[Allanmarcus]

I purchased a used TH900 MKII. I found the treble mostly unbearable, with strong sibilance, even after performing all of the EZ mods, (including rotating the white stuffing in the cup). Some vocal recordings on YouTube were painful to listen to.

I wanted to put an additional filter in front of the driver, so I ended up cutting a pair of circles out of Bounty paper towels. The circles are smaller than the outer diameter of the foam disc, but larger than the inner diameter. I used the paper tape to affix the paper towel filters to the back of each foam disc, pulling the paper as tight as I could while taping it down:

This, surprisingly, solved all the problems I was having with elevated treble. I don't know if there are any long-terms issues in doing this (like lint buildup), but the immediate results are very good.

Paper towels and toilet paper are commonly used to reduce treble harshness. Good find.

 

[Vonx]

Thanks to the OP and everyone who contributed to these mods! I tried positions 3 and 4 disc placement on my purplehearts, very surprised at how much a difference it made!

Position 3 brought down the highs a lot, and quieted the upper mids as well, relaxed the whole sound signature significantly. I think it actually might have brought down the highs too much for my tastes, lost some of its detail, but was really happy to hear it made such a significant difference.

Position 4 was an even bigger surprise. Had a similar level of that nice warmth found with position 3, except that it brought back some of the highs, but still not nearly as fatiguing as stock. Best balance of detail and yet also lack of fatigue I've found! It also added some warmth to the lower mids and certain guitar frequencies seem more emphasized, which has made all my rock test tracks sound the best they ever had on these headphones. I did notice that, as the OP said, parts (but only certain parts) of the mids might have been recessed, and I think those parts must be in some of the upper-mids and lower treble regions, since a few songs that I knew had borderline sibilance in the female vocals with stock settings were quite a bit harder to hear. However, it's an unevenness though, because male vocals sound the best they have had and piano and guitar have the best timbre and tonaility I've heard so far, and other parts of vocal mids were still nice and clear. Bass has noticeably more impact too. Personally I don't mind the uneveness because the overall sound is so damned nice and I only noticed that upper mid/lower treble recession on one song

Gonna try stock+ now.

 

[Vonx]

Stock + is insane. I think it has the strongest kick impact out of all the disc placements. Listened to Cosmic - Mastery on my purplehearts with ifi iCan turned 1/3rd of the way up on low gain with full bass boost mode on and could actually feel the headphones bouncing off my head from the impact of the kicks. It's also the first time I think I've tapped out from bass quantity before the other frequencies when turning it up. Insanity! This disc placement has the most soundstage and mids to my ears as well, but it could be from some of the perceived treble that came back after using position 4 #3 for a while

 

[smodtactical]

Does anyone know of a th900 driver based headphone modder that could make me a headphone using that driver?

 

[Whitigir]

No ideas, I do know the drivers are available though, and you can swap into any fostex of massdrop or the like

 

[shampoosuicide]

Tried the pad trimming mod on the Brainwavz XL Sheepskins mounted on a TH-X00. I already had the foam discs rotated to position #3 and loved the bass and soundstage, but the treble was lowered too much for my liking. Trimming the pads brought the treble back in line with the rest of the spectrum and significantly improved the clarity and airiness.

 

[nicholars]

I am going to mod my X00 mahogany in the next few days... I have the Lawton driver kit on the way, I am going to do the driver part only.

I was also going to do "foam rotate mod" and put some "shelf liner" inside the pads.

My aims are tighter bass (same quantity), smoother treble (not brighter), bigger soundstage, generally clearer etc.

Do you think my idea sounds good? Lawton driver mod + shelf liner + foam rotate mod?

Any better ideas? Or would this be a good starting point?

Also considering the Brainwavz angled sheepskin, but do these improve the sound or are they just more comfortable?

Thanks

 

[nicholars]

Tried the pad trimming mod on the Brainwavz XL Sheepskins mounted on a TH-X00. I already had the foam discs rotated to position #3 and loved the bass and soundstage, but the treble was lowered too much for my liking. Trimming the pads brought the treble back in line with the rest of the spectrum and significantly improved the clarity and airiness.

Do the Brainwavz XL sheepskin lower the treble then? Sounds like that might be something I would like. Or was it rotating the foam disk that lowered the treble?

 

[nicholars]

Also what does the medical tape on the cups achieve? Smoother treble? Should I do this on the X00?

 

[Oregonian]

I am going to mod my X00 mahogany in the next few days... I have the Lawton driver kit on the way, I am going to do the driver part only.

I was also going to do "foam rotate mod" and put some "shelf liner" inside the pads.

My aims are tighter bass (same quantity), smoother treble (not brighter), bigger soundstage, generally clearer etc.

Do you think my idea sounds good? Lawton driver mod + shelf liner + foam rotate mod?

Any better ideas? Or would this be a good starting point?

Also considering the Brainwavz angled sheepskin, but do these improve the sound or are they just more comfortable?

Thanks

Most Lawton-based mods employ a Dynamat type cup damping INSIDE the cups, not shelf liner in the pads. Must be for treble reduction? Interesting................

 

[nicholars]

I read it in this thread, I thought it meant between the pads and the metal part, but actually they were putting it over the driver... I think I would rather try other methods, before resorting to putting something in front of the driver.

What does the medical tape in the cup achieve? Would that smooth the treble?

 

[nicholars]

So for my improvements that I listed above on X00, cleaner bass, smoother treble, are the two main ones, any other improvements would also be nice.. would the following be a good place to start?

Lawton mod on drivers only.
Medical tape in cups
Move foam disk to position #2

Does this sound like a good way to go about it?

 

[Roll]

So for my improvements that I listed above on X00, cleaner bass, smoother treble, are the two main ones, any other improvements would also be nice.. would the following be a good place to start?

Lawton mod on drivers only.
Medical tape in cups
Move foam disk to position #2

Does this sound like a good way to go about it?

U could also try the software before doing above - Sonarworks

 

[nicholars]

U could also try the software before doing above - Sonarworks

I have already tried EQ them, but I would like to get some improvements to the sound without EQ if possible.

 

[nicholars]

Hm interesting... on my X00 Mahogany, I just tried all of the foam positions, as well as some other mods..

Lawton mod on drivers
Foam rotate #2
Pad trimming mod

Overall I would say quite a big improvement from the "stock" sound, not sure I will do anything to the cups as these are pretty damn good like this. Certainly better than the stock sound.

Lawton mod on drivers made them generally cleaner and better sounding.

Pad trimming not sure but seems to make them sound "bigger"

Overall pretty significant improvement for about 1 hour of effort. I would not be surprised if these actually sound better than stock Ebony or Teak.