[against]

I've ordered a pair of Senn HD580's off of Amazon, and I'm planning to replace the grilles and cord. I'm going to get the HD650 cord from the Sennheiser website, but the grille for the HD600 isn't on there. So I guess I'll be making my own. Here's the question; will window screen work alright, or do I need something sturdier? And then would rubber cement or something be able to hold them on there? Any ideas/advise would be appreciated.

 

[souperman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by against /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've ordered a pair of Senn HD580's off of Amazon, and I'm planning to replace the grilles and cord. I'm going to get the HD650 cord from the Sennheiser website, but the grille for the HD600 isn't on there. So I guess I'll be making my own. Here's the question; will window screen work alright, or do I need something sturdier? And then would rubber cement or something be able to hold them on there? Any ideas/advise would be appreciated.

you have to call them to order the hd600 grills.

 

[penguindude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by against /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've ordered a pair of Senn HD580's off of Amazon, and I'm planning to replace the grilles and cord. I'm going to get the HD650 cord from the Sennheiser website, but the grille for the HD600 isn't on there. So I guess I'll be making my own. Here's the question; will window screen work alright, or do I need something sturdier? And then would rubber cement or something be able to hold them on there? Any ideas/advise would be appreciated.

Even hot glue will be able to hold them in place.

 

[jgonino]

didnt someone use panty hose for this purpose in other thread?

 

[against]

Yeah, that's where I got the idea. I decided I wanted something a little more solid than panty hose though...

 

[SK138]

I originally posted this on another SennHD580 thread.

I been testing my HD580 with mod based on Fitz mod for W5000 for several weeks now. Needless to say, I really like the sound of my HD580 with this mod. It has better bass extension (both quality and quantity) and controls the treble which can be sibilant to me at times in it's stock form. It's a very simple mod which only takes few minutes and can be reversible easily. (Note: I am just sharing my experience as a "mad" modder

Sonically...this may not be for everyone's taste).

It involves placing some blu-tack on back of silk screen that you see in red circled areas. Give it a try and see

 

[feh1325]

i can't hear the difference between my hd580 with the grill and without

so i just upgraded the cable, so i could sleep better

 

[ecclesand]

Check this thread out...

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=228283

 

[JXBJXB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by against /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, that's where I got the idea. I decided I wanted something a little more solid than panty hose though...

Yeah, that would be me with the whole pantyhose thing. They still sound great - just like HD580's without grilles, which is what I was going for.

I was looking for the most transparent material I could think of, and pantyhose made sense. I may revisit this mod and try out some metal window screen, but I'm a little worried about creating any vibration between the plastic and the metal. Blu-tak to hold the screens in place might work best.

 

[hwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SK138 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It involves placing some blu-tack on back of silk screen that you see in red circled areas. Give it a try and see.

Rather than using the blu-tack to block off the open baffle acoustic design of the headphones, you might be better off to use it to damp the large flat plastic flange around the perimeter of the housing.

The Sennheisser drivers are tuned for open-baffle response and changing that may not be desireable.

However, cutting down any reflected high frequency resonances may be desireable. I've had very good success (actually amazing success) applying thin pieces of acoustic foam (cut from Radio Shack replacement ear pads) to all the plastic surfaces inside the HD-595. Also, poly fiberfill (for use in subwoofer enclosures) works nicely. Both of these materials attenuate or damp high frequencies reflecting back through the open baffle without retuning the bass. (Actually, the fiberfill has the effect of making the chamber behind the driver acoustically "bigger".)

On the 580, I'd probably use blu-tack around the plastic flange and then apply a thin layer of foam to the inside of the grill.

The more you can acoustically deaden the inside of the headphone housing, the better. A theoretically perfect headphone would be made of infinitely dead materials with no reflections or resonances inside the housing.

 

[SK138]

That's a great suggestion. I will give it a try.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hwc /img/forum/go_quote.gif Rather than using the blu-tack to block off the open baffle acoustic design of the headphones, you might be better off to use it to damp the large flat plastic flange around the perimeter of the housing. The Sennheisser drivers are tuned for open-baffle response and changing that may not be desireable. However, cutting down any reflected high frequency resonances may be desireable. I've had very good success (actually amazing success) applying thin pieces of acoustic foam (cut from Radio Shack replacement ear pads) to all the plastic surfaces inside the HD-595. Also, poly fiberfill (for use in subwoofer enclosures) works nicely. Both of these materials attenuate or damp high frequencies reflecting back through the open baffle without retuning the bass. (Actually, the fiberfill has the effect of making the chamber behind the driver acoustically "bigger".) On the 580, I'd probably use blu-tack around the plastic flange and then apply a thin layer of foam to the inside of the grill. The more you can acoustically deaden the inside of the headphone housing, the better. A theoretically perfect headphone would be made of infinitely dead materials with no reflections or resonances inside the housing.

 

[dcheming]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hwc /img/forum/go_quote.gif Rather than using the blu-tack to block off the open baffle acoustic design of the headphones, you might be better off to use it to damp the large flat plastic flange around the perimeter of the housing.

Here's how I did mine:

 

[SK138]

How does this change the sound characteristic?


Quote:

Originally Posted by dcheming /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here's how I did mine:

 

[neks0ne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by against /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've ordered a pair of Senn HD580's off of Amazon, and I'm planning to replace the grilles and cord. I'm going to get the HD650 cord from the Sennheiser website, but the grille for the HD600 isn't on there. So I guess I'll be making my own. Here's the question; will window screen work alright, or do I need something sturdier? And then would rubber cement or something be able to hold them on there? Any ideas/advise would be appreciated.

I used a strainer screen I got from the flea market then sprayed the whole thing black.....after of course a good deal of dremel work!

 

[hwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcheming /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here's how I did mine:

I'm thinking more along the lines of "shmooshing" the blu-tak down to form a thin layer that completely covers the large flat outer flange of the housing.

Actually, the HD-580 is a pretty darn good design in terms of preventing resonances. The HD580 is so open that bass resonance shouldn't be an issue at all.

The issue with headphones is not so much concern about those surfaces vibrating, because the energy levels in a heaphone are pretty low. It's not like a woofer or 5" midrange driver with energy levels that will start surfaces vibrating.

So, the main issue is to damp out any reflected high frequencies bouncing around off flat surfaces or sharp edges. To the extent that you have reflections, you will blur the detail of the sound, perhaps audible as a bit of "glare" or harshness.

You might be able to accomplish the same thing using rubber cement to glue down a layer of thin foam covering that entire flange. Likewise, a thin layer of foam stuck on the inside of the grill will prevent any high frequency reflections from that surface. The grills don't change the sound because of the size of the openings (they are transparent to bass wavelengths), but because of the tiny reflections off all the little edges. That's a high frequency issue and the nature of acoustic foam is that it attenuates more as the frequency increases.

From playing around with the 595s, a foam cover between the driver and your ear attenuates those resonances from inside the cup, but at the expense of dulling the direct sounds from the driver a bit. If you can kill the reflected high frequencies from the cup, you can replace the foam with transparent fabric in front of the driver and get the added detail without the "glare" from the reflected sound.

BTW, I'd be careful applying the blu-tak on the little piece that carries the lead wires to the driver. That assembly is, from all reports, the mechanical weak point of the 580 design. Sennheisser replaced that whole Rube Goldberg design with a mini-circuit board built into the driver housing on the new generation of the driver in the HD-595. It's not a sonic thing, but rather an assembly and durability thing. The leads solder directly to the circuit board.