[DecentLevi]

With my mod, seems like almost the opposite of yours in terms of soundstage. It seems larger than before the mod, though that could be a memory lapse. Hopefully you have some of Lyova's newest dynamat (shiny stuff) rather than the older type, because his newest type is the best. Remember before completely removing the silicon, try just removing small sections of it then closing it up again, in case just maybe that would have a positive effect. 
 
Also, IIRC, that ring of butyl in the inner earcup was determined to have a negative effect when Lyova & I were trying stuff out...?

 

[norepeat]

Hi DecentLevi,
 
I bought the receiver for hometheater before I gotten into headphone.  Didn't realize that it has a pretty good dac+headphone amp section until I tried idsd micro and e18.  I was a little disappointed that $500 idsd micro doesn't produce the same quality of sound.  Well, thanks for your recommendation, I guess portability commands a premium.  $1.5K is a little more than I am looking... I'll keep that in mind and thanks.
 
I'll try Packdemon's and your recommendation and report back.  It's prob going to be at least 2 weeks though.  

 

[norepeat]

Small update:
 
I think I resolved one problem of my moded headphone.  I think when I put back my left driver is rotated 180 degrees and also there are 2 tab on my head phone to close the holder inside my cup is detached (thanks to packdemon notice this).  After I changed these, the moded headphone is a lot better.  The improvements are:  sound no longer seems to coming from back of my head and not as dry as before.  However, most of my previous comments still true just the sound does not seem to emit from back of my head and dry.  This may sounds like small improvement but it is alot.  Original still seems to have more 3D/room feel and more texture.  I currently still prefer my original headphone.  I think it is designed to be V shaped performance and removing the bass and treble the V becomes a M.  Mid dominate and some higher bass and some frequency of mid dominates.  A little unnatural for certain songs and sounds very good for a few songs.  These results are with Dekoni pad with all ports open (or else bass is a bit weak for me).  I *think* I like the sound quality of original pad better... More listening sessions will confirm later....
 
Hope my discovery of my mistake will help some people.

 

[DecentLevi]

Quite odd your mod seems to perform so much lower than mine. Maybe if we go to the same meet sometime I'll let you compare yours to mine. Because my mod ticks all the buttons for me nicely and to me is barely even comparable to the original

 

[Packdemon]

Small update:

I think I resolved one problem of my moded headphone.  I think when I put back my left driver is rotated 180 degrees and also there are 2 tab on my head phone to close the holder inside my cup is detached (thanks to packdemon notice this).  After I changed these, the moded headphone is a lot better.  The improvements are:  sound no longer seems to coming from back of my head and not as dry as before.  However, most of my previous comments still true just the sound does not seem to emit from back of my head and dry.  This may sounds like small improvement but it is alot.  Original still seems to have more 3D/room feel and more texture.  I currently still prefer my original headphone.  I think it is designed to be V shaped performance and removing the bass and treble the V becomes a M.  Mid dominate and some higher bass and some frequency of mid dominates.  A little unnatural for certain songs and sounds very good for a few songs.  These results are with Dekoni pad with all ports open (or else bass is a bit weak for me).  I *think* I like the sound quality of original pad better... More listening sessions will confirm later....

Hope my discovery of my mistake will help some people.

Quite odd your mod seems to perform so much lower than mine. Maybe if we go to the same meet sometime I'll let you compare yours to mine. Because my mod ticks all the buttons for me nicely and to me is barely even comparable to the original

Hello,

If I recall, norepeat did say that the soundstage on my pair of headphones did sound larger than his own. Honestly, I was never going for a larger soundstage to begin with (in regards to the mod). I was rather trying to improve upon the soundstage imaging accuracy. The way I try to test the soundstage imaging accuracy, is by using this video (just remember that the microphones are placed about ~1.5-2ft above the camera shot), and I basically listen for how close the sounds are coming from their exact point of reference:

[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/2Gpl99s02Aw[/VIDEO]


Though, I think it is also interesting that many would want to retain the V-shaped sound signature with the mod. It's intent was just to make them neutral, which they did measure (at the SF meet) up to be. Having a V-shaped version of the mod while keeping the soundstage imaging accuracy might not be a bad idea though. I think I might try using the HP-200 drivers (placing them into the HP-150 body) since I heard that those have a murderous amount of treble. I can dampen them with the same mod to increase the soundstage accuracy without reducing the treble to levels where it would be neutral. Then I could keep the ports all open and use the Dekoni earpad (for better seal) to increase the bass that would have been lost from making the HP-200 closed. It might be worth a shot. Or, could alternatively remove the black foam from the HP-150 to give them more treble coming out the front while keeping the mod to reduce the treble reflections (all reflections really) coming off of the earcups. This is the foam that I am referring to:


Let me know what you guys think.

Best Regards,
Lyova Margaryan of Tru-Fi Speakers

 

[norepeat]

Hi DecentLevi,
 
I have a feeling, after fixing my prior mistake, that my moded headphone is not that much different from yours (other than bass port).  I tried Lyova's, although it is still moded differently form yours, and I still like my original better.  Maybe it's different head and/or ear... =)
 
In terms of taste, a little bit of V-shape doesn't bother me although I *think* I prefer neutral headphones.  Other headphone that I enjoy is the OPPO pm-3.  It is neutral and I think it sounds slightly better than HP150.  I don't have PM-3 so I can't compare with the mod side-by-side but I think PM-3 sounds better than the moded HP150 (for me).  I think from memory PM-3 is more neutral than moded HP150.  If you have PM-3, please compare them and let me know if you think the same way. 
 
As for meets, I am probably not able to go.  My wife complains about the last HeadFi meet that I was out the whole afternoon and she had to take kids to their activities.  If you want, you can borrow my HP150 and we can meet somewhere and you return it to me in a few days or a week.  However, my HP150 currently has much of the ports open and rims not sealed as I like it better than sealed. I might try to seal the rims this weekends just to try.  PM me if you want to borrow.
 
Maybe you or Packdemon can ask if Tyll @ innerfidelity care to measure your headphone and publish it?  Although I found some of his measurement does not represent the sonic characteristics of headphones that I hear, but it matches for some headphones....
 
norepeat

 

[Packdemon]

Hi DecentLevi,

I have a feeling, after fixing my prior mistake, that my moded headphone is not that much different from yours (other than bass port).  I tried Lyova's, although it is still moded differently form yours, and I still like my original better.  Maybe it's different head and/or ear... =)

In terms of taste, a little bit of V-shape doesn't bother me although I *think* I prefer neutral headphones.  Other headphone that I enjoy is the OPPO pm-3.  It is neutral and I think it sounds slightly better than HP150.  I don't have PM-3 so I can't compare with the mod side-by-side but I think PM-3 sounds better than the moded HP150 (for me).  I think from memory PM-3 is more neutral than moded HP150.  If you have PM-3, please compare them and let me know if you think the same way.

As for meets, I am probably not able to go.  My wife complains about the last HeadFi meet that I was out the whole afternoon and she had to take kids to their activities.  If you want, you can borrow my HP150 and we can meet somewhere and you return it to me in a few days or a week.  However, my HP150 currently has much of the ports open and rims not sealed as I like it better than sealed. I might try to seal the rims this weekends just to try.  PM me if you want to borrow.

Maybe you or Packdemon can ask if Tyll @ innerfidelity care to measure your headphone and publish it?  Although I found some of his measurement does not represent the sonic characteristics of headphones that I hear, but it matches for some headphones....

norepeat

Hello norepeat,

I did get my headphones measured (both compensated and raw), and they did measure to be neutral, aside from bass because I like to keep my ports open personally (I can close them to make them neutral though). I also measured unmodified HP-150s which were certainly not neutral, proving to have the V-shaped soundsignature they are advertised to have. Since you didn't like the way my headphones sound, but also think that the originals lack mids. It my guess that your true preference might be somewhere in between; almost neutral with a slight V-shaped bias. To achieve that slight V-shape, we'll need to preform a balancing act trying to balance the levels of bass and treble until we get them right where we want them. We can do this by removing the foam disc filter infront of the driver to increase the overall treble, and if it's too much, then we can reduce some of the negative phase treble by putting cotton pads on top of the dampening material on the earcups. While for the bass you open/close the ports to get the right amount of bass. I have a cousin who likes headphones that are mostly neutral (but with a slight V-shaped bias) that I can have test out some mod variations for me to see if we can get the desired effect. If that goes well, then perhaps I'll contact Tyll @ innerfidelity (or perhaps the guys I know over at Massdrop) to measure and publish the results of the headphones for all to see.

Best Regards,
Lyova Margaryan of Tru-Fi Speakers

 

[Packdemon]

Hey guys,

I got an update on trying out the new ideas for the mods. It seems that removing the foam discs does increase the treble without it being too much, but I'm not sure if it'd be enough to satisfy norepeat. In any case, (this is just for norepeat, not users that want the headphones to be neutral) I do recommend you to remove the foam discs on your modded pair of HP-150s to give them more treble, even if only by a little.

Sincerely,
Lyova Margaryan of Tru-Fi Speakers