[bachiano]

 
Thanks for the warnings.
I'm being very conservative and I'm moving forward carefully.
 
Right now the things I like about the drivers is the speed and transparency.
 
What I did not like right away with the stock t50rp was:
1 - all the coloration from the flimsy plastic cans.
2 - congestion
3 - weak bass
4 - lack of space in the soundstage.
-----------------
Yesterday I did these mods on the right driver:
Listening after every change:
1 - modeling clay on the driver 
2 - modeling clay on the baffle
3 - removed felt on the vents
4 - removed the cover on the baffle ( IMO this one mod moved was very effective in clearing things up - more impact and transparency)
5 - 3 cotton balls in the cup behind driver
-----------------
 
Still need to mass load the cups more but these few mods on the right side tell me I'm moving in the right direction.
already my concerns # 1 and 2 have been mostly resolved.
 
For concern #3 the bass has increased and is very tight so I might not need more but I'd like to research a little more and see if it is possible to increase bass without loosing tightness.
 
For concern #4 I think that has to do with the space between the driver and the ear.
Maybe that is where new ear pads come in.
 
I already experimented with some nomex just sitting on top of the driver 
and I really like what it did.
It seem to my ear that it focuses everything - upper partials really sparkle 
and there  is better separation and more space between the instruments. ( maybe it helps with that 10kHz peak and also reduces standing waves? )
 

 

[LFF]

 
Quote:

On a related note, has anyone reassembled a driver with success?

 
I have. I have repaired about 8 or 9 IIRC. These people removed the felt attempting to try mods done in this thread only to find out that doing so would ruin the sound. You can re-tune after removing the felt but it's not an easy solution and it doesn't provide optimal results.

 

[rhythmdevils]

 
Quote:

Ok - I managed to remove the mesh without breaking it.
Took out the wire and re-glued down the mesh.
I think it was an eyelash 

 
Still curious about its function?
 
Thanks
 

 

You should read up on the use of planar magnetic drivers in a headphone before doing any mods if you're not sure what the white paper over the back of the driver is for.  Nothing wrong with not knowing, but you're not likely to have luck modding these unless you have at least some idea of what's happening in there. 
 
There's a nice article on innerfidelity.com.  http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/how-planar-magnetic-headphones-work
You should also read the beginning pages in the gigantic ortho thread here on head-fi

 

[CYoung234]

 
Quote:

 
Quote:

 
 
I could pretty much agree with all of the above.  I haven't heard "Century's End" though.  All the rest is excellent for not only putting the headphones through a great work out.  Also, for male vocals, I'm really getting into some of the remastered Van Morrison tunes.  He has a very wide vocal range in his music.

 
Century's End has amazing soundstage. Fagen's Snowbound, Trans Island Skyway, Janie Runaway, and Gaslighting Abbey are great tunes for top to bottom testing. I find that all of Fagen's stuff is well mastered.
 
The Patricia Barber tunes I mentioned because of their emphasis on double bass, not necessarily female vocals but her vocals are to die for.
 
Krall's recordings offer a complex mixture of double bass and drums to midrange guitar/vocals, and high hats/cymbals and full orchestra with violins so the range is comprehensive, not simply unidimensional female vocals.  
 
I could have mentioned others like Metallica's Enter The Sandman and Whiskey In A Jar, Radiohead's Jigsaw Falling Into Place and There There, Gorillaz's Dare and Feel Good, Inc, Miles Davis' So What?, and more.
 
BTW, I agree that Van Morrison offers several good ones, too.
 
I use B&W 803 speakers controlled by a McIntosh MX-136 pre/pro and powered by a McIntosh MC-402 amp for speaker reference. I use a stock set of T50RP's  and my set of LCD2 v1 powered by a Dacmini for headphone reference.

 

BMF, nice reference stereo setup. I auditioned a couple of B&W speaker systems while I was looking for new speakers in the 1990's. They were very nice, but I ended up going Apogee planers instead; never regretted it, especially for the more acoustic / classical stuff I listen to a lot. But, very respected speakers as well as your amplification. I also agree on the quality of Fagen's music and his attention to the final product. I actually heard Steely Dan when they first started touring - they were the backup band for Frank Zappa of all things - great concert.
 
If you want to try a few other things with excellent wide and deep soundstage, try some of Philip Glass' recordings, such as Window of Appearances and Akhatens Hymn to the Aten from the Ultimate Philip Glass disc 1 and Symphony Number 8. There is also an excellent solo cello recording done by Wendy Sutter that sounds exteremly real on good equipment.

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

 
Thanks for the warnings.
I'm being very conservative and I'm moving forward carefully.
 
Right now the things I like about the drivers is the speed and transparency.
 
...
 
Still need to mass load the cups more but these few mods on the right side tell me I'm moving in the right direction.
already my concerns # 1 and 2 have been mostly resolved.
 
For concern #3 the bass has increased and is very tight so I might not need more but I'd like to research a little more and see if it is possible to increase bass without loosing tightness.
 
For concern #4 I think that has to do with the space between the driver and the ear.
Maybe that is where new ear pads come in.
 
...

 
You are on the right track and will do OK!
Experimenting is the fun.
 

 

[wje]

 
Quote:

 
Quote:

 
 
I could pretty much agree with all of the above.  I haven't heard "Century's End" though.  All the rest is excellent for not only putting the headphones through a great work out.  Also, for male vocals, I'm really getting into some of the remastered Van Morrison tunes.  He has a very wide vocal range in his music.

 
I use B&W 803 speakers controlled by a McIntosh MX-136 pre/pro and powered by a McIntosh MC-402 amp for speaker reference. I use a stock set of T50RP's  and my set of LCD2 v1 powered by a Dacmini for headphone reference.

 
I don't quite have the MacIntosh gear to push my 2.1 music system.  Put, I do have the Monitor Audio RS-6 (silver series) towers in the Rosenut finish.  The bass is handled by my SVS cylinder sub ... when I want to get down to some Dr. Dre and I feel the headphones might not be up to it.  

 

[andrewjuguete]

SUP GUYS.  I figured out why the left side of my headphones were buzzing.  I know a few of you have a similar problem, hopefully my experience will help you.  I took apart the left side of my headphones, took the driver off the baffle and disassembled the driver.  The driver is attached to the baffle with plastic tabs and screws.  You can bend the baffle(its pretty sturdy) and the driver will pop out.  
 
The dis-assembly of the driver on the other hand is pretty difficult.  I had to first remove the screws holding the driver together and then I broke the four plastic tabs holding the driver together.  The driver is made up of three pieces, the flexible brown diaphragm sandwiched between a magnet assemblies, consisting of 3 magnets, on either side.  I found that my diaphragm was physically damaged/ scratched during assembly but it didn't affect function or sound quality to my knowledge.  I did however find some glue (I think it's glue) on one of the magnets.  The glue was causing the diaphragm to buzz sometimes when I listened to music.  So I removed it and put the headphones back together.  Whew! This was bugging me for months and I finally figured it out WOOHOO.
 
I am sorry I did not take pictures; yo no tengo camera.  I hope this helps somebody.  Also thanks head-fi for the heads up on these modtacular headphones.   

 

[bachiano]

 
Quote:

 
 

You should read up on the use of planar magnetic drivers in a headphone before doing any mods if you're not sure what the white paper over the back of the driver is for.  Nothing wrong with not knowing, but you're not likely to have luck modding these unless you have at least some idea of what's happening in there. 
 
There's a nice article on innerfidelity.com.  http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/how-planar-magnetic-headphones-work
You should also read the beginning pages in the gigantic ortho thread here on head-fi

 
You are a bit confused.
Look at post #7830
I was asking about the black mesh glued to the front of the driver.
Not the white paper glued over the back of the driver.
 
Thanks anyway.
 
 
 
 

 

[OmarCCX]

On amazon.com the Silverstone acoustic foam won't ship to my address. Are there any other similar options available for sale on amazon?
 
These were the only ones I could find.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Vertek-XTC-Acoustic-Damping-Foam/dp/B0002ZPLE8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
 
http://www.amazon.com/Lightweight-Vinyl-Sound-Damping-Sheet/dp/B0002ZQGY2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335361686&sr=8-3

 

[OmarCCX]

Ignore that, I just bought it from newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999222

 

[duyu]

Report:
 
The HD580 headband is soooo comfortable. Thanks for Head-fiers' suggestion.
 
It took US13, purchasing from B&H.
 

 

[atl5]

Damn, that does look comfy.  Just jump to B&H and unfortunately they don't ship this outside of Canada 

Quote:

Report:
 
The HD580 headband is soooo comfortable. Thanks for Head-fiers' suggestion.
 
It took US13, purchasing from B&H.
 

 
 

 

[OmarCCX]

 
Quote:

Report:
 
The HD580 headband is soooo comfortable. Thanks for Head-fiers' suggestion.
 
It took US13, purchasing from B&H.
 

 
Looks quite comfy. Although after doing the suspension mod, I can't even go back to my Sennheisers which aren't uncomfortable at all.

 

[Armaegis]

Just linking to my album of my T50rp mods. I tried linking the pictures but it kept crashing my browser.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/gallery/album/view/id/626043/user_id/136355
 
1. sprayed the inside with roof sealant (liquid rubber basically)
2. mass load baffle rear with tungsten putty
3. plumber's putty along cup edge to seal with baffle
4. in cup: two pieces of acoustic form, fuzzy dot, micropore tape over bass vent (on top of stock felt) one large cotton ball
5. rear driver stock felt untouched
6. front baffle felt removed, dremeled clean, stock driver front felt untouched
7. fatmat over front baffle, thicker felt laid on top of fatmat
 
 
Of all these, biggest noticeable difference came from spraying the insides with sealer. This sealed up the hole at the wire entrance, as well as the baffle (so the plumber's putty is hardly necessary). HOWEVER, the rubber will adhere to itself when compressed, so it becomes difficult to separate the baffle from the cup afterwards.

 

[atl5]

 
Quote:

 
 
Looks quite comfy. Although after doing the suspension mod, I can't even go back to my Sennheisers which aren't uncomfortable at all.

 
hmm, I'll look into the suspension mod, what material did you use?  just the paper or leather?