[Humblepie]

Due to request, here is a copy pasta of another post I made in another thread of my first detachable cable mod. First of many more to come.

For poops and grins, I did my first detachable cable mod. I decided I wanted to give it a go as there are a few nicer headphones I own that have attached cables which I want changed. I'm looking at you Fostex!

Anyhow, I am not quite brave enough to start on expensive headphones yet. So I decided to go with my Marantz MPH-4 headphones.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Marantz/MPH-4-50mm-Over-Ear-Monitoring-Headphone.gc

Here is a stock image of the headphone with the cable attached.

Bought them when they were on sale for $40 instead. They are decent sounding, but the stock pads are crap. I wouldn't buy them above $40 though as they are only decent sounding and not all that great sounding. Since they are one of my cheapest headphones with an attached cord, I decided to make them into my guinea pigs.

Now this is how they look after the mod.

I don't have anything too fancy for setup, I am working with an X-tronic 3020 soldering station found here:
https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE

And here is how it looks on my desk.

Got some decent lead free rosin core solder found here and some flux of course.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072WP4H99

I also picked up a 10 pack set of 3.5mm jacks.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C3RFHDC

With that I was set to get to work. Removed the earpads. Unscrewed the retention ring the earpads were wrapped around, which also was held on the baffle/driver assembly.

Here are some screen shots of it in action.

After removing earpad:

Close up of the driver.

With retention ring unscrewed.

The driver basically falls out once the retention ring is removed. Just tip it over into your hand and it falls out easily. Here is a picture of the driver laying flat from the backside.

And a close up of the default wiring to the driver from the cord coming in.

Inside the cups where the cord came in was a bar that was screwed down holding the cable in place. I unscrewed that and pushed the cord through into the cup before snipping the cord so I had some extra cord to play with incase I needed it. I then push out the rubber strain relief for the cord through the hole.


After that I peeled out the 3 wires out of the cord to use for soldering. This way I didn't have to redo any solder points on the drivers themselves. The three colored wires inside the black sheath are coated to prevent shorting each other out. That's what the coloring is doing (red, blue, and copper) is being used as insulation. A quick flash of a lighter at the end of the wires burns it off real quick. I literally mean FLASH the lighter on and off for a second. Then scrape using your finger nails anything left. Going longer than that can damage the wires.

Using the wiring diagram provided by Amazon, I soldered the ground to ground, the red wire going to the right driver to the right terminal, and the blue wire going to the left driver to the left terminal. I then screwed the jack into place, put everything back together, and tried it out. It works! Sort of. The wiring diagram was wrong. The right post is left channel and left post is right channel. Which now makes my polarity wrong. At least the drivers aren't angled so if I reverse them on my head they sound fine. Going to fix them later tonight and try the mod on another set. Eventually I'll work my way up to those Fostex.

Here are some pictures of the soldering done at the time before I swapped the blue and red wires to fix the polarity.

Further mods that can be easily done to this headphone is adding dampening material to the backside of the cups (there is none there now) and look at the tuning paper/holes currently around the driver. Right now these are a bit bass light and treble hot for my preferences.

 

[rlisin]

This "Marantz" headphone is a rebranded ISK HP2011. There is an open (or semi-open?) version, ISK HF2010. Those sound good stock and are not bass light. They also come with velour pads, much more comfortable.

 

[Humblepie]

This "Marantz" headphone is a rebranded ISK HP2011. There is an open (or semi-open?) version, ISK HF2010. Those sound good stock and are not bass light. They also come with velour pads, much more comfortable.

I know. I own them both. I just chose the marantz to start with.

 

[Slater]

Due to request, here is a copy pasta of another post I made in another thread of my first detachable cable mod. First of many more to come.

For poops and grins, I did my first detachable cable mod. I decided I wanted to give it a go as there are a few nicer headphones I own that have attached cables which I want changed. I'm looking at you Fostex!

Anyhow, I am not quite brave enough to start on expensive headphones yet. So I decided to go with my Marantz MPH-4 headphones.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Marantz/MPH-4-50mm-Over-Ear-Monitoring-Headphone.gc

Here is a stock image of the headphone with the cable attached.

Bought them when they were on sale for $40 instead. They are decent sounding, but the stock pads are crap. I wouldn't buy them above $40 though as they are only decent sounding and all that great sounding. Anyhow, since they are one of my cheapest headphones with an attached cord, I decided to make them into my guinea pigs.

Now this is how they look after the mod.

I don't have anything too fancy for setup, I am working with an X-tronic 3020 soldering station found here:
https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE

And here is how it looks on my desk.

Got some decent lead free rosin core solder found here and some flux of course.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072WP4H99

I also picked up a 10 pack set of 3.5mm jacks.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C3RFHDC

With that I was set to get to work. Removed the earpads. Unscrewed the retention ring the earpads were wrapped around, which also was held on the baffle/driver assembly.

Here are some screen shots of it in action.

After removing earpad:

Close up of the driver.

With retention ring unscrewed.

The driver basically falls out once the retention ring is removed. Just tip it over into your hand and it falls out easily. Here is a picture of the driver laying flat from the backside.

And a close up of the default wiring to the driver from the cord coming in.

Inside the cups where the cord came in was a bar that was screwed down holding the cable in place. I unscrewed that and pushed the cord through into the cup before snipping the cord so I had some extra cord to play with incase I needed it. I then push out the rubber strain relief for the cord through the hole.


After that I peeled out the 3 wires out of the cord to use for soldering. This way I didn't have to redo any solder points on the drivers themselves. The three colored wires inside the black sheath are coated to prevent shorting each other out. That's what the coloring is doing (red, blue, and copper) is being used as insulation. A quick flash of a lighter at the end of the wires burns it off real quick. I literally mean FLASH the lighter on and off for a second. Then scrape using your finger nails anything left. Going longer than that can damage the wires.

Using the wiring diagram provided by Amazon, I soldered the ground to ground, the red wire going to the right driver to the right terminal, and the blue wire going to the left driver to the left terminal. I then screwed the jack into place, put everything back together, and tried it out. It works! Sort of. The wiring diagram was wrong. The right post is left channel and left post is right channel. Which now makes my polarity wrong. At least the drivers aren't angled so if I reverse them on my head they sound fine. Going to fix them later tonight and try the mod on another set. Eventually I'll work my way up to those Fostex.

Here are some pictures of the soldering done at the time before I swapped the blue and red wires to fix the polarity.

Further mods that can be easily done to this headphone is adding dampening material to the backside of the cups (there is none there now) and look at the tuning paper/holes currently around the driver. Right now these are a bit bass light and treble hot for my preferences.

Nice job there buddy.

I used that same type of cylindrical-bodied 3.5mm jacks to do a flush mounted jack on @Pharmaboy's Akai 50X (ISK MDH9000 clones).

He wanted to be able to use custom upgrade cables with his 50X, so the stock jack had to go (since it's recessed way up inside the plug well, and includes a locking mechanism as well). The round bodies of the 3.5mm jacks fit perfectly into the 50X cable well with a little tweaking to the locking mechanism. I then potted them in with UV epoxy so they won't be going anywhere.

The final product turned out better than I could have hoped:

 

[Humblepie]

So I did the detachable cable mod to the Freeboss HF2010 (takstar pro 80 or ISK HF2010). Like stated above they are the open version of the HF2011 which the Marantz MPH-4 is a rebadge of.

There are some small differences though besides open and closed. The open one has some thick dampening material in the cups. Beyond that, they are mostly similar. I took pictures of everything this time for the HF2010 mod from the start. There isn't much more that is different, but I'll edit this post later with the pics.

I also decided to do the mod to the Philips SHL3300 that @Slater convinced to buy when I was able to get them as an open box from Amazon for fairly cheap. Stock form they have decent drivers, but everything else about this is crap. I basically did the detachable cable mod, removed the plastic grills, bent the hell out of the headband so it fits me, and put on some HM5 pads. The end result is a MUCH better and more usable headphone. I didn't take pictures of the process for the SHL3300 though as others have already documented it. I will state that the plastic tabs are a boitch and broke off on one cup for me so I had to use epoxy to reattach the tabs to insert the driver/baffle assembly. Also the orange strain relief rubber thing is very wide. As a result the hole it fits through with the cord is much wider that the 3.5mm jacks I bought. So I had to use epoxy to build up the edges to keep the jack from just dropping out. The epoxy trick seems to be working, but it is ugly. Oh well.I only have 2 other headphones besides the Fostex and gaming headsets that have an attached cable. The gaming headsets I will have to buy a different set of jacks that take a 4 pole TRRS connection instead of a 3 pole TRS setup. This way I can still make use of the attached mics on them. Again, I'll post the pictures once I get a chance to move them from my phone to the computer.

 

[Slater]

So I did the detachable cable mod to the Freeboss HF2010 (takstar pro 80 or ISK HF2010). Like stated above they are the open version of the HF2011 which the Marantz MPH-4 is a rebadge of.

There are some small differences though besides open and closed. The open one has some thick dampening material in the cups. Beyond that, they are mostly similar. I took pictures of everything this time for the HF2010 mod from the start. There isn't much more that is different, but I'll edit this post later with the pics.

I also decided to do the mod to the Philips SHL3300 that @Slater convinced to buy when I was able to get them as an open box from Amazon for fairly cheap. Stock form they have decent drivers, but everything else about this is crap. I basically did the detachable cable mod, removed the plastic grills, bent the hell out of the headband so it fits me, and put on some HM5 pads. The end result is a MUCH better and more usable headphone. I didn't take pictures of the process for the SHL3300 though as others have already documented it. I will state that the plastic tabs are a boitch and broke off on one cup for me so I had to use epoxy to reattach the tabs to insert the driver/baffle assembly. Also the orange strain relief rubber thing is very wide. As a result the hole it fits through with the cord is much wider that the 3.5mm jacks I bought. So I had to use epoxy to build up the edges to keep the jack from just dropping out. The epoxy trick seems to be working, but it is ugly. Oh well.I only have 2 other headphones besides the Fostex and gaming headsets that have an attached cable. The gaming headsets I will have to buy a different set of jacks that take a 4 pole TRRS connection instead of a 3 pole TRS setup. This way I can still make use of the attached mics on them. Again, I'll post the pictures once I get a chance to move them from my phone to the computer.

Awww, I wish you used the 3.5mm jacks I used for the SHL3300 How2. They, run like $0.10-$0.15 each, and are a 100% direct (and perfect) fit.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rev...rrated-headphone.697813/page-12#post-13231408


The jack:



Removing the stock cable:



See that square part? That's where the jack will go:



The jack drops right into the square part:



A perfect fit!



A little glue for good measure:



All done:

 

[Humblepie]

Didn't have those. Used what I ordered. The other ones work perfect for the first two headphones I did the cable mod on.

So where do you get your supply of those as I would certainly pick them up

 

[Slater]

Didn't have those. Used what I ordered. The other ones work perfect for the first two headphones I did the cable mod on.

So where do you get your supply of those as I would certainly pick them up

No sweat. If you ever want to redo the jack, you can always switch it out then. Or, just buy some now and have them available for the future. I've found that I can make either 1 or the other style of jack work in most headphones, which is why I like to have a stock of both types on hand.

Insertion and removal of the 3.5mm cables is very stressful on jacks. I have found that they require some form of physical reinforcement (in addition to glue). Especially if you can't use the little built in threaded nut on the end (which can't be used if the hole is too big or if the headphone cup is too thick). If only glue is used to secure the jack, it will eventually loosen and fail.

The cylindrical jacks were ideal for the ISK 9000/clones, because it is already a very tight fit into the cable well. And on the SHL3300, it's perfect for those square jacks because of the square plastic "wall" that holds the stock orange cable strain in place. Again, a very tight fit. Then when you add a bit of glue/epoxy, you end up with a bulletproof result that will stand up to any abuse and outlast the headphone itself.

You can get the square jacks on ebay. Search for "PCB Panel Mount 3.5mm Stereo Jack". There are a few different styles of those square jacks, so you want to check the description and make sure they have this dimension: (length=14.2mm, width=11.5(11.6mm), height=6.0mm)

 

[SHAMuuu]

40mm Foster BIO-DYNA XB700 cushions (P.R.C Version). DTX910 frame, MODHOUSE BASS cups

Had to combine past BARGAINS which hit waaay above their mark, and challenged GIANTS, and blew the competition in its class "OUT OF THE WATER!"

Had to combine the magic!

SPECIAL THANKS to ZEOS (Z REVIEWS) for his informative reviews, and high praise of these well engineered MODHOUSE cups (SHP9500 Closed Mod)

These cups changed my life!

I LEARNED SO MUCH about bass response, and the wonderful idea of closing an open headphone.

LOVED them SO SO MUCH, that i had to try to get them to "ANOTHER LEVEL"

AUDIO BLISS.

 

[Slater]

40mm Foster BIO-DYNA XB700 cushions (P.R.C Version). DTX910 frame, MODHOUSE BASS cups

Had to combine past BARGAINS which hit waaay above their mark, and challenged GIANTS, and blew the competition in its class "OUT OF THE WATER!"

Had to combine the magic!

SPECIAL THANKS to ZEOS (Z REVIEWS) for his informative reviews, and high praise of these well engineered MODHOUSE cups (SHP9500 Closed Mod)

These cups changed my life!

I LEARNED SO MUCH about bass response, and the wonderful idea of closing an open headphone.

LOVED them SO SO MUCH, that i had to try to get them to "ANOTHER LEVEL"

AUDIO BLISS.

You paid $5,000 for that? You serious?

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

You paid $5,000 for that? You serious?

I mean...it is a one of a kind. I don't think he paid that, it's the value he's placing on it...I'm assuming you are not a buyer on this set?

 

[Slater]

I mean...it is a one of a kind. I don't think he paid that, it's the value he's placing on it...I'm assuming you are not a buyer on this set?

Then everything I mod is a 1 of a kind too, and worth $5k too. I just have to find some suckers, er I mean buyers. Any takers?

 

[Mad Max]

lol

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

Then everything I mod is a 1 of a kind too, and worth $5k too. I just have to find some suckers, er I mean buyers. Any takers?

Well, it's like Leonard Smalls said, it's not what you or I think it's worth, but what the market will bear...

 

[Humblepie]

So, I decided to have a look at my ISK MDH8500. They are very nice looking, already have a detachable cable, but sound pretty bad. I pop them open and they are the same thing as the ISK HF2011. Literally the same thing. Which is the same thing as the ISK HF2010, except they are closed. Well there was one difference with the MDH8500, the is a giant plastic tab next to the driver that isn't there on the HF2011. It was a bit of a PITA to remove, but once I removed that tab, it sounds exactly the same now as the HF2011. Which is better, but not as good as the HF2010. Still, I pop off the outside closed pieces then lo and behold they sound like the HF2010. I do the same thing to my Marantz MPH-4 (the ISK HF2011 clone I have). I do the same and they all sound exactly the same. They sound SOOOOO much better in open config compared to closed config.

Speaking of which, the ISK MDH8500 is only around $40 off aliexpress shipped.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20180511171933&SearchText=isk+mdh8500

They already have the detachable cable setup on them. Which means to mod them to be an HF2011 is just to remove that giant plastic tab in the cups. That's it. I am thinking of getting a grill and making them all open at this point.

The MDH8500 come with much nicer earpads and a much nicer headband pad too. Also, the 3.5mm jack used in them is the same I used to do my detachable cable mod except being brass instead of silver in color.