[DecentLevi]

@new reformation and @crazychile, I also totally agree about using a preamp before the ESP 950 amp - especially tube amps. As mentioned on a recent page (also linked to on my signature), I've been using the Project Ember tube amp as a pre-amp / tube buffer into my amp for the ESP 950 phones, which happens to be the Stax SRM-1 MK-2. Multiple A/B comparisons to directly from my DAC vs. with the tube buffer have basically got me hooked - no going back!
 
The careful comparisons have shown me that with the tube pre-amp, the sound is more musical with a soundstage almost twice as large, (and that's a cohesive soundstage not artificial), lusher mids, and weightier bass which was much needed. Whereas directly from my DAC, it was more sterile / cold / clinical. Of course the flavor you get depends on the amp you're using and which tubes it uses, but for me right now anyway, I'm getting a total cavernous soundstage with the dual 6J5 Visseaux tubes in my Ember amp fed through this electrostat setup, and it's especially great for percussive/analogue genres (yet still I sometimes prefer a dynamic 'can for better impact / dynamics with the likes of electronic music).

 

[doctorjazz]

I got the ESP950 the other day with the 40% off from Koss. Out of the box, they are metallic and lack any depth and not great bass. I got a battery supply for the little cheap amp that comes with the phones. That improved things but I also feel they have to burn in. I have read some that say there isn't much change but to me there is. They open up more, develop much better bass and better layering. I would say they take a few hundred hours to become listenable and enjoyable. Very fast, not my favorite sound right now as the Pioneer SE Master-1 and the HE1000 do a better job and it isn't just the price it is the quality of sound but, I still hold out high hopes and will continue to let them run in. I understand an upgraded amp can help but I want to know the potential of the stock unit with the exception of the battery supply, which does improve the sound in all areas. 

Welcome to the club: I have the Koss, did upgrade the power supply and power cord, did make a (positive) difference. Changed to a Stax 323B, slight improvement to me (could be in my head). But, bottom line-not going to match or come close to the HE-1000. Ain't going to happen. No way. Don't use it (or the HE-560, or the FAD Hope VI, or the Shure 1540, or....since I got the HEK.

 

[ericj]

The E/90 amp is OK at best. I prefer using my eXstata prototypes.

 

[WilCox]

The E/90 amp is OK at best. I prefer using my eXstata prototypes.

 
I prefer my eXStatA as well but find the E/90 perfectly acceptable with the ESP-950.
 

 

[new reformation]

Thanks for your input DecentLevi!  Because the ESP950 isn't the flashiest or newest headphone out there it is really hard to find others who enjoy it.
 
I have really been wowed by how much better the stock amp has gotten with a quality tube preamp.  I was wondering... would you be able to test the differences between your Stax amp and the E/90 when driven using a preamp?  It would be astounding if the preamp made more of a difference than the different amp. I don't think a comparison of that kind has ever been recorded. 

 

[crazychile]

  Thanks for your input DecentLevi!  Because the ESP950 isn't the flashiest or newest headphone out there it is really hard to find others who enjoy it.
 
I have really been wowed by how much better the stock amp has gotten with a quality tube preamp.  I was wondering... would you be able to test the differences between your Stax amp and the E/90 when driven using a preamp?  It would be astounding if the preamp made more of a difference than the different amp. I don't think a comparison of that kind has ever been recorded. 

I may be able to contribute to this also. Except that my E/90 has been back in the box for the last 6 mos., and it's not coming back out!
 
I started with the stock setup (e/90) and then added a better power supply and AC cord (search through the old posts for this) - This helped solidify the bass and overall gave everything a bit more mojo, kind of like when you upgrade to a more powerful amp. This was $100 well spent. (PS was $30 and power cord was $70).
 
Then I pulled the E/90 and power supply and replaced it with an Exstata amp. (knowing that a pair of Stax was somewhere in my future). I put the upgraded power cord from before on the Exstata. The upgrade in sound was very similar to the first but to a slightly lesser degree.
 
Then I added the Lyr 2 as a pre amp. Not a big improvement but really no downside. It did give me a little more drive and the Koss' sounded more solid at the higher volume range. But this was with some old Gold Aero tubes that are probably near the end of their life. These were pulled out of a 30 year old CAL Tempest II. I just got in a set of NOS Matsu****a tubes that are supposed to be pretty good but I haven't put them in the Lyr 2 yet. Maybe this weekend. I'll report back.

 

[new reformation]

Thanks for contributing your experience crazychile! 
 
Just modded my ear pads to increase the amount of room for my ears, and the results have been awesome!   I stuck a foam ring in the stock pads to boost them, then applied a sticky-back foam to that combo to enable me to adhere the pads directly to the frame (Stax and Audeze style) but avoid permanent installation. 
 
Much improved comfort comes along with better bass resolution and what seems to be EVEN better transient response.  Not really sure why, but it sounds like the sound is less congested (not that it was before...).  
 
For the first time I feel like I can clearly hear the equipment/studio used to record the music I listen to.  This is obviously not the point of headphones for me, but it is new ground.  
 
For example, I can hear people yelling in the studio on the last track on the Star Wars V soundtrack.
 
I like these cans, more and more... 

 

[crazychile]

I put the NOS Mat-su-shi-ta tubes from Upscale Audio in the Lyr 2 and they have made all the difference. I didn't realize how far gone my old tubes were. Now I've got the top end extension I was lacking before with the Koss' when I use the Lyr 2 as a preamp. It still isn't as sparkly up top as some stuff I've heard, but I'm not looking for artificially bright either.

Spending the few bucks on new tubes has probably saved me from jumping to an upper end Stax model any time soon.

New Reformation, what kind of foam did you use for your mod? I'm thinking about trying this with some of that tough closed cell stuff thats used for packing sometimes, maybe around 1/4 thick. A touch more bass on these would make them almost perfect.

 

[DecentLevi]

@new reformation can you show us any photos of the materials you used or the process, for adding foam (even stock photos are cool)

 

[new reformation]

The following is a very quick summary and only uses very basic pictures taken on my phone.   I will try and help clarify if you have any questions on what my process is.
 
 
 
Here is a picture of a completed earpad unit:
 
 

 
 
The process for making this involves cutting out a foam insert for the original pad from 1/4 inch craft foam (Think Creatology...) and trimming it to a width of 1/2 inch.  Next, place this ring into the earpad, and use a very thin application of super glue to ensure that everything is sealed together,  Finally add some thinner craft foam (in the same ring shape as the insert) that has an adhesive backing to the rear of the pad using super glue, leaving the adhesive side exposed for mounting on the cups.  
 
Once you have removed the backing for the adhesive foam carefully trim the thin foam that comes with the pads to just barely fit on the inside edge as shown above. The final step is to firmly fix the pads to the flat area on cups.
 
Here is what a modded pad looks like once installed:
 

 
 
IMPORTANT:
 
In order to prep your headphones for these modded pads you will need to remove the old foam that came factory installed.  This foam is attached by a rubbery adhesive layer that is a bit tricky to remove but shouldn't be a problem if you're patient.   What could be a problem is if you fail to reseal the holes that the rubber seal was covering.  I used cellar tape to cover the holes.

 
If you leave them unsealed the baffle that separates the front and the back of the driver will not work properly and results in a very off-timbre problem with the overall sound and a diminished bass performance. Now that I have these slots sealed , the ESP950 has some REALLY good slam that was missing before.  
 
 
Would be great if some others could make these to try out, as it would be wonderful to have the input of others with even more experience with upscale gear. Let me know what you all think!

 

[Avi]

 

  I got the ESP950 the other day with the 40% off from Koss. Out of the box, they are metallic and lack any depth and not great bass. I got a battery supply for the little cheap amp that comes with the phones. That improved things but I also feel they have to burn in. I have read some that say there isn't much change but to me there is. They open up more, develop much better bass and better layering. I would say they take a few hundred hours to become listenable and enjoyable. Very fast, not my favorite sound right now as the Pioneer SE Master-1 and the HE1000 do a better job and it isn't just the price it is the quality of sound but, I still hold out high hopes and will continue to let them run in. I understand an upgraded amp can help but I want to know the potential of the stock unit with the exception of the battery supply, which does improve the sound in all areas. 

 Welcome to the owners club!
 
An improved power supply does indeed yield good results (See earlier posts for tested options ...). 

Indeed welcome, and let me add that the improved power supply yielded good results for some; I didn't hear any noticeable improvement. Then again, my 40+ year old ears were never golden and are rapidly approcahing the brass/tin boundary

 

[ericj]

  Indeed welcome, and let me add that the improved power supply yielded good results for some; I didn't hear any noticeable improvement. Then again, my 40+ year old ears were never golden and are rapidly approcahing the brass/tin boundary

 
I sometimes suspect that my ears are pewter at best. 
 
Particularly given my history of ear infections as a child and teen, and my continued sinus issues, and mild TMJ. 
 
I've set a goal to get my dental and TMJ issues resolved, and then congratulate myself with molded custom IEMs a month or so after. Since there's no point in earmolds before. 
 
I don't hate the e/90. I'm actually working on a lithium power supply solution for it. 
 
The trick is that the e/90 is looking for 9-ish volts, right? I already know that 2 LiPo cells is about 8.4v fully charged, and this does not please the e/90. Barely works at all. 
 
3 lipo cells would be near 13 volts fully charged, and would probably be significantly too much. 
 
So at the moment i am thinking that i could use a buck/boost switcher with a very high switch rate, set to a little over 9 volts, and then plug in whatever lipo pack i feel like for power. 
 
Once that is done, I'll need to attach an oscilloscope and determine what noise the switcher is letting out when the e/90 is powered, and then design a filter network to clean that out. 
 
It might be best to use a 2 or 3 cell pack to assure that the switcher doesn't have to work very hard. A big 2 cell would probably provide longer play time than a 3 cell of the same weight, but I should test the behavior of the switcher with both. 

 

[DecentLevi]

Well I happened to try the mod myself last night. But I didn't happen to read the above first and it was just the earpad mod mentioned by someone else previously.
 
The mod I tried was just a basic earpad mod to add more padding. I removed the earpads from the 950 and cut open the back of one with a razor blade, inserted some cotton pads, closed it back up with black electrical tape and put the pads back on normally. At first I tried these cotton squares folded down to a width of almost 1/2 inch (one square folded 2 1/2 times) all around the earpad, then I got it all set back up and compared the modded side to the un-modded side.
 
I used a mono audio source as to eliminate any stereo variations in the recording, and switched the direction of headphone back & forth on my head several times to eliminate any possible L/R hearing differences. What I observed with this nearly 1/2" cotton added in the earpad was that the mids are slightly more lush and vivid, and a soundstage that was moderately larger. The bass was largely the same, possibly increased by around 5% if any at all, but the largest differences I noticed were in the soundstage and mids.
 
Next I modded the other side for slightly over 1/2" earpad filling and A/B'd it to the other side using the same critical listening process as noted above. I came to the conclusion that nearly 1/2" filling sounds better than over 1/2", because the larger amount caused a bit more of a distant sound with reduced bass - I then re-modded this side to match the other with the nearly 1/2" filling.
 
The 'filling' I used was White Clould Cotton Squares, which can be found for dirt cheap in a retail store (it was in the beauty dep't. but seems to say it's an absorbent material - oh well whatever floats a woman's boat for what 'area' is considered beautiful 

 )

 

[DecentLevi]

@new reformation regarding your above mod, I'm sorry you seem to have really lost me on your process, even after reading it several times carefully. 
 
But if I understand correctly you took a sheet of 1/4" foam you bought, folded it in half to double the width, inserted it into the pads, added some extra foam somewhere, (maybe) closed the pads, removed the foam padding from the headphone and placed it onto the earpad, sealed the holes on the headphone, then re-affixed the earpads as normal.
 
But I don't get what the use was to remove the padding from the headphone and transfer it onto the earpad?
 
Also, your idea of increasing the impact / slam by covering the holes on the earphone sounds intriguing. Would you suggest I can do this also by just slightly lifting up the corners of the foam pad on the earphone, applying tape then closing it back up? Also do you think this changed anything besides the impact? Thanks and sorry about that

 

[new reformation]

Sorry if my original mod description was confusing.  I actually developed my mod so I wouldn't have to dice up the pads.  Rather the mod starts as an insertable ring.  I have taken a picture with half of an insert so you can see the cross-section.  Notice that the foam is pliable but also pretty dense so that there isn't any guessing regarding foam/filling compression.
 

 
As you can see the thick foam ring is inserted under the lip that would be normally used for mounting.  I then glue these two pieces together to ensure a good seal and a flat surface on the rear of the pad.  Then I glue the thinner foam (which is cut in the same shape as the first) to the back and use the adhesive backing to attach the entire pad back to the chassis. 
 
I hope this helps clarify.    
 
Regarding peeling back the adhesive used on the cover-foam... After working with the foam on mine, the tendency for it to tear off in small pieces might make the job very difficult.  The sealing of the ports really did make  big difference though.  I remember there being a port that effected sound on the Stax 007 as well.  Perhaps we have discovered the same principle at play with the Koss?