[Noone025]

Powering with a Fiio E17, no issues there I suspect.
 
I do have a few mods I need to reverse to A/B again (HM5 pads, some damping material in the cups), its the trebble, something around 4k that gets me, I want to turn it up to hear the mids, but the 4k (not confirmed freq) then becomes fatiguing.
 
I recabled the uptowns today, bit of a pain, ended up replacing the whole cable with a spare disconnectable cable from the HM5's. There seems to be more bass extension now and no imbalance issues (even at a few days old, I kept feeling like I wanted to adjust the slider to make sure there wasn't imbalance. Couldn't get into the section where the cup pivots on the headband, so added 2 holes through the back of the cups, added small grommets, a few layers of heatshink on the cable coming through the grommets and all done. Not hard cans to work on other than having to add a new cable. 
 
Due to the shape of the cups, the cable sticks out at 30 degrees rather than straight down. The cups don't appear to be deep enough to support making a removable cable without having the socket stand out from the cup.
 

 
 
Love these cans, very happy @ $60.
 
 
- Edit -
 
The bass extension is definitely improved with the recable. I'm a mild basshead (thus why I went for the 770 80's), I found the sound of the uptowns engaging enough without them going low, but I can notice more feel to the bass where previously there was just the good bass punch.
 
Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz: Not head rattling, but the punch feels awesome, extension is there. Getting all the way down, just not as much bass boost below 30hz as I would put in my dream cups. Still U / V shaped. To add some context, I thought the 770's didn't have enough extension (what some call sub-bass), I'll A/B again, but these have more power down low and the punch the 770's lack.
Pod De Floor - Major Lazer: lovely. punchy and deep.
 
Not sure why people say you cant drive them loud enough from a portable device, 85% on an iphone 4 is about as loud as I want to listen.
 
I'm sure I'm just sounding like a fanboy, what suprises me is how hit-or-miss Philips are, I bought the stretch cans for $30 on sale, I pillaged the pads and sold them, comfortable but dull, but these had potential from day 1.
 
A/B'ing with the CAL's which I was praising a week ago, no competition. Uptowns are more comfortable, better bass extension (well, now anyway), much better bass punch, more sparkle, clearer mids and vocals. The CAL's are good cans for what I paid (again $60), but the uptowns are gems after a recable.

 

[Transformatron]

Quote:

... I recabled the uptowns today, bit of a pain, ended up replacing the whole cable with a spare disconnectable cable from the HM5's. There seems to be more bass extension now and no imbalance issues (even at a few days old, I kept feeling like I wanted to adjust the slider to make sure there wasn't imbalance. Couldn't get into the section where the cup pivots on the headband, so added 2 holes through the back of the cups, added small grommets, a few layers of heatshink on the cable coming through the grommets and all done. Not hard cans to work on other than having to add a new cable. 
 
Due to the shape of the cups, the cable sticks out at 30 degrees rather than straight down. The cups don't appear to be deep enough to support making a removable cable without having the socket stand out from the cup.
 

 
That looks great! Can I see pictures from the side and front? I've been toying with the idea of recabling them with a dongle/stump like Superlux does, because of the cup slant. How did you get the pads off of the non-removable pad version?

 

[Noone025]

Thanks.
 
I'll take a few pics for you.
 
The pads are very removable. if you pull the pad to the side a little, you can see a screw behind the pad. They are normally covered by a soft plastic ring section of the pad.
 
There are 4 screws (top, bottom and sides) under the pad, when removed the pad can be taken off easily. The speaker / front bezel is then free from the rest of the headphone aside from the cable to the speaker which feeds from the center pivot point. I couldn't figure out how to get to the cable in there, no other screws to remove. The cable changes from the flat cord to a brown weave to the right driver and a black weave to the left. When I originally tried to bypass the vol / mic dooby, I just cut it out and joined the cables, but no color combo seemed to work... I may have broken the connection somehow, so recable was my only option forwards. Not disapointed, something about the flat cable irks me.
 
Have not noticed differences in the top end / mids, but the extension seems improved and more punchy bass (thanks mom).
 
Can't really A / B now, if its a placebo, I'll take it!
 
 
Jackolope will help me demonstrate
 
 
  
 
90's and noughties metal has been awesome. I'm not used to the separation in the lower frequencies. between the bass, guitar distortion and drums. Korn, System, SYL, all my classics are worth relistening.
 
I'm going to have a guess that I'm having a moment, its not just the can's, but for whatever reason, I'm enjoying the #$%^ out of my music collection. Rap is powerful, I don't have much / any dubstep, but I'd guess it would do well here too. James Blake - Limit to your love, there is a decay to the percussion I knew was there, but was always hidden. Secret Chiefs 3 - beautiful imaging.

 

[Trunks159]

Thanks.

I'll take a few pics for you.

The pads are very removable. if you pull the pad to the side a little, you can see a screw behind the pad. They are normally covered by a soft plastic ring section of the pad.

There are 4 screws (top, bottom and sides) under the pad, when removed the pad can be taken off easily. The speaker / front bezel is then free from the rest of the headphone aside from the cable to the speaker which feeds from the center pivot point. I couldn't figure out how to get to the cable in there, no other screws to remove. The cable changes from the flat cord to a brown weave to the right driver and a black weave to the left. When I originally tried to bypass the vol / mic dooby, I just cut it out and joined the cables, but no color combo seemed to work... I may have broken the connection somehow, so recable was my only option forwards. Not disapointed, something about the flat cable irks me.

Have not noticed differences in the top end / mids, but the extension seems improved and more punchy bass (thanks mom).

Can't really A / B now, if its a placebo, I'll take it!


Jackolope will help me demonstrate



 

 



90's and noughties metal has been awesome. I'm not used to the separation in the lower frequencies. between the bass, guitar distortion and drums. Korn, System, SYL, all my classics are worth relistening.

I'm going to have a guess that I'm having a moment, its not just the can's, but for whatever reason, I'm enjoying the #$%^ out of my music collection. Rap is powerful, I don't have much / any dubstep, but I'd guess it would do well here too. James Blake - Limit to your love, there is a decay to the percussion I knew was there, but was always hidden. Secret Chiefs 3 - beautiful imaging.

Man, how did you do it? You drilled some holes in it then what? Ive never modded a pair of cans before so bear with me.

 

[Noone025]

Ok, i'll see what I can tell you.
 
Open them up (remove the  screws)
the pads can now be pulled off, don't need to but best to keep them away from drill and soldering iron
In my case, I used an existing Y cable, you could make one fairly easily (lots of DIY's).
I used the soldering iron to remove the existing cables to the back of the speakers (drivers) on the small connection circuit board
the easy option is to drill a hole smaller than your cable and see if it will just fit through. You can use a cable tie on the back (if it fits) or a little heat shrink for a strain relief
you need about 4 inches of cable through the drill hole, connect the + to the left side of the driver, ground to the right.
Not a lot else to say really.
 
I used little grommets like these to make it look nicer, I bought them a while back for this purpose. I also recommend stocking up on heatshrink, a basic soldering iron, solder with lead, flux, etc. If you spend about $30 on ebay, you'll be supplied for many mods to come... I also have a butyl compound like the dynamat without the foil layer for treating resonant cans or cans that dont seal, these don't need anything on the inside IMO.
 
There are heaps of DIY threads, the main thing I've learned from doing can mods is to take it slow, think ahead, have spare bits and don't cut lengths until you know its long enough.
 
Also, don't use phat 24AWG cables for medium sized cans like these, the cable is horribly microphonic, inflexible and the sound improvement is so small, its probably unnoticable over some thin 26-28 awg stuff.
 
If there is enough interest, i'll pull them apart and do a mod thread (was considering getting a second pair to do and gift it or something, feels stupid but love these cans).

 

[xezi]

nice mod man, well finished.
Jackolope looks nice with them... lol...

 

[Trunks159]

Thanks, ill try it.

 

[Noone025]

I think these likely have a  mid-bass hump now which is contributing to the punchy sound I like whilst making them less clinical and accurate.

 

[Zeer70]

Long time lurker, first time poster lol. @Noone025 did u buy your headphones from here:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Philips-CitiScape-Uptown-Overhead-Headphones-SHL5905GY-NEW-RRP-179-95-/281084641318?pt=AU_headphone&hash=item4171f34026&_uhb=1
If so, were there any issues with your volume rocker? Thinking of buying these... 

 

[Trunks159]

Think no longer. Sure these aren't as great as my fidelio l1s or mdr 1r, but they're pretty nice. Only problem I have is that when I turn the volume rocker all the way up, more sound comes from the left channel. I just turn the rocker slightly down to balance out the sound.

They're also pretty darn quiet. I find myself cranking these all the way up without any amp. They should be around $80 on amazon, plus you get a nice return policy.

 

[Zeer70]

My only concern would be about that volume rocker. But apart from that I would buy it. For $60 it is good value 

 

[Noone025]

I don't recommend these unless you plan to recable. New I found them to be unbalanced between the L and R channels.

 

[Trunks159]

Quote:

I don't recommend these unless you plan to recable. New I found them to be unbalanced between the L and R channels.

Me too.  Its alot louder in the left channel. 

 

[Zeer70]

well i got mine a few days ago and i couldn't hear any channel imbalance.. maybe it's just me o.O 

 

[Trunks159]

Maybe the newer batches don't have the problem.