[Marleybob217]

I just did this mod on the pleathers for the HE-400. Everything is only taped together and doesn't look nice but atleast I can test them out.
 
First impression: wow, it really works. 
 
There is no eq-ing going on here, and I hear no tizzy treble, and the the recessed upper mids are completely gone. No need to boost those frequencies with an eq.
 
Thanks Jerg, you're brilliant!

 

[Marleybob217]

Quote:

Thanks!
 
What do you mean the felt rings? Those foam insert rings wedged between the undersides of the pads and the nylon screens? Like I explained in the first post (

):
 
"**Quick note: I never kept the foam spacers inside of the stock pleather pads because it 1) compromised the comfort and 2) muddled up the sound considerably into a wonky mess; also it won’t be compatible with this particular mod, so don’t even think about it….just throw it in the garbage right now **"

That's certainly clear enough! I should read more carefully next time!
 
I'm going to try to replace the dust filter by some really thin mesh from old stockings. Atleast when my girlfriend wakes up, and gives me some old stockings...
 
I'm also going to hand stitch the plastic ring to the pleather pads, this will look so sweet.

 

[Audiofanboy]

Quote:

The more holes you do (and the closer they are to the inside) the better the damping is.
 
I wouldn't say the treble gets better, but midrange will become more open and less muddled. Bass will indeed become tighter by the same logic.
 
Care to snap a photo and show what your progress is on the pads at the moment? This way I can give more succinct / accurate suggestions.

Here's what it looks like now (some holes look horrible but it's mainly because I was twisting the pads with one hand while taking a picture with the other hand; the holes are quite large and round actually). i checked and the holes are clearly not covered by the flaps and ring, which explains why they do something.
 

 

 
I am not sure it needs more holes though, the balance I get from these pads is pretty close to what I was looking for. Mids are close to perfect. If I ever want more treble, I can just put the velours back in, or change the nylon screen. To adjust the amount of bass (not the thumpiness or kick, that's always there, which is good) I just adjust the how the pads are oriented compared to my head. The more space I leave "behind" my ears (or anywhere around the pad for that matter, but inclined in that direction I get more comfort and slightly more centered staging), the more bass I get and the boomier it gets; the less space I leave between my head and the pads, the less bass I get and the tighter it gets. for now, I choose to have the pads oriented just a tad towards the front of my head, which leaves an ever-so-slight space behind the ears and adds weight to the bass while still clean (like a 1-2mm of bass reflex, kinda like the vents in this thread), it's a trade-off basically.

 

[Marleybob217]

The one sad thing about this mod:
 
If hifiman would have punched a couple of extra holes, and created some backvents in their pleather pads, someone like tyll hertsen would probably have loved the HE-400s.
 
And hifiman would've probably sold more of them. But maybe they would've sold less HE-500 that way...

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Here's what it looks like now (some holes look horrible but it's mainly because I was twisting the pads with one hand while taking a picture with the other hand; the holes are quite large and round actually). i checked and the holes are clearly not covered by the flaps and ring, which explains why they do something.
 

 

 
I am not sure it needs more holes though, the balance I get from these pads is pretty close to what I was looking for. Mids are close to perfect. If I ever want more treble, I can just put the velours back in, or change the nylon screen. To adjust the amount of bass (not the thumpiness or kick, that's always there, which is good) I just adjust the how the pads are oriented compared to my head. The more space I leave "behind" my ears (or anywhere around the pad for that matter, but inclined in that direction I get more comfort and slightly more centered staging), the more bass I get and the boomier it gets; the less space I leave between my head and the pads, the less bass I get and the tighter it gets. for now, I choose to have the pads oriented just a tad towards the front of my head, which leaves an ever-so-slight space behind the ears and adds weight to the bass while still clean (like a 1-2mm of bass reflex, kinda like the vents in this thread), it's a trade-off basically.

Nah it needs more holes, and specifically it needs them closer to the inner rim (where the underside seams up with the pleather side). Just a circle of small holes at the very outer edge on the underside won't drastically improve the SQ, I only instructed holes around the outside to be made for good measure. The core modifiers are the holes closest to your ears, as that's the closest to the pad opening where damping is critical to minimize the pleather ringing.

 

[Audiofanboy]

Quote:

Nah it needs more holes, and specifically it needs them closer to the inner rim (where the underside seams up with the pleather side). Just a circle of small holes at the very outer edge on the underside won't drastically improve the SQ, I only instructed holes around the outside to be made for good measure. The core modifiers are the holes closest to your ears, as that's the closest to the pad opening where damping is critical to minimize the pleather ringing.

Thanks for the feedback. The holes are much closer to inner part (close to the ears) than the pics would suggest (I can see the holes in the pad without twisting or removing the ring), and there's almost two circles in one (compared to your schematics for example) of fairly large holes (again larger than the pics suggest).
 
So, if I understand correctly, if I were to drill more holes, it should be even closer to the inner rim? Cuz the circle of holes I made are pretty much where you had the innermost holes on your drawing, a bit closer to the center than the factory four (save for the 8 extra holes I see on your pictures that are pretty much on the inside of the pad, at limit between the types of materials). Would like an extra 8-12 small holes almost facing the inside be enough to make a difference?

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Thanks for the feedback. The holes are much closer to inner part (close to the ears) than the pics would suggest (I can see the holes in the pad without twisting or removing the ring), and there's almost two circles in one (compared to your schematics for example) of fairly large holes (again larger than the pics suggest).
 
So, if I understand correctly, if I were to drill more holes, it should be even closer to the inner rim? Cuz the circle of holes I made are pretty much where you had the innermost holes on your drawing, a bit closer to the center than the factory four (save for the 8 extra holes I see on your pictures that are pretty much on the inside of the pad, at limit between the types of materials). Would like an extra 8-12 small holes almost facing the inside be enough to make a difference?

You could definitely fit another circle of holes in there closer to the inner rim, based on the photos. Also in general, expand the hole sizes as much as possible without risking the integrity of the fabric holding the foam in.

 

[Armaegis]

How about enlarging the holes or adding another small series of holes to the retention ring?

 

[Acapella11]

On the original 1.0 mod with HE-500 (no dust screen, no vent). Cut in four (mid to large) more holes in the most center ring (where the tape is attached) a bit up towards the ear - and loving it. Again a bit more bass, a bit warmer, nice and sounds so ... open. The pad donut looks a bit crazy now and from the stretching a few holes merged - but it does sound good.
Gets better hole by hole

 

[Skyth2nd]

Quote:

Just so there's no confusion, I didn't like flip the whole pad inside out, I just twisted an inch of fabric at a time inside out (just enough to have access to the underside), and massaged the foam a bit before continuing to the next inch until done. Took me about 30-35 minutes for both pads and I just used kitchen scissors (sore thumb afterwards though).
 

 
I would like to say that you can do that. They work off the plastic with a bit of effort, and will turn inside out giving you full access to the back to add your holes and keep the original mounting system. I have yet to do the mod, but I think I will soon the velours itch like crazy.  
 
With some care you could probably remove the original dust screen and glue a new one one for a hybrid that lets you use something more sonically transparent, but with out having to use duct tape. 
 
 
edit - I do see that you did take it off in your photo, I was just trowing in out there for the class.

 

[Errymoose]

Hey jerg,
how deep are the hifiman pads you've modified compared to the J$.  I'm tempted to try venting some hifiman pleathers which I'm already enjoying on a beyer to see if it improves the sound, so I'm just wondering how closely that would resemble a J$ pad for the $10 hifiman charge (and with J$ being out of business)

 

[jerg]

It's much shallower than J$, I'd say your ears are 1/3 the distance from the drivers compared to J$ beyer pads (I have a pair of those, just FYI). The advantage of your ears being closer to the drivers is that you get significantly less clamping force, but whether or not that is favourable depends on how wide your head is. To me that is a huge comfort boost compared to the much thicker J$s.
 
J$ beyer pads sound very different from pleather pads or jergpad-modded pleathers by nature. If you want an airier spacier sound with more bass dynamics, J$s. If you want an intimate engaging lively sound, jergpads.

 

[smcginni]

I've really enjoyed this thread and it's helped me a lot. I like to modify things, but I don't like "destructive" editing. So, I took some of this info and ran with it, making some improvements in my 500s but in a way where I can return to stock very easily.

I got some self adhesive felt sheets at my local craft store. I took out the plastic ring and traced the inside and used that as the inside diameter of a small ring of felt that I cut out and attached to the exposed inner area of the plastic ring (to damped sound at the inside of the can). After some experimenting, I decided that it was too much dampening (lowered bass response), so I cut away about half of it so that the plastic near the clips is still exposed, but much of the plastic between the clips is still covered in felt. It's perfect.

I also removed the foam inserts in the pads, but decided that I preferred the height wit them in. So, I covered the undersides of them with felt as well so that any sound that travels through the plastic holes will dissipate and not bounce off the foam. It raised the pads just a hair more and seems to reduce the reflections to clean up the sound.

Overall, I can't compare these to the true Jerg mods, but they may be a worthwhile 1st step for someone who wants to start slow. I used about $2 in self adhesive felt and it took no time at all. I'm very happy with the bass and mids I've found, so I'm good at stopping here.

Thanks, Jerg, for all the great info you've assembled here!

 

[jimmy895]

My cuts are very sloppy and large, all I had were very dull scissors, otherwise the sound is greatly improved. The tizz smoothed out a bit and there's a lot of life in the mids now. Thank you for making my first audiophile grade headphones nearly perfect, Jerg!
I was actually able to do the mod without cutting out the dust screen or the flap, I did however cut the flap to be shorter so it won't overlap the holes.

In the first picture on the top left, you can see I flipped the flap back, then I turned it around and was able to turn the pad inside out easily. Flipping the flap back let's you turn the pad inside out without the flap messing everything up.
Thanks again, It really sounds incredible compared to before!

 

[davidsh]

Quote:

It's much shallower than J$, I'd say your ears are 1/3 the distance from the drivers compared to J$ beyer pads (I have a pair of those, just FYI). The advantage of your ears being closer to the drivers is that you get significantly less clamping force, but whether or not that is favourable depends on how wide your head is. To me that is a huge comfort boost compared to the much thicker J$s.
 
J$ beyer pads sound very different from pleather pads or jergpad-modded pleathers by nature. If you want an airier spacier sound with more bass dynamics, J$s. If you want an intimate engaging lively sound, jergpads.

You do know, that you can bend the headband to your liking?
 
Quote:

 
I would like to say that you can do that. They work off the plastic with a bit of effort, and will turn inside out giving you full access to the back to add your holes and keep the original mounting system. I have yet to do the mod, but I think I will soon the velours itch like crazy.  
 
With some care you could probably remove the original dust screen and glue a new one one for a hybrid that lets you use something more sonically transparent, but with out having to use duct tape. 
 
 
edit - I do see that you did take it off in your photo, I was just trowing in out there for the class.

Try wash the velours, maybe in a washing machine.