[kickin81]

I will agree that these won't do well to fit small heads. They're designed to have just enough clamping force for the average sized head.

 

[kickin81]

Update: My modded Senns are the first headset I've purchased primarily for music. Since this mod, I have been nothing less than thrilled with their output and enjoy them just about everyday. But being that I only introduced myself into quality music just recently, I don't own supporting hardware that advanced audiophiles have. I purchased a Fiio E11 portable amp to use but I didn't notice any changes to the quality of music. I felt I gained more quantity of sound rather than quality. This is likely due to the fact that I don't have the ears of an audiophile yet. So I sold it and felt happy with how these sounded out of my PC.
 
Two weeks ago I was bored at work and found that my work computer had a low grade Audio Manager with an equalizer. Well, I have seen equalizers before but never knew how to use them. So being bored as I was I started to pull up and down on each frequency setting to see what happened to the sound while I continued to listen to my music. At max, some frequencies would distort the music or make it sound hollow. At the minimum, it made the song flat and boring. I figured I play around with it and so I moved each setting where the the song sounded best to me. After I finished, I was surprised at how much sound quality improved in doing this with the equalizer. I thought my modded Senns were great before; now they're even greater.
 
I then went home and tried to find a similar equalizer on my home PC. It turns out I am only using the onboard soundcard so there was no audio management application available. It sounded nice before but I desired an equalizer for my home PC too. I found excellent reviews for the ASUS SONAR DG sound card and it was under $30 so I ordered one. It arrived yesterday and I immediately EQ'd my modded HD 439 and it did not fail to impress me again. However, what truly amazed me was the Dolby Headphone setting. It instantly multiplied the soundstage by 3x-4x. Where the music and vocals were up close and personal before, this made everything (vocalist, instruments) spread out across the soundstage yet still left the audio quality as it was. It was so awesome that my jaw literally dropped. WOW!
 
For movies and gaming though, you don't want the same kind of sound stage that this Dolby setting provides. Its really wierd when the camera focuses on the speaker's face but the dialog is heard in the distance. I guess that's why TVs have different settings for Action, Drama, Music, etc. I didn't pay much attention to these TV settings but I tell you the changes are definately more noticable on a headphone.
 
In summary, if you don't have a sound card in your PC and you regularly use your PC to listen to music I recommend you pick up this sound card to go with your modded HD 4XX headset. You will be amazed at the capabilities your modded Sennheiser has and you will not have the urge to buy another headset for sound quality.

 

[Rocko1]

Has anyone done a removable cable mod on these? I would like to see that.

 

[mrjimyjohn]

Thanks for this man. I popped out the center hole in my HD 439s with a tiny screwdriver and so far I'm loving the improvements. I didn't bother with the plasticine, mostly because I'm lazy, but nevertheless the bass has much more impact without losing its clarity and the mids and highs seem to be unaffected. 

 

[Robotronman]

HI,
 
I recently tried the middle hole mod on my new HD 428. I used an exacto to cut each side of the middle hole section (3mm each side of the hole) and tried the headphones. With this mod, I found the bass to be very present, perhaps to much to my taste and the mids to become less present, which I found sad. Also tested with the sticky tak clay over the driver with the center hole uncovered. With the clay added, I found the sound muffled and lifeless, and with too much bass for my taste.
 
I prefer the crisp high mids than to have too much bass because this give more sound space.
 
UPDATE 10/04/2013: Just tested the hd428s with the holes all covered with the original black tape but with the silver cover removed from the cups (yes it's somewhat ugly). Result: I got a much more organic, airy and more defined sound! Surprise! Bass are tight, not loud but more balanced and somewhat more in line with the other ranges. They sounding now lean but they are so more open and forward. I'm thinking seriously  to fit some black thin fabric to hide the cup hole. It's like the life is coming to these cans!!! Note: with this mod and with the center hole uncovered, the sound is curiously restrained with a unrefined round bass.
 
Also, I only used the suggested micropore tape only to fix the wire to the behind of the drivers because I remarked little clicking faint sound in every tune. It's turning out that is the cable in the cups which are too loose and needed to be fixed. The clicking sound are now gone.
 
Now I got a semi-open headphones!
 
UPDATE 14/04/2013 : With the chrome and black cap cup plate removed, I found the look of the 428 was too compromised. I searched another way to get better soundI found a pdf about the hd438 who contain a interresting way to get the mids more in line with the bass and the high. With the middle hole uncovered mod, the hd 428 sound more bass heavy like the hd 438, so in this pdf, the guy gives steps to add a passive filter in the shell of the 438. The filter consiste to add a 2.2uF ceramic capacitor and a 27ohm 0.4W resistor to the positive of each driver. I mounted the components on the little circuit board in the 428 left shell. The added filter gently lift the mids and give a more consistant treble. The bass is more tight and less abyssimal. The high is more relax, less agressive.I will try to take a picture soon to give you a idea of what I done. Overall, the sound is more smooth and more in front. Here is the link to the pdf I found : http://www.mediafire.com/?isq8dinp9h7147z
 
I find the iPod Touch fits well with the hd 428 modded this way.
 
Next step, I'll test the 428 + passive filter mod + open middle hole with 438 pads.
 
Tested with Fiio E17 USB dac/amp on my iMac mid 2011 and 24bit 48Kbit wav tracks from hdtrack and some 16bit lossless FLAC and AIFF. Also tested with vanilla ipod touch 3 third gen 32GB and a Sandisk e270 6GB with Rockbox last rev. Cd player Sony Walkman D-E321.
 
Tunes: Thought Forms, Portished third, Patrick Watson, The Black keys - Brothers, Radiohead - Amnesiac, Tool 3 first albums - Lateralus in 24bit HDCD on flat EQ on every device I use.

 

[Rocko1]

How exactly does the filter impact the freq. response?

 

[Netforce]

Been working on a detachable cable mod for last few hours, has been quite a pain lol. I cut out the plastic bit to reveal a hole and tried to fit the audio jack and it wouldn't fit so I'm going to use an x-acto knife and start carving away and still a bit uncertain if it'll fit.
 


Going to take a bit of break and update later.

 

[Rocko1]

Quote:

Been working on a detachable cable mod for last few hours, has been quite a pain lol. I cut out the plastic bit to reveal a hole and tried to fit the audio jack and it wouldn't fit so I'm going to use an x-acto knife and start carving away and still a bit uncertain if it'll fit.
 


Going to take a bit of break and update later.

I popped mine open hoping to do the same. When I saw the triangle shape hole I said forget it.

 

[Robotronman]

The filter tend to flatten slightly the freq by adding mid / treble. Without the filter and with only the openned middle hole mod, I found the sound to be too much on the both side of the spectrum - call this an high and bass love affair mod

. With the filter added I could easely listen music for more than one hours without fatigue with my Sandisk E370 or my iPod Touch 3gen

.
 
I got some feets of Mogami w2893 starquad cable to do a recable on my hd428. I'm just trilled to listen to my third hd428 mod result this week end!

 

[whoelse]

Is the capsule covering the driver removable? Are they hot glued like the Grado?

 

[Robotronman]

The capsules of the cup is screwed and for the drivers, the enclosures are glued with black silicon. The silicon on the HD 428 driver capsules is easy to remove.
 
My recent mod on the HD 428 is to replace the cable with a custom one which I build completly. I used bulk Mogali W2893 quad wire cable and I done a litz braid from the TRS 1/8 to the Y which separe the two cables to both channel. I had to do a hole in the right cup to be able to solder the wires to the passive filter and the driver.
 
I show added a page on my blog about the HD 428 modding but this one is in french. With the pictures you should be able to figure how to do all mods I done. I found my 428 looking classy with the new cable. The sound of my 428 is now very very nice with all the mods I done on it.
 
http://ricomac.wordpress.com/tuning-de-casques-decoute/
 
Enjoy!

 

[Robotronman]

The capsules of the cup is screwed and for the drivers, they are glued with black silicon. The silicon on the HD 428 driver capsules is easy to remove.
 
My recent mod on the HD 428 is to replace the cable with a custom one which I build completly. I used bulk Mogali W2893 quad wire cable and I done a litz braid from the TRS 1/8 to the Y which separe the two cables to both channel. I had to do a hole in the right cup to be able to solder the wires to the passive filter and the driver.
 
I show added a page on my blog about the HD 428 modding but this one is in french. With the pictures you should be able to figure how to do all mods I done. I found my 428 looking classy with the new cable. The sound of my 428 is now very very nice with all the mods I done on it.
 
http://ricomac.wordpress.com/tuning-de-casques-decoute/
 
Total cost:
 
New HD 428 50$
5' of Mogali W2893 = 8$
TRS 1/8" stereo Neutrik = 3$
Heatshrink tube 2 x 4' of 3/32" and 3/16" clear color = 4$
Black silicon for the driver enclosure = 5$
Micropore tape 1" large = 4,50$
 
Total : 75$, some beer and 6 hours of work!
 
Enjoy!

 

[Robotronman]

The capsules of the cup is screwed and for the drivers, they are glued with black silicon. The silicon on the HD 428 driver capsules is easy to remove.
 
My recent mod on the HD 428 is to replace the cable with a custom one which I build completly. I used bulk Mogali W2893 quad wire cable and I done a litz braid from the TRS 1/8 to the Y which separe the two cables to both channel. I had to do a hole in the right cup to be able to solder the wires to the passive filter and the driver.
 
I show added a page on my blog about the HD 428 modding but this one is in french. With the pictures you should be able to figure how to do all mods I done. I found my 428 looking classy with the new cable. The sound of my 428 is now very very nice with all the mods I done on it.
 
http://ricomac.wordpress.com/tuning-de-casques-decoute/
 
Total cost:
 
New HD 428 50$
5' of Mogali W2893 = 8$
TRS 1/8" stereo Neutrik = 3$
Heatshrink tube 2 x 4' of 3/32" and 3/16" clear color = 4$
Black silicon for the driver enclosure = 5$
Micropore tape 1" large = 4,50$
 
Total : 75$, some beer and 5-6 hours of work! (Had to do many A-B listening tests between mods)
Enjoy!

 

[whoelse]

Nice
 
"silicon on the HD 428 driver capsules is easy to remove" do you mean it can be easily remove with little force since silicon is soft? or it require some serious brute force?

 

[Robotronman]

I mean it's easy to remove the silicon from the capsule just by pulling gently from it with finger nails. You could found some silicon in over arround the capsule and use it as a tab to pulling the silicon away.