Thanks..."discontinued" just means searching a little longer...lol. So I take it there wasnt really that much sonic beneifit?
Well I chose the 770 because it is closed back and isolates pretty good both inside and out: from what I know the 880 is a "semi open' design. As I share a "workspace" sometimes, it is *critical* that I have closed cans(WAF among top reasons..she hates my open Grados)...lol. Though admittedly I have not heard any other "decent" headphones in quite some time, I am content with the Beyer "stock" sound platform for now and look forward to many, many mods to come....
The 880s are ironically the ones that I am considering getting the wife right now in "knock-off" form(and for me to mod with "reckless abandon" of course...heh). I know this goes against my previous statement about not getting the 880 due to their semiopen nature, but the price is just too good to pass up....plus *from what I have read*, mostly here on Head-Fi many drivers can be used in both open and closed. Being the nut I am I was thinking of maybe trying some sort of aperiodic enclosure beyond just foam or felt...have to see what I have lying around....:veryevil: I'm trying to get her into the hobby some as she does enjoy/tolerate....lol, my SQ and the HT systems, but isnt quite sold on the "big clunky headphones"....yet...they work great for TV too...especially late at night. We did take a large step in the right direction just now though as I nearly forced her to listen to a few songs I know she likes on my freshly modded DT770s; and after a few more songs she wasnt giving them back too easily....lol. She finally caved under clamping pressure...lol, I prefer it pretty tight. She soon mentioned how she was mad now because she wanted a pair(she just cant believe I spent THAT much on *headphones*($179 shipped NIB)...yeah,I know....I could of spent much, MUCH more...lol; but her $20 pair of POS headphones have worked "just fine" for years, and she never uses them anyway cause they hurt her ears too much!...yeah...dont ask, just nod)...lol. If I could find a good set 250ohm or even the now defunct 600ohm 770s, I think it would be interesting to do some comparisons, and she could take over the 80s, but my budget is closer to the knock offs unless I find a smokin' deal on some higher impedance cans.
The mods you asked???....Sure I would love to tell you about them...lol....I will spare everyone the pics this time though....
I just finished converting stock 770/80 to a detachable 4pinMiniXLR(one side only like "stock" setup(I even cheated and used the stock wire to the other speaker over the headband...will switch it eventually though)...I really like the single side wire connect for "confort"/ease of movement, though technically the lengths of the wires are now different as the over the head run is longer by 8 inches or whatever( not "balanced" in any way shape or form....lol). I thought about coiling up the same amount of wire in the "connector" side can, but decided that was a "bit much" and could even affect the sound by changing the internal volume of the closed driver. Plus figured I could add the "extra" wire on the amp side by staggering the wiring to the terminals as needed to get the overall lengths the same. Does it matter? Probably not at all, or at the most be very insignificant for such a small difference in length... but hey...I can say I tried and gave my setup the best environment possible to "flourish".
Just started using my own four conductor custom terminated cable(4pXLR to 4pMXLR w/CANARE L-4E6S STAR QUAD), and my "cheapo" XLR to SE 1/8" jack "adaptor" cable(grounds tied) for the three wire headphone out from the Zpre. Even from the that same source as before, it sounds much better than the OEM cable.
I'm really in a kind of disbelief myself. I have been playing with wires on speaker setups for decades, never have I heard such a difference. I know that it isnt just in my head either(well I guess technically it is in my head...and now here....lol), but there are specific tracks I know VERY well, and I can now much better locate individuals in the soundstage and the over all tone has changed as well more detailed midrange. Additionally the noise floor seems to be much less "pronounced" in some tracks, which could be due to the shielding on the Canare cable. Less noise lets the nuances of well recorded material shine...
So now that I am back to square one(still listening through the ZPre not the CJ tube speaker amp...yet; albeit with my new "magical" cable:rolleyes: ), it is time to cut some aluminum square tubing to make my "first" resistor network....It will just run "inline" between the headphone cable and the speaker out xlr plug with surface mount XLR plugs in each end of the 7/8"(or so) square tubing(one male one female so they can only go one way).
Any opinions if that "enclosure" would help, hurt, or just plain have nothing to do with rejecting the same noise that the braided shielding is supposed to do??? ...I know the aluminum would at least electrically connect the shields, but would it still work right, or even cause problems being of a different metal than the rest of the shield? I dont want to work backwards from and have my niftly little idea for "bar stock" resistor networks cause more noise than is tolerable. My Speaker load resistor has its own aluminum heat sink surrounding the unit. I figure I can mount it to the inside of my metal resistor enclosure and access holes would act like thermal vents.
As for adding the resistance to my headphone version of Medusa....lol, I thought it might help keep the sound the same in the headphones regardless of how many are hooked up...again, just kind of a silly thought, that I have floating around as I work on my "speaker selector" and see if I can use it to access any number of amps that I might want to use..is tubes for acoustic, and SS for EDM...its all about flexibility.....
right?
Soon the CJ, then I have to pick a SS amp...too many to chose from....from there I would would have two more "inputs" for the backwards speaker selector and was thinking of someday doing a Kit tube amp/dac...but that is way down the road.....
Thanks again everyone.....my apologies for the ramble....heh...