Still extremely impressed with the Maxell DHP-II. They're incredible. It's funny how there's another person on here raving about them like crazy and I do the same with the Koss Pro DJ 100. In the end they both sound so similar, which makes it kind of strange. Today though that mid-bass hump was driving me crazy again. It kept coming up whenever it shouldn't be there. To me it almost made me like them a lot less and deduct a point. Some people like this though, but I just rather not have it show up at the wrong time.
So today I tried to see what I could do to tame that mid-bass hump on the DHP-II. Yes, it's that annoying to me, I'm weird I guess. I did a bunch of stuff to the insides to see what changes the sound. Not at first just to fix the mid-bass, but just to see what could improve or change. Removing the foam inside the earcup is a bad idea. It kills the bass and the sound quality is degraded and felt a bit more distant. Strangely the mid-bass was still there.
I put back the foam and poked two holes above and below the driver plastic enclosure. It normally has 3 holes on both the bottom and top taped off. All it is is just tape that they use, so no damage is done that can't be repaired.I don't know how this is possible, but all my music now just seemed a lot brighter (not in a good way) and voices had a bit of sibilance. Actually, just where it was in the recording, but it made it much worse and vocals were just not as good and annoying. Again, I'm not sure how two tiny holes could change the signature so much. There HAS to be a reason Maxell covered them at the factory. I don't think it's my imagination, but it could be. Even so, it's still worth experimenting.
I went with one hole on the bottom on each side and it's perfect. The mid-bass issue is reduced quite a bit. It never shows up in my Cantopop and that's all I really wanted. Definitely not my imagination there! The bass though seems to be reduced a bit too, maybe 2-3%, if that. Maybe not. Vocals now are perfect and sound a lot more clear and slightly more forward sounding, but not annoying. They're now much closer to how they sound on the Pro DJ 100.
Basically NOW everything sounds like an exact match to the DJ Pro 100 (more then before). There's still more bass it seems like. If they're really the same driver, the sound differences could be due to the plastic driver housing and the small ear cups and overall design. Like with the SR-80, there seems to be a lot you can do to change the sound signature for some headphones.
I know I could have just done an EQ setting, but the Ipod Touch EQ is worthless and what fun is that? I want them to sound perfect with NO EQ or at FLAT.
After hearing these I still can't believe people are complaining about the cheap build quality. If they broke in 4 months I'd have no problems buying another pair for $35!
I also avoided them forever because of build quality issues. Right now it's worth it I think.
Now to just figure out how to keep the earcups from vibrating!
UPDATE:
With that one hole open method I guess the mid-bass was still a bit too much, but still reduced. I went ahead and tried the two hole method again and it's far better. Originally I thought it added too much vocal sibilance. I think the problem is that opening the two holes adds more detail and makes the vocals sound much more forward that it's easier to spot the sibilance in the recording. The sibilance is actually IN all the songs and is not the headphones fault. I tried the same songs with 3 different pairs of headphones and it's still there. From my KSC75 to the Triple Fi 10. It's really amazing how many tracks have this issue! With poorer quality headphones it's harder to spot.
Today I got in the Koss Pro3AAT (Titanium) headphone. It's basically has almost the same sound as the Maxell DHP-II and Koss Pro DJ 100. So far the sound is a bit different due to the design and actually may have more bass then the Maxell DHP-II! Between all of these, the Pro DJ 100 has less bass, but it more neutral and has a cleaner and clearer sound quality. DHP-II is very, very close. The two holes on each side opened up definitely help out the quality of the mids, however this is possible!
So far the Pro3AAT has a lot of clamp, but it's not bad. The build quality seems to be as bad as the DHP-II if you go by the reviews on Amazon, which isn't a good thing.
I'm also getting in the Pro4aat, so that may be the best out of all of these, but maybe with an improved driver but with similar sound quality. I'm not sure yet. I've seen a ton of good reviews on the Pro4AAT several years ago. I remember seeing a post from someone who ranked them as being better then the AKG 701! Pretty impressive.
BTW I really need to stop buying headphones.
10/14/10
Still experimenting on the Maxell DHP-II. Two holes open brings out the vocals even more and the mids are VERY forward now, almost too much and makes the sound signature kind of fatiguing and also almost too bright. Bass is reduced by a LOT and it felt like it went a bit missing. Once I covered both holes up there was a slight loss of detail, but the bass came back. Two holes open definitely removes the mid-bass hump, and 1 reduces it. One hole poked is the best way to go I think or else the bass reduction is too much. Without any holes open, the mids are just not quite as forward as I want them, but close. One hole makes them sound about the same overall as the Pro DJ 100. I think one reason these fatigue me more (with 2 holes open) is that it makes them much brighter then the Pro DJ 100. The overall sound signature of the PRo DJ 100 is pretty non-fatiguing, but has a lot of detail, but slightly rolled off highs and less bass.
I'm surprised there is such a huge difference in the sound quality just by opening and closing such small holes.
I ended up returning the Pro3AAT due to them having too much bass for me. The clamping force was the worst ever. It actually hurt my EYES!! Pro3AAT is like a DHP-II with a LOT more bass.
