[hans030390]

Anyone? No suggestions for this stuffing "issue"?

 

[hans030390]

Alright, so I finally finished doing all the mods for the HA-RX900s. I may have to toy with the felt a bit more, but they sound fantastic. Definitely smoothed out that mid-bass hump and made things overall sound less "fake" (which I attribute to that hump). Still plenty of bass, but it's tighter.

A couple of suggestions...I do recommend completely removing the felt. I had to use a small x-acto knife to cut out the felt where the holes to the driver were. So, I guess it's technically not ALL removed, but just what covers those holes. Also, for those of you with the plastic "lens", REMOVE IT. Mine doesn't have it, and neither do the 700s. I believe that without them, it probably sounds better overall.

To be honest, if you have them turned up loud enough (and with a powerful source), they actually are a more aggressive sounding headphone than not...definitely much more than they used to be.

 

[GreatDane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hans030390 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Alright, so I finally finished doing all the mods for the HA-RX900s. I may have to toy with the felt a bit more, but they sound fantastic. Definitely smoothed out that mid-bass hump and made things overall sound less "fake" (which I attribute to that hump). Still plenty of bass, but it's tighter. A couple of suggestions...I do recommend completely removing the felt. I had to use a small x-acto knife to cut out the felt where the holes to the driver were. So, I guess it's technically not ALL removed, but just what covers those holes. Also, for those of you with the plastic "lens", REMOVE IT. Mine doesn't have it, and neither do the 700s. I believe that without them, it probably sounds better overall. To be honest, if you have them turned up loud enough (and with a powerful source), they actually are a more aggressive sounding headphone than not...definitely much more than they used to be.

I bought these just a few weeks ago as a goof to see what this mods does. I'm not impressed with the overall sound. The bass is the strong point from my listening tests. I've amped them with a Woo Audio 3, Gilmore Lite and SR-71A. Listening to bass heavy electronic music, they delivered serious,relentless slamming bass that didn't sound strained even at extreme volume...until my ears begged me to stop.

The fake sounding mids is what turns me off. I will take your advice and remove the lens and more felt and listen again. I have the Senn HD 25-1 II on the way to compare. I'm fairly certain that the 900 will lose and might be sold. I just need a closed HP to use with my PDVDP and the 900 works ok for that but I wouldn't mind a little better SQ.

 

[GreatDane]

OK, so I removed ALL felt and the lens. To remove the felt I used my trusty Swiss Army Knife and simply scrapped back and forth. The round areas covering the holes tended to come off last and most times they were pulled free. There were some round felt segments that wanted to fall into the holes. These were easily dug out. After I finished my 20 minute scrapping session I turned the cups upside down and tapped while blowing into the holes in hopes of removing all tiny bits of felt that might have been left behind.

The results were positive. There is a more open sound I think. They still have a somewhat uneven response with an odd peeky tendency around 2 kHz. as my rough guess. They lack smooth upper treble detail and are rolled-off here.

I punished them with my Aphex 204 and Gilmore Lite. The Aphex 204 is a processor which can enhance bass down to around 40 Hz. Unlike a standard EQ, the 204 won't cause the signal to become overloaded and distort. The 900 can't go super low but what's there is tight and powerful. The track I used for torture was "Basic Level" by Anthony Rother, no ultra low deep bass but bass that has a very dynamic hit. I tested with some other tracks with deeper bass but when comparing to HD 650, the 900 hits harder but it was obvious to me that they can't reach down as low as 650.

I've never pushed a HP this hard before with the 204. My JVC DX1000 delivers more quality bass but I don't need to use the 204 to get there, and they can really vibrate my head. My 900 was pumping hard enough to almost tickle my ears. This was at insane volume with added bass from the 204 with bass heavy electronic music...but they survived the torture and only began to show signs of distress when I hit 3 o'clock on the Gilmore Lite. At that point I didn't measure with a SPL meter but I'll guess upper 90 dB. With this type of music they aren't bad but when I switch to reference vocal material they easily fail when compared to my HD 650 (at 6X cost).

 

[hans030390]

Another thing I've noticed...on my Zune, if I set the volumes around, say, 14, they initially sound pretty laid-back and muddy (however, your ears do tend to adjust to it quickly).

Once I start increasing the volume, though, they really start sounding much better. Setting it to 16 starts an improvement, though it really kicks in around 18 (out of 20 on the volume setting). I know volume can make one perceive better sound quality, but I really do believe this is the case. The bass tightens up, the mids become MUCH more forward, and the highs seem a bit more "clear". Setting it back down again...I can literally hear certain parts of the sound drop/change with each notch I go down with the volume.

Then again, I notice this on all of my sound equipment. The main difference, though, is that the bass, if already muddy, just gets louder and muddier. It didn't happen with these headphones, though. So, I would just say it just states the obvious...that increasing the volume increased the perception of SQ...except with the muddy bass getting better.

 

[ecclesand]

I had pretty much written off my RX900 as a fart cannon that would never come close to the RX700. In fact, I used it as my first practice headphone for recabling. I read about the Dynamat mods and since I had some leftover (quite a bit actually) from modding my D2000, I thought what the hell...I'll mod the RX900. I added Dynamat (Extreme) to the back of the cups and to the back of the driver with the notch cut out. No fiberloft or any other dampening material. I then recabled them with some Navships silver coated copper wire (yes, my first recable attempt was functional, just not very pretty to look at). Gave them a listen and they sounded much, much better. I had already removed the first layer of the foam and the plastic grill so decided to have a go at removing ALL of the foam with a razor. Put everything back together and YEEHAH! these things sound really good. Sure, the mids aren't as forward and clear as my RS2, but they are smooth and the bass is impactful. The highs have a touch of sparkle but are a bit sibilant too at times. The soundstage is fairly wide, but not deep. Ok...the soundstage on these is really nothing special. In fact, there really is nothing special about these cans at all. They're just fun to listen to. Very engaging with an almost speaker-like quality.

I then did the same mods to my RX700 and found that I now like the RX900 better. And to think I used these as my "practice" headphones. Go figure.

 

[RallyMaster]

I did some further modding and cut out the felt from the outside ring of holes behind the acoustic lens and found that the bass is tighter and the treble is much more enhanced. I removed the initial layer of the felt first and it made a difference but it's a much bigger difference once you cut out the holes. The bass still isn't as tight as my DX3 or my HD595 but the next step is stuffing for the cups that Graphicism suggested as well as Dynamat for the back of the cups.

 

[nickosha]

I just tried out the felt mod on my rx700's. On the first cup, I just took off the top part of the felt, not trying to scrap off what was glued there. Then on the other cup, I started trying to do the same thing and the whole ring came off, except for a few pieces on the edge of it that were stuck on the glue. I guess I'm going to have to finish the job tomorrow.

Initial impressions are very good; everything is clearer and that mids are more forward. Now the next step is do solder up the y1 I have the parts for.

 

[NimbleRabit]

If anybody reading this is a complete noob like me, and just getting into headphones, I want to encourage them to do these mods. When I first got my RX900's I thought they sounded great. These were my first real headphones, and they just sounded a lot better than all my previous "headsets" to my ears. I decided to do the mods anyways though, because it looked like fun (who doesn't love using equipment they have done work on? it's satisfying).

After putting them back on I immediately understood what everybody meant by the bass "muddying" the other sounds. Keep in mind that I didn't really hear that problem at first, being an audio moron, but afterwards I DID hear the difference. The mods were also easy to do, although I was extremely scared of screwing up my headphones (there's actually little chance of that I think now that I've done it).

So in conclusion I would recommend this to anybody; the sound is definitely nicer. I should probably mention I didn't remove all the felt, and I left the lens on, just like in the OP.

 

[agentx712]

Guys,

Just a simple question. How is the RX900 compared to the k81dj? I am between these two and I would like to know a few opinions.

Thanks

 

[wol-va-rine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NimbleRabit /img/forum/go_quote.gif If anybody reading this is a complete noob like me, and just getting into headphones, I want to encourage them to do these mods. When I first got my RX900's I thought they sounded great. These were my first real headphones, and they just sounded a lot better than all my previous "headsets" to my ears. I decided to do the mods anyways though, because it looked like fun (who doesn't love using equipment they have done work on? it's satisfying). After putting them back on I immediately understood what everybody meant by the bass "muddying" the other sounds. Keep in mind that I didn't really hear that problem at first, being an audio moron, but afterwards I DID hear the difference. The mods were also easy to do, although I was extremely scared of screwing up my headphones (there's actually little chance of that I think now that I've done it). So in conclusion I would recommend this to anybody; the sound is definitely nicer. I should probably mention I didn't remove all the felt, and I left the lens on, just like in the OP.

this is exactly my situation, down to the audio moran part, I may even take it a step further and call myself an audiotard, I will have to try these mods now though, thanks for the advice...

 

[Spasticteapot]

I'm interested in trading for or buying HA-RX700s and HA-RX900s or parts therof for a crazy DIY project. Anyone got some for sale?

 

[EarsBlownOut]

Wow, one of the best step-by-step instruction sets I've ever encountered. I think I will go ahead, buy these off of amazon and give it a try.

 

[hypertek]

sorry to bump this, figure i could ask here instead of posting a new thread, with similar mods applied to both rx700 and rx900, would you guys recommend the rx900 over the 700 or would both be soo close that it wouldnt matter? i wouldnt need an amp to push the 900s right?

 

[mangamonster]

I should be getting my rx900's tomorrow from Amazon. I noticed that the uploaded pictures from the OP on this mod walkthrough are out of date, as they are no longer loading. Is there another thread with this mod that has pictures? I'm extremely prone to destroying things when I try to build or modify gear, so I really need the pics to see exactly how it's done

Thanks~!