[Cruelhand Luke]

Simple mod to the Bosshifi H8.

Why did I do this?
I liked the sound signature of these a lot so I didn't want to change it too much. My problem with them is the same problem I have with a lot of closed headphones: When there is a lot going on (especially in the mids) there is just too much sound and imaging suffers. Like a good speaker in a lively/untreated room I'm hearing the sound come from everywhere when I want to hear it come primarily from the speaker (driver in this case). I'm new to head-fi so I don't really know how to describe this in headphone terminology. Also I found the resonance of the super thin baffle disturbing so I deadened it somewhat with plasticine.

Results:
Increased sound stage, improved imaging. Sounds more like an open headphone.
Bass quantity slight reduced. Bass quality slightly improved. Treble less piercing but still detailed (and prevalent).
This is still a U shaped headphone but tamed slightly on either end.

All you need is some plasticine/newplast (unless you want to skip step 5), a cotton ball, and a screw driver.

How to do it.
1. Remove earpads
2. Unscrew and remove baffle containing the driver.
3. Unravel/Pull apart your cotton ball.
4. Using about 25% of the cotton from your ball pull it apart until it covers most of the deeper part of the back cup
5. Take a little bit of plasticine and fill in some of the underside of the baffle using your finger. Doesn't need a lot. I did a poor job on mine but it seemed to do the job.
6. Replace and screw in baffle. Attach earpad.
7. Repeat for other side.



Just one image as this is a super simple mod.

Edit: New to the forums. That Picture was WAY too big. Think this size makes more sense and added a link if you click on it for original.

NIce post, thanks for contributing! I thought the picture was BIGGER earlier...but that was a nap and a couple of beers ago so I thought maybe it was just me...

 

[Random54]

NIce post, thanks for contributing! I thought the picture was BIGGER earlier...but that was a nap and a couple of beers ago so I thought maybe it was just me...

It was bigger. I shrunk it down and made it link to the original. Just to make things more confusing I've increased its size to something in between now. The original seemed a little ridiculous.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

Simple mod to the Bosshifi H8.

Why did I do this?
...... My problem with them is the same problem I have with a lot of closed headphones: When there is a lot going on (especially in the mids) there is just too much sound and imaging suffers. Like a good speaker in a lively/untreated room I'm hearing the sound come from everywhere when I want to hear it come primarily from the speaker (driver in this case). I'm new to head-fi so I don't really know how to describe this in headphone terminology. Also I found the resonance of the super thin baffle disturbing so I deadened it somewhat with plasticine.

Results:
Increased sound stage, improved imaging. Sounds more like an open headphone.
Bass quantity slight reduced. Bass quality slightly improved. Treble less piercing but still detailed (and prevalent).
This is still a U shaped headphone but tamed slightly on either end.

This mod is similar to what I was thinking of doing if I had actually picked up a set. (I didn't find a good deal enough on 11/11 or any of the other sales throughout the holidays)
I Was looking at pictures of the drivers and cups of a Bosshifi B8 and comparing them to the pics of the Denon MM400. It occured to me that the one of the areas that manufacturers make a compromise to save cost is in details like proper internal damping. On inexpensively made headphones most times there is a driver, mounted in a plastic housing that is then mounted onto a cup, that's it. Filters, damping, proper management of wiring, etc are often afterthoughts.
I don't have the Denons but I do have some Fidelio L2s which is a very well thought out and constructed headphone. It looks like they use similar materials/methods to control resonances: a lightweight, dense rubbery foam that they sandwich in between some kind of composite material. It seems like the purpose is to do exactly what you were seeking with your mod: control resonances so the only thing producing sound is the driver and whatever there is for the frequencies to reflect off of.
I think your mod is a good way to address this. With a wooden cup you don't mind some resonances, that's part of the fun right? But a flimsy plastic housing vibrating inside the cup can't be helpful.

 

[Random54]

This mod is similar to what I was thinking of doing if I had actually picked up a set. (I didn't find a good deal enough on 11/11 or any of the other sales throughout the holidays)
I Was looking at pictures of the drivers and cups of a Bosshifi B8 and comparing them to the pics of the Denon MM400. It occured to me that the one of the areas that manufacturers make a compromise to save cost is in details like proper internal damping. On inexpensively made headphones most times there is a driver, mounted in a plastic housing that is then mounted onto a cup, that's it. Filters, damping, proper management of wiring, etc are often afterthoughts.
I don't have the Denons but I do have some Fidelio L2s which is a very well thought out and constructed headphone. It looks like they use similar materials/methods to control resonances: a lightweight, dense rubbery foam that they sandwich in between some kind of composite material. It seems like the purpose is to do exactly what you were seeking with your mod: control resonances so the only thing producing sound is the driver and whatever there is for the frequencies to reflect off of.
I think your mod is a good way to address this. With a wooden cup you don't mind some resonances, that's part of the fun right? But a flimsy plastic housing vibrating inside the cup can't be helpful.

Agreed. The Denon's are very well thought out and tuned. If you tap on the Denon's driver housing (which is a well engineered baffle) you'll notice it has a very low resonant frequency aside from the edges which hold on the ear pad. With the earpad on even that should change. Sounds solid. The sound stage and imagining of the MM400s has always been impressive for such a tiny little headphone (they are way thinner than the B8s). I still have the mod mic magnet stuck to the side of mine from when I used them for gaming... should probably remove that.

The M8s on the other hand don't seem thought out or tuned. They look like they're made up of a bunch of good components thrown together by someone who was just trying components together and got lucky. Maybe they are a knock off of something that's only in China? From what I've read the out of the box sound quality of the B7s seems to support this. Aside from MAYBE the pads being chosen for tuning there has been nothing done to these at all. The driver housing in these seems like a well engineer shape but the execution is questionable. The plastic is very hard and thin and resonates at a very high frequency that can't help intrude on the sound. The paper that covers the adjustable porting seems like it was chosen for price rather than it's acoustic properties as well. I was prepared to go a lot further with dampening these but they don't seem to need as much as I thought they might. Despite all of this the M8s did sound quite good out of the box and I could have lived with them if they were impossible to change. That really speaks well for these drivers IMO. It took a lot less than I was expecting to make them go from good to great. At some point I may have another go at tweaking them but right now I'm just enjoying them.

Oh and I agree with you in regards to wooden cups. I don't see the point of having wooden cups and then dampening them unless you just want it for fashion or there's something terribly wrong with them.

*Edit* I think the reason the amount of dampening I did was enough is that my ear does make contact with driver housing. This along with the mesh from the ear pad is effecting the resonance enough that it's not a problem. If your ears are small enough that they don't make contact you'd have to do more work.

 

[rlisin]

So here's another hybrid project based on Philips SHL3100 drivers. I give you the PhiliDynamic Classic DT3100 (Beyerdynamic DT990 Classic/Philips SHL3100 hybrid).

In this project, I used Beyerdynamic DT990 Classic (= old version) housing. I bought these headphones for parts - drivers have been damaged by recabling job butchered by their previous owner, earpads flat (I might restuff them later), headband strip totally worn out, but the plastic parts of the headband and cups were in a good shape. I've already borrowed the yoke lock clips for my DT 330 II that came without them, so I used screws to lock the yokes in place.

Organ donor 1: Philips SHL3100 - ugly, uncomfortable but with good drivers, and very cheap. Drivers with baffles and cable are harvested from these headphones.

Organ donor 2: broken Vivanco computer headphones I found some time ago and kept for spare parts. They donate headband strip to this project.

Original earpad and driver removed from DT990 cup. I might use them in future projects.

Philips SHL3100 driver. It has a slightly (1 mm) smaller diameter than the original, but still fits well.

DT990 cup with Philips SHL3100 driver. Additional parts: newer DTXX mounting ring, foam/fabric filter and EDT 770 V earpad (I got those a while ago in a big package of used Beyerdynamic parts from disassembly of broken headphones). The headband strip has already been replaced with the one from Vivanco headphones.

New driver fitted in the cup.

Filter and mounting ring installed. They keep the new driver in place - like in the newer versions of DT990.

All that's left to do is putting the EDT 770 V earpad on. I decided to use the 770 pad because it boosts bass (unlike the 990 pad that does the opposite), which works well with this particular Philips driver.
Well, that's it, done!

The result is awesome. In terms of sound they are at least as good, maybe a bit better than my previous PhiliVox RH3100, and in terms of comfort they are on a completely different level. These headphones have all the DT990 comfort. They sound great, without overblown bass and recessed mids of DT990s. Highs are good too. I haven't directly compared them to stock DT990s, but I will. I have the 250 ohm DT990 Pro.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

So here's another hybrid project based on Philips SHL3100 drivers. I give you the PhiliDynamic Classic DT3100 (Beyerdynamic DT990 Classic/Philips SHL3100 hybrid).

In this project, I used Beyerdynamic DT990 Classic (= old version) housing. I bought these headphones for parts - drivers have been damaged by recabling job butchered by their previous owner, earpads flat (I might restuff them later), headband strip totally worn out, but the plastic parts of the headband and cups were in a good shape. I've already borrowed the yoke lock clips for my DT 330 II that came without them, so I used screws to lock the yokes in place.

Organ donor 1: Philips SHL3100 - ugly, uncomfortable but with good drivers, and very cheap. Drivers with baffles and cable are harvested from these headphones.

Organ donor 2: broken Vivanco computer headphones I found some time ago and kept for spare parts. They donate headband strip to this project.

Original earpad and driver removed from DT990 cup. I might use them in future projects.

Philips SHL3100 driver. It has a slightly (1 mm) smaller diameter than the original, but still fits well.

DT990 cup with Philips SHL3100 driver. Additional parts: newer DTXX mounting ring, foam/fabric filter and EDT 770 V earpad (I got those a while ago in a big package of used Beyerdynamic parts from disassembly of broken headphones). The headband strip has already been replaced with the one from Vivanco headphones.

New driver fitted in the cup.

Filter and mounting ring installed. They keep the new driver in place - like in the newer versions of DT990.

All that's left to do is putting the EDT 770 V earpad on. I decided to use the 770 pad because it boosts bass (unlike the 990 pad that does the opposite), which works well with this particular Philips driver.
Well, that's it, done!

The result is awesome. In terms of sound they are at least as good, maybe a bit better than my previous PhiliVox RH3100, and in terms of comfort they are on a completely different level. These headphones have all the DT990 comfort. They sound great, without overblown bass and recessed mids of DT990s. Highs are good too. I haven't directly compared them to stock DT990s, but I will. I have the 250 ohm DT990 Pro.

Hell yeah.

 

[WaffleIron]

Here is my open back + baffle modded Creative Aurvana Live. Really nice headphones stock, but you can get a good bit more out of them with some fairly simple modding. I used some packing tape to cover some porting in the baffle, but I will be buying some small little arts/craft adhesive "dots" so people can follow what I did much more easily.

Also, here are some measurements I did on my flatplate rig. Not entirely accurate as I do hear a bit more treble peak.
Stock:

Modded:

And the same mod with some slightly different baffle changes and some different pads. Not a huge fan of this:

 

[Slater]

A cool discussion going on here about my stacking magnet mod.

Check it out: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stacking-magnets.839878/

Cheap, easy, 100% reversible, and cleaner/faster sound.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

A cool discussion going on here about my stacking magnet mod.

Check it out: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stacking-magnets.839878/

Cheap, easy, 100% reversible, and cleaner/faster sound.

Thanks for posting this...I actually read the thread a long time back and had it in the back of my head every time I open up the back of some headphones I would think something brilliant like, "dang, I wish I had some magnets...I know I read something about MOAR magnets makes them sound gooder..."
after reading the thread again, I am now searching for magnets on amazon....AND sorbothane!
I think I can make my Phillips SHP9500s sound better and, as much love as they get around here, they don't have a lot of write ups on simple/free mods (other than pad swaps)

 

[turbobb]

Detailed walk-through on replacing the SHP9500's pads and giving it a nice flush look:


As for these pads, definitely gives a nice bass boost and provides slightly more isolation but doesn't negatively impact the openness of the headphones. Super comfy and adds a little clamp which I needed. Most important of all is that there is now much better depth so that my left ear lobe doesn't touch the inside of the pads. Fantastic bang for the buck!

 

[SHAMuuu]

Here is my open back + baffle modded Creative Aurvana Live. Really nice headphones stock, but you can get a good bit more out of them with some fairly simple modding. I used some packing tape to cover some porting in the baffle, but I will be buying some small little arts/craft adhesive "dots" so people can follow what I did much more easily.


Also, here are some measurements I did on my flatplate rig. Not entirely accurate as I do hear a bit more treble peak.
Stock:

Modded:

And the same mod with some slightly different baffle changes and some different pads. Not a huge fan of this:

you ever try removing that sticker from the center of the magnet? it seems to allow the driver to breathe better and have bigger excursion causing low end to really impress. Though it will not be neutral path, it sure is fun. i boosted the low end via eq 10 db+ 30hz-80hz, and it didn't distort.

40mm seems like a good size with these biodyna, opening the back improves it bigtime.

its reversible if removed slowly, or can use felt to plug hole again.

:d

 

[WaffleIron]

you ever try removing that sticker from the center of the magnet? it seems to allow the driver to breathe better and have bigger excursion causing low end to really impress. Though it will not be neutral path, it sure is fun. i boosted the low end via eq 10 db+ 30hz-80hz, and it didn't distort.

40mm seems like a good size with these biodyna, opening the back improves it bigtime.

its reversible if removed slowly, or can use felt to plug hole again.

:d

Yeah I tried it. Certainly sounds fun, but I was going for a much more tame and linear tuning.

 

[SHAMuuu]

Yeah I tried it. Certainly sounds fun, but I was going for a much more tame and linear tuning.

Your mod was a bit unclear, but now i think i get the jist of it. You choke the driver a tad for less excursion to bring the lower end down a few notches right? B/C it looks like the tape covers 66% of the breathable sticker on back of magnet + 2 other tiny holes. I think you said you will use colored stickers to make it more clear. The graphs look promising, though the treble elevation will more likely than not need some foam mods in front of driver (for even flatter response). Unless you feel the mods behind driver fix it with the clear tape?

look forward to your progress on these. Glad im not the only ones who enjoys them with back off CAL!

 

[Slater]

you ever try removing that sticker from the center of the magnet? it seems to allow the driver to breathe better and have bigger excursion causing low end to really impress. Though it will not be neutral path, it sure is fun. i boosted the low end via eq 10 db+ 30hz-80hz, and it didn't distort.

40mm seems like a good size with these biodyna, opening the back improves it bigtime.

its reversible if removed slowly, or can use felt to plug hole again.

:d

Nice job.

A lot of drivers have similar tuning paper (or micro pore tape-like material, or nylon mesh) on the magnet vent.

As you mentioned, removing the tuning material bumps sub-bass (a little or a lot depending on the driver, size of the hole, type of tuning material, etc).

 

[SHAMuuu]

Well to be fair Tyll had mentioned his curiosity on the modding potential of these cans in his review where he encouragres head-fi'rs to play with that sticker


but didn't mention making it open. IMO its much more lively/fun now. I have enough neutral/flat sig to make me dissect music n go mental worrying about the nitty gritty details. These have a fun like sexTeTT (after eq) giving a warm fuzziness with live studio recordings (guitar+ vocal) then can switch up to hip hop np.

As for filter removal , my first was to remove off xb1000 driver for more bass. Sometimes it works out n sometimes it doesn't. Thank God xb1k went ok