[soundslikebliss]

Never mind!  I figured it out.  For anyone who'd like to know: simply squeeze the edge of the cushions inward, and they should pop out quite easily.  

 

[FatTeemo]

  Someone want to take one for the team and do the felt removal mod? Maybe perhaps if you're one that doesn't use it much and wish it had a bit more bass? No it doesn't make them bass heavy! Closer to my idea of neutral.
 
All it takes is removal of the felt on the back of the driver with a tiny square of bounty. The entire magnet. I think this is what holds back the bass and the sound.
 
It's much less thin, a lot clearer and with a better soundstage (no idea how). Even the treble is smoothed out. Maybe it was over-dampened to begin with? I'm sure KRK knew about every little thing inside and what it did to the sound.
Right now it seems flatter than my modded HD-600, Q701 and DJ100. I would say it's probably close in sound to my modded HD-600! Just ignore the idea of what the HD-600 sounds like or you'll get the wrong impression

The modded 8400 sounds like a much fuller sounding Q701 with slightly smoother treble. The soundstage sounds like a semi-open headphone with the right music.
I actually think the modded 8400 is even more detailed and clearer than the Q701. Maybe even better bass.
 
You ever have a headphone you listen to so much and keep telling yourself you can't believe how good it sounds? That only happened with me for two headphones so far.
I get that with my Q701 sometimes. Maybe with the modded HD-580. With my DJ100 it's every time I listen to it

It's usually when my ears are telling my brain the headphones signature is perfect.
 
I think someone really needs to measure these modded and compare them with something more high end like the the SRH-1840 or whatever.
I was thinking of sending a pair to Purrin or Tyll if they're interested in measuring them. I swear that if they don't measure flat or close, then i'll retire from all this non-sense because my ears are no good.
I think the treble now would even be OK for someone sensitive to treble. Previously they were more treble happy than the Q701, but not now. About the same or a little less.
 
I think with a stupid simple 5 minute mod the issues some people have with them can be fixed. I just don't know if people will like the resulting sound as much as I do.
 
BTW they sound very similar with my Headroom Micro Amp and ODAC as they do with my Clip+. The Clip+ makes them a tad warmer it seems, which is perfect. Not a huge difference. Obviously the ODAC improves them in a few other areas, but very minor differences.
 
Oh yeah...the KRK KNS-8400 is not analytical at all now. Very balanced and still musical.
 
OK off to try these with Skyrim..

 
This was written 3 years ago, but I gave the mod a shot since I do find the bass lacking a little punch. I tried three things. First I tried the paper towel as tdockweiler suggested. The soundstage is bigger and the bass is way too boomy. I went and bought a slightly thinner piece of felt. Bass is puncher than stock and not boomy, but the soundstage is too small. Then I decided to cut up a curad antiviral mask to get the blue filter cloth/paper that's sandwiched inside.
 
At first, I tried two layers of the blue material because one layer was as thin as the paper towel and I figured it would be boomy again. With two layers, the sound is like stock while being slightly muffled. I cleaned off all the material and the glue and glued just one layer of the blue material on the back of the driver. This time it's close to perfect. The soundstage is bigger than stock and the bass is punchier than stock without being boomy. I also seem to be able to hear a bit more detail in the midrange and treble, but I'm not sure. I still find the bass lacking some detail compared to my hd 700s, but I am satisfied for now.
 
Edit: After listening for a while with the mod, I must say I'm very satisfied. These headphones might not be good for monitoring after the mod, but they sound more musical.

 

[carldun]

This or the Sennheiser HD598cs?

 

[roladyzator]

Someone want to take one for the team and do the felt removal mod? Maybe perhaps if you're one that doesn't use it much and wish it had a bit more bass? No it doesn't make them bass heavy! Closer to my idea of neutral.

All it takes is removal of the felt on the back of the driver with a tiny square of bounty. The entire magnet. I think this is what holds back the bass and the sound.

I've been trying out various mods since few days and found results promising but haven't decided in whether to keep the mods.

First I removed the felt completely. Without it, the mods and treble were recessed and bass was all around the place buy it lacked proper impact.

Added a piece of paper towel (2-layer variant).
I was very surprised to find the bass much more present in both sub and mid-bass regions. I'd say it was generally of lesser clarity and impact than on DT150, with less sub-bass and more mid-bass in comparison.

The midrange didn't change for me really, but the treble was much softer. So the snares, cymbals and FX in electronic music went to the background while still retaining nice detail and some sparkle. Similar to DT150 but perhaps more even. In DT150 the highs sometimes seem to be lowpass filtered, somewhat uneven but with modded 8400 they didn't seem to have such issues.

The soundstage opened up and resembled DT150: bass fills the entire space, midrange is in front of you but not shouting in your ears, treble is in tjr background, serving as decoration rather than the main feature of those headphones as before the mod. This helps in bulidng a sense of depth but it does take away from the engaging up-front signature they used to have.

What surprised me even more is that now some sounds in the bass region seemed to resonate and had much longer decay than before. It sounded quite pleasant, adding to the sense of harmony but I don't think it was realistic. If I could have gotten rid of the slight unevenness in bass and get a bit more treble, that wpuld have been perfect.

Decided to try with two more tiny sheets of paper towel, the sound was now close to stock, with a bit more sub-bass and perhaps only slightly distany sounding mids and highs. Not so sure if I'm not imagining things.

So I removed the paper towel and tried two layers of interfacing. Resulting sound was close to 1 sheet of paper towel with I think stronger sub-bass but ultimately muddy sound in bass.

Not sure what to try next. I'd like to try with 1 or 3 layers of interfacing or mix interfacing with paper towel. Perhaps I could punch some holes in the PT over the holes in the magnet area. Not sure what do about the port on the back of the driver enclosure (the one with 3 tiny screws).

I'll be back to modding them in a week and will keep you posted. So far I liked the single sheet of paper towel mod best.

 

[roladyzator]

I eventually got back to the stock. What I really like about the stock sound is the "lifelikeness".
By that I mean that certain sounds which don't have much bass content sound just right to my ears on the KRKs.

This includes acoustic instruments, flutes but I am most impressed by all sort of background sounds in decently produced electronic music.
Things like water, wind blowing, fields recordings mixed in with the music sound very convincing.
This is also what makes them very nice for gaming. I often found myself just wandering around with no purpose in Witcher 3 just listening to how well the environment sound is presented in this game.

The DT150 do not give me this "being there" sensation, even though I do enjoy their full bodied sound and would rather recommend them instead of KRKs for the average listener.

 

[roladyzator]

I recently got the Mee Pinnacle P1 IEMs.

I was looking for new headphones with the purpose of good detail and soundstaging to use for gaming but in the end decided to use IEMs because of isolation and portability.

The P1 are better than KNS 8400 in almost every aspect:
- There is slightly more bass presence in P1. Not much, though. It responds very well to bass boost EQ, though!
- The treble is more sparkling, all high hats, cymbals etc. sound more lively and pronounced.
- There is undoubtedly more sense of resolution on P1. Each sound feels more separated from the background than in KRKs.
- The soundstage is great for an IEM. I really can't compare the two in this regard but I am very satisfied by P1s.

There is a sense of holography I like the KRKs for BUT the treble seems a bit too much for me.
Not in the way it is unpleasant - it sounds fantastic but I think some degree of naturalness of the sound is lost because of this.
Like there is a sensation that there is more sparkle and treble energy than there should have been, even if it does make almost everything I listened to subjectively better.
They are also better for gaming thanks to more precise imaging. Especially it is easier on P1s to figure out the sound coming from behind you when using an Astro Mixamp.