[mango salsa]

I just finished the mod and it worked out pretty well for me. the overall sound has improved, the midrange especially seems to have become more rich, and bass is has become warmer and more present. pretty damned good mod for just taking out a piece of foam. took me 5 minutes. im listening to some trance right now, need to listen to some more to make a solid impression on me, but for now, I am impressed with the change in sound. good stuff.

 

[Sound-of-Muzak]

Great mod. I used to cringe at the highs of the trumpet on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue track "Blue in Green" In rock, trance, trip hop, all improved. This should hold me over until I get my Grado SR80s

 

[jvcforce]

I tried this mod. The form material was already deteriorated and it was very sticky. I used a tweezer to take the form off.
I think the mod made the headphone less "boomy" (A.K.A. muddy bass) and more treble. The result is more flat response.
If you own Sony MDR-V600, It is worth trying out!
Having said that, I should buy better headphone; the ear pads do not last long...

Update:
I just got Sony MDR-V6 and I cannot believe how mediocre MDR-V600 is!
I don't think I'll ever go back to MDR-V600 again...

 

[swaffleman]

I just did this to my V600s.

Wow! It actually made the bass much more impact full to me. My V600's have been suffering from lack of bass, which is the opposite of what lot of people complain about. But this modification made them seem more...bottom heavy, which is good because these things have such an airy sound, analytical sound to me. There is also a bit less harshness, although there is still some there.


So my question is: what where these little foam plugs in there for?

One thing I noticed...everything seems much farther away than it did before. Is this soundstage?

 

[swaffleman]

Also, the condition of the ear pads is VERY important for several things. For starters, if the ear pads are greatly deteriorated, these headphones will leak sound. A lot actually if the ear pads are totally stripped, even though it's a closed back headphone. Also, if the ear pads are really deteriorated, the isolation from outside noise won't be nearly as good. In fact, it'll pretty much sound like you have on ear open air headphones on. But with ear pads that are in good shape, these headphones will block out much more noise.

Now for the sound quality. If your ear pads are totally deteriorated, the bass on these headphones will be abysmal. There won't be very much of it at all. Having a good seal is very important to good bass with these headphones, and if all you have is the foam on your ears instead of the pleather, then you won't be getting much of a seal and the sound will have a less focused and less powerful effect due to less bass.

With some headphones, they build so much bass into the driver that you don't need a good seal (koss porta pro). Hypothetically, if you put the Bose on ear ear pads (the really nice memory foam with the real leather covering) on the porta pros, the porta pros bass output would increase a LOT, and it would be pretty unbearable actually. I've sort of tested this out with different headphones...it makes a pretty big difference.

One thing that helps prevent the pads from dying an early death is using electrical tape on the outside of the ear pads, the part that goes around the ear cup. It holds em together a little longer.

 

[swaffleman]

One thing I did, is I found these:http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^fs^UR40 for like $20.

I used the ear pads on these and actually glued them to my V600 (they can wrap around the part they are supposed to, but it's a really tight fit). But I applied some super glue (a very small amount) to the bottom of the ear pad and it fit very nicely and squarely on the ear cup. Looks pretty professional actually. And these ear pads are much better, and now the sound is amazing. The good seal made the sound much more focused and the isolation is great now. Also, these are slightly smaller ear pads so they fit me better. If they wear out? I can just pull them off and get another pair to glue on.

I actually like these headphones after some modification...it just shouldn't take this much work to get them to sound good. They are like a bastardized version of the V6.

Unlike everyone else, I prefer the covers on it. I found that having them open made the bass too much. I don't know how...it doesn't make sense. But putting them back on put it back into focus. And I don't want the drivers to get damaged.

 

[fldrice]

The foam plug in the drivers is quite common for "monitor" type headphones. In my own experinecem, removal of plugs in the ATH-M50 opened the sound stage and made them a lot less boomy. With extra dampening material, there was no detectable lost of detail. Removal of the foam plugs in the SRH840 made them sound more like a cross between an AKG k240s and an ATH-M50 with a slight lost in detail.

 

[midrange]

So i tired this mod out on my same headphones.

I have a hard time noticing a difference. I did one ear and not the other and they sound the same to me.

Just a note, i bought my MDR-V600 from the sony store about 10-11 years ago and to this day, they still sound great. Mind you, I find now compared to when they were new, i have to turn the volume switch up more than i did to get a good volume level.

When do headphones usually die or crap out. I can't seem to kill these, not that i want too...

 

[Victor 441]

In searching online for info about replacement ear pads for my Sony MDR V-600 headphones, I stumbled on this post & decided to give the modification a try.

The whole thing took about 10 minutes, and what a difference! After I removed the tiny foam insert in the right speaker, I compared it to the the sound of the "stock" earpiece on the left. Much richer bass, improved mid-range, and (just as stated in the original post) the tinny quality at the high end was gone. This isn't a miracle cure for this headset (there's still a bit of muddiness lurking in the sound overall), but for the price (free!) it comes darn close.

Needless to say, I modded the left earpiece immediately as well. I also tried listening with the back covers removed, as described in the original post, but was not impressed - the bass was no longer rich and deep, sounding more like someone tapping their fingers on a wooden table, and overall the sound wasn't very realistic. On with the back covers, and no more complaints. Can't wait for the new earpads to arrive so the makeover is complete...

 

[Sambones]

So, I was playing around with my Sony MDR-V6's, and I saw the same foam thing in there. I remembered reading this thread, and I wanted to know if anyone's tried it with the V6/7506.

I just took it out on one side, but I don't notice a clear difference yet.

 

[simplerecording]

i keep reading about how bad the mdr-v600's are, especially boomy/muddy mid bass. mine have always sounded good, having extended lows and no boom/mud to speak of. are my v600's freaks? i tried this mod to see what i might be missing, but i got the exact opposite result. the low mids immediately became boomy and muddy. the upper mids became a little less strident, but that could have been the change in balance between low/high frequencies. to be sure, i tried different combinations of the plugs in/out and cups on/off multiple times. my v600's sound better balanced and cleaner as is with no appreciable change in sound stage after removing the foam plugs and cups. so what's the deal? were all v600's created equal? i'm considering getting a new pair as mine are falling apart after years of use/abuse for both home listening and audio recording. i can't believe what i've been reading around the net.

 

[D4ydream3r]

Wow. I just did this to my V600 as I'm typing this which was around 10 years old. The bass is soooooo much better, the treble doesn't shatter my ears. The mid is significantly more noticeable and it no longer sounds mushy. I don't have the back covers on though. I am listening to Breakbeat/Trance and it sounds wonderful.

 

[Paxalot]

Thanks for a great tips. As for the peeling vinyl problem with the cushions, my solution was to taking some packing tape and keep 'sticking and pulling' the packing tape off of the cushions until they were entirely free from the black peeling vinyl. Now I have great sound and I'm not covered in black chips after listening to something. Looks like I'll get another 10 years out of these puppies!

 

[ddferrari]

Thanks for the mod! It took all of 5 minutes (I used a pin to remove the foam), and like other people have said, I noticed less gritty treble and deeper, more authoritative bass. I'll have to do more listening to see if the midrange changed at all. It's hard to fathom how a small piece of foam could affect all that, and I wonder if some of the perceived improvement isn't simply a case of the power of suggestion. But that doesn't matter- if one thinks it helped then it did. If anyone who is planning to perform this mod happens to own equipment that could accurately measure the before/after frequency response, I'd be very interested in the results!
 
As for the peeling pleather on these, I just removed all of it and left them as is. The ear pads are actually more comfy without it, and I seriously doubt the sound quality is affected by it. If we were talking about $500 cans, then sure, but these phones were overpriced to start with. To spend another $27 (with shipping) isn't worth it, and it's a rip-off anyway. Put it this way: for $33, I got the JVC HA-RX700 delivered to my door today. They are a mother's day gift, but if they sound as good as people say I'll be ordering another pair for myself. I'm even breaking them in for mom by running them continuously for the next few days. I'll do some A/B tests and let everyone know how they compare to the Sonys. 

 

[MrGuzmanWhite]

Quote:

Using a toothpick or tiny eyeglass screwdriver, gently pry the object out. Be careful! It is easily pushed in and we don't want that to happen! What worked best for me was to pinch the material against the side while applying upward prying force. You may have to "inch" it out until removed. As before, repeat for the other side.

 

Hi Ziplock. I just did the mod you described and when trying to pull of the foam from the right driver I did the mistake you mentioned here, I push it inside so that I cannot see it any longer. It seems that the sound from the right side is still fine, but I wonder if you know of any tricks to open up the driver so i can get the foam out?
 
Thanks indeed!