[Henery]

DT 480 deserves it´s own thread. Let´s discuss all aspects of this maginificent headphone. Feel free to post mod suggestions and impressions about sound etc. I´ll start by describing how i have modded my pair. So i bought DT 150 earpads, put some felt and sorbothane damping pieces inside earcups and installed 5 mm long papertubes on front grill for 6 outer holes + center hole. IMO it makes the sound clearer, faster and better controlled. On natural recordings instruments sound spookily real. With these mods DT 480 produces transients with natural weight and kick. Even with bright recordings it doesn´t fatique my ears. Don´t get me wrong, DT 480 is not euphonic sounding headphone. It can sound dry and lifeless if the recording is made like that. It does not do subbass like Audioquest Nighthawk does, but it has smoother treble and more precise imaging.
 


 
Papertubes on DT 48. Bluetak helps absorbing reflections.

 
 
I will someday post images inside earcups to show what i have done there. Papertubes were made by rolling and glueing 5mm x abour 9 cm piece of paper around some rod that is slightly larger than those holes on front grill. Use bluetak to keep those tubes steady.
 
For more impressions of using sorbothane damping, go here --> http://www.head-fi.org/t/744839/damping-mechanical-energy-distortion-of-stax-and-other-phones-with-sorbothane-and-other-materials

 

[SHAMuuu]

Dude LOL
 
I had similar idea (albeit fatter tubes) when looking at my UFO+ (hahah bluedio, hahah ok i get it, i get it) I assue you its not my only can. But its so cool to see that.

 
I wanted to seperate the tweeters and mids and such. 6 drivers per side.
 
I dont know if i'd do it to my dt100, i might have to try after i get bigger fatter pads, because the stock pads are very shallow and touch the driver foam, which still doesn't make it all that comfy. I would imagine with fatter foam i can get the driver foam and it wouldn't smack the tubes with my ear.
 
Look forward to see how many people speak of this dt480. I only learned a few weeks ago from another user on here that it has the dt48 driver.
 
BRO, THAT IS SOME HARDCORE MODDING

 

[kman1211]

Nice to see a DT 480 thread. My modding is very simple, but I don't have many materials, and well honestly been lazy with it, but this works well for me, just need to replace the Brainwavz hybrids as it doesn't work well with bass, thus stacked pads(stock pads on top of brainwavz) to make the bass good. I have a rarer 25 ohm, which does sound a bit different than the 200 ohm. That tube thing is pretty crazy, curious if anyone else has modded these. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Henery]

I added sorbothane damping, two felt layers (inside and outside), 1,5 cm papertubes and stock earpads over DT 150 pads. Soundstage is bigger and bass extension is better. Techno sounds very good with these, there´s great controll and extension on bass. Actually whole frequency range is has great impact. I have to say that putting stock pads over DT 150 pads makes these the most comfortable headphones i currently have. Sorbothane damping is propably overkill on this case because driver cylinder seems to be very sturdy.
 

 

[kman1211]

Review of my DT 480, modding is of course still a work in progress, need to work on the pads for obvious reasons. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/beyerdynamic-dt-480/reviews/18271#comments-title

 

[Henery]

 
This is my latest mod. I removed the tube thing because it was coloring the sound. Then i got an idea: DT 150 earpads leather is supposed to isolate, so soundwaves must reflect off of its surface. I decided to to a destructive mod and cutted portions of innersides of DT 150 earpads. You can see that foam in that image. It works wonders. Sound has more room to breathe. Bass has better punch, soundstage is bigger, whole frequency range has more punch. It sounds clearer and depth perception has also improved. It sounds much more open. I guess that if you put DT 150 or HM5 earpads to DT 48, it would do similar improvements to it´s sound. I also improved my earpads taping so that the original 480 pad doesnt slip off over 150 pads. Right now i´m very happy with the results. DT 480 has exceeded my expectations. If you have friends who are looking for extremely price/quality ratio phones (and don´t demand overblown bass) and are not afraid to mod it, give them a listen and recommend these.
 
Some songs i use to test DT 480 mods:
 
Allan Taylor - Colour to the moon

 
DT 480 absolutely shines with quitars here. Quitar plucks have power and air. Allan´s voice is a little bit lifeless though.
 
Dj Quicksilver - Techno macht spass

 
IMO this is good track to simultaneusly test bass controll and hi-hat resolving capability. No problem for DT 480.
 
Halloween theme by John Carpenter
 
 
John Carpenter is genius. So simple yet so scary theme song. My latest mods really let DT 480 to reproduce the ambience and piano simultaneously without muddying them both.
 
PS. do yourself a favor and watch the movie. Halloween is sitll considered by many to be the one horror movie which others are compared.

 

[LaCuffia]

I recently got a DT-480 in pretty good condition (the 200 ohm version).  The stock pads were not that worn out but the sound was still not ideal.   I realize you need a very tight seal to get a fuller and richer sound, especially in the bass region.  Otherwise it just sounds like a transistor radio.  
 
So I have DT-150 pads on them (not on top of stock pads though), and placed some ordinary felt on the drivers.   Sounds really nice now - they offer extreme clarity, and while the bass is still on the lean side, it is tight and clean sounding. 
 
Question - is there a better material than felt that can be placed over the driver that offer better acoustic properties?    What I have now is just felt you get from a craft store.  I don't want to go too crazy with mods though, at least not anything that would require me to open up the drivers.
 
Unfortunately, the pad size is so different from most headphones that there are not many options.  I don't know of any other pad other than those produced by Beyerdynamic that are this shape. 

 

[Henery]

I would like to see these being measured by Tyll. DT 480 (preferably modded) owner(s) living in USA could send pair of these to him. Tyll has already measured multiple vintage HP´s. I think these should measure quite well. I live in Finland, so it isn´t feasible for me to send my pair there.

 

[Henery]

I sent some e-mail to Beyerdynamic and asked some questions about DT 480. I wanted to know when serial number 05568 was made and why one of the holes on the front grill is larger than others. Unfortunately they said that they dont have any documents of DT 480. Too bad. Also, it seems that some of you own DT 480 with rough finish on earcups. My pair has smooth finish. Can everybody in this thread share their pairs surface finish and serial number? I also recently changed both front and rear damping from black felt to cottonpad pieces. They seem to have even better absorbtion capabilites.

 

[kman1211]

Mine has a black rough finish(like what's found on the black DT 100), it's 25 ohms, and has a serial number of 18535. The 200 ohm I had, had a dark grey smooth finish, don't know it's serial number. Tonally I found the 25 ohm pair brighter than the 200 ohm version.

 

[LaCuffia]

Mine is serial 21007. Smooth finish and 200 ohm.

 

[Henery]

I recently visited two hifidealers. Both times my source was Samsung Galaxy S2. On the first visit, i brought DT 480 with me. That hifishop had T1.2 and T70. They also had AKG Q90 and few others. Well, DT 480 compared exeptionally well to others. Both Tesla Beyers didn´t have any extra detail despite having boosted treble and advanced Tesla magnets. They started to hurt my ears quite quickly. T1.2 had slightly deeper soundstage due to angled drivers. Q90 has more subbass, but otherwise it doesn´t match DT 480.

On the other hifishop, i compared DT 480 to AKG K550 (about 150 euros) and B&W P9 (900 euros). This time i didn´t have DT 480 with me. AKG sounded exciting, but got quickly fatiquing. Sounded quite open for closed headphone though. P9 was overall better than K550, but not better than DT 480. P9 (angled drivers) didn´t get fatiquing as quickly and its soundstage was slightly accurate and bigger than with K550. K550 and P9 had more subbbass than DT 480, but their quality was not better. DT 480 had tighter bass than those two. DT 480 has smoothest sound compared to others and better resolution. Soundstage is also more accurate than with P9. All in all, i´m extremely satisfied with DT 480. It really has exceeded my expectations. Eugen Beyer really nailed the engineering of this driver.

 

[SHAMuuu]

I recently visited two hifidealers. Both times my source was Samsung Galaxy S2. On the first visit, i brought DT 480 with me. That hifishop had T1.2 and T70. They also had AKG Q90 and few others. Well, DT 480 compared exeptionally well to others. Both Tesla Beyers didn´t have any extra detail despite having boosted treble and advanced Tesla magnets. They started to hurt my ears quite quickly. T1.2 had slightly deeper soundstage due to angled drivers. Q90 has more subbass, but otherwise it doesn´t match DT 480.

On the other hifishop, i compared DT 480 to AKG K550 (about 150 euros) and B&W P9 (900 euros). This time i didn´t have DT 480 with me. AKG sounded exciting, but got quickly fatiquing. Sounded quite open for closed headphone though. P9 was overall better than K550, but not better than DT 480. P9 (angled drivers) didn´t get fatiquing as quickly and its soundstage was slightly accurate and bigger than with K550. K550 and P9 had more subbbass than DT 480, but their quality was not better. DT 480 had tighter bass than those two. DT 480 has smoothest sound compared to others and better resolution. Soundstage is also more accurate than with P9. All in all, i´m extremely satisfied with DT 480. It really has exceeded my expectations. Eugen Beyer really nailed the engineering of this driver.

DO dt48 drivers fit into these or driver available anywhere (dt100/150 drivers) fit?

 

[Henery]

DT 480 driver baffle is not modular like DT 100/150. Driver is glued on the baffle. Trying to remove drivers from DT 480 is bad idea. This driver fitting thing got me thinking if it is possible to fit Tesla drivers to DT 100/150?

 

[SHAMuuu]

DT 480 driver baffle is not modular like DT 100/150. Driver is glued on the baffle. Trying to remove drivers from DT 480 is bad idea. This driver fitting thing got me thinking if it is possible to fit Tesla drivers to DT 100/150?

Grrr, thats not good news with one functional driver. I suppose with headphones, its easy to get a driver glued in, but hard to get one with good sound. I would imagine a dt1350 with its cups could be glued in and work fine. ? But i'm hoping its a wire issue. My ears need to hear dt480 Magic . dt48 drivers surley can be glued in? Guess i'll put this in the "long term project can" bin while enjoying one side of it.