[Nimzerz]

I must be the only person who tried the jergpad mod and prefers the velour.

Give your ears time to adjust to the jergpads and you might change your mind

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

Give your ears time to adjust to the jergpads and you might change your mind

I did, for about a week.  I liked some things they brought but I lost too much of what I liked about the velours.

 

[Nimzerz]

I did, for about a week.  I liked some things they brought but I lost too much of what I liked about the velours.

Hmm, maybe I should try the velours again

 

[Stalker81598]

Quote:

One fault of the Lyr I guess is that it wasn't particularly a transparent amp. Even with awesome $150+ vintage tubes, although this did help of course. The $189 Emotiva is more transparent, which I was pleasant surprised at.

 
You aren't the first person that I've seen say this. I completely agree, but this is why I like the Lyr. It thickens up the sound just enough to make it really enjoyable. IMO
 
Quote:

After the DAC update, i know amp has to be Next before i can get The Hd800. I tried the hd800 on emotiva. It was not bad but quite far from good

vs other heavy hitters at the meet not cuz of pwr lacking but bad synergy. After the meet, i knew i prefer tube amp with the hd800. Comparing q701 to hd800, IMO, the improvements range is from 10%-20% At most with biggest improvement in the bass. So i narrowed amp choices Down to one That can drive both planar and hd800 well. The taboo came up. The rest is history. I m now $2k poorer. After hd800, i will be Done. Final destination, Stax. I m hawaii blue

cuz that sound signature still stuck in brain. OMG.

 
My first day with the HD800 I probably would have agreed with this but after having a couple months with it, its strengths keep becoming more and more apparent. I'd put the difference at about 30%-40%. At first listen they have a similar presentation, but the HD800 really is significantly more refined. When I put on my Q701 now it sounds thin and artificial. It's painful to listen to and after about 30 minutes I have to take it off. Timbre is very unrealistic and almost metallic sounding. Highs are piercing, upper mids are shrieking. Imaging is foggy. It's really not an fair comparison because while they do have some similarities, we are comparing a mid-fi phone to what is undoubtedly one of the best headphones ever made. All IMO of course.
 
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Anyone here live close to Seattle?

also how frequent are meets in Seattle?

 
I live near Portland. Not sure about meets as I've only been here about two months.

 

[wje]

Some thoughts and responses to many of the posts applied in the last 12 hours.
 

1. The Beyerdynamic pads seem like they are well worth a try.  I have the Beyer DT-770 and the pads are quite comfortable.  Yet, getting a bit worn, so I'd order 2 pair.  On Ebay, there are some vendors who offer the pads, but are in the UK and there are some black Chinese knock-offs in black, so I'm not so sure they'd feature the same comfort level.  I believe B&H photo sells them.  Or, is going directly through Beyerdynamic a better option?  Or, Sonic Electronics?  Or, other?

 

1. It's hard to believe that any more juice could be squeezed from the Fostex T50RP driver.I literally felt as though I had reached the Shangri La of the sound barrier in the mods I had tried.  Yet, Dan was able to take the Mad Dogs further and the Alpha Dogs even further than that (from what I've read) through the use of the 3D printing process.  By changing the cup design, it appears he's been able to break through some of the limitations of the standard Fostex cups.

 

1. A choice between the Alpha Dogs vs. HifiMan HE-500s.  I think it all depends on what one wants in a headphone, or how long they keep their headphones.  If one plans on swapping quickly, then some loss in value could be expected from both headphones.  Yet, I still think that the HE-500 will tend to hold their value a bit more due to the recognition.  Though, this doesn't account for what the Alpha Dogs will do in the marketplace as that remains to be seen.

 

1. I'd love to see how the Alpha Dog compares to something like another $600-range headphone, such as the Beyerdynamic T90 @ $649 with Tesla technology.  Though the T90 is an open headphone.

 

[Stalker81598]

Quote:

The Beyerdynamic pads seem like they are well worth a try.  I have the Beyer DT-770 and the pads are quite comfortable.  Yet, getting a bit worn, so I'd order 2 pair.  On Ebay, there are some vendors who offer the pads, but are in the UK and there are some black Chinese knock-offs in black, so I'm not so sure they'd feature the same comfort level.  I believe B&H photo sells them.  Or, is going directly through Beyerdynamic a better option?  Or, Sonic Electronics?  Or, other?
 

 
Headroom has them. The 770 actually uses different pads than the 880/990 though I'm not sure what the difference is. I have the latter on my HE-500.

 

[wje]

Quote:

 
Headroom has them. The 770 actually uses different pads than the 880/990 though I'm not sure what the difference is. I have the latter on my HE-500.

 
OK, thanks.  I see Sonic Electronix has the grey velour, black micro velour as well as a black "leatherette" version, too.  I wonder how the leatherette version @ $26.00 might respond to the JergPad modification process?

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

Gotcha

You were able to pull off the Taboo without selling any Koi?

 
Did the HD800 have a lot of hissing, noise floor hum from the Emotiva? That's what someone said in the Emotiva thread.
 
Yeah Taboo + HD800 is probably End Game for a lot of people. Now for even better DACs: Anedio D2, Yulong DA8, Matrix X-Sabre, or the little Concero I have? I guess you can spend more and get the Lynx Hilo or Perfect Wave MKII. But then you might need to really sell a Koi.

 
Wow nevermind your DAC is actually a really expensive/awesome DAC I'm unfamiliar with... Sorry about this, my apologies to your kois as well.

lol M-13.  Fortunately, no koi had to go yet to pay for the taboo and the DAC.  I have a msc. spending budget each month that I will have to skip for the next 2 months so when the taboo is ready I would have enough to pay the balance.  However, one of my saxophones is on sales now on craigslist.  If anyone is interested, I will make a special head-fi deal.

 
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/3983461000.html
 
If I like the taboo with HE500, I would get the HD800 right after so this sax has to go.  For Stax setup, some of my gun collection would have to go though.  That one is going to hurt the most.
 
On the emotiva, there was no hissing.  The noise floor can be audible a little bit earlier at about right past 1 o'clock or so.  The HE500 would be around past 2 to 3.  It did take more volume on the Emotiva to run the HD800 to my same listening level.

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

 
You aren't the first person that I've seen say this. I completely agree, but this is why I like the Lyr. It thickens up the sound just enough to make it really enjoyable. IMO
 
 
My first day with the HD800 I probably would have agreed with this but after having a couple months with it, its strengths keep becoming more and more apparent. I'd put the difference at about 30%-40%. At first listen they have a similar presentation, but the HD800 really is significantly more refined. When I put on my Q701 now it sounds thin and artificial. It's painful to listen to and after about 30 minutes I have to take it off. Timbre is very unrealistic and almost metallic sounding. Highs are piercing, upper mids are shrieking. Imaging is foggy. It's really not an fair comparison because while they do have some similarities, we are comparing a mid-fi phone to what is undoubtedly one of the best headphones ever made. All IMO of course.
 
 
I live near Portland. Not sure about meets as I've only been here about two months.

I have no doubt this could be the case.  Testing at meet can only reveal so much and of course, when my hearing has adjusted to the HD800 there will be even more audible improvements that I might have missed.

 

[M-13]

Quote:

 
On the emotiva, there was no hissing.  The noise floor can be audible a little bit earlier at about right past 1 o'clock or so.  The HE500 would be around past 2 to 3.  It did take more volume on the Emotiva to run the HD800 to my same listening level.

Ah! Thanks for this Koiloco. I had the strange impression from someone at the the Emotiva thread that the HD800 would hiss, crack, pop and make all sorts of weirdness on the Emotiva. Now I can just buy the HD800 first and then save up for dedicated amp for it. Yes! 
Yeah I thought it was strange the HD650 does not hiss or crack on the Emotiva but the HD800 did. Cool Cool. Thanks!

 

[Nimzerz]

How much are modulors jergpads?????

 

[M-13]

Quote:

How much are modulors jergpads?????

Personal Message Modulor to work something out.

 

[Xenophon]

Quick question as I see some of the posters in this thread have them in their sig:  does anyone have experience running the HE-500 from a FiiO E17/E09K dac/amp combo? Or from an O2D?
 
I use them to drive my DT-880 in 600 Ohm and it works fine but that's not a planar can of course.   Based on the specs it should work, power enough, but I wonder if the sound is good or if it's like putting a small car engine in a Ferrari.  I listen exclusively to classical and the large dynamic range of that genre makes me wonder if these amps could swing it.
 
Anyway, a new dac/amp is in the works (thinking about the Violectric V181 or V200) but still undecided if I'll go for the HE-500 or straight for the picky, power hungry emperor that's the HE-6 (and I'm aware that for the last one my present el cheap amps won't do the trick).
 
Thanks!

 

[tuna47]

Think it will work but poorly I have bifrost über and lyr great combo for 500s

 

[wje]

Quote:

Headroom has them. The 770 actually uses different pads than the 880/990 though I'm not sure what the difference is. I have the latter on my HE-500.

 
I took my 770 pads off the Beyers so I could clean them.  The undersides are constructed of vinyl / pleather where the rest against the baffles of the headphones.  That area of the underside presented several holes - similar to how the modification is done for the Jergpad.  Also, add in the mention of how appying the Jergpad mod to a pair of velours isn't such a good move as the velour pad is overdamped enough and creates a not-so-good mix.  Thus, the 770 Beyer pads don't appear to be such a good candidate for use on the HifiMan.  Then again, I wonder how much better the Beyer 770 could be by using the HifiMan velours?  Probably a bit of improvement potential in that combination.