[fiyace]

I have not tried opening them up yet. Currently, a friend is borrowing them and is out of town but when they are returned next week I will open them up and see if I can't find the loose piece/expose more of the holes and see if it solves the problem. Would you suggest returning them and trying out a new pair? Or just exposing the holes and seeing if that solves the problem?

 

[xaval]

I'd guess that the rattling is certainly due to something that shouldn't be loose inside. If you are under a return period it's probably safer to follow that route. This cans certainly have bass although they sound "terrible" without burn in - about 400 hours in my case until they settled in. Poking holes is a warranty voider for sure.

 

[fiyace]

I got them for Christmas of 2012, not sure how I might be able to return them or where necessarily (I think they were from Amazon). Also, they've received WELL over 400 hours of burn in time. I listen to music for 3 hours a day, and when I'm not listening, leave a music player going with the headphones plugged in (or I did for the first month at least), and sleep a few times a week with music playing all night long. Through all that, the sound has gotten a little bit crisper, the mids and highs more defined, but the bass has remained entirely unchanged.

 

[fiyace]

Just got the phones back today and decided I'd have a look inside if just to see if I could find what was loose. Took off the pads (which by the way, I have no idea how to properly get them back on) and tried to unscrew the the 3 screws holding the plate down, and have entirely failed. It seems to be that literally every screw was "stripped" before my attempts, so despite trying 3 different screwdrivers (which I use for building computers, so I know the screwdrivers work for screws of this exact size), I cannot seem to get a single screw out. Are they supposed to be this literally impossible to take out or do they require screwdriver specific to these headphones? Perhaps this has something to do with the general defection my cans are exhibiting?

 

[xaval]

I stole this pic from the 1st page. Just to make sure what we're talking about here, I signaled the 3 screw areas - there are the ones to unscrew.
 
 

 
I'm not aware of any physical impossibility on taking them out. Do they at least rotate with the screwdriver? Try using a magnetic one, as when they get mowed you just pull them out. See if this works.

 

[fiyace]

Those were the three screws I attempted to remove, and was unable to do so on both the left and right side. I tried 3 different screwdrivers and none worked. The screws don't rotate at all, and importantly, neither do they even "catch" the 'driver. It's as if they've been stripped on the inside and are totally rounded out... though I have not tried a magnetic 'driver so I'll get one tomorrow and try again. I'll report back and let you know if I made any progress. 
 
In a related matter - would you suggest just trying to return them for a new pair? Someone mentioned they had a 5 year warranty and I'm curious if all Ultrasone's (or at least this model) are guaranteed that time, irrespective of the vendor. I mentioned earlier that I got them for Christmas of 2012 and that they were an Amazon purchase. If I were to return them, would I send them to Ultrasone's HQ and will they accept? I looked on Amazon and checked with my giftor for any additional information and seemed to not find anything on the matter.
 
EDIT: Got a new screwdriver and this one finally worked! Opened up both cans and could not find any loose pieces (though I didn't expect to find any, the rattling stopped long ago), so I went forward with the procedure and exposed another hole on each side. They're immediately sounding a little bit better, though I think I may expose the rest. Before I do, is there another break in period for the bass once holes are exposed? Or will the sound adjust immediately?

 

[shake]

Quote:

 
In a related matter - would you suggest just trying to return them for a new pair? Someone mentioned they had a 5 year warranty and I'm curious if all Ultrasone's (or at least this model) are guaranteed that time, irrespective of the vendor. I mentioned earlier that I got them for Christmas of 2012 and that they were an Amazon purchase. If I were to return them, would I send them to Ultrasone's HQ and will they accept? I looked on Amazon and checked with my giftor for any additional information and seemed to not find anything on the matter.
 
EDIT: Got a new screwdriver and this one finally worked! Opened up both cans and could not find any loose pieces (though I didn't expect to find any, the rattling stopped long ago), so I went forward with the procedure and exposed another hole on each side. They're immediately sounding a little bit better, though I think I may expose the rest. Before I do, is there another break in period for the bass once holes are exposed? Or will the sound adjust immediately?

 
Doing this mod voids the warranty, but you could try to sneak a replacement through amazon.
 
There shouldn't be a special break-in period needed.
You can try to expose all the holes.  It seemed to work fine for someone else here, but for me, leaving 1 hole covered worked best.
 

 

[xaval]

Quote:

 
 
EDIT: Got a new screwdriver and this one finally worked! Opened up both cans and could not find any loose pieces (though I didn't expect to find any, the rattling stopped long ago), so I went forward with the procedure and exposed another hole on each side. They're immediately sounding a little bit better, though I think I may expose the rest. Before I do, is there another break in period for the bass once holes are exposed? Or will the sound adjust immediately?

Do you have any other headphones? I'm curious. One thing that it's hard to understand is a complaint that the 780 don't carry enough bass 

 .
 
When you mentioned the rattling I initially thought that it was either a partially loose cable or one of the diodes near the driver just fell off...

 

[fiyace]

Yes I have other headphones, just recently acquired the V Moda M80's (shocker there). IMO the comparison is not even fair. The bass in the M80s is 100000x that in my 780's. However, I do think it sounds a bit muddied and is a little too warm for my liking, but nonetheless is thunderous relative to the 780's. Even when I wore the crap headphones apple gives you with an iPod, the bass on those sounded at least 1.5x as powerful as that on my 780's. I mentioned this before, but to me, my 780s sound(ed) exactly like my desktop speakers sound, but when I unplug the subwoofer... I uncovered all of the holes on the 780's and there definitely seems to be more bass, but it feels a little bit "airy" - definitely still has the punch but rather than increasing the strength of the punch (which is what I was hoping for) it kind of fills the cans with deep, airy sound, somewhat muddying the rest of the sound. Covered one hole back up on each side and it sounds a bit less airy without losing too much umph, so I've found my eq'm for these headphones, but do still wish they had more bass. Perhaps the 580's was the way to go? 

 

[xaval]

Quote:

Yes I have other headphones, just recently acquired the V Moda M80's (shocker there). IMO the comparison is not even fair. The bass in the M80s is 100000x that in my 780's. However, I do think it sounds a bit muddied and is a little too warm for my liking, but nonetheless is thunderous relative to the 780's. Even when I wore the crap headphones apple gives you with an iPod, the bass on those sounded at least 1.5x as powerful as that on my 780's. I mentioned this before, but to me, my 780s sound(ed) exactly like my desktop speakers sound, but when I unplug the subwoofer... I uncovered all of the holes on the 780's and there definitely seems to be more bass, but it feels a little bit "airy" - definitely still has the punch but rather than increasing the strength of the punch (which is what I was hoping for) it kind of fills the cans with deep, airy sound, somewhat muddying the rest of the sound. Covered one hole back up on each side and it sounds a bit less airy without losing too much umph, so I've found my eq'm for these headphones, but do still wish they had more bass. Perhaps the 580's was the way to go? 

I just had a quick listen with my ipod stock earbuds to some electronic music and the 780s. Just a couple of seconds into a single track and I cannot even begin to relate to what you typed. Granted, my 780s are heavily damped in the cups and I'm using velours instead of the pleather pads - they sound quite different from stock. Not a single poke into the protective driver thingy. I modded the 780s to alleviate the bass and just make it more tight and even with the rest of frequencies... more balanced sound.
 
We either have totally different ear "apparatus" or something is wrong with those headphones. Or you want something entirely different regarding bass description and we're not understanding each other
 
I've never listened to the 580s.

 

[shake]

Quote:

Yes I have other headphones, just recently acquired the V Moda M80's (shocker there). IMO the comparison is not even fair. The bass in the M80s is 100000x that in my 780's. However, I do think it sounds a bit muddied and is a little too warm for my liking, but nonetheless is thunderous relative to the 780's. Even when I wore the crap headphones apple gives you with an iPod, the bass on those sounded at least 1.5x as powerful as that on my 780's. I mentioned this before, but to me, my 780s sound(ed) exactly like my desktop speakers sound, but when I unplug the subwoofer... I uncovered all of the holes on the 780's and there definitely seems to be more bass, but it feels a little bit "airy" - definitely still has the punch but rather than increasing the strength of the punch (which is what I was hoping for) it kind of fills the cans with deep, airy sound, somewhat muddying the rest of the sound. Covered one hole back up on each side and it sounds a bit less airy without losing too much umph, so I've found my eq'm for these headphones, but do still wish they had more bass. Perhaps the 580's was the way to go? 

Maybe you got a fake pair or your friend damaged the drivers.
What are you using to drive them?

 

[b43k]

Quote:

That sounds like something else could have been a factor. I don't know the extent of their RMA process, but if you had a bad wire or port causing a short, that could have lead to the issues. I've voided warranties for the sake of "free" performance more times than I can count. I've volt modded video cards, hacked up cases, drilled holes in headsets, dropped LN2 on CPUs for overclocking runs, fabricated my own heatsinks for computer parts, it's all just good fun. I'm not worried about them breaking. If they do, I'll see how nice Ultrasone are with their warranty. If they refuse, I'll see if I can fix it myself. If not, oh well. I new the risks when I started. 

Well freakin' said!  The law of attraction.... It's when you worry and your focus is on the negatives that haven't even happened yet such as: it might break, get stolen, so I need to 'sacrifice potential fun things that I could do to my stuff now but cant because..,' then my warranty will be void.... is when bad stuff starts happening.  Not to discount warranties and their worth as unforseen events do occur (for more like car insurance, home insurance, etc.), BUT if your focus is on purely the positives such as enjoying your equipment, then ultimately you will be doing things to enjoy what you have already  rather than worrying about negative things that you think might happen, which in either case, according to the universal law of attraction, will happen.    =)

 

[b43k]

Quote:

Yes I have other headphones, just recently acquired the V Moda M80's (shocker there). IMO the comparison is not even fair. The bass in the M80s is 100000x that in my 780's. However, I do think it sounds a bit muddied and is a little too warm for my liking, but nonetheless is thunderous relative to the 780's. Even when I wore the crap headphones apple gives you with an iPod, the bass on those sounded at least 1.5x as powerful as that on my 780's. I mentioned this before, but to me, my 780s sound(ed) exactly like my desktop speakers sound, but when I unplug the subwoofer... I uncovered all of the holes on the 780's and there definitely seems to be more bass, but it feels a little bit "airy" - definitely still has the punch but rather than increasing the strength of the punch (which is what I was hoping for) it kind of fills the cans with deep, airy sound, somewhat muddying the rest of the sound. Covered one hole back up on each side and it sounds a bit less airy without losing too much umph, so I've found my eq'm for these headphones, but do still wish they had more bass. Perhaps the 580's was the way to go? 

I also wonder if you have a defective pair.  I just received my pair a week ago, and in all honesty, the 780's were one of the few cans that sounded that damn good fresh out the box!  Hook them up to power and a grin would be plastered all day on my face.  
 
On the subject of voiding the warranty by removing the sticker to expose the holes on the driver, one way to exploit voiding your warranty would be to use a heat gun or even a hair dryer, and carefully heat the sticker first, then cleanly peel it right off, store that on some wax paper or sticker backing paper, and use some tape to cover up the holes necessary.  Later, if you have to return for whatever reason, just get the white circle sticker you've stored away in a safe place, lol and put it cleanly back on the driver cap.
 
Ok, now I'm going to awaken my 780's from their 'burn-in hibernation' and perform this surgery operation, lol! 
 
In the case of your 780's lacking bass, I would consider sending them in first before you do anything just to see if you have a good pair or not.

 

[xaval]

Quote:

I also wonder if you have a defective pair.  I just received my pair a week ago, and in all honesty, the 780's were one of the few cans that sounded that damn good fresh out the box!  Hook them up to power and a grin would be plastered all day on my face.  
 
On the subject of voiding the warranty by removing the sticker to expose the holes on the driver, one way to exploit voiding your warranty would be to use a heat gun or even a hair dryer, and carefully heat the sticker first, then cleanly peel it right off, store that on some wax paper or sticker backing paper, and use some tape to cover up the holes necessary.  Later, if you have to return for whatever reason, just get the white circle sticker you've stored away in a safe place, lol and put it cleanly back on the driver cap.
 
Ok, now I'm going to awaken my 780's from their 'burn-in hibernation' and perform this surgery operation, lol! 
 
In the case of your 780's lacking bass, I would consider sending them in first before you do anything just to see if you have a good pair or not.

Blowing hot wind directly onto a driver is an extremely bad idea.

 

[shake]

Quote:

On the subject of voiding the warranty by removing the sticker to expose the holes on the driver, one way to exploit voiding your warranty would be to use a heat gun or even a hair dryer, and carefully heat the sticker first, then cleanly peel it right off, store that on some wax paper or sticker backing paper, and use some tape to cover up the holes necessary.  Later, if you have to return for whatever reason, just get the white circle sticker you've stored away in a safe place, lol and put it cleanly back on the driver cap.

You have to pierce a sheet of paper to unscrew the diaphragm from the case.