage which I hope this mod will help with.

Have you done a regrille mod yet ?

Changing the grille to one that has a larger ratio opening to grille ( along with reduced (or no) damping on this side ) really opened up the SS for my HE-6.

I'm currently using some very open screening material (fiber glass, I think) I got at Lowes. Alter removing the circular plastic grille retainer ring & the original grille , I cut 2 pieces of the screen material larger then the diameter of these rings. .I then coated the bottom side of the rings with adhesive & placed them on top of these
screen squares .

I had ripped 4 pieces of waxed paper a bit larger then the screening pieces. Each ring / screen piece (after connecting the glued ring to screen) is placed on a piece of wp on a flat surface with the 2nd piece going on
top of each. I then placed flat weighted pieces of anything on top of things & let them sit for 30mins.

After taking the weight & waxed paper sandwiches apart I simply carefully trimmed the outside of the rings with
an Exacto knife paying attention to not to cut the small tabs that hold the ring to the lip of the cup

Obviously how comfortable you are going to be using such a lightweight screen material is going to depend
whether you're light handed or not when your using these phones. ( I also prefer the sound with no damping
material on this side as my HE-6 sound nicely Holographic with wide dynamics acoustical music)

 

[BeatsWork]

Has anyone considered doing or have done a 3d printed version of the wave guides? I have access to some pretty advanced 3D printers.  If I have learned anything its that the wave guide's shape will greatly affect how some frequencies propagate to the ears.


My feeling is that using felt seems like the safer option where frequencies that travel along the wave guide's surface will be constructive so that the over all sound front will be more even. Then there are frequencies that are not affected or attenuate into the felt. Still wondering which is the best way to go and might try both with one method on each ear cup. I do feel that my main criticism of the HE-500s is their sound stage which I hope this mod will help with.

Intriguing but how would you even begin to model appropriate guide structure? Not to mention properties of extruded plastic?

 

[GLXLR]

Intriguing but how would you even begin to model appropriate guide structure? Not to mention properties of extruded plastic?

Right. Making a wave guide is a precise work. Best thing I can do is trial and error. I'm going to try the fuzzor mod first and see if the instrument separation is any better. Currently waiting on the shipment of felt. I am hoping there is no treble loss or trade off... HE-500 treble is soooo good to my ears. 

Have you done a regrille mod yet ?

Changing the grille to one that has a larger ratio opening to grille ( along with reduced (or no) damping on this side ) really opened up the SS for my HE-6.

I'm currently using some very open screening material (fiber glass, I think) I got at Lowes. Alter removing the circular plastic grille retainer ring & the original grille , I cut 2 pieces of the screen material larger then the diameter of these rings. .I then coated the bottom side of the rings with adhesive & placed them on top of these
screen squares .

I had ripped 4 pieces of waxed paper a bit larger then the screening pieces. Each ring / screen piece (after connecting the glued ring to screen) is placed on a piece of wp on a flat surface with the 2nd piece going on
top of each. I then placed flat weighted pieces of anything on top of things & let them sit for 30mins.

After taking the weight & waxed paper sandwiches apart I simply carefully trimmed the outside of the rings with
an Exacto knife paying attention to not to cut the small tabs that hold the ring to the lip of the cup

Obviously how comfortable you are going to be using such a lightweight screen material is going to depend
whether you're light handed or not when your using these phones. ( I also prefer the sound with no damping
material on this side as my HE-6 sound nicely Holographic with wide dynamics acoustical music)

I'll give this a shot as well. Thanks man

 

[knowhatimean]

Just to show you how open & lightweight the screens I use for the grilles were

(Yeah , I know this isn't the Regrille Mod thread; i just wanted to pass along this specific example that I recently mentioned). For the time being I haven't installed the "Fuzzor" yet & am using some AKG 702 earpads (which
have a thin material grille covering the opening. I added some shelf liner pieces that sit on top of these openings


(Sorry for the small image on this one, as I don't know what the heck I'm doing uploading these images). I think
you can see this pad is angled ; I think of it as a poor man's Vegan pad alternative. I got a big jump in better
balanced imaging with these in place

More than likely I will install the Fuzzor at some point, but I like your idea ! Maybe I'm viewing it incorrectly but putting this in place looks to be very "patience intensive" ( I had enough of that removing the metal rings from my HD800; for some reason those star or hex screw head openings (or screw angle) weren't cleanly defined before I got to them)

 

[GLXLR]

So I made an unpleasant discovery prior to starting this:

It seems that the little bar of metal on the driver is slightly slanted. I am not sure if this affects sound quality or what it does.Hopefully it shows through in the pictures. I contacted HiFiMan and they said to ship it to their China warehouse.. which I'd rather not do.
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

[knowhatimean]

So I made an unpleasant discovery prior to starting this:


It seems that the little bar of metal on the driver is slightly slanted. I am not sure if this affects sound quality or what it does.Hopefully it shows through in the pictures. I contacted HiFiMan and they said to ship it to their China warehouse.. which I'd rather not do.

If that bar is attached to the metal plate, throughout its width, I have to believe this is a cosmetic flaw & not
a structural one.

I honestly believe the only reason those bars are on there is to help gravity hold the plate against the Mylar
while the adhesive dries. If you can , try playing the same channel of various bits through the headphones to
see if you're noticing any out of place discrepencies between the two sides

Unless something led you to believe something may have been off before you could see things for the first
time, I tend to think this bar just moved slightly but did its job. (Or the other option is those bars are put on after the whole driver assemblies are screwed down to the cups to keep them from buckling up from the center from the force on their edges)