[Roderick]

Menuki, have you heard N550? Because imo it definately does not lack bass. Allmost everyone describes those as V-shaped. I'd imagine that N550 is actually too bassy for people looking for balanced sound. How is the bass on n350 compared to N650? I don't know if this graph I saw on aliexpress is real but this is pretty much how I feel stock N550 sound.

 
I agree that the highs are overdone but interestingly the clarity doesn't come from that. Atleast not all of it Have you tried to eq the highs? If not, give it a try. You should notice that the clarity and detail is still there.... That is of course if N650 are similar enough to N550.
 
I've been listening N550 exlusively for the past month but yesterday I tried Martin Logan Mikros90. I've had those for many years and always considered those great for the price those were sold when they were discontinued. Now it felt like the music is muffled, coming from a distant cave or something. Tonality on my modded msurs is about the same as on mikros90 but the difference in sound quality was remarkable.
 
I found a discussion about n550's on a danish headphone site. There are some impressions. Use google translate.  https://hoved-fi.dk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5611&sid=f959340e6cf2d86db392321e753a0f0f

 

[menuki]

I have only heard the N650's. I have listened to them again for a while yesterday going through a wide range of songs. Sadly, without EQ, the highs are too sharp for me and i'm not really a huge fan of EQ, even though some EQ might "fix" them. And yes, you are right, they are certainly not lacking in bass and i apologize for praising that so often but as i said, the T20RP's kinda toyed with me. xD
 
The bass on the N350 vs the N650 is that the N350 sound a bit more closed in in the whole sound department because the earcups are more shallow. Somehow they are less sibilant though, sound more "intimate" and have a tad more bass and less recessed mids. Bare in mind that this is only from my mind because my girlfriend got the N350's because i think they are very very decent headphones considering i got these for 60€ which is really a steal.
 
I know what you mean.. when you have a headphone and you think its the best ever and then you switch after a even better headphone and the old "best ever headphone" doesn't actually sound that good anymore. :') I'm really really glad you like them so much actually.. its always nice to see people finding a headphone which suits them well.

 

[LarsHP]

  Menuki, have you heard N550? Because imo it definately does not lack bass. Allmost everyone describes those as V-shaped. I'd imagine that N550 is actually too bassy for people looking for balanced sound. How is the bass on n350 compared to N650? I don't know if this graph I saw on aliexpress is real but this is pretty much how I feel stock N550 sound.

 
I agree that the highs are overdone but interestingly the clarity doesn't come from that. Atleast not all of it Have you tried to eq the highs? If not, give it a try. You should notice that the clarity and detail is still there.... That is of course if N650 are similar enough to N550.
 
I've been listening N550 exlusively for the past month but yesterday I tried Martin Logan Mikros90. I've had those for many years and always considered those great for the price those were sold when they were discontinued. Now it felt like the music is muffled, coming from a distant cave or something. Tonality on my modded msurs is about the same as on mikros90 but the difference in sound quality was remarkable.
 
I found a discussion about n550's on a danish headphone site. There are some impressions. Use google translate.  https://hoved-fi.dk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5611&sid=f959340e6cf2d86db392321e753a0f0f

I posted the graph at the page you link to (I am Danish).
 
If the graph is true, it looks like the treble is generally too loud, which should make it easy to tone down (unlike if it was a spike).
The Danish impressions basically say that the frequency response is V-shaped (too much bass and treble making the mids withdrawn) especially before burn-in. The bass is very tight and the transparency is good. Isolation is surprisingly good too.
 
One experienced hoved-fi'er feels the sound is intimate, slow and a bit unengaging with too fast decay, a dry and quite detailed sound, and that the 'phone and cable is very microphonic. He experiences a bit of listening fatigue (which I think is caused by the excess treble).
 
The Danish dealer says that 650 has slightly sharper treble than 550 and that it's the same driver.
 
Edit: ... as well as the same pads and cables plus same size and both have wooden cups.

 

[Roderick]

EDIT

 

[Roderick]

EDIT: I will post back what I said after some rephrasing.

 

[Noldir]

Hi all,

I'm a bit on the fence for either a n550 or a N650. I'm coming from a takstar pro80. Can anyone comment on the relative difference between the msur and the takstar?

 

[Roderick]

It's been a while since I've listened to unmodded N550 so take this with a grain of salt. Pro80 are more neutral than n550. In comparison n550 is more v-shaped. More bass, more highs and recessed mids. If that kind of soundsignature is not a problem N550 beat pro80 in every aspect soundwise but also in comfort and isolation. I think pro80 have excellent clarity and detail for it's price but N550 takes it to another level. There is significant amount of grain, veil and distortion with pro80 which is not that obvious until you compare them to a higher end headphone, in this case N550. I didn't hear that (much) difference with beyerdynamic dt770 or Audio tehcnica m50 vs pro80's but with msur's the sound quality improvement is obvious.

 

[Sehn82]

I was taking a look at MSUR and stumbled across Bosshifi which seems like an identical offering featuring Beryllium Alloy drivers.

They run cheaper too. The B8 might be interesting as it's a larger cup. I remember a post of a user who was impressed by it when comparing it to his stax but can't seem to find it at the moment.

 

[LarsHP]

I have just bought an OEM version of MSUR N550 from the Danish reseller at https://www.hoved-grej.dk/.
 
As it has been said earlier, it is apparently the same as BossHiFi B6 etc., so my iteration (see pictures) is not with the cable and pads seen in the MSUR N550 ads, but those seen with the B6 version(s). This pad has a big, thick foam-ring working as a "bass-lens". To my ears it goes way over the top making the sub bass much too dominant compared to the rest of the bass and mids. I have some Brainwavz HM5 pads on the way (as a part of the package deal I got). As of now, I have put some older HiFiMan pleather pads on, and I am going to try some mods, starting with self adhesive paste on the baffle and in the cup trying to reduce microphonics and resonances. I will also seal the holes in the baffle to see what that will do to the bass response. Since I have some foam and fibres that I have taken out of my HE-6, I will put these in the cup as dampening too. Additionally I will put a felt ring to cover the outer holes in front of the driver in order to tame the general brightness (when not having the stock pads with bass lens built in).
 

 

 

[LarsHP]

I have modified as described above, but without covering the holes in the baffle. Two layers of 1mm felt covers the driver openings except the 1 2 cm center area - and wham! This is really impressive! Pretty balanced frequency response (slightly leaning to the warm side), hard hitting articulate and deep bass, clear mids and a non-sibilant treble. This is so good I can't believe the price this thing cost me. I will do a more thorough comparison to my HE-6 after I get the Brainwavz HM5 pads for this El Cheapo closed giant killer.

Edit: Not hard hitting, but well defined / articulated and deep bass.

 

[Noldir]

I have modified as described above, but without covering the holes in the baffle. Two layers of 1mm felt covers the driver openings except the 1cm center area - and wham! This is really impressive! Pretty balanced frequency response (slightly leaning to the warm side), hard hitting articulate and deep bass, clear mids and a non-sibilant treble. This is so good I can't believe the price this thing cost me. I will do a more thorough comparison to my HE-6 after I get the Brainwavz HM5 pads for this El Cheapo closed giant killer.

Edit: Not hard hitting, but well defined / articulated and deep bass.

Do you perhaps have some pictures? I'd like to try some modding myself but I don;t know exactly how you've done it.

 

[LarsHP]

  Do you perhaps have some pictures? I'd like to try some modding myself but I don;t know exactly how you've done it.

Yes, I'll take some pictures and post here. Felt and Pritt / Blu-tack are needed, so you can get these as the first step. Felt is essential, self adhesive paste is a more sublte improvement, but worth the money and effort. If you don't have foam and fibres don't worry. Might not be that important. I just trew it in because I had it

 

[LarsHP]

Pictures of my modifications as they are now:

Self adhesive paste (Pritt / Blu-tack or whatever) generously added to the back of the baffle - including filling/sealing the three oval holes. This latter addition is not as subtle as the vibration dampening properties the rest has, since it prevents sound from the back of the driver reaching the ear. This - I think - yields a thighter, punchier bass - and possibly also a more even frequency response. Fibres and foam from my HE-6 are in place in the cup.



A few pieces of Pritt in the cup for dampening and the fibres and foam from HE-6 next to it.



Here you can see that the oval holes in the baffle are filled, sealing the openings completely. HiFiMan pleather pad next to it.



This is "work in progress", so I haven't done the felt as neatly as I would like it in the finished state. It's just to get to know the effect the mods does. The two felt layers are about 1mm thick each. The first (closest to the baffle) covers everything except the inner dome with seven holes. The hole is about 2cm. The next layer of felt is the same overall size, but has a larger hole that only covers the outer (larger) holes (in other words not covering the middle row/circle of holes). The tape bits holds the felt securely in place, which is essential to this mod.



Compared to having two layers of felt with a 2 cm hole, it yields more open sounding mids - especially female vocals - that were sounding a bit veiled before.

I frankly think this headphone sounds very, very good - not even considering the price. I have a nicely modded HiFiMan HE-6 next to it, and this cheap (but quite modded) headphone isn't going away in shame. I am not saying the modded N550 is as good or better than HE-6, but I can switch between them without feeling that the closed headphone (N550) is a markedly inferior listening experience compared to the open one (HE-6).

 

[Roderick]

Thanks for the detailed tutorial LarsHP! I was wondering if you have tried the headphones with hifiman focuspads? Also how do you like the sound with hm5 pleahers? I assume you have received those by now.

 

[LarsHP]

  Thanks for the detailed tutorial LarsHP! I was wondering if you have tried the headphones with hifiman focuspads? Also how do you like the sound with hm5 pleahers? I assume you have received those by now.

I actually just received the extra pads two days ago and finally got a listen with the (standard) HM5 pleather pads. It greatly enhances bass - in fact so much that it's way over the top. I have two layers of felt as described above, but before mounting the HM5 pads, I cut a bit more off the smallest hole to get more mids and treble, because I expected the bass to increase. However, the increase in bass is so tremendous (compared to the old HiFiMan pleather pads) that I have to figure out what to do now in order to get the balance right again.
 
I have never had a HiFiMan Focus pad in my hands, so I don't know how it sounds.