[ourfpshero]

i couldnt stand it anymore! My pc350 headset just plain sounded like junk- i couldnt lie to myself anymore. but it uses the hd595 speaker a sennheiser rep said .... so it had to be a design issue. then it hit me- it sounds like a small headphone! but these are huge.
some quick disassembly:



notice the small enclosure around the speaker!!!!! putting this against my ear with the earpad revealed that it sounds the same without the large outer cup. the enclosure is glued in so i drilled 3 holes away from the speakers





and OMG! real bass! thumping bass if i turn up the eq on the bass side. now it responds to an amp. sounds very much like an hd280 with more bass.
(i also put one cottonball in the large outer cup for damping after a little experimenting). it should have been this way to begin with. i cant beleive sennheiser let this thing out the door the way it sounds

update 7/20/09 several peeps from different forums -here, hardforum, and overclockers, have tried this mod and gotten me into these again. with the better amping i own since doing this (i now have a little dot 3), i can safely say that the bass here easily beats an hd280 and harx700 and approaches a denon ahd2000 and senn hd265 in bass power and ability. soundstage is nice and wide for a closed can and it responds very well to both dolby headphone and openal games. truly what a higher price sennheiser headset should be!

be sure to check the next few pages for better photos from other modders

also take it slow. start with one hole and work your way up. the more holes the more bass boom but you want a nice balance

 

[elliotm]

Very interesting!
I don't want to pull apart mine until they're out of warranty.

Are the 3 holes you drilled at the top of the cup?

After your mod, how does the sound dampening compare to before?

Did they come apart easily, or are there clips, etc. to worry about snapping/breaking?

 

[ourfpshero]

yes the holes are at the top- away from speakers so i didnt accidentally hole them

i have recently covered up all holes but one and took out the cotton. working on balancing the sound. seems good to me right now.

they come aprt very easily- pull off the clip in earpads, then several screws on each cup

 

[elliotm]

Schweet!
Thread saved!

 

[Jallixx]

I was really disappointed on the bass from the PC 350, and after I modified my PC 350 after your tip, the bass now really is like you said 'mindblowing'.

Now does it sound like it should from the beginning.

Thanks for your tip!

 

[Weimar]

I found the mids on the 350 to be absolutely horrible, vocals and guitars just sounded like **** for a headphone at this price. Any improvements as for that?

 

[Peyotero]

Modding mid-fi is the sh1t! Some ppl may look at this thread with disgust saying- "bleh the grand Gods in the Sennheiser high mountain designed this headphone the way it is for a reason. they are Gods after all! why ruin it pretending you can beat the grand sennheiser hp engeniers with your puny mods.."

But that's not entierly correct. Although they did design it the way it is for a reason, it doesn't mean they nesseserily aimed for the highest SQ. The interesting part is, and that's a speculation, even if they knew that "drilling 3 holes" at the back of the driver will improve SQ, haven't done it deliberatly. Otherwise, from an economical POV, if the pc350 sounds so awesome why would one shell some extra $$ on the higher end cans?

I might be stating the obvious here but I'm just saying modding can be awesome with certain cans. The downside is it's a hit`n`miss thing. Performing the same mod on a different set of cans might degrade SQ.

Shouldn't stop peeps from trying, though. Those little random discoveries are rewarding.

 

[ourfpshero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jallixx /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was really disappointed on the bass from the PC 350, and after I modified my PC 350 after your tip, the bass now really is like you said 'mindblowing'. Now does it sound like it should from the beginning. Thanks for your tip!

glad i could help!

as for the mids- i am not sure- i tried some cloth earpads instead of the pleather and they helped but totally nerfed the bass. maybe some cloth on top with vinyl on speaker facing section type earpads

 

[Jallixx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weimar /img/forum/go_quote.gif I found the mids on the 350 to be absolutely horrible, vocals and guitars just sounded like **** for a headphone at this price. Any improvements as for that?

In my opinion the mids got a little better after the modification. But of course you can never really compare this headset to real music-headphones, but that's quite obvious. But now the PC350 sounds really good, but my Pioneer SE-A1000 sounds alot better actually for music. But i bought the PC350 to use when i play, go to LAN:s (nice to have closed phones to LAN:s) etc. and still could listen to music between the pauses without headache after a few minutes. Then of course it's really nice to have a good mic on the headset, instead of having a loose mic on the headphonecable.

How much playtime have your PC350 got? Because like all other headphones they sounds better and better the more playtime they got. At the beginning when my PC350 was new i thought that sounded like crap, really crap, i was really disappointed, but now after a several hours of playtime, they sounds alot better, and they keep getting better.

/Sorry for crappy english(from Sweden)

 

[ear8dmg]

Nice to see some more impressions on these and a potential rescue package. I get very sceptical of the hate that headsets in general and the PC350s in particular get on a lot of forums. A lot of it seems to be from people passing on hearsay though so direct impressions are good.

I'm still mystified as to why there are so few really good headsets with a mike available.

 

[Peyotero]

It's funny that you guys say that the mids on those suck where the main use of the headset is supposed to be.. speech

And no bass when it's pretty obvious that peeps are gonna use it for gaming? heh that's total fail imo.

Mod on.

 

[Jallixx]

The mid doesnt suck, at all. But it wasn't so good as I expected for music. But for gaming the mids sound really good, no complaining there.

 

[Nocturnal310]

why would someone buy PC350 for music first of all?

its a headset..and headsets are mainly for vocal communication and maybe some 'gaming' only because gaming needs voice comm..and not because of positioning of sound.

 

[Peyotero]

You need some sleep Nocturnal?

Positioning of sound is everything in first person shooters...

 

[Weimar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jallixx /img/forum/go_quote.gif How much playtime have your PC350 got? Because like all other headphones they sounds better and better the more playtime they got. At the beginning when my PC350 was new i thought that sounded like crap, really crap, i was really disappointed, but now after a several hours of playtime, they sounds alot better, and they keep getting better. /Sorry for crappy english(from Sweden)

Fresh out of the box with only a few hours. Time is limited when doing a professional review. I took it into account, but they just sounded really poor to me

(note, linked review is in Dutch and I didn't write it, just did the bulk of the tests )