[Jun Raito]

Wow that's great, another way to make ear pads......
Have wondering this method for a long time. Thanks XD

 

[Jun Raito]

===FINAL UPDATE=== (not really)
 
OK, after more, more and more adjustment the mod has finished, finally!!!!

 
RP-HTX7 EAR PADS MOD
 
Just like I stated before, I was made some adjustment at the custom ear pads
Here is the results:
 

 

 

 
"Angled Ear Pads", It's got uglier but the sound quality improved drastically....
 
RP-HTX7 CUPS MOD
 
I've advanced my RP-HTX7 into "open" headphone which has better sound staging and less tiring sound. Only do this mods if  you more concerned to your own health, rather than another people's opinion about how loud your headphone is  

 
I've tried a bit experiment about external/ body holes and there is the result:
 
More opening / holes >> more air movement, less air pressure >> more soundstage, more "bright" tone
Less opening / holes >> less air movement, more air pressure >> less soundstage (more "flat" characteristic), less "bright", add darker / bass tone.
and,
More air pressure >> more fatigue and health hazard
 
Below is the best cup's holes configuration (LEFT) that I've founded (six intake holes):
 

 
First thing is widen default holes using 1,4 mm screwdriver
Then make another holes using 1.4mm screwdriver. Make this holes a little bit angled like in this pic:
 

 
 
RP-HTX7 DRIVER MOD
 
There are three driver mod presets that I found interesting. Each mod has its own "unique" characteristic.
For people who bored with tiring and punchy sounded RP-HTX7, this mods is for you!
 
#1 SMALL ROOM MOD a.k.a "THE SURREALIST"
 

 
"The surrealist" has small room staging with the most stable freq range I could get, make it great as monitor. Everything is turn OK, no excess parameter, a little bit muddy, somehow remind me to Sennheiser's characteristic.
As its given name, the surrealist is truly great for electronic musics but still good at orchestral musics, has a great timing and good clarity.
Keep it surreal bro!
 
Pros: Stable freq range, great at electronic music
Cons: Staging kinda flat, panning just OK
 
#2 MEDIUM ROOM MOD a.k.a "MORNING BREEZE"
 

 
"Morning Breeze" has a medium sound staging and great treble. Still no excess parameter, it's panning better that "The surrealist".
When I hear from it at first, I though that I got really good "retro" headphone since everything sounded like recorded 80's or 90's musics.
As its given name Morning Breeze has neither muddy or dry sound. It has nicely wet, yummy mid freqs that remind me to lovely fresh breeze at morning...
 
Pros: Great mids and treble, great for vocal songs
Cons: Staging kinda flat, has better panning than "The Surrealist"
 
#3 HUGE ROOM a.k.a "THE REALIST"
 

 
"The Realist" is just for lunatics who looking for "soul" from digital recorded sounds....Inspired from Beyerdynamic characteristics, has huge sound staging and warm, dry sound which is great for orchestral musics. The panning and sound staging make it sounded uncanny "real"

, something that I won't expected from this headphone. Every songs somehow have it's soul and characteristic.
Truly mind blow, alter the perception....I've choose this one
 
Pros: Great Soudstaging and Panning, great for orchestral music, still good at electronic musics
Cons: A bit excess at 170~250 Hz (bass section)
 
SOME COMPARISON
 

 
 
At a good opportunity, I've tried some good headhones which prices ranged around 25$~280$ at nearest JABEN shop to compare with my modded RP-HTX7....Here is the results
 
List of tried headphones (got ranked ascending based my personal opinion):
 
#11 Sennheiser HD 202 ---------------------------- 25$~30$
#10 Goldring DR 50 ---------------------------------- 80$
#9  Shure 240 -----------------------------------------  60$
#8  Grado SR 60 (supra aural) ------------------- 80$
#7  AKG K518DJ (supra aural) ------------------  72$
#6  ATH TAD 300 -------------------------------------  50$~89$
#5  Goldring DR 150 --------------------------------  130$~150$
#4  Beyerdynamic DR 231 PRO ---------------  80$
#3  Beyerdynamic DT 1350 (supra aural) --- 300$~400$
#2  ATH M50 ------------------------------------------- 120$~160$
#1  Beyerdynamic 770 PRO (80 Ohm)-------- 200$~280$
 
Since I prefer circumaural than supra aural headphones, I rate low even the great DT 1350 (due small soundstage and thumpy bass that sound cute to me).....
The modded RP-HTX7 is really great, easily surpass any 30$~80$ headphones It's even beat Goldring DR 150 in term of treble and clarity....No offense, but Senn HD 202 and Goldring DR 50 kinda toy compared to this.....
I got amazed since My modded RP-HTX7 almost at par with ATH M50. ...modded RP-HTX7 for "realistic" soundstage, and ATH M50 for boomy sub bass...These two got about same clarity too...Some funny fact that seems the modded RP-HTX7 have ATH's tone and treble characteristic.I found that I enjoyed music at ATH M50 almost same as I enjoyed music at modded RP-HTX7...
Beyerdynamic 770 PRO totally different class, since this sounded like: "BLAAARGH YOUR PLAYER IS TO CHEAP FOR ME"....It's got both Soundstage and deep boomy sub bass, clarity too. Damn, it's kinda sleeping monster

....
 
Nah, It's completed now....OK, this time for credits...Thanks for Panasonic which give this cheap headphone great driver and decent body. Thanks to suneebear who inspired me about modding driver. Thanks for Mr.Atep for helping me at re-cabling. Thanks for my fellow friends (Iqoru, Alvin, Nyadil, Julio, Pantsu, Aldo) who give great critics and feedback at my headphone. Thanks for Head-Fier who make this thread alive and thanks to God whose give me power to do this thing.

 

[truflip]

Thanks for posting a great DIY! I went for the "realist" but not quite sure I like the lows now. Maybe I'm not a bass head but I find it's not as tight and clean as it was before (only had the one mid open and closed up the high and low "holes")
 
Anyway, going to try closing up more bass holes tomorrow to see how it reacts. By the way, I opened up four 1.4mm holes too and I think it did widen up the sound stage a little.Thanks again!

 

[Jun Raito]

  Thanks for posting a great DIY! I went for the "realist" but not quite sure I like the lows now. Maybe I'm not a bass head but I find it's not as tight and clean as it was before (only had the one mid open and closed up the high and low "holes")
 
Anyway, going to try closing up more bass holes tomorrow to see how it reacts. By the way, I opened up four 1.4mm holes too and I think it did widen up the sound stage a little.Thanks again!

Are you done some recabling?
 
The "Realist" has a good bass, even a bit bass bleed at 170~250 Hz. But you're right about tightness, the "realist" has smoothest air pressure delivering to your ear. Less tightness, the same reason that makes it sounded very natural and "real" ( just like watching a life concert without your headphone ).
 
Are you doing some recabling?
 
If you are more concerned about bass and clarity, IMO you must more concerned about this:
 

 
Yeah, It's Canare F-12. If the cable play in impedance factor, these jack play in clarity and overall sound quality factors.
Just grab one if you can (the original ones, I've heard some about the bootleg: has smooth and shiny surface compared than the original which has grainy and "rugged" feels).
Any small and cheap 3.5 mm jack just make it sounded "cheap" too.

*This fact just came to me two days ago, when I tried to change Canare F-12 into smaller Yongsheng Neutrik jack, then the glory got lost here.....That's why I just back using Canare F-12
 
Thanks for the appreciation and good luck on your mod!

 

[Jun Raito]

Some about electricity:
 
Somehow I didn't found any significant change caused by soldering wire (if applied correctly). These cheap lead soldering wire just easier to get the job done.
 
This time I am using Canare-L2T2S, but still curious about Mogami cables (2549 neglex) and another multicores cables.
Just tell me if anybody found an interesting results......

 

[captjag]

Holy wow good work.

 

[Jun Raito]

Oops, seems I've made double post here due something-error

 

[Jun Raito]

ADVANCED CUPS MOD
 
The latest mod satisfied me for along time already...But somehow I just feel that there's something to do with "lack of bass" (see truflip's comment).
So some hours ago I did another experiment to my RP HTX7 cups holes. And somehow found better configuration and another theory about open/closed headphone....
 
Thanks to my new "hacked" tool I can make smaller and cleaner holes now

 

 
 
You'll got a mini drill by combine a small drill and a precision cutter' grip
I used 1mm and 0.8mm drills (bought at hardware shop)
 

 
 
This is the newest (better) cups mods that works for me:
 

 
 

 
( As you can see, I've opened some "wrong" air intake. So just don't follow my ruin...

)
 
Here's the detailed explanation:
 

 
 
Actually the air pressure just changed a bit, since a 1.4 mm hole (default) replaced by two 1.0 mm holes (at higher and below sections).
The closed one is where the bass "leaks" before. The smaller holes at lower position made for less bass leaks and more opening.
Simple theory about opening holes in your headphone is about amount of air pressure that desired. Too much opening, then it'll losing "thickness" and got brighter sound. Closing it will give thicker sound but more tiring and unnatural sound. Higher section is good for opening, for less killing bass but more natural sound. If you like more bass punch, then just close some holes (mainly on lower section)
 
These are my founding about external holes location:
 

 
 
Bass hole for lower excess bass parameter,  upper hole for lower excess upper parameter.
Just don't open the middle (front section) for better clarity......
 

(bit broke it at "R" plastic part *ouch )
 
After doing this mod, I got deeper and nicer bass without losing the soundstage and panning. Every parameters seems balanced and crystal clear, better than before......
 
A friend of mine bought an ATH M50 (thanks to my testimony). After some extend testing and comparison, in my opinion this latest version surpasses the default ATH M50 (in term of clarity and sound staging) already. 

 
The only down factor in this modded RP-HTX7 is just lacked air pressure that will give specific sensation at some techno music genre (for example: She, Skrillex, any dubstep music). Some maybe will say that it lacked bass but actually the bass sound is still here, it just gives less punch after got opened.
(Too good to be true, it still have some punch.....)
 
On the other hand, it's got huge room effect, smooth pressure and clarity which is great for orchestral, classical, pop and ambience techno or progressive. Any echo and complex ambient pads sounded thick and yummy. It got no excess parameter (in my opinion) which is very good for music monitoring (somehow can differ any 128 kbps or less mp3 and any old recording quality).
Best at 3D panning which help me a lot at locating enemies at some fps games

.

 

[wewewho77]

I was sceptic about all of this modification at first. After while I was curious about how much difference this mods will do to the pannies sound. And it was amazing. All the details that was veiled by the muddy midbass is becoming clearer. Will try recabling next week. Anybody who owns these cans should try this simple mods. Kudos to you Jun Raito. Many thanks

 

[Smugsie]

I also recommend trying to find similar SOFT pleather earpads to replace these with. I used the earpads from the Soundblaster Tactic 3d Wrath. It was a simple mod and it got me mids half a tier under the A900X, with very similar bass curves, however without the sparkly highs. I'm not sure how far I want to mod these headphones without wrecking them.

I stand by my opinion: The RP-HTX7 is the budget Fostex T50rp, where the HTX7 can sound like my A900X, and the T50rp that can sound like the LCD-2.

I still can't believe these are 40 ohms though, just 2 ohms below my ATH-A900x. I guess that's what Jun's mod is for ^^

 

[sunfizz98]

I opened up these cans just today and noticed a total of 5 wires. 2 red, 2 white, 1 green. One of the red and white wires are then fed through the headband to the other speaker. Is the green wire ground?

Also, what supplies would I need to do the recabling process? I am new to soldering and recabling.

 

[Jun Raito]

 I opened up these cans just today and noticed a total of 5 wires. 2 red, 2 white, 1 green. One of the red and white wires are then fed through the headband to the other speaker. Is the green wire ground? Also, what supplies would I need to do the recabling process? I am new to soldering and recabling.

 
I checked my can and there's the scheme:


 
And this is for the jack (TRS) (I think both 3.5 and 1/4 is got sme scheme)


 
If you got mistaken right and left sound, just swap tip to ring cable in the TRS jack. The best method is using voltmeter.before soldering to getting it right.
 
Just becareful not to hurt the driver, me myself paying someone else for doing the recabling. If you must to do it yourself, got good soldering iron for make quick and clean soldering.

Good Luck!

 

[Farhan Zulkipli]

I wanna buy your headphones or send em in for modding. tell me both prices with shipping to australia. Honestly im bad at modding headphones but i love balanced non boomy/muddy sound. Wanna gift these cans to someone. please reply asap.

 

[Farhan Zulkipli]

I can buy em on ebay from you. Sorry it just soooo hard to try. 

 

[Jun Raito]

Quote:

  I wanna buy your headphones or send em in for modding. tell me both prices with shipping to australia. Honestly im bad at modding headphones but i love balanced non boomy/muddy sound. Wanna gift these cans to someone. please reply asap.

 
Hello there, I'm afraid that I can't sell my modded RP-HTX 7. The headphone is 5 years old already and in worn condition (due hours of heavy usage). So wisely I could not recommend mine for you.
Good thing is, nowadays there's so much great line of headphones already. I might recommend one that has similar (or even better) sound comparing my RP-HTX 7, (and some insight in modding maybe)...
Just check some thread on this forum, the community is great. Even myself bought this headphone and start modding it, inspired by this forum's threads....

IMO if you looking for non boomy/ muddy sound, asian branded headphone like Technics, Panasonic, Sony, ATH (Audio Technica),  with 50mm driver might fit you better (just my biased opinion).
Just make sure that the driver inside didn't sucks or cheaply made, any mod might increase the value of these cans....
 
Hopes this helps