[CopperFox]

I've now had the 580's for a few weeks and also been modding them and trying various amps.

Here are the mods that I found useful. When first unscrewing and opening the cups, my attention was caught by the 6 largish cavities in the plastic cups. Thought they would be acting as some sort of echo chambers to cause ringing so I decided to fill them by pressing memory foam into them. At first I used just small amounts of it up to the cavities' walls (first photo), but then I noticed the sound showed more improvement with larger amounts so I ended up with fairly large pieces of foam bulging up and out from the cavities (photo 2) so that the final compression is done by screwing the drivers back on.

(The memory foam material came from an old pillow that I cut up. It was the cheapest memory foam pillow that Jysk sells for about 10€, so it's fairly low density memory foam. Didn't try any other type.)

This made the sound far smoother and more refined with less shoutiness and ringing in mids and treble.

There still was some though, so I decided to also add damping material to the part of the shells' inside wall that was still exposed. So I cut pieces from a sheet of self-adhesive furniture foot felt material (width roughly 7mm, photo 3).

These two mods together pretty much eliminated shoutiness and ringing from mids and treble.


Photo 4 shows the kind of foam piece that I used for the top and bottom part of the shells. The wall between the two cavities at the top and bottom have no screw hole in them, so it's good to use a single piece of foam for them by just cutting a opening for the wall in the middle.

For the earpads I'm using the M1060/Audeze-style pads from the CP Yang store that have been recommended here before.

For amping I've tried a JDS atom, Drop/THX 789 and also my first real (non-guitar) tube amp that I received this week.
It's an OTL point-to-point tube amp with toroidial transformer and I'm using it with a Faaeal 220ohm impedance adapter. The 580's sound just incredible with this amp and they're now my favorite headphone. So I would suggest trying them with a tube amp.

 

[jasswolf]

I've now had the 580's for a few weeks and also been modding them and trying various amps.

Here are the mods that I found useful. When first unscrewing and opening the cups, my attention was caught by the 6 largish cavities in the plastic cups. Thought they would be acting as some sort of echo chambers to cause ringing so I decided to fill them by pressing memory foam into them. At first I used just small amounts of it up to the cavities' walls (first photo), but then I noticed the sound showed more improvement with larger amounts so I ended up with fairly large pieces of foam bulging up and out from the cavities (photo 2) so that the final compression is done by screwing the drivers back on.

(The memory foam material came from an old pillow that I cut up. It was the cheapest memory foam pillow that Jysk sells for about 10€, so it's fairly low density memory foam. Didn't try any other type.)

This made the sound far smoother and more refined with less shoutiness and ringing in mids and treble.

There still was some though, so I decided to also add damping material to the part of the shells' inside wall that was still exposed. So I cut pieces from a sheet of self-adhesive furniture foot felt material (width roughly 7mm, photo 3).

These two mods together pretty much eliminated shoutiness and ringing from mids and treble.


Photo 4 shows the kind of foam piece that I used for the top and bottom part of the shells. The wall between the two cavities at the top and bottom have no screw hole in them, so it's good to use a single piece of foam for them by just cutting a opening for the wall in the middle.

For the earpads I'm using the M1060/Audeze-style pads from the CP Yang store that have been recommended here before.

For amping I've tried a JDS atom, Drop/THX 789 and also my first real (non-guitar) tube amp that I received this week.
It's an OTL point-to-point tube amp with toroidial transformer built by Evgeni Chernovsky and I'm using it with a Faaeal 220ohm impendance adapter. The 580's sound just incredible with this amp and they're now my favorite headphone. So I would suggest trying them with a tube amp.

The mods make a lot of sense, thanks for posting!

How do you find the soundstage with the changes?

 

[CopperFox]

The mods make a lot of sense, thanks for posting!

How do you find the soundstage with the changes?

Without the mods there was a feeling of the sound coming from hollow boxes/cans on your head, esp.at high volumes. The mods erase this and the sound feels much more around you.

The sound signature particularly with the otl tube amp is quite fat and bassy and it has this sense of room-filling bass and sub-bass like at a live show which also contributes to a big soundstage.

The treble is slightly rolled off or relaxed. I believe this could be adjusted by trying different damping materials in the felt strip's place.

 

[stimuz]

Without the mods there was a feeling of the sound coming from hollow boxes/cans on your head, esp.at high volumes. The mods erase this and the sound feels much more around you.

The sound signature particularly with the otl tube amp is quite fat and bassy and it has this sense of room-filling bass and sub-bass like at a live show which also contributes to a big soundstage.

The treble is slightly rolled off or relaxed. I believe this could be adjusted by trying different damping materials in the felt strip's place.

yea stock vocals do sound funny, though it's great even stock for electronic and other non mid centric stuff

 

[chaotic_angel]

Thanks again for this info, though I forgot to ask: are your Fostexs modded?

only mod on the normal cable into mini xlr

 

[jasswolf]

Without the mods there was a feeling of the sound coming from hollow boxes/cans on your head, esp.at high volumes. The mods erase this and the sound feels much more around you.

The sound signature particularly with the otl tube amp is quite fat and bassy and it has this sense of room-filling bass and sub-bass like at a live show which also contributes to a big soundstage.

The treble is slightly rolled off or relaxed. I believe this could be adjusted by trying different damping materials in the felt strip's place.

Nice! Did you compare the pad change alone with the further changes, or just went straight for modding the enclosure?

 

[CopperFox]

Nice! Did you compare the pad change alone with the further changes, or just went straight for modding the enclosure?

Mods first as the pads were slow to arrive. However, as has been said here earlier, the pad change in itself does not eliminate mids/treble ring.

I will be getting more of these to mod later this year to further experiment with some things. Not taking my current set apart as I want to use it for daily listening as the sound is already so good. The bass in particular with the mods, otl tube amp and 220Ω impedance adapter is the best bass I have heard from any head gear.

 

[stimuz]

Mods first as the pads were slow to arrive. However, as has been said here earlier, the pad change in itself does not eliminate mids/treble ring.

I will be getting more of these to mod later this year to further experiment with some things. Not taking my current set apart as I want to use it for daily listening as the sound is already so good. The bass in particular with the mods, otl tube amp and 220Ω impendance adapter is the best bass I have heard from any head gear.

Yeah I ripped off the backs of one of my sets and I gotta say the bass went up a lot, like blows away my m1060c now when it was already close EQ'd. Something about the grill + attached filter definitely does weird things on its own. I might have to try your method of damping too, looks interesting. Also I don't notice the artificial mids as much swapping between headphones. I got used to it after a while, but it was jarring when going between my other headphones.

 

[Yupp]

Yeah I ripped off the backs of one of my sets and I gotta say the bass went up a lot, like blows away my m1060c now when it was already close EQ'd. Something about the grill + attached filter definitely does weird things on its own...

Great. I would take off the grills if I knew I could reliably attach a replacement grill like my 4xx (don't want to leave the driver fully exposed). Still not sure if that plastic silver ring can be reused to hold the new grill in place though, especially if it gets broken.

 

[stimuz]

Great. I would take off the grills if I knew I could reliably attach a replacement grill like my 4xx (don't want to leave the driver fully exposed). Still not sure if that plastic silver ring can be reused to hold the new grill in place though, especially if it gets broken.

You could glue it unless you snap the ring, but yea to not lose the pegs you gotta carefully go in from the back and push them out individually. Or be extremely skilled at finding the right spots to leverage them out from the front, but you will scratch the grill a bit.

On exposed driver, the driver isn't exposed. The driver enclosure had another set of dust filters on them and I don't plan on removing those.

https://imgur.com/hzQJxtE don't actually see much of a purpose in adding a new grill other than aesthetics unless you remove the dust filter from the driver, which I can't imagine is worth it unless you're hairless, petless and live in a dustless environment.

 

[Yupp]

https://imgur.com/hzQJxtE don't actually see much of a purpose in adding a new grill other than aesthetics unless you remove the dust filter from the driver...

I'm uncomfortable with the exposed wires in your pic possibly snagging on something in my bag, and yes I prefer the look of a grill. I might sit and wait till the moment grabs me before attempting silver ring removal.

 

[Yupp]

Got my pads off aliexpress (cp yang store) ...

These first ones are less deep than the M1060s with perforated inner sides.
They are terrible on the HF850: Bass increased but not in a good way; Muffled across the range, they make the cans sound like cheap garbage.

Angled sheepskin Ear Pads Premium Leather Round earpad 80MM 85 мм 90mm 95 100mm 105 110MM Headphones Perforated Soft Memory Foam

——————————

But these M1060 pads sound good:

Sheepskin Earpad For Monoprice Monolith M1060 Headphones Replacement Ear Pad

Bigger bass, treble smoothed. The result is a warmer can. I now prefer them over my HE-4xx: thicker sound across range and better clarity than 4xx.

Interestingly I tried these pads on my 4xx first and they sounded bright and harsh; the slight bass increase was swamped by a much bigger increase in mid/treble. So I thought the same would happen with the Hf850 but to my surprise they warmed: bigger bass and treble actually smoothed. (Bear in mind that less harshness comes with slightly reduced resolution). My theory is they revealed the limits of the 4xx driver. After realising this I compared the overhead of both cans (stock pads on 4xx, M1060s on HF580) at high volume with vocals and it's clear the 4xx distorts whilst the HF850 maintains clarity. So if this thinking is sound the HF580 driver is a class better than the 4xx driver.

So I'm gonna enjoy these for a while before I attempt the next step of removing the outer grills and foam-filling the cup rim cavity as other posters have done.

 

[stimuz]

Got my pads off aliexpress (cp yang store) ...

These first ones are less deep than the M1060s with perforated inner sides.
They are terrible on the HF850: Bass increased but not in a good way; Muffled across the range, they make the cans sound like cheap garbage.


Angled sheepskin Ear Pads Premium Leather Round earpad 80MM 85 мм 90mm 95 100mm 105 110MM Headphones Perforated Soft Memory Foam

——————————

But these M1060 pads sound good:

Sheepskin Earpad For Monoprice Monolith M1060 Headphones Replacement Ear Pad

Bigger bass, treble smoothed. The result is a warmer can. I now prefer them over my HE-4xx: thicker sound across range and better clarity than 4xx.

Interestingly I tried these pads on my 4xx first and they sounded bright and harsh; the slight bass increase was swamped by a much bigger increase in mid/treble. So I thought the same would happen with the Hf850 but to my surprise they warmed: bigger bass and treble actually smoothed. (Bear in mind that less harshness comes with slightly reduced resolution). My theory is they revealed the limits of the 4xx driver. After realising this I compared the overhead of both cans (stock pads on 4xx, M1060s on HF580) at high volume with vocals and it's clear the 4xx distorts whilst the HF850 maintains clarity. So if this thinking is sound the HF580 driver is a class better than the 4xx driver.

So I'm gonna enjoy these for a while before I attempt the next step of removing the outer grills and foam-filling the cup rim cavity as other posters have done.

I bought 2 pairs of those one for my m1060c(the sheepskin m1060 ones) and one to test with other headphones. I think I prefer the v1 (haven't tried v2) Aiva pads between the two but they aren't bad, just gotta actually stick them onto the locking rings or they easily come off. To be honest though, my m1060c is in my drawer and I just switch between th610, hf 580 and m350 planar iems.

edit: actually after thinking about it just went ahead and closed my m1060c again. They really are pretty fantastic closed planars and while open is a little better its a bit redundant for my current cans to have that many open planars and no closed.

 

[Yupp]

Got my pads off aliexpress (cp yang store) ...

These first ones are less deep than the M1060s with perforated inner sides.
They are terrible on the HF850: Bass increased but not in a good way; Muffled across the range, they make the cans sound like cheap garbage.


Angled sheepskin Ear Pads Premium Leather Round earpad 80MM 85 мм 90mm 95 100mm 105 110MM Headphones Perforated Soft Memory Foam

——————————

But these M1060 pads sound good:

Sheepskin Earpad For Monoprice Monolith M1060 Headphones Replacement Ear Pad

Bigger bass, treble smoothed. The result is a warmer can. I now prefer them over my HE-4xx: thicker sound across range and better clarity than 4xx...

Ummm ... embarrassed and sorry to admit this but ... after a little more listening and pad swapping ... I think those perforated pads are good too and fit better as they are smaller. So both types I bought are good. Not sure why I found them muffled; the hole is off centre, perhaps I was covering too much of the driver, dunno maybe just stupid hehe. I put the original pads back on and tbh they don't sound bad either hehe ... So my judgement is off right now. Anyways I wanted to update in fairness to manufacturer. Sorry if anyone was led astray. I need a nap ...zzz

 

[stimuz]

Ummm ... embarrassed and sorry to admit this but ... after a little more listening and pad swapping ... I think those perforated pads are good too and fit better as they are smaller. So both types I bought are good. Not sure why I found them muffled; the hole is off centre, perhaps I was covering too much of the driver, dunno maybe just stupid hehe. I put the original pads back on and tbh they don't sound bad either hehe ... So my judgement is off right now. Anyways I wanted to update in fairness to manufacturer. Sorry if anyone was led astray. I need a nap ...zzz

pads just change the sound drastically on the 580, takes a while to get used to and may sound better in some genres than others.