[NateYi]

Hey guys,
I've been lurking these forums now for months and have slowly become more and more anal about my sound quality. I am absolutely amazed at how good of a resource this site is and have consequently found myself wanting to do many of the things I see on the site. I am still a major newbie in the headphone field so I thought I'd ask about some very simple mods.

My current set up is a Creative Zen (soon to be a Cowon D2+) to a Fiio E5 paired to Koss Portapros with all stock interconnects and cables. My source material is as high as possible, with mp3's mostly 320 kbps encoded from flac due to my Zen's inability to play flacs natively.

The Portapros are bone stock but I've been reading about members recabling with silver wire and adding resisters to open up the sound. I love the sound quality as is but I find myself desiring a little more brightness in the sound. I've read about the Kramer mod but I'm afraid it might suppress the warmth that I love so much.

I guess my question is, what can I do to improve the overall quality of my rig? I've seen all the mods done to different headphones but am unsure of what each entails and how they contribute to performance.

I'm sure that my answers lie somewhere in the countless previous posts but I figured I'd try to introduce myself into the community with a very simple and generic question.

Sorry for being such a noob, haha.

Thanks,
Nate

 

[Nausicaa]

Being a D2 owner, I would not suggest the D2 if you like analytical sounds or a horrible GUI. There are only three buttons on it, so if you like switching volume and songs, you can do one or another.
Fiio... YMMV. It plays little difference with the D2's ability to drive if you still want it.
Music->Headphones->Source->Everything else including cables IMO.

 

[ChrisDeeson]

bump,

I want to recable too..

 

[NateYi]

So I finally did the recable on my Portapros.  I bought four feet of Mogami 2534, some 1/8" nylon braid, and a Neutrik right angle plug, and went to work.  I stripped the shielding off the Mogami cable and inched the nylon braid over it.  I split the left and right channel wires at the same distance as the stock Portapro cable and heatshrinked the joint for strength, then covered each individual channel with the nylon braid.  Upon first listen, all I can say is:  
 
Holy balls.
 
 There's more bass and it's more refined, there's more treble sparkle, and the mids are just tighter.  The overall tone of the 'phones is just more rich and vibrant; the level of warmth and fullness is simply mind blowing.  Bass lines are now less muddy, kick drums are deep and powerful, and the cymbals just about shatter my ear drums.  It was like when I first tried the Portapros; I snugged them up on my ears and couldn't stop listening to them for a solid hour.  After getting used to the sound signature and even upgrading to some Sennheiser HD595s for home listening, I was under the impression that the Portapros had reached their peak to my ears.  After recabling, I'm tempted to say these Portapros sound better than my Senns.  That'll probably change when I eventually buy a tube amp, but as of now, I have just fallen in love with Koss all over again.  
 
I'm grateful to everyone on this forum for all the information to do the job.  

 

[FallenAngel]

Great to hear that you have good results.  Please edit out the swearing.

 

[kostalex]

Here is the question:
 
Quote:

I love the sound quality as is but I find myself desiring a little more brightness in the sound. I've read about the Kramer mod but I'm afraid it might suppress the warmth that I love so much.

 
And the answer:
 
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by kostalex /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Here is mine, I call it PortaGold.

I applied numerous modifications:
 

• Drilled the grills and fixed them firmly to avoid any fluttering.
• Used HD414 pads reversed.
• Recabled with silver plated copper.
• Added series 75 Ohm high quality resistors.
• Some cosmetic changes, like headband engraving and temple pads replacing.

 
It sounds gradoish while adds visceral bass and wide soundstage. There were many people who rate it on par or higher than SR225. One of them is SR225 owner and he likes my PortaGold more. I like it more too, it is also more comfortable and looks better. The only real disadvantage is low sensitivity. This thing needs amp.

The result meets your needs of brighter sound. If you will repeat this and become unsatisfied with lesser warmth then you may try Grado Comfy foam pads (stock for SR60, sold separately at TTVJ.com). This will add the warmth.

 

[TheWuss]

the yellow pads on the headband adjusters is genius.
that part of the headband tends to pinch my hair...