There
could be a difference in the driver as well... however since removing the nozzle dampers produces exactly the sound the EX1000 appears to have compared to the stock EX800ST (more detail, bigger, airier, more soundstage but also brighter treble) I'd rather think they used the same drivers with differences in the casing and damping. It makes sense when you check out the graphs too (they are almost the same with almost the same resonances etc. except for the treble being a few db dampened).
Generally speaking with good sounding recordings the sound without nozzle filters is absolutely marvelous - no comparison to the stock EX800ST (EX1000 anyone?). With crappy recordings or more modern music the sound can
at times be fatiguing though - especially for longer listening sessions (well... I guess EX1000 again?). I've tried doing my own DIY filters to get the sound to be more of a mix between the two:
The default foam cylinders have a very very subtle impact (with the plastic disks removed). Depending on what music you prefer listening to, these might not even be needed at all or be enough to tame the treble that tiny bit (basically I'd say this is for the people who don't mind the treble of the EX1000).
Rolling up a ~5x15mm strip of (dried) alcohol swab and inserting them into the nozzles will have a surprisingly big effect on the sound. The sound is not as big anymore, treble is tamed quite a bit (but I can't compare it to the stock EX800STs anymore of course). For me that was a bit much as the sound got noticeably less big and more veiled compared to no filter.
Next up was shortening the strip to ~5x8mm so that when wrapped overlaps just a little compared to before. Sound opens up more again, treble is less congested. I'm surprised how much of a difference this makes to the twice as long piece.
Wrapping the original foam cylinders in the ~5 x 8mm strip from above gives a sound that lies somewhere between the 2 options above. Cutting the strip even slimmer to around ~2.5-3 x 8mm (so not covering the whole foam cylinder) appears to be my favorite so far though. I can't notice much of a difference in soundstage and the treble is reduced just ever so slightly as not to be so fatiguing on longer listening sessions.
Next up was a micropore band stuck over the nozzle (without the original foam cylinder I should mention). I tried 3 variants so far. Completely covering the nozzle, poking a small hole into the middle of the band and only covering around 70% of the nozzle. I liked all three of those options quite a bit. They allow to fine tune the sound and genereally are not affecting the airiness, soundstage and treble
too much. It looks a bit ghetto though.
I think I'll stick to the original foam cylinders wrapped in the 3x8mm swab strip for now. That combined with my "Tape mod 2.0" makes them sound like much bigger headphones such as my GS1000.