[emergencylies]

Quick question on the surgical tape mod - is it removable?

 

[thesmokingman]

  Quick question on the surgical tape mod - is it removable?

 
Yea, just hope you didn't put any on the back of the driver which is already lined with paper. You'll run the chance of peeling that too so be slow and careful. That said, its just paper so peel slowly and it should be ok. The only thing I use tape for is as a sheath to cover the wiring and even that isn't needed.
 

  I would not recommend removing surgical tape. Thesmokingman had foam instead of tape he had removed, and it looks like some of it was left behind. A typical surgical tape mod is flat against the walls of the inside of the cup. They allow plenty of room for the air filter material I'd think. It has a different role. If not mistaken, the air filter cleans up the lower end while the tape tames actual reflections off the inner plastic that can give the headphones a ringing in the midrange.

At least that's my experience. The bass didn't reduce at all with the tape, but the honk and ringing I'd heard around 800 hz to 2 khz. Tightening up the stuff below that with the air filter material could make that area more noticeable. A way to hear the ringing I'm talking about is to put your thumbs over the vent holes on the outside of the ear cups when listening to music. This cuts the bass and those frequencies become more prominent, and it's not a fun sound at all then.

 
 
When I removed the acoustic foam from my cups, I left the remnants of the adhesive because it's acoustically invisible. If I really was ocd, some rubbing alcohol would make quick work of the weak adhesive, not to mention just rubbing it off with my finger. The cups are also plastic so the alcohol would do nothing to them. As for the tape, it is like acoustic fiber fill imo. I don't think the tape does much because it's not suspended in the chamber and you'd need a lot more of it to mimic fiber fill. Coincidentally you don't want to use fiber fill in a ported enclosure for obvious reasons. The tape in this application is being used to dampen the cups which I don't think is ideal as it has no surface area to it.

 

[Mark Up]

You're right about the limitations of the tape, but the reason I stated, which is mid range frequencies bouncing off the stark plastic cups, is indeed something it fixes. I would've sold these cans by now if I didn't do that mod, it reduced a mid range peak around 1 kHz by at least 3 dB or more.

 

[emergencylies]

Well, I'll started the tape mod, and if I don't like it I can try  a variety of other materials. It just seemed like an easy first step for a beginning like me. I don't even know what excessive dampening can do, or how to get the frequency response I like, so it will have to be trial and error.
 
Are these drivers angled towards the back of your head or did I reinstall them in backwards>

 

[emergencylies]

Damn! Sub bass. I will admit I was skeptical that the surgical tape mod would add tangible sub bass to this HP, but it totally does and I love it! Mid-bass is still nice and strong, too, just not quite as strong as before.

 

[Mark65]

Hi emergencylies,
 
Well, good luck and keep u posted!
 
It's my turn now to do the tape mod too,  I bought my Z7 2nd hand but absolutely brand new from eBay for a very nice price about  2 weeks ago and I've been enjoying these and comparing them to my other HP's  I have not decided which are my favourite yet. At he office i use my Focal Classic HP which is very nice too,
 
cheers, Mark

 

[Beagle]

Is there a trick to getting the Z7 pads off, or is it the usual "just pull 'em off"?

 

[thesmokingman]

  Is there a trick to getting the Z7 pads off, or is it the usual "just pull 'em off"?

 
There's a screw that holds it in place. Unscrew it and the trim ring and pad twists off revealing the driver plate. With headband at the top pull down on the pad at the bottom of the pad, you'll see the small screw.

 

[emergencylies]

Good luck with the mod. I tried the surgical tape with the Focus A pads. It really brings the vocals forward, which have been a problem spot for me so far. However, they also bring the whole upper mid range forward, which can make many songs grating. Especially problematic if you want to listen at more than modest volumes. Using them brought into focus how "stale" the music can be with the stock pads, the Focus pads seems to be faster and more engaging. I will try the foam in the stock pads next. I was thinking of the LCD cowhide pads since they seem to be very big, with a big opening.  But, of course, they are $80 so I can't really experiment. I may ask someone in the main thread to give it a tr.
 
One problem I am having is that I am getting a left-sided soundstage after the mod. It seems like the Z7 commits some sound to each driver, but if that sound has the bass, say like a drum, the bass will be entirely on the left sided. Vocals seem to be above my left eye lol. They also had a small drop (about 3 feet) which might've had an impact. Haven't dropped anything in years and I drop my new headphones!

 

[Mark Up]

 I tried the surgical tape with the Focus A pads. It really brings the vocals forward, which have been a problem spot for me so far. However, they also bring the whole upper mid range forward, which can make many songs grating. Especially problematic if you want to listen at more than modest volumes. Using them brought into focus how "stale" the music can be with the stock pads, the Focus pads seems to be faster and more engaging. I will try the foam in the stock pads next. I was thinking of the LCD cowhide pads since they seem to be very big, with a big opening.

I think it was the pads. The tape for me only tamed their ringy reflections in the midrange and maybe slightly tamed the low mids. The better wiring installed (and used externally, solid core copper) did enhance the bass a bit and it added a bit more clarity) also. How were you able to get other pads on the Sony? It seems like they cannot be very easily switched.  The shape of their pads and narrower opening appears to be a way to tame highs. I'd noticed how a review Tyll did of the Fostex TH8002 showed swapping the wide opening pads with their more narrow opening pads used on most other Fostex tamed their highs. I was thinking adding more layers of tape instead, with the original pads, would further tighten the lower mids, letting the higher mid vocal area shine. To get vocals to cut through better, it seems like the high mids are going to have to be louder overall to allow for that, causing that edge.

 

[Beagle]

   
There's a screw that holds it in place. Unscrew it and the trim ring and pad twists off revealing the driver plate. With headband at the top pull down on the pad at the bottom of the pad, you'll see the small screw.

Thank you. I'll give it a shot.

 

[emergencylies]

I wanted to share how I ended up getting my z7s to a really great place for me personally.
 
I was having problems with the upper mids and treble range after the surgical tape mod so I tried some bounty paper towel filters in front of the driver and voila they are a dream for me now. I also stuck some foam behind the earpads. While I expected the treble reduction, I got some unexpected surprises that may be mechanical or personal in nature. Between my mods I always had a problem with either male or female vocals being too far back. They are now well forward and crisp. Instruments in the midrange are sharper and detailed rather than smooth as they were in stock form. I.e. I can hear instruments at just below the detail my HEX had, though not quite as organic as on the hex. You can hear the guitars strings & other cliches. Most surprisingly, sub bass went up dramatically. I can't explain this one. It's a perfect semi downward sloping freqeuncy response I'm thinking, but the treble is still quite clear and present unlike the Nighthawk. It's just behind the vocals and instruments which is how I prefer it.
 
I did introduce a hit more sibilance, although sometimes that's hard to judge. Being less smooth, it is also less forgiving of mistakes in the playing of instruments and slightly less forgiving of bad recordings. The bass is not detailed but it has enough detail for me. Sloppy bass can be enjoyable, although it can also be a problem with certain tracks. And, while I have nice sub-bass levels, I have no sub-bass "feel" - vibrations, air. It's more like I hear the sub-bass loudly but it exists only in the chamber behind the driver.
 
I haven't found good alternatives to the paper towel in my research, certainly none that reduce treble as much. I'm not sure of changes I could make to improve the sub-bass. I was thinking of taking the surgical tape away in the flat areas around the bass port. Hell, the devil on my shoulder even told me to think about putting in another pass port. I may go try thesmokingman's dampening or other dampening materials, but I fear that may take too much bass away with the increased damping. Overall, though, I'm very happy for now and thanks to everyone in this thread for their pioneering.
 
Also, the left sided driver being dominant was not due to a fall or the mod - but after the mod I must've plugged in the left input to the right side and the right input to the left side. LOL. I was playing with them and I realize the red one was on the white side.
 
edit: Also, I'm not listening to it louder b/c of the less treble - I'm actually listening to it at lower volumes and still getting more midbass and mids, which is strange to me.

 

[emergencylies]

The Focus A Pads are about the same size as the mdr-z7's width. I removed their plastic holder so it was just the pads, and put them on instead of the Z7's pads and holder. I just let them headphone's clamp hold them in place so I could see if there was difference. It was quite easy, they didn't move around much. If I liked them I would've glued them on to the z7's holder.
 
I was also toying with the idea of the Audeze pads, since they are also very big, but wider. I thought the leather might impove the sub-bass impact.

 

[thesmokingman]

Originally Posted by emergencylies /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I haven't found good alternatives to the paper towel in my research, certainly none that reduce treble as much. I'm not sure of changes I could make to improve the sub-bass. I was thinking of taking the surgical tape away in the flat areas around the bass port. Hell, the devil on my shoulder even told me to think about putting in another pass port. I may go try thesmokingman's dampening or other dampening materials, but I fear that may take too much bass away with the increased damping.

 
Hmm, the charcoal damping improves the bass and reduces any resonances. You don't lose bass with damping and instead proper damping will enlarge the air volume allowing the driver to act like it's in a bigger space which equates to better or more bass. And with the reduced resonances the midrange/I fear you are fundamentally mixing concepts. It reads like your ears are overly sensitive to high frequencies and the towel over the driver will certainly filter the veneer off the sound for lack of the a better word. The reality is that these Z7's are already considered very warm to dark headphones depending on one's viewpoint or ears that is. I certainly understand the desire to tailor it to your individual ears but realize you are putting a filter all sound that passes thru the towel/filter. A better way of reducing the highs w/o impacting the rest of the range is to try a simple first order low pass filter. You can easily get DIP indutctors for pennies and wire one in.
 
http://www.claredot.net/en/sec-Sound/low-pass-cross-over-6dB.php

 

[emergencylies]

I''m probably mixing up and misinterpreting stuff, I'm new to this and learning as I go. I was kinda going off my ears and this thread - ">Note bass is pushed down about 3-4db". I'm definitely sensitive to treble, the towel isn't ideal but I'm guessing its 3-4dbs reduction after 4-5k hz and not much below that. I will look at setting up a pass filter when I get home.