[hans030390]

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Hans, I also perceived same boomy sound in lowmids and bass, that´s why I tried your idea of half covering the vents and it worked out very well, though as you said, not entirely. I am wondering if you experience a better sound with mentioned option or with the cotton mod one. I used small pieces of black tape, nearly invisible so I would stay with that option if the result is the same. On the other hand, how do you reach the cup after removing the pad? I did not see any screws and don´t want to damage them as they´re brand new. Thanks again for sharing with us your results.

I think I prefer the little bit of teased cotton in the cups vs tape over the vents, though this is just going off my memory. Opening the cups is fairly easy. Turn the ear pads 90 degrees one way (can't remember if it matters which way) to unlock them from the headphone. If they aren't coming off, you might not be applying enough grip/force on the earpads. They'll just keep sliding around their internal locking mechanism if you don't. Once you get the ear pads off, you'll see four screws around the perimeter of the ear-side baffle. Take those out, and the cups come off. Reassembling them is just the reverse of that. When putting the ear pads back on, align them at a 90 degree angle and twist and lock them into position.
 

 

[atomikn00b]

soooo. yeah. after a lotta time, my initial impressions still stand.
i looove the sound. BUT.
 
i couldn't stand the fact that i had to LISTEN for the subbass. again, by itself, it is present. but in the music as a whole, it decides to become houdini or chris angel and disappears. so i played around with eq for the past week. the best i could get it to do without distortion or hacking off the sound was 6db low shelf at 50 hz, bandwith of 1.8, and a 3db precut.
 
In the meantime, I've ordered a denon ah2000 (talk about a price jump). if i'm overly satisfied with the denons........
 
i'll probably keep the HM5s till my financial splurges catch up with me  
 
as an added note. the quote "welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet" is SOOOOOO appropriate.

 

[antxc]

 
Hi Guys,
 
Long time lurker, first time poster.
 
I recently bought some HM5s and I am loving them so far. I am no audiophile but to my ears these things are GOOD!!
 
I just saw these over on another site and wondered what your thoughts are. They are significantly cheaper than the FA 003 and the HM5 and look identical. Specs seem very similar too!
 
Not sure what the rules are with posting links but check it out.
 
http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-23030410-Professional_Monitor_Headphones

 

[soze]

Damn, too bad the MWave US site doesn't have those.  I would've picked up another pair to try modding.
 
Quote:

 
Hi Guys,
 
Long time lurker, first time poster.
 
I recently bought some HM5s and I am loving them so far. I am no audiophile but to my ears these things are GOOD!!
 
I just saw these over on another site and wondered what your thoughts are. They are significantly cheaper than the FA 003 and the HM5 and look identical. Specs seem very similar too!
 
Not sure what the rules are with posting links but check it out.
 
http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-23030410-Professional_Monitor_Headphones

 

 

[keanex]

Could be the same, could also be the same housing with a different driver. 

 

[hans030390]

Quote:

 
http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-23030410-Professional_Monitor_Headphones

Those are more likely than not the same. Nice find!
 

 

[andychen]

anyone had a chance to compare this to DT1350?

 

[kingpage]

Quote:

http://www.mwave.com.au/sku-23030410-Professional_Monitor_Headphones

Jaycar has those generic ones too.  But mwave delivers them for AUD$94.
 
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AA2065&CATID=85&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=1015#4
 
 
Quote:

Could be the same, could also be the same housing with a different driver. 

It's probably cheaper and easer to use the same drivers. Based on jaycar's price for 10+, I'd say the wholesale price is about $60-70 for these without customisation.
 
 

 

[headphonatic]

Another rebranded, how original
Edit: About the treble sounding fake, just listen to the blues brothers with these, AMAZING! I smiled so much my face nearly stayed that way, listen to the peter gunn theme!

 

[SteveSatch]

I really need to get a pair of these.  I hope my Shure SCL4 that I have new in package can sell so I can be these.  I really have found IEM to be not my cup of tea.
 

 

[amarquesgo]

Quote:

Quote:

I think I prefer the little bit of teased cotton in the cups vs tape over the vents, though this is just going off my memory. Opening the cups is fairly easy. Turn the ear pads 90 degrees one way (can't remember if it matters which way) to unlock them from the headphone. If they aren't coming off, you might not be applying enough grip/force on the earpads. They'll just keep sliding around their internal locking mechanism if you don't. Once you get the ear pads off, you'll see four screws around the perimeter of the ear-side baffle. Take those out, and the cups come off. Reassembling them is just the reverse of that. When putting the ear pads back on, align them at a 90 degree angle and twist and lock them into position.
 

 
 


Quote:

I did some finishing touches on my mods for the HM5s tonight. I covered the exposed Dynamat around the back of the driver and along the walls of inner cup/baffle (check my previous pictures to see what I'm talking about). This did not provide any immediate changes to the sound, but it was something I had wanted to do from the start. If there were any changes, they were too small to notice. So...nothing to report here...
 
I also teased apart one regular sized cotton ball and placed that amount in each cup. As kingpage pointed out with his measurements (thanks for those, BTW!), the vents are the main reason for the dip at 300Hz and (IMO) slightly boomy sounding bass. I was attempting to achieve similar results by placing the teased cotton in each cup, and this also allowed me to keep the stock look in place. I can report that this actually did work out very well.
 
They have lost a tiny bit of bass, but they seem much more even in the lower registers now. This does allow the mids and treble to come out a bit more, and I found the sound to be ever so slightly more aggressive in that regard. I seem to be easily susceptible to aggressiveness, though, so I doubt this would be a problem for anyone. I have no issues with it, though. I just wanted to point out my observation. The sound signature is more or less identical with the mods, but I do prefer how they sound in the lower mids and bass now. Kingpage's measurements showed little changed past 1KHz when he closed the vents entirely, which is good. I feel like I'm getting the same results. They still have bass, though! Plenty of weight and punch. Fairly balanced, I think. The changes aren't nearly as dramatic as they'd be with the vents entirely closed. 
 
Since I seem to be the only person who believes these to have a slightly strange, boomy sound in the lower mids and bass, I doubt this will be of much use to anyone else. But, hey, I figured I'd report my findings just in case! 

Fully agree with your results: with the cotton in the cups there is slightly less bass quantity and mids/highs are more present still being very neutral. More agressiveness is noticeable as well.
I would say this way they are a touch more revealing (monitoring character)  and to my liking, I´d say covering half of the vents (vs cotton fill) gives a more relaxed (probably better suited to just music listening) sound, though still some sentation of floating bass is there.  As it is so simple and quick to change from one setting to the other, I recommend buyers to try both and check which one suits each one better. Definitely,  there is an improvement over the standard purchase. Thanks again Hanns for sharing your findings. I still think Superlux HD668B, having a very different sound signature (higher clarity but slightly recessed mids), is a better value option for just 22 Euros / 29 USDollars (Greetings from Spain, and excuse me if my English is lacking). 
 

 

[amarquesgo]

Quote:

 
 

Fully agree with your results: with the cotton in the cups there is slightly less bass quantity and mids/highs are more present still being very neutral. More agressiveness is noticeable as well.
I would say this way they are a touch more revealing (monitoring character)  and to my liking, I´d say covering half of the vents (vs cotton fill) gives a more relaxed (probably better suited to just music listening) sound, though still some sentation of floating bass is there.  As it is so simple and quick to change from one setting to the other, I recommend buyers to try both and check which one suits each one better. Definitely,  there is an improvement over the standard purchase. Thanks again Hanns for sharing your findings. I still think Superlux HD668B, having a very different sound signature (higher clarity but slightly recessed mids), is a better value option for just 22 Euros / 29 USDollars (Greetings from Spain, and excuse me if my English is lacking). 
 
I should have said more forward sound rather than more revealing 
 

 

 

[hans030390]

No problem! I'm glad someone else found these changes to be to their liking. 

 

[SteveSatch]

I'm looking to buy if someone wants to sell

 

[soze]

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I'm looking to buy if someone wants to sell

just buy off mp4nation? they have a 5% facebook coupon too.