[jesp]

Has anyone gone ahead and replaced the headband with a suspension band? What's your long-term impression of the mod? Worth the $/effort?

I've been thinking lately about moving on from the M1570, mostly because the size and weight are starting to annoy me.

I was going to go ahead with a headband replacement but Instead ordered the Focal comfort strap from Capra Audio and it's definitely made it more comfortable and added some stability to it for less than $25.

 

[JdeFalconr]

I was going to go ahead with a headband replacement but Instead ordered the Focal comfort strap from Capra Audio and it's definitely made it more comfortable and added some stability to it for less than $25.

That's brilliant, I'm totally buying one. Thanks for posting.

 

[robertom]

My major problem with the M1570 was that its headband discharges all the weight of the headphone on the center of the head, so a pair of dekoni nuggets sticked on the extreme sides of the headband solved the weight problem for me, by distributing the overall weight on three points over my head (the center and the two sides). Yes, it's heavy anyway, but much better than before.

 

[dstarr3]

Never skip neck day

 

[JdeFalconr]

I've only been able to wear these with the Focal comfort strap for about a minute but already it feels like a big upgrade. I'm excited to try it with an extended gaming session. I have some concerns about durability given this thing is clearly 3d printed but time will tell. If there was some version of this thing that was made with better materials I would absolutely buy it if/when this one breaks.

One thing I did NOT like is the marks the Dekoni nuggets left on the original headband when I removed them. I think (and hope!) that it's just the adhesive and not damage to the original leather. Does anyone know of a good leather cleaner I can use?

 

[stimuz]

My major problem with the M1570 was that its headband discharges all the weight of the headphone on the center of the head, so a pair of dekoni nuggets sticked on the extreme sides of the headband solved the weight problem for me, by distributing the overall weight on three points over my head (the center and the two sides). Yes, it's heavy anyway, but much better than before.

I've got a huge head so distribution of weight on the top isn't a problem. Lack of clamp without bending the headband is though, it will just slide off my ears if I lean back or forward as its default position. Anyone have a suggestion for a balanced cable for the weird wired 1570 by the way?

 

[Chastity]

I've got a huge head so distribution of weight on the top isn't a problem. Lack of clamp without bending the headband is though, it will just slide off my ears if I lean back or forward as its default position. Anyone have a suggestion for a balanced cable for the weird wired 1570 by the way?

Hart Audio can make one for you. I use the MP one myself.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=43238

You can thank GoldPlanar for the weird wired XLR ports.

 

[stimuz]

Hart Audio can make one for you. I use the MP one myself.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=43238

You can thank GoldPlanar for the weird wired XLR ports.

Yeah, I planned to but they don't stock those anymore.

 

[robertom]

I've got a huge head so distribution of weight on the top isn't a problem. Lack of clamp without bending the headband is though, it will just slide off my ears if I lean back or forward as its default position. Anyone have a suggestion for a balanced cable for the weird wired 1570 by the way?

The clamp is very light, but this is easily fixable: you have to lightly bend the yokes, near the earcups, not the top of the headband. If you have a newer version of the M1570 the metal is resistent and hard, but it is bendable anyway, just do it gradually and carefully.
Audiophile ninja can make a custom cable, balanced or not, for the M1570:
https://www.audiophileninja.com/product/monoprice-m1570-dual-4-pin-mini-xlr/
I have another cable from them, and it is excellent. I haven't the balanced one for the M1570, though.

 

[Thomasr]

Anyone have a suggestion for a balanced cable for the weird wired 1570 by the way?

I ended up buying the official Monolith balanced cable and find it to be decent: good build quality, nice heft, and not very microphonic. My only complaint would be that it has slightly more memory than I'd prefer.

 

[dstarr3]

I picked up one of these cables. No complaints:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805466802981.html

 

[jesp]

I picked up one of these cables. No complaints:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805466802981.html

Can confirm that one works, had it for almost a year. No problems what so ever. The shop is on vacation through so you'd have to wait a bit before you can order one of those or a different one from their store.

 

[Chastity]

Yeah, I planned to but they don't stock those anymore.

The MP cable shows restock date of March 1

 

[SUSSUS AMOGUS]

Personaly for me, the Sundara are decent, I much prefer the Avantone Planar over them. There was a time when I wanted clarity, heaps of detail and a bit more treble. But then I realised, this sound does not sound realistic at all..... It sounds fake, shrill and boring. Where is the emotion, where is the grunt WHERE IS THE REALISM. Go listen to a band live, what do you feel? Grunt. You can feel the drums thumping on your chest, you can feel the guitars swinging and reverbing in the room. A proper live set up should be clear but also powerful. The Sundara and HD-6XX aren't any of that for me. While they are good headphones, they sound far from realistic to me. The M1570 is much much much more closer to realism. And certainly much closer to realism than headphones way above their price range. After collecting and letting go of so many headphones and also my sound engineering days. I realised, musicality for me personally, is the key to a great headphone. But if that headphone can also have great technicalities, that is a keeper for sure. I sold my LCD-X, Focal Clears and many other headphones because of this. While they were great, they really lacked that realistic sound I craved. That realistic sound of truly being live. Expample. The Senn HD800/800s. They have a grand soundstage. But they sound bland, cold and anemic to me. Where the hell is the low end. Where is the impact of the drums. This does not sound realistic at all. They sound more like studio/mastering headphones rather than proper headphones for musical enjoyment. Yes they are hyper clear and hyper detail.... But at a live performance, do you hear all that insane amounts of detail. No. So from my experience, what I heard with my short time with the M1570, it was very very special. Very realistic indeed. Guitars had bite, drums had omphh and vocals had emotion. Just like a true live performance. Now getting that sound for a great price but also getting the technicalities of a headphone costing far more. It's hard to say no.

What did you do in audio engineering? And tell me more about the Avantone vs the 1570/LCD x since I have a modded pair myself and I'm considering the 1570

 

[SUSSUS AMOGUS]

Yeah, most of the people that hang out on r/headphones are tech people rather than audiophiles. So they come from the world of things like computers and cell phones where you can just read a spec sheet and know whether or not a thing is good. So it's just a lot of people that base their opinions on nothing other than frequency response graphs and how closely they align to the Harman curve. It's just thousands of people spewing thousands of opinions about headphones nobody there has ever actually listened to.

Except for the fact that objective measurement is the best way to go about finding good headphones, and it backs up what everybody has been saying in this thread, that these headphones are very similar to the LCD X, which has a very close frequency response