[thesmokingman]

^^Yea I see it.


Here are my MA900 as they are today.

Everything removed

Bass lens applied

Outer cover installed

Reassembled and showing underside of foam driver pad

 

[dogears]

wow, completely different felt pad
and looks like i dont have that kind of bass lens
thanks for the pics - very enlightening

 

[dogears]

no serial numbers on these huh?

 

[thesmokingman]

no serial numbers on these huh?

Probably on the box but I can't remember where it is in the attic.

What does your bass lens look like? Regardless, I highly recommend yall remove that thick driver pad!

 

[dogears]

no bass lens and no more felt cover on mine.
i'll play w a DIY bass lens when i get the chance.

 

[dogears]

your bass lens - is it made of foam or felt? tia

 

[thesmokingman]

your bass lens - is it made of foam or felt? tia

Thin layer of felt, and the outside edge has a thin strip of glue.

 

[dogears]

apparently the bass lens is there. only glued so well on the felt 'cover'.

 

[Sp12er3]

hrmm.. Prefer to keep the current stock sound of my MA900 currently, when I'm in mood for a different sound, I'd just pick up my K702 or A3.
Talking about possible replacement though, the Amiron Home sound promising.. Just tried it the other day and its quite something.. From its build especially is quite an upgrade, feels solid and luxurious..
Now either that or the Z7 is the question.

 

[vidzegg]

I started a new thread but have not gotten any response so i am copying the same question here.

"I am a semi audiophile and have tried a few headphones in the past ( SRH 840, ATH- M50, DT 990 pro, Pioneer MJ 591, IEMs like DBA-02 mk II, MEElectronics A161P, UE 600v etc). I have settled down on Sony MA 900 with E17 for everyday use (mainstream music, you tube videos, movies) for last couple of years because i like its comfort, open soundstage and warm sound.

Now, i can afford more high end headphones and so upgraded to HD650. To my surprise, i did not like it much because of really small sound stage and returned it a few days. After some more research, I ordered Koss ESP 950. I must say that i liked the electrostatic clarity and mid focused sound. It also has decent sound stage. However, It is somewhat lacking in bass and I find myself going back to MA 900 especially for movies.

So my question is, what would be real upgrade from MA 900 ? its proving harder than i thought.
My priorities are comfort, quality bass, nice mids, decent amount of detail and wide sound stage. budget is 1000$

i have already ruled out LCD-2( comfort), Senn HD 800 (treble spike, analytical), PHILIPS FIDELIO X2 (mids recessed), Oppo PM1 (heavy, modest soundstage) and focal Elear ( heavy, mids hole)

Any feedback is welcome."

Just FYI for those people who are looking for an audiophile grade update to MA900, I have finally found my end game headphone. I must mention that in addition to criteria mentioned above (comfort, quality bass, nice mids, decent amount of detail and wide sound stage), my music source is poor quality mp3 and youtube videos and so headphone has to be forgiving as well as not veiled... quite a difficult combination. Also, my budget went up significantly as I had some disposable money.

Here is short version of the my odyssey where i bought and tried various headphones before stumbling on to the perfect headphone for me.

1. HD800S (detailed but lean,still not enough bass, no fun)
2. Sony MDR Z1R (Tyll is spot on, its not worth the money, veiled,congested, poor clarity, mids recessed, very disappointing from Sony)
3. Ether Flows (good bass and clarity but start hurting after 30 minutes due to treble, cant listen for more than hour, also feel heavy at times)
4. Koss ESP 950 ( great mids, lack bass, cumbersome set up and minor issues)

I even bought a powerful Marantz HD DAC1 amp from local crutchfield to power these headphones.

But the winner is Hifiman Edition X V2.

I was about the give up this hobby as I was fed up with reading hundreds of pages about too detailed,treble heavy high end headphones that are simply harsh for low quality music files and need extra amp. I love music but I am not an audiophile and I dont listen to high quality audio. I like to watch music videos on youtube which at best have audio quality of 128 kHz. I dont have walkman or other MP3 players and my set up is very simple, laptop with Fiio E17 as DAC/Amp ( it was good enough for MA900). Basically, I just wanted a better MA900 and was surprised to find that meeting all these criteria was not that easy despite how much cash i was willing to shell out.

Hifiman Edition X V2 was last ditch effort as i read about it on a related forum.

I have been trying it now for more than a week and I can confidently say that it improves on all aspect of MA900 (clear natural sound, much much more detail, nice bass, smooth mids and highs, wide soundstage, musical, not harsh). Biggest surprise was that despite being 400gm, it is more comfortable for me than MA900 because, first, weight is very well distributed but more importantly, V2 has deeper ear pads and my ear does not touch the driver like in MA900. I can keep it on for hours and it just disappears on my head lying down. I am amazed as I was not a fan of heavy headphones.

Few other points.

1. using a powerful amp may be counterproductive. Hifiman means it when they say that It is made for portable devices and is very easy to drive with resistance of 25 ohm. My Marantz HD DAC1 expanded the soundstage and sound was clean but distant and lacked impact. Luckily, I plugged it straight into my laptop and suddenly, It was magic. sound became a little intimate and tickled my ears pleasantly. It got even better with E17 which is a small portable amp.
2. Good for movies due to bass and soundstage, just like MA900
3. So balanced that i did not even need EQ

This is it for now. I can write a lot but you get the idea. This hobby can be insane with endless search amid so much confusion. I am glad that I am out, for now.

 

[Sp12er3]

Once again people can have differing opinion despite having similar benchmark, my experience on the Z1R is quite different than yours, IMO it has very dynamic bass with relaxed tonality, mids is definitely forward, no impression of pushed out vocal whatsoever. Detail is there, at least as much as my K702 but without sounding cold nor harsh.. It also has a big soundstage and very airy for a closed back IMO..
Drawback is soundstage is still smaller and it has just a touch of sibilance on some vocal songs. Also not as analogue sounding as the MA900. Other than that Its perfect.
All that from my fiio Q1 which has the same DAC chip as the E17.
Maybe its the different music genre? Mine is mostly jpop, jazz, acoustic as staple, with a bit of classical sometimes, also am mostly bitrate agnostic and care more about mastering (which I know jpop is quite poor at, but hey I still love them).

 

[vidzegg]

Once again people can have differing opinion despite having similar benchmark, my experience on the Z1R is quite different than yours, IMO it has very dynamic bass with relaxed tonality, mids is definitely forward, no impression of pushed out vocal whatsoever. Detail is there, at least as much as my K702 but without sounding cold nor harsh.. It also has a big soundstage and very airy for a closed back IMO..
Drawback is soundstage is still smaller and it has just a touch of sibilance on some vocal songs. Also not as analogue sounding as the MA900. Other than that Its perfect.
All that from my fiio Q1 which has the same DAC chip as the E17.
Maybe its the different music genre? Mine is mostly jpop, jazz, acoustic as staple, with a bit of classical sometimes, also am mostly bitrate agnostic and care more about mastering (which I know jpop is quite poor at, but hey I still love them).

To be honest, my time with Z1R and HD800 was just half hour each in Crutchfield Demo room so I really cant definitely define their sound signatures. But they were not as impressive as Ether flow which I actually bought but had to return in 2 weeks due to treble issues that i did not realize during test listening. I really had high hopes from Z1R as my end game headphone ( I dismissed Tyll's critical review) and I was willing to give up some clarity for pleasing and forgiving sound signature but it did not sound impressive to me. I compared it at the spot with MA900 and mids seemed a little distant and soundstage was more closed in (as you would expect for a closed can). May be I was expecting too much given that its 10 times more expensive than MA900 but frankly, MA900 sounded better to me during the brief comparison.

But my brief experience with different DAC/AMPs ( I also demoed TEAC UD 503, Audeze Deckard and Sony PHA3) has taught me that they make a big difference and I think that Z1R with right set up may sound great.

 

[dogears]

we.all.hear.differently
don't forget that. congrats on your discovery!

 

[Sp12er3]

I know that... I'm just curious about this seemingly very controversial headphone in the form of the Z1R... the thread about it is still locked because of.... noise.

 

[wazzupi]

where do I find a pair of MA900s now ;(