Modding HD 439's
Feb 3, 2014 at 9:46 PM Post #16 of 17
Amazing difference which i cannot believe such a simple mod can cause.
 
I did not remove the 3 holes i only remove 2 center and rear.  The center hole will cause the biggest difference the 2 side holes are already vented by the tape that has ultra thin sections. It can clearly be seen (see thru) if you use a flash light or look thru it after you remove it.
 
I noticed the wires were extremely fragile and was kinda glued only at the ends so i painted them with liquid tape..
 
I was already astonished by uncovering the two holes and i was hooked and determined to make them even better (to my preference).  I already like the weight of this set, I only hear the music and dont even realize i have a set of cans on my head - thats comfort to me....   I opened them like i was about to uncover the holes.  and i painted two thicklayers of plasticdip on the inside  before i put them back i went  for a run (wait for the plastic dip to dry)  its was a tad tacky  after 1 hr and after 3 hrs it was dry but still a tad soft i sealed it back anyways.
 
I could not wait till 24 hrs to fullyt cure so i had to try it.  I cant take them off while im writing this   (not because its glued to me)  it really that awesome.  Playing on my cracked iphione 3 with my $20 GO DAP
 
$free  handme down cracked IPhone 3 
$20  Go Dap 
$35  HD 439
1 hr of patching and mod
 
= total pleasure
 
Thank you to everyone and anyone on head-fi for posting the mods and reviews
 
Feb 5, 2014 at 9:32 AM Post #17 of 17
Working on an open backed mod of my own for these; would love to hear more about your results.
 
I haven't gone so far as to expose the driver yet, but I did remove it and drill about 10 holes in the plastic around it to try to open up the sound. I definitely notice that it is more spacious than before, but the difference is not night and day. I think it actually opened up the treble a bit, too; they are still darker than my DT770s, but more vibrant-sounding than before.
 
Quote:
  So I tried this bass mod and messed around with one and two holes taped. At the end of the day I felt like they sounded good with one hole open though overall i still felt like the HD 439's were a bit congested and one dimensional. So since these have been laying around unused after getting a pair of HE-300's i decided to try something a bit more radical. I spent and hour or so tonight playing with making the 439's open air can's. I did the blue tac mod on the driver cups and faceplate but i felt that the plastic cup that covers the back of the driver was really cheap. So I cut the black rubbery glue that holds the cup over the driver and pulled it off. Here's what it looks like underneath.
 
 

 
Next I gave them a listen with one side stock (sans the blue tac and port hole open) and the other running open air. I used the L/R balance to try my best to A/B them. I personally felt that the open air side was MUCH more spacious sounding. I'm sure it made a pretty major change to the frequency response but i'm not certain it's all for the better. Either way it didn't have the same congested flat sound. It still seemed to have a fair amount of bass as well. I decided to just go for it and did the same mod to the other side. I took the white felt/paper off the driver mount and used tac to try and damped the cheap plastic housing. Here's some pictures.
 

 

 
I sadly popped the cable off the left driver on accident so I will solder it back up at work. I did tape it down to give them a brief listen and to my ears they feel like a whole different animal. I will have to really spend more time with them once they are soldered and back up and running. Anyways, I'm not sure i would suggest this to anyone to try since it really changes the sound but thought someone would possibly be interested in at least seeing what the 439's look like under the hood so to speak :)

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top