These TDS-16 based things after another listen needed some further tweakings ( from back on page 1545 ). I find it's good to sit back and leave things alone for a bit then revisit them to get the immediate instinctive impressions.
They are an awesome shell for mods, no screws juts a press tab inside the tan cup part top and bottom and seem to hold tight after
numerous easy openings. Pop out the arms , so fast.
I have to leave them again after this latest due to a slight imbalance ( in my ears at the moment )
They are damn close.
Here's what I did to bring up bass and
organicize details.
Letting them fly relatively free with a simple direct felty damping was not adequate for bass levels and many other things.
Sort of complex but I know how the various stuff responds and what it does from a bit too many late nights and hours, sad yes, worth it I dunno.
This borrows a modification style from two things I did way back, as well as one that is factory installed.
Way back on the Koss Red Devil "Dead Rebel" -thanks 4 the name Wualta- SFI mod I had to hit the drivers hard in a similarly large shell so I made a small ring of Creatology adhesive foam around the perimeter of the driver rears. ( still a top notch mod after all this time it sounds like speakers in a room-ish )
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wayyyy back here but this is not the final chamber mod http://www.head-fi.org/t/111193/orthodynamic-roundup/19650#post_8310152
Then on top of that I added a spacer made from a layer of Acoutipack 3-layer but stripped/slowly sliced off the adhesive layer on that to allow for sound pass-through and damping at the same time. Adhesive layer would simply reflect that obviously. Left a ring of the adhesive back so it could stick to the top of that foam spacer ring.
Then because by itself this tends to get the low end up it also sucks out some of the mids/vocal range and a bit of the highs, I took a disc of the magic Arctic Cotton to fit the inside of the spacer ring, topped with a dual layer of 3M Micropore tape on the rears.
** this is borrowed from the 40 + fullsized pages of T50Rp mod notes and finalized setup ***
This combination adds details, and also at the same time as selectively slowly raising highs depending on Micropore layers, adds the Arctic Cotton goodness.
it's an odd combination
Because this is topped immediately by the Acoustipack 3-layer stripped disc for a good driver damping, everything seems to fall into place.
Adjust the highs with another layer if necessary as it not only brings highs up but also seems to clean them up and expose details.
When using a driver that likes close small spaces this dual chamber setup with these materials is excellent.
Heck some other variant of this dual chamber I'm sure would work also.
Case in point = the Technics 810 clone I have uses this very method ( SFI sized 63 ohm driver ). A small enclosed tubular 1st chamber with more depth to it than I am using, topped simply with thin stiffer felt for damping makes the first chamber, and then things go out into the vented outer shell the second chamber. A realllly nice open effect on those Technics 810.
Nice.
here's a shot from my old crappy resolution pics.
You can see the immediate chamber and then the rest of the rear cup space, with the backs removed, here. See the peeled back felt damping at the rear and wow i just noticed those holes rather than open space! DAMMIT MORE IDEAS NOW, MUST IGNORE, CANNOT UNSEE WHAT I SAWD
I added an extra layer of Micropore tape on the back of the Acoustipack disk on the right driver even to help with a small imbalance and it is now decently close to the left side that does not have that added rear layer.
There is a slit halfway along on everything here to fit it around the center pin tabs. I didn't cover that over in case it was contributing to the excellent bass levels.
Seems these TDS-16 enjoy their small space and do not like flying free in a large space or open even.
So that's that... now the pics, i wasn't going to bother posting this up but the idea of the mini chamber seems to work well when in combo wiith the inserted Arctic Cotton disc backed with Micropore tape. Maybe someone might get some mileage out of this method using other materials, so that's why I am posting.
*** I'll try this also on an open backed HP-50 drivered mod upcoming and see how it works, if thsoe drivers need it, bet they do.
SO BASICALLY if a driver in an more-open-than-stock-setup is giving you grief:
- try out a mini chamber and/or in there try out 3M Micropore Tape on fabrics/felts for adjustable filtering and reflecting instead of the normal flying free with some direct damping.
PICS:
Recabled them with some beefy wire I had taken off my first set of TDS-16 from Russia way back, so the wire is also Russian.
^ Black Acoustic pack 3-layer backing sliced off with sticky out for adding to that red creatology thin foam ring top. ( white ring is double sided tape I needed to add due to opening this a few times)
^ Arctic Cotton inner "detail" disk added inside red foam ring, fuzzy-face down, topped with 2 layers of 3M Micropore.
*** Note the slit through the middle of it all all the way through to the left of the picture to allow it to slip past the center + driver trace tab and stay flush***
^ Final topping of Acoustipack 3-layer disk, also with slit a little longer than a radius. Stuck down in this case with that thin ring of double sided tape.
Magical
Angel Hair not shown in this picture for rear of cups.
Hope this was sort of interesting, at least it is something to read.
Please enjoy your late nights and frustrations, everything is great even the bad times.