[eltocliousus]

Does any plasticine work? Newplast on eBay is fairly cheap but I'm a little unsure.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plastacine-500g-You-choose-colour-Plasticine-/150743426942?pt=UK_Crafts_Ceramic_PotteryMaking_SM&hash=item231902277e#ht_910wt_919
 
And I still can't find an answer anywhere, has anyone put felt on both sides of the driver, how does it affect sound over just one side?

 

[Nevod]

Quote:

Does any plasticine work? Newplast on eBay is fairly cheap but I'm a little unsure.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plastacine-500g-You-choose-colour-Plasticine-/150743426942?pt=UK_Crafts_Ceramic_PotteryMaking_SM&hash=item231902277e#ht_910wt_919
 
And I still can't find an answer anywhere, has anyone put felt on both sides of the driver, how does it affect sound over just one side?

Newplast is said to be even better because it's more dense.
 
Driver is symmetric and damping from both sides basically get summed. You can put both layers of damping on one side and there should be no difference. Some would of course arise due to that second layer would act a bit differently, there may be more leaks, etc.
Damping layer on front side will also interact with sound waves directed to your ear and might reduce/muffle/distort/etc high frequencies. There will certainly be some effect, but I won't try to predict it's scale.
I have front side uncovered, sans for dust cover. The foam I have put on the ear side of the driver does not cover the holes and does not participate in damping. 
 

 

[eltocliousus]

 
Quote:

Newplast is said to be even better because it's more dense.
 
Driver is symmetric and damping from both sides basically get summed. You can put both layers of damping on one side and there should be no difference. Some would of course arise due to that second layer would act a bit differently, there may be more leaks, etc.
Damping layer on front side will also interact with sound waves directed to your ear and might reduce/muffle/distort/etc high frequencies. There will certainly be some effect, but I won't try to predict it's scale.
I have front side uncovered, sans for dust cover. The foam I have put on the ear side of the driver does not cover the holes and does not participate in damping. 
 

Oh I see, I'll take off the felt on the front side, and I've ordered some newplast to cover the baffles (which seems to be a very popular thing).
Now I just need some paxmate/silverstone acoustic dampening, at the minute I'm using cotton which does the job, but the acoustic dampening I've heard neatens things up a bit.
 
If anyone one in the UK/EU have some paxmate/silverstone dampening left over and wouldn't mind going through the trouble of sending me a little for my cups it would be greatly appreciate, I'll cover shipping and add a little money for generosity!
I can also sweeten the deal by sending you some newplast if you're all out!

 

[GoldWarlock]

Will PayDoh work instead of Plasticine for mass loading?

 

[skeptic]

After spending a couple day with them stock, I made my first round of baby mods tonight: lined the cups with silverstone, plasticined the back of the baffels, and slapped on some 840 pads.
 
Plugged them into my Marantz receiver for a quick initial listen, loaded up some Alison Kraus ("Dustbowl Children") and.....ack - What!  I was accosted by a smeared, godawful echo of sorts in the music that certainly wasn't there in the stock version.  Tried a different song.  Same thing.  
30 seconds of dismay followed - then it clicked.  *%$#ing Dolby Headphone mode had enabled itself!  After turning the rubbish DSP off, these actually sound pretty good.  
 
I definitely need to spend some time playing with/tuning the bass port, but the nub mods still make for a much more balanced, enjoyable presentation than stock.  
 
One question: what's the trick to getting the felt off the ear side of the baffel?  I tried gently scraping at it with an exacto and had no luck. 

 

[DeathDomokun]

Quote:

Will PayDoh work instead of Plasticine for mass loading?

 
That's made out of flour or wheat or something along those lines and it will dry out, so no.

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

 
One question: what's the trick to getting the felt off the ear side of the baffel?  I tried gently scraping at it with an exacto and had no luck. 

Look at it under bright light, you'll see a "diamond" shape under the felt.  Trace around the edge with a sharp xacto or razor and the felt lifts off.

 

[skeptic]

     Quote:

Look at it under bright light, you'll see a "diamond" shape under the felt.  Trace around the edge with a sharp xacto or razor and the felt lifts off.

 
Thanks for the clarification!  I'll give a go this evening.  So really the goal is just to remove a diamond shaped cutout of felt while leaving the rest in place, correct?  
 

 

[shrimants]

UPDATE:

I got in contact with Smeggy and he was able to tell me some details about his thunderpants modification. My original thought was that he designed the outer ear cup to attach to the existing driver baffle and plastic cover. In reality, there is a "placeholder" for the driver which is sandwiched between a baffle and a cup. Smeggy redesigned the entire baffle and cup units and made them have an area to accept the existing driver+placeholder assembly after some minor modification, and even then the driver doesnt sit inside or get screwed on, it is simply glued on.

After looking at the T50RP, I wanted to get rid of the 3.5mm jack, get rid of the wire that travels between headbands, and make the cable a double-entry cable, possibly capable of balanced operation. Because of all the random holes and inconsistencies this would leave behind, I figured that it would be best to just throw out the original plastic cup design and start with my own. With smeggy's information, though, I feel like this will actually be a much harder task than originally anticipated.

I'm going to try to uncover some information about the driver and see if I can put it into a speaker calculator and get something out that makes sense.

The way my T50RP are modded right now (mksuen's mods and srh-840 pads) make them sound ALMOST perfect. I would like to bring out the sub bass 20-40hz, push back the bass, 40-100 hz, and add more detail to the treble. This might be done by simply removing some of the cotton and reshaping/modifying the current amounts of bluetack and whatnot that is inside.

 

[GoldWarlock]

Quote:

 
That's made out of flour or wheat or something along those lines and it will dry out, so no.

Ah thanks for the info. I'll drive by local hobby shop and see if they have plasticine.
 
Also I'm listening to stock ones and they sound sooooo boomy and kind of stuffy.
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

UPDATE:
I got in contact with Smeggy and he was able to tell me some details about his thunderpants modification. My original thought was that he designed the outer ear cup to attach to the existing driver baffle and plastic cover. In reality, there is a "placeholder" for the driver which is sandwiched between a baffle and a cup. Smeggy redesigned the entire baffle and cup units and made them have an area to accept the existing driver+placeholder assembly after some minor modification, and even then the driver doesnt sit inside or get screwed on, it is simply glued on.
After looking at the T50RP, I wanted to get rid of the 3.5mm jack, get rid of the wire that travels between headbands, and make the cable a double-entry cable, possibly capable of balanced operation. Because of all the random holes and inconsistencies this would leave behind, I figured that it would be best to just throw out the original plastic cup design and start with my own. With smeggy's information, though, I feel like this will actually be a much harder task than originally anticipated.
I'm going to try to uncover some information about the driver and see if I can put it into a speaker calculator and get something out that makes sense.
The way my T50RP are modded right now (mksuen's mods and srh-840 pads) make them sound ALMOST perfect. I would like to bring out the sub bass 20-40hz, push back the bass, 40-100 hz, and add more detail to the treble. This might be done by simply removing some of the cotton and reshaping/modifying the current amounts of bluetack and whatnot that is inside.

 
If you do a search on the responses I've made within this thread, you'll see where I was able to accomplish working through the issues with the holes and using a new double-entry cable (one for each cup).  I've also included pictures of my work.
 

 
 

 

[shrimants]

If you do a search on the responses I've made within this thread, you'll see where I was able to accomplish working through the issues with the holes and using a new double-entry cable (one for each cup).  I've also included pictures of my work.

I will search through and look. I was going for the full redesigned cup idea because that would also let me completely cut out a section of the new cup, say a circular or square section, and try out different mesh materials with varying amounts of holes/places for air flow. My logic is that there must be a sweet spot where the air acts to impede the driver's initial motion but then the air pressure equalizes and allows the driver to travel the opposite direction freely. Like a baloon with about 10 pinholes in it. If you blow in, it will blow up exactly where you want it to but then start deflating.

 

[headphonatic]

Hey Shrimants, can you tell me what are mksuen's mods are?
Edit: One more thing has anyone figured out how to get more treble detail?

 

[Magick Man]

     Quote:

Thanks for the clarification!  I'll give a go this evening.  So really the goal is just to remove a diamond shaped cutout of felt while leaving the rest in place, correct?  

That is correct.

 

[shrimants]

Hey Shrimants, can you tell me what are mksuen's mods are?
Edit: One more thing has anyone figured out how to get more treble detail?

If you take off the earpads and unscrew the 3 screws to take apart the
housing, you can see all the mods that I did. On the driver side I
have mass weight damped the baffle by filling in all the little holes
with tack to reduce vibration and give the driver something better to
push off of. This increased the sound clarity and separation. I have
also added foam to the outside of the cup to soak up any reflected
sound waves. This further cleaned up the sound and brought the
recessed mids forward a bit. They also say to cut a hole out in the
middle of the felt closest to your ear, but I didn't want to do any
irreversible mods.

The tack I used can be replaced with heavy modeling clay for an even
better effect and a denser foam can also be used on the outside of the
cup. Those were on my to-do list but I never got around to getting the
materials. Overall the high end response is magnificent, treble-y
techno and electronica sounds amazing, but it lacks that bass impact
that I need. If you do manage to get that to come forward more, do let
me know. I might pick up another set to play with haha.

I have yet to open these up because I want to really put them through their paces first. mksuen did a great job and I have no idea what stock T50RP sounds like. I think i may have heard them at head-fi's meet because these sound closer to the thunderpants mod than the probably stock pair I heard.

I use ATH-m50 with shure srh-840 pads on them, and they have the low end of HD650 with the high end of beyerdynamics DT880 600 ohm. However, there is obviously much less fidelity. That is what I am benchmarking against.

IMO the model of T50RP I have right now need a bit more sub bass, a bit less "regular" bass, the mids are basically perfect where they are, and the highs are also fine in volume. The mids and highs definitely need more clarity.

In terms of physical appearance and quality, the only things i am not a fan of is that the cups wont bend past parallel if the headband is touching my head, and if I extend the cups to the point where they can conform to my face the headband is a good inch above my head. I fixed this temporarily with a chunk of foam but that looks ridiculous and I'm going to need to either order the padding for sennheisers or something or i'll need to stitch together a nice cover that can go around the headband. I hate the rubbery feel of it anyways so that is probably what i'll do. The other problem I have is with the weird "proprietary" 3.5mm cable. I am going to reterminate it and use the stock one until I do a full on recable with double entry.

And on that note, @WJE, Ive been searching all day for the pictures of your double sided entry mod and I have been unsuccessful. I cannot for the life of me find out how you got around the problem of the 2 mini cable holes and the one 3.5mm jack. I dont really care about the 2 mini holes because I can easily get some nice thin guage wire and pass it through, or even get some fat wire and drill that hole. However, I really want that 3.5mm jack dependency gone and I dont have the faintest idea how to go about sealing that hole without it looking stupid or causing a channel imbalance.