[Philimon]

I wonder if T30 is suffering from an imbalance due to solder incident. brb

 

[khbaur330162]

Yeah let your ears decide. Those are still great headphones looking at AHI measurements. What are those pads?

 

[Philimon]

Accessory House lambskin
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07SCNCH5R?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I use them on my EMU, TRX00, and TH500RP . Helps reduce highs on each. Pads are a smidge shallower. And they feel much nicer.

 

[Philimon]

I don't have any non-modded circumaural headphones in house atm. Today's remeasures:

^Imbalance here is normal with my rig, but no bass extension loss shown in either channel.

^ Left side hanger is broken and has lost mechanisms ability to stop cups from fully rotating so it's impossible to get a seal with EARS left side due to shape of pads. Doesn't effect actual use on big fat head because it fits well. I checked by using the bass test tones I used for RP18 yesterday and could not notice an imbalance with TRX00. I have a spare hanger part that I've yet to install because its a pita.

Old measures:

^ This was my reference headphone for setting up my minidsp EARS. These measurements were of an experiment to determine if the small imbalance in my measurements were inherent to EARS and/or compensation, or if it was fault of the headphones. So I pulled and switched the drivers (reversed) and the imbalance was determined to be the EARS and/or compensation.


Conclusion: Only RP18 is showing bass roll off so far. I'd like to do more tests with other headphones on hand: unfinished modded TH500RP, and some supraaurals is all I have but maybe they can show some pattern (Koss Porta Pro and Yamaha YHD-1). My EMU Lawton is currently out for ESx mods... And T30 I need to finish soldering (failed again lastnight so redo again required).

Would like a third party tester with measurement rig stateside. Volunteers?

I'm going to listen to RP18 now and see if the bass roll off imbalance is a issue I can live with. To balance would need uneven amp, eq, or damping. I imagine there may be more sound issues like increased distortion if there is bass roll off from a damaged driver. @takato14 I think is the most experienced and knowledgeable for measurements. Would be fun to send him some other headphones too for impressions/measurements and to diagnose if T30 solder indent made a significant imbalance.

 

[Philimon]

@GREQ also very qualified. @BucketInABucket is moving back home to UK soon so if these were to be returned I would recommend a check stop at GREQ’s place.

 

[khbaur330162]

Hybrid pads in. Feel weird on my face at first, not used to cheap velour or whatever this is.

I think the hybrids might have the most air which I like. Least amount of 4-7kHz droop... Very nice! Really really good with YH-100's, I haven't even tried them on the YH-1's yet, sounds so good. Ok, figured I shouldn't post without YH-1 update otherwise I'll be double posting. Just listened to hybrids on YH-1's. Those pads exacerbate YH-1 sibilance so not recommended, didn't measure them, might get around to it, but wasn't impressed. Hybrids on YH-100's on the other hand. @_@ Switching from YH-1's to YH-100's is BIG now. Sense of reality when you switch to YH-100's from YH-1's. Soundstage and imaging has always been a little funky with YH-100's for some reason, they never sounded as natural as YH-1's to me no matter what pads were on there. Well these hybrids. YH-100's have a nice sense of space to them finally. And there's a layer of grime removed from the auditory image coming from YH-1's with suede pads (best combo so far for YH-1, imho). There have been times I found it hard to recommend the YH-100 for the money when YH-1 is so close, but right now I think there is potential in YH-100 drivers which you can tap into with right build and pad combo. Also, sorry @GREQ, but the pacman damping never left me, I tried it again after removing it from all my YH's and ended up with bass lenses on YH-1's and pacman damping on YH-100. It just seems to help a tiny miniscule amount with "ssssss" harshness and such, just makes them more listenable and play well with more stuff, imho. I don't notice a degradation in clarity from pacman damping or smaller image from bass lens so I don't really see a downside to doing it. Maybe I'm crazy and just think everything I do to a headphone helps, but I swear it's easier to listen to with certain front damping techniques.

 

[dBel84]

@Philimon typically low bass is difficult to localize ( obviously more directional in headphones) but i would try listen to general music as opposed to specific test tones or sweeps. I suspect that your brain will "autocorrect" for it to sound pretty decent.

looking at the test results - 40-60hz I would definitely not hear in music, 100hz bump would probably be more obvious

 

[Philimon]

That’s what Im doing right now. Listening to familiar bassy albums determining if its an issue for normal use. So far not. The bass is pretty awesome. And then when I think I can hear imbalance I question whether its bias from seeing measurements. I think itll be okay.

 

[Philimon]

These sound larger and more open and airy compared to T30. Still not listened properly to those with HFM enclosure. Would be awesome if they gained some RP18 expansiveness. Need to solder again but hot garage, 100degree temps in Portland again.

Im on second bassy electronic album. Sounds fine.

edit: Will keep these so I can take apart and move to Beyer enclosure for comfort. Thanks everyone!

edit2: Interestingly I dont think these are bassier than T30 from memory. Bigger soundstage though which adds to initial perception of more bass. RP18 more linear. A/B later. Wonder if more trebles too add to initial impression of more detail. Will be fun comparo. Then will send out on loaner tour.

 

[Philimon]

Not trebles. RP18 have a bit of forward upper mids 2kHz. @GREQ kapton RP18 graphs also have the small but wide 2kHz rise. Not strict T30 killers as I had initially thought. Likely some treble ringing but T30 may have similar trait. Cymbals sound a little smeared and sharp at same time for example. New enclosures and front damping may help things.

 

[Philimon]

These have not been damped at all. Left-side compensation has more accurate highs, which is why I tend to only show left side measurements, but I am sharing both channels here to demonstrate the bass roll off from damaged driver. The left channel is the channel I spilled solder on and left an indentation on the membrane. The same issue as my RP18. Can't say I can hear bass imbalance with music on either headphone, but maybe with more listening it'll become more obvious.

Yes, the larger HFM enclosure and pads definitely opened up the soundstage. RP18 to get Beyer treatment next. My foams for damping have yet to ship for some reason, so can't complete mods including YHDs until arrival.

 

[Philimon]

 

[khbaur330162]

Is anybody on here comfortable buying from Yahoo! Japan? There's a YHD-3 on there that I wanna nab. If someone could be the middle man for me or something I'd highly appreciate it, would compensate fairly. Please let me know.

 

[khbaur330162]

Wow. So I got to thinking about the sound differences that pad swapping made with YH-1's and YH-100's and decided to try some things with YHD's. I first cut out some foam gaskets to rasie the pads up. The foam was thick so it was almost an entire centimeter difference. In some ways better, but still really "off" sounding. I took the stock pads from the Superlux HD660 (Beyer clone for the RP18 transplant) which were super cheap pleather. Sounded bad, but possibly better than my handstitched pads? Ok, well if those fit, what about the 100mm sheepskin pads I bought off Aliexpress? Yessss, they fit. Whoa, this sounds pretty good. I'm embarrassed to say these sound better now because measurements aren't anything special... Look:

Brown is YH-1 with Suede pads for reference. Purple is old handstitched pads with the belt mod, Blue is Aliexpress pads without any pad sealing tricks, just plopping them on.

Idk why, but the midrange doesn't sound honky anymore, it sounds flat, just a little recessed, but I don't even care, it just makes bass seem more prominent as far as I can tell. Little treble sparkle. Now these finally sound normal, I can actually listen to them. Bass seems different from YH's. I like it, but not quite as much as YH-1 bass. Bass on YH-1 seems bigger and more effortless I feel, but punchiness and quantity maybe goes to YHD. Bass texture coould change with different pads, I feel, so I can't be too judgmental yet. Their image texture is nice, it's very bold like I've said before, but something about the image texture to YH-1's seems more hi-fi and pleasurable to me, there's a softness and refinement to the sound. I might change my mind, haha, Idk, maybe I'm just warming up to YHD's right now... Ok, nope, just verified, the handstitched pads with risers sounds terrible, I wasn't wrong before. Hrm, something about these pads makes YHD's more than listenable.

-edit-
Bought Brainwavz Hybrid pads for the CD550, they should fit fine, more measurements comingggg.

-edit 2-
Ok, I can see how you said these YHD-3's compare to cheap Hifiman's. Really, really good.

 

[DeweyCH]

Just ordered a Yamaha HP-2 on a whim (also a Denon HP-2 out of pure curiosity). Looking forward to hearing them, should be fifty bucks well spent.