One side of headphones quieter than the other (Audio Technica MSR7) - Help needed

[tolis626]

Hello everyone!

I've been a proud owner of Audio Technica's MSR7 for around 6 months at this point and I love them to bits. At some point I decided I wanted to mess with the sound a bit and bought a pair of HM5 pads to put on them. To really sound good with those, I needed to mod them a bit, so I opened them up and removed a felt ring behind the driver and it was happy sailing after that. At least for a bit.

Then the problems started. For a while, although I could hear an imbalance in the left and right channels (with left being the quiet one), I chucked it as the pads' fault, as these aren't perfectly symmetrical, there's a ~1mm difference in depth, maybe less. It wasn't that bad anyway, but it was driving me crazy enough to consider replacing the pads with new ones. Turns out it wasn't the pads, as I tried with the stock pads too, which are perfectly symmetrical, and the problem persisted. Worst part was when I took my headphones to the library one day and I stumbled upon a friend who wanted to try the HM5s on his M40x. So we swapped pads, he tried them on for like 10 minutes and then gave them back to me. After that I returned home, plugged the MSR7 in and they sounded like the left driver was blown. Sound was barely coming from the left side and even that was distorted. Needless to say I panicked.

I searched the web and realized that hair on the driver can cause such symptoms. Sure enough, I remove the pad and there's a strand of beard hair on the driver. However, the driver is in an enclosure with a perforated plastic screen over it, making removal of that hair a nightmare. At some point, after having blown in the thing a million times without success, I grabbed a plastic straw and sucked the hair out of it. Sure enough, the sound returned to 90% normal. But after that point, no matter what, there's a difference between the two channels. It changes over time, getting better or worse, from like a 5% difference in volume at times to the left channel sounding dead at others. Usually it's just a 5-10% difference in volume though, no distortion or anything, but it's enough to drive me crazy.

So, any ideas what might be at fault here guys? What can I be doing wrong? Am I missing anything? I can't see any more hair or anything in the driver. Maybe a bit of dust, but I can't see well in it.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Markolav]

Kind of off-topic but i have noticed the same with my Takstar Pro 82. First i thought that i have faulty pair but it really seems to be very track dependant (more here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stereo-imaging-vocals-towards-left-side.501948/), Sounds normal most of the time but sometimes i can hear slight difference compared to my other headphones stereo imaging. Someone would say that "they are just true to the sources" but it sounds strange to me that those track would be supposed to sound like that. On the other hand sometimes i hear the same with my iSK HD 9999, but i doubt that they are both faulty pairs.

Im pretty sure that my pair is ok, this have been pointed by some other users too. Reviewer on Medium.com mentioned something about it and someone noticed it also when comparing them against M40X: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...scussion-thread.849965/page-118#post-14173375

Sound stage and imaging, I will give it to Pro 82 though the Pro 82 can project sound images outside the cups asymmetrically(like the sound on the right is more present than the left and vice versa) on some tracks to the point that your inner channel imbalance OCD will probably get triggered, making you adjust the placement of cups in your ears.

 

[tolis626]

Kind of off-topic but i have noticed the same with my Takstar Pro 82. First i thought that i have faulty pair but it really seems to be very track dependant (more here https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stereo-imaging-vocals-towards-left-side.501948/), Sounds normal most of the time but sometimes i can hear slight difference compared to my other headphones stereo imaging. Someone would say that "they are just true to the sources" but it sounds strange to me that those track would be supposed to sound like that. On the other hand sometimes i hear the same with my iSK HD 9999, but i doubt that they are both faulty pairs.

Im pretty sure that my pair is ok, this have been pointed by some other users too. Reviewer on Medium.com mentioned something about it and someone noticed it also when comparing them against M40X: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tak...scussion-thread.849965/page-118#post-14173375

First off, thanks a lot for your time! Much appreciated!

Now, I'm pretty sure it's nothing of the sort. First and foremost because it used to play perfectly 50-50 between the channels. Also because it started these past few days (or it got worse, I dunno really) and because it comes and goes, although it never goes to normal 50-50 now. It's too distracting too, like I'm going deaf in one ear. Silver lining to this whole thing is that my hearing is fine (at least as fine as it was before) I guess.

I want to clarify a few things before people say the obvious stuff I would say to someone in my position. It's not the source, I've tried 3 different sources with the same results. It's not the cable, I've tried at least 4-5 cables. It's not my hearing, I tried different headphones and it goes away. Also, it's not placebo because, 1, I get the same thing in my right ear if I put on the headphone backwards and 2, because other people hear the same thing too. Just wanted to throw these out, because I've been trying to figure out what is causing this over the past few days, but to no avail.

 

[tolis626]

So, I took the damn things apart again. Seems there's a few pieces of what looks like dandruf on the diaphragm, but I'd say they are too few to cause any problems. Can't see any hair or anything large, but I can only see so much with the plastic screen in the front of the thing. Another thing that caught my attention is that the lower portion of the wire connecting the jack to the left driver is a bit... Damaged. Like it was caught between two sharp edges and then squished. It's not cut, but the outer insulation is damaged. Other than that it seems fine, though. Could it be that? Could I do anything about that aside from resoldering the whole thing? I've never soldered anything in my life, so that would be potentially problematic.

 

[mamalady]

@tolis626
hey, I got myself the HM5 pads and my MSR7 sound weirdly tinny/bassless with those pads on. It feels great on my head but sounds bad.
I saw your modding and it seems to work for you, but afterwards you posted about your headphones breaking/being quieter on the left side.

Now I had a bad gut feeling about opening up a 200$ headphone to begin with, but now I'm afraid that I could break them by doing this since it happened to you. Do you think your headphones broke because of the mod you did? Because I'd definitely not try it if theres the risk.

I love the MSR7s sound but the padding hurts my ears after a couple hours of wearing. I'm sure some people have a different experience but as someone with big ears it really is uncomfortable to wear these headphones after some time. Can someone recommend me some big pads that sound good with the MSR7? Preferably without having to mod my headphones of course. Would also be great if you had tested them yourself and know for a fact that it feels good

thanks

 

[tolis626]

@tolis626
hey, I got myself the HM5 pads and my MSR7 sound weirdly tinny/bassless with those pads on. It feels great on my head but sounds bad.
I saw your modding and it seems to work for you, but afterwards you posted about your headphones breaking/being quieter on the left side.

Now I had a bad gut feeling about opening up a 200$ headphone to begin with, but now I'm afraid that I could break them by doing this since it happened to you. Do you think your headphones broke because of the mod you did? Because I'd definitely not try it if theres the risk.

I love the MSR7s sound but the padding hurts my ears after a couple hours of wearing. I'm sure some people have a different experience but as someone with big ears it really is uncomfortable to wear these headphones after some time. Can someone recommend me some big pads that sound good with the MSR7? Preferably without having to mod my headphones of course. Would also be great if you had tested them yourself and know for a fact that it feels good

thanks

Nah, it's not really a problem with the mod. If you see the instructions and pictures I posted it's really, really simple, you just remove a sticker, basically. After examining the cans further and speaking with AT support, there's two causes for my problem that are more probable. First, there's a dent in the sheath of the small cable that connects the 3.5mm jack to the left driver, while the right side's cable is intact. That could maybe cause poor conductivity of the signal or maybe the wire is damaged, but anyway, it's maybe the most plausible explanation. To avoid that, just take care when putting the cans back together, not to squish the cable between the sharp plastic edges of the jack's housing. Maybe do what I'd do now that I know better and stick a tiny piece of foam there and rest/stick the wire on it. Voila, no problems. Also, the right side doesn't have that sharp plastic thing, so it makes even more sense why it happened to the left one.

Other possible explanation is that I somehow managed to damage the driver when trying to remove the hair from it. Nothing seems broken and the diaphragm is intact, but it's possible that by touching it I ruined something. Again, nothing to do with the mod and more to do with swapping pads. But if we start fearing changing pads, I think we've completely missed the point. Another thing that may be happening is that there could be a piece of my dog's hair in there, but that would be a very thin white hair and would explain why I can't see it easily, but I've looked way too much to miss anything I think.

To summarise though, there's no need to fear and the payoff is worth it. The cans sound GREAT with the HM5s after the mod, maybe better than stock too (I think they do, but I'm biased), and the mod is reversible and small enough that there really isn't a reason not to give it a shot. To protect your cans, just pay attention to the cables and maybe cover your drivers with something while working on the cans so that you don't get stuff in them. Also, after doing the mod I had a "DUH" moment, because you really only need to remove the four long screws close to the driver to pull the whole thing away from the back of the cup, you don't really need to take it all apart with all the screws. So it's take the pads off, unscrew the four center screws, wiggle and remove the front from the back without pulling with force, remove the circular piece of felt in the middle, save it somewhere, screw everything back together, put on the pads. You maybe need 5 minutes for both sides. It's worth mentioning that I'd taken them apart for other reasons quite a few times before doing this, so it's not like it happened with my first time taking them apart. It was probably the 7th or 8th time.

Happy modding mate!

 

[mamalady]

Okay I tried it, and I'm shocked, it sounds amazing and feels great on my head. I'll definitely have to listen for a couple hours to get a complete idea of what its like but lets see. First impression is great

 

[tolis626]

Okay I tried it, and I'm shocked, it sounds amazing and feels great on my head. I'll definitely have to listen for a couple hours to get a complete idea of what its like but lets see. First impression is great

It does, doesn't it? I mean, it takes all of the flaws of the stock MSR7 and throws them out the window. Amazing what such a little modification can do! Glad you like it!

When/if I fix my pair, I'll try stuffing the back of the cup with cotton to see what it does to the sound. I'll make sure to post my findings!

 

[mamalady]

So yeah, tested this for a few hours now and pretty much the same conclusion as you: Considerably more bass, no distortion in the highs. The sound is warmer.

And of course, the incredibly comfortable HM5 pads. I like it

 

[tolis626]

So yeah, tested this for a few hours now and pretty much the same conclusion as you: Considerably more bass, no distortion in the highs. The sound is warmer.

And of course, the incredibly comfortable HM5 pads. I like it

Thanks for confirming my findings! Would you like posting in the owners' thread so that more people see it? It's kind of useless here, not many will care that my headphones don't work properly.