[indigogo]

Still a work in progress... but instead of paper towel now have incorporated similarly porous polyester felt for aesthetics and longevity. : )

You have a lot of patience! I could not even make such modifications. I just like to buy ready-made and properly configured. Because when I start modifying or tweaking - I have a lot of options and they all seem right and trying all the options to find the only one and the right one can be a problem for me
How do you understand that the last option is the most correct and better than the first one? Hearing is constantly adapting to small changes in sound.

 

[Rob80b]

You have a lot of patience! I could not even make such modifications. .........

Feel like I've been doing mods all my life so sort of second nature now....as a teen headphones in the sixties were just awful and started doing mods by trial and error..tedious work but back then we didn't have today's distractions, no internet, no smart phones, streaming etc, etc. lol Also spent time building speakers and musical instruments, made my pocket money repairing 8 track machines.

Hearing is constantly adapting to small changes in sound.

That really is the tricky part, what's neutral, personal preferences, psychoacoustics.... spent over 30 years composing and making Electro-Acoustic music... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroacoustic_music so a lot of recording and sound manipulation involved...
At one point you just got to trust your instinct and opinion and make decisions..sort of like becoming an auto-mechanic but for sound equipment, you just eventually know what works and what doesn't...hopefully....

 

[John Buchanan]

Another guy wearing the NHD 30 backwards and ...reviewing it!
He misses all the high frequencies (see post #229, last graph).
Ed: with auto translation I see that he uses them long term so he must know how to put them on. His review of sound quality is unusually accurate.

Interesting - he does put them on backwards several times in his video!

 

[jagwap]

Still a work in progress... but instead of paper towel now have incorporated similarly porous polyester felt for aesthetics and longevity. : )

Toilet paper was good enough on studio NS-10 monitors for years...

 

[Rob80b]

Toilet paper was good enough on studio NS-10 monitors for years...

What ever works..lol.

Seriously though... wool, paper, cloth....tweaker's best friends..the Grado sock mod for comfort was very popular around here for years, maybe still is.
Removing or adding different material between the ear and driver is still extremely popular and discussed continually around here.

 

[momomel]

@Koren
As far as I am concerned my comments (and measurements) are spread in this thread starting from page 7. I have two HD 650 (2003 and 2021) and it is very easy to describe my comparative impressions with NDH 30, owned for 3 weeks now. (You can see the electronics in my signature.)

Answering your specific inquiries:

Technicalities:
- Distortion: NDH 30 audibly better than HD 650 in bass range. I haven't measured THD but as given by manufacturers it is: 0.05% HD 650 - 0.03% NDH 30, 1kHz. This difference is way bigger in bass for sure.
- Clarity, resolution, detail: It has drawn my attention from the first seconds. I bought the NDH 30 after 1.5 hours of comparative listening with my HD 650 through RME ADI DAC 2 FS. The Neumann is totally on another class. It has impressively more detail and resolution, extremely low level details in recordings are heard which are masked with the HD 650. One of my most revealing comparisons ever.
- Separation of the instruments and of their timbre is significantly easier and very-very satisfying to hear. A very natural experience.
- Bass!!! The slightly augmented bass of the HD 650 in the 100-300Hz area disappears an gives way to an absolute extension down to 20 Hz in the NDH 30. The HD 650 lacks much of this sub-bass. A lot of new "things" are suddenly heard below 80 Hz that were overlooked before. The quality, speed, control and new detail of bass are astonishing!
- Transparency and speed are very high and are offering all the above. I think I began to hear the differences between the digital filters of the Qutest for the first time (out of question with the HD 650). This is something that I need to investigate with blind tests too, I am not totally sure yet. Normally they shouldn't be audible (I always thought different filters are little more than a gimmick).

As a whole the NDH 30 sounds more balanced and less warm than the HD 650 because of the slightly augmented high bass of the latter (2-3 dB). This may sound to some people as slight brightness. For me this headphone has brought new joy in listening and I find my self forgetting all those differences and listening with new attention and commitment to every recording. This is a very positive sing by itself!

I agree with you, while I don't think my HD600 is as bad as some people say. I've been using NDH30 for over 3 weeks now and in some respects I still prefer HD600 (with EQ). At least the HD600 is clearly more comfortable to wear.

 

[Rob80b]

Wanted to share...while auditioning the Neumann headphones at Long & McQuade the other day I was having this strong sense of Déjà vu...couldn't quite put my finger on it.
But then it hit me...years ago (decades?) when I went looking for an upgrade for my AKG K240DF I had to put in a special order with them for the K501s, which at the time were considered the best neutral phone (competing with the HD600) for that concert hall experience.
Completely different phone in comparison to the NDH30, difficult to drive and absolutely no lower bass, I used a Bryston 2BLP power amp to get the best out of them.

We've come a long way.

 

[Rob80b]

If you decide you're completely done with them I'll forward my address and give them a whirl. : )

 

[indigogo]

If you decide your completely done with them I'll forward my address and give them a whirl. : )

Something cleared up, I updated it on gearspace, just in case I'll add that post here:

Today, I suddenly realized what the problem is that I hear the NDH 30 and other Headphones differently than others, which caused misunderstanding among us and unnecessary arguing.
The problem turned out to be simple...
This whole week I've been working on joint projects in the studio of my various friends. I mainly worked on studio monitors and Headphones MM-500, AKG K-872, HD820. I took the NDH 30 with me just in case to compare and just have the option of additional Headphones.
For work, we used different audio interfaces, preamps and compressor, but mostly it was RME, including the ADI-2 PRO by the way
Several times using the NDH 30 I noticed that they sound a bit different than usual, but overall good. But still, I constantly caught myself thinking that the sound was somehow not the same as I was used to. Something very important was missing. I sincerely decided that my hearing was tired from constant work or I just got used to the sound ...
Today I returned to my studio and decided to listen a few mixed tracks and just relax and listen to music on my usual Sound Devices - and this is an unexpected insight in the first minutes. NDH 30 instantly became different. The way I loved them. In short - the whole thing was in Sound Devices. It was he who gave this powerful and spacious 3D sound and an additional push, in all sound parameters, which is difficult to describe.
I still think NDH 30 is a rare event. But now I realized who actually made the game. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

 

[xeizo]

Something cleared up, I updated it on gearspace, just in case I'll add that post here:

Today, I suddenly realized what the problem is that I hear the NDH 30 and other Headphones differently than others, which caused misunderstanding among us and unnecessary arguing.
The problem turned out to be simple...
This whole week I've been working on joint projects in the studio of my various friends. I mainly worked on studio monitors and Headphones MM-500, AKG K-872, HD820. I took the NDH 30 with me just in case to compare and just have the option of additional Headphones.
For work, we used different audio interfaces, preamps and compressor, but mostly it was RME, including the ADI-2 PRO by the way
Several times using the NDH 30 I noticed that they sound a bit different than usual, but overall good. But still, I constantly caught myself thinking that the sound was somehow not the same as I was used to. Something very important was missing. I sincerely decided that my hearing was tired from constant work or I just got used to the sound ...
Today I returned to my studio and decided to listen a few mixed tracks and just relax and listen to music on my usual Sound Devices - and this is an unexpected insight in the first minutes. NDH 30 instantly became different. The way I loved them. In short - the whole thing was in Sound Devices. It was he who gave this powerful and spacious 3D sound and an additional push, in all sound parameters, which is difficult to describe.
I still think NDH 30 is a rare event. But now I realized who actually made the game. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

The Sound Devices 888 has a very powerful DSP with a lot of effects/functions. You are sure you are not using any of those?

 

[indigogo]

The Sound Devices 888 has a very powerful DSP with a lot of effects/functions. You are sure you are not using any of those?

No, everything is clean when listening. I have been working with these devices since its release. This is my main recording and mixing tool outside the studio. I know all the functions thoroughly. I have made a lot of presets for different work options. I always check everything before starting.
All this time, in the process of working with different headphones, I noticed that they sound different on it.But I didn't attach much importance to it.. Now I realized that for some reason, with NDH 30, the difference with RME turned out to be significant for me. This led me astray.

 

[headstef]

I am not sure that I understand this well. An astonishing headphone output (i.e. Sound Devices) will be astonishing with many high quality headphones. How can it "select" ONE headphone? How can it lead astray?

How is MM-500 compared to NDH 30?

 

[xeizo]

No, everything is clean when listening. I have been working with these devices since its release. This is my main recording and mixing tool outside the studio. I know all the functions thoroughly. I have made a lot of presets for different work options. I always check everything before starting.
All this time, in the process of working with different headphones, I noticed that they sound different on it.But I didn't attach much importance to it.. Now I realized that for some reason, with NDH 30, the difference with RME turned out to be significant for me. This led me astray.

It could be NDH-30 has an uneven impedance curve affecting frequency response and that the hp-out impedance on the Sound Devices is a match in heaven for that particular headphone

 

[headstef]

It could be NDH-30 has an uneven impedance curve affecting frequency response and that the hp-out impedance on the Sound Devices is a match in heaven for that particular headphone

First thing that came to my mind too. I'm gonna measure it tomorrow throughout the spectrum.
My amp (Lehmann Linear D II) has only 5 Ohm output impedance so in my case there is no frequency response alteration of an 120 Ohm headphone, even if this impedance is variable.

 

[Luckyleo]

No, everything is clean when listening. I have been working with these devices since its release. This is my main recording and mixing tool outside the studio. I know all the functions thoroughly. I have made a lot of presets for different work options. I always check everything before starting.
All this time, in the process of working with different headphones, I noticed that they sound different on it.But I didn't attach much importance to it.. Now I realized that for some reason, with NDH 30, the difference with RME turned out to be significant for me. This led me astray.

I think you should go on the HD 660s and 650/6xx and apologize for your horrible behavior. Just saying....

p.s.

I find it hilarious that you were wearing the headphones backwards, praising its sound, and now you find you were mistaken. Hilarious indeed. Made my early evening. Thanks very MUCH!

Leo