ZorgDK
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What's the best velour pads for these, and where to buy them? (in EU) Thanks.
The PANASONIC RP-HTF600-S headphones. More fun than the HD650?
Rocko1
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Well after much apprehension I am ordering my 3rd set of HTF-600-S's. I am hoping 3rd time is a charm. First two pairs failed within 2 weeks and the JVC HARX7000-which I really liked did also(some say same driver as the HTF600?). I was really close to getting the Superlux 681 but being so sensitive to bright phones I just decided to give the Panasonics one last try. If these fail I am not sure where to go. I am in love with the sound but the reliability really irks me. At this point I would spend $100 on the same sound but much better build quality. Fingers crossed.
vodkex
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May I ask what exactly are you guys doing with your HTF600s that they break within weeks?
Mine has about a year and it's still going strong (well, the drivers which are excellent and are now inside a samson SR850 body), when I used them with the original housing apart from the ocassional driver going out of place because of a lack of air pressure equalization between the ear chamber and the back of the driver part (which is solved by drilling a little hole in the baffle, which also improves the sound and the dynamics), not a single problem. I don't know what exactly do you guys do, that I constantly read here that they break like they're a toy :/
These drivers sound magnificent in a SR850/HD668b/HD681 housing... they are quite held back by the stock one. It's unbelievable panasonic is selling such high quality drivers for so little money.
Mine has about a year and it's still going strong (well, the drivers which are excellent and are now inside a samson SR850 body), when I used them with the original housing apart from the ocassional driver going out of place because of a lack of air pressure equalization between the ear chamber and the back of the driver part (which is solved by drilling a little hole in the baffle, which also improves the sound and the dynamics), not a single problem. I don't know what exactly do you guys do, that I constantly read here that they break like they're a toy :/
These drivers sound magnificent in a SR850/HD668b/HD681 housing... they are quite held back by the stock one. It's unbelievable panasonic is selling such high quality drivers for so little money.
Rocko1
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Well first pair blew a driver with low-medium level music in the first 2 hours. Second set lasted much longer-2 weeks before the right side became 20-30% weaker than the left. I babied both sets. Extremely careful handling, low volume listening, etc.
Headstar
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I am surprised by the number of built quality issues seen here. I have mine since february, and so far i havn't had any sort of problem with them. Works like a charm. Hopefully stays that way, cause i still like them.
nicholars
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Quote:
What do you expect they cost £35
I am surprised by the number of built quality issues seen here. I have mine since february, and so far i havn't had any sort of problem with them. Works like a charm. Hopefully stays that way, cause i still like them.
What do you expect they cost £35
ZorgDK
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Yeah, no problems here either with build quality. Sounds like a pretty cool mod, vodkex. Was it hard to do?
Rocko1
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Quote:
How much and how loud do you listen to them?
I am surprised by the number of built quality issues seen here. I have mine since february, and so far i havn't had any sort of problem with them. Works like a charm. Hopefully stays that way, cause i still like them.
How much and how loud do you listen to them?
vodkex
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Quote:
Procedure
Well, what is difficult is taking out the drivers from the HTF600 housing since they are glued to the baffle, it can be done with a swiss army knife which is thin and strong enough to cut through the glue around the driver, then with a flat, wide screwdriver (or the equivalent tool from the same swiss army knife) start prying at the driver's edges until it comes off. You'll probably wrinkle the driver's diaphragm during this process (but not cut through it, that seemed impossible during my time doing it), but that's not an issue since it can be brought back to its proper form with some tape, by putting it on the wrinkles and then pulling up.
Although the SR850/HD668B/HD681 housing accepts 50mm drivers, the HTF600's are a bit larger than what can be put in between the tabs in the donor body's baffle. That can be solved with a dremel and a sanding tip, by eating away some of the driver's outer plastic so it fits. If you sand away more than needed, the drivers can be fixed into place with a strip of plasticine.
I also modded the drivers:
Results:
Hearing these you might say "hey, where are the highs?" Well, they are there, butter-smooth highs! If the song calls for them they appear, if it doesn't, they don't. And that's just great, because you can listen to these for hours (6+ hs) without feeling ear fatigue.
And well, putting those drivers inside the SR850/HD668B/HD681 housing, the result is amazing. That headphone housing brings out all the details these drivers can produce (and now I understand why these stock headphones are detail monsters, apart from their already piercing highs), yet the stock HTF600 housing kills details, makes the bass these drivers can pump out almost one-note and there's no dynamics in what is being played since there is no pressure equalization between the ear-driver section and the back of the driver part... There is almost neither layering nor soundstage with the stock housing.
The warm, cozy, fun, inviting, "live-venue" sound signature of these drivers is kept, but now there are DETAILS and COHERENCE. Layering is much improved, I can discern about three or four layers of instruments in most recordings, maybe more... soundstage is much wider and three-dimensional than before, little details like a off-pace breath, a cough lost in the recording studio, someone stepping on their equipment/pushing buttons on them to change guitar effects in the middle of the song... there's impact, there's lots of bass that provides body to the sound, not crap that ruins the music.. amazing, just amazing. These drivers are FAST! Transients are transients here, they sound as intended, sudden, sharp! Instruments' decay like a piano's is beautifully rendered by these drivers, too. Guitars roar, voices, both male and female sound full-bodied and pass on the feelings the singer is expressing at recording time... and I could go on and on... By the way, That improved soundstage does wonders for gaming, too.
The only downside of this mod, is that because of having popped the back of the drivers, they leak sound to your ears (obviously), but now they also do the same backwards. Yeah, there's a lot of air movement now and these drivers LOVE having air to move because of their strong bass response (and extension! it's not hard to hear a 20hz sine wave at moderate volumes, but that's also due to the SR850/HD668B/HD681 pleather pads that create a seal, velour pads will have less sub bass response -and less bass response too, therefore balancing the spectrum even more-), but that much air movement means the headphones become speakers and they're now meant for you to listen at, for example, inside your room, doors closed. But it's quite worth it, you just get lost in the music, you don't listen to the headphones, they become transparent (as in when you forget you have your headphones on and just focus on the music and what you're listening to, not nitpicking "hey, there's too much highs, too little bass, etc"), they deliver music... From complex recordings like progressive rock/metal to more mainstream, simpler pop/rock, electronica, even classical! these shine, I can't find a genre they can't do well. You just don't want to get these off your head.. I can hear DT's petrucci shredding as if he were playing in front of me, every note he plays is crystal clear. You can't get much faster than that... Classical music sounds.. "delicious".
And after all this, making a little correction to the highs according to this http://www.head-fi.org/a/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial, you get rid of some sibilance present in most if not all headphones in the 7k region... then that's when you get to have your cake and eat it, too!
Conclusion
Of course they are colored, but who cares? Such performance (and the fun factor, but with all the improvements I've detailed so far) for so little money is out of this world. I wish I had a mid-range headphone like a HD598 just to compare, and I seriously think this HTF600/SR850 hybrid wouldn't be too far behind, considering the cost.
Amazing. Too bad the stock housing just destroys what these drivers are able to pull off, what a shame. At least, for what they cost, they are giving you quality drivers and a passable housing, not the other way around, like the other offerings at this price point. Pictures later, the SR850 housing requires desoldering to open it so I can show you the drivers in their new home, and right now I don't want to do that...
Procedure
Well, what is difficult is taking out the drivers from the HTF600 housing since they are glued to the baffle, it can be done with a swiss army knife which is thin and strong enough to cut through the glue around the driver, then with a flat, wide screwdriver (or the equivalent tool from the same swiss army knife) start prying at the driver's edges until it comes off. You'll probably wrinkle the driver's diaphragm during this process (but not cut through it, that seemed impossible during my time doing it), but that's not an issue since it can be brought back to its proper form with some tape, by putting it on the wrinkles and then pulling up.
Although the SR850/HD668B/HD681 housing accepts 50mm drivers, the HTF600's are a bit larger than what can be put in between the tabs in the donor body's baffle. That can be solved with a dremel and a sanding tip, by eating away some of the driver's outer plastic so it fits. If you sand away more than needed, the drivers can be fixed into place with a strip of plasticine.
I also modded the drivers:
- Put some plasticine on the back of the magnet, so the bass becomes tighter. Needed for these drivers, the amount of bass they produce is out of this world, but it's not one-note bass, it's quality bass. If the song calls for it, then it's there, if it doesn't, then it adds body to the music. The extra mass helps control that bass.
- I read about grado modders venting their drivers to increase the amount of bass... I saw someone in this thread do the same to the HTF600's and thought, what the hell, these are cheap enough that if I screw them up I can get a replacement and keep modding. So I popped a hole on the back of the driver, one of the nine or so it has. First of all I noticed less high frequency response, and bass was a little stronger. But what stood out of this was the balance of the sound spectrum, it became more balanced.. those "strange highs" (as described in this thread) these drivers produce weren't as intruding as before. Nice.. let's pop some more. Went with five this time, it got better.. then I popped them all. You know what? These drivers let you hear most if not all the details and nuances in the music if properly driven (decent source + amplifier), and with all these popped holes the only phrase that comes to mind to describe the sound is... "a wall of sound". A grado modder said the same about his vented driver...
Results:
Hearing these you might say "hey, where are the highs?" Well, they are there, butter-smooth highs! If the song calls for them they appear, if it doesn't, they don't. And that's just great, because you can listen to these for hours (6+ hs) without feeling ear fatigue.
And well, putting those drivers inside the SR850/HD668B/HD681 housing, the result is amazing. That headphone housing brings out all the details these drivers can produce (and now I understand why these stock headphones are detail monsters, apart from their already piercing highs), yet the stock HTF600 housing kills details, makes the bass these drivers can pump out almost one-note and there's no dynamics in what is being played since there is no pressure equalization between the ear-driver section and the back of the driver part... There is almost neither layering nor soundstage with the stock housing.
The warm, cozy, fun, inviting, "live-venue" sound signature of these drivers is kept, but now there are DETAILS and COHERENCE. Layering is much improved, I can discern about three or four layers of instruments in most recordings, maybe more... soundstage is much wider and three-dimensional than before, little details like a off-pace breath, a cough lost in the recording studio, someone stepping on their equipment/pushing buttons on them to change guitar effects in the middle of the song... there's impact, there's lots of bass that provides body to the sound, not crap that ruins the music.. amazing, just amazing. These drivers are FAST! Transients are transients here, they sound as intended, sudden, sharp! Instruments' decay like a piano's is beautifully rendered by these drivers, too. Guitars roar, voices, both male and female sound full-bodied and pass on the feelings the singer is expressing at recording time... and I could go on and on... By the way, That improved soundstage does wonders for gaming, too.
The only downside of this mod, is that because of having popped the back of the drivers, they leak sound to your ears (obviously), but now they also do the same backwards. Yeah, there's a lot of air movement now and these drivers LOVE having air to move because of their strong bass response (and extension! it's not hard to hear a 20hz sine wave at moderate volumes, but that's also due to the SR850/HD668B/HD681 pleather pads that create a seal, velour pads will have less sub bass response -and less bass response too, therefore balancing the spectrum even more-), but that much air movement means the headphones become speakers and they're now meant for you to listen at, for example, inside your room, doors closed. But it's quite worth it, you just get lost in the music, you don't listen to the headphones, they become transparent (as in when you forget you have your headphones on and just focus on the music and what you're listening to, not nitpicking "hey, there's too much highs, too little bass, etc"), they deliver music... From complex recordings like progressive rock/metal to more mainstream, simpler pop/rock, electronica, even classical! these shine, I can't find a genre they can't do well. You just don't want to get these off your head.. I can hear DT's petrucci shredding as if he were playing in front of me, every note he plays is crystal clear. You can't get much faster than that... Classical music sounds.. "delicious".
And after all this, making a little correction to the highs according to this http://www.head-fi.org/a/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial, you get rid of some sibilance present in most if not all headphones in the 7k region... then that's when you get to have your cake and eat it, too!
Conclusion
Of course they are colored, but who cares? Such performance (and the fun factor, but with all the improvements I've detailed so far) for so little money is out of this world. I wish I had a mid-range headphone like a HD598 just to compare, and I seriously think this HTF600/SR850 hybrid wouldn't be too far behind, considering the cost.
Amazing. Too bad the stock housing just destroys what these drivers are able to pull off, what a shame. At least, for what they cost, they are giving you quality drivers and a passable housing, not the other way around, like the other offerings at this price point. Pictures later, the SR850 housing requires desoldering to open it so I can show you the drivers in their new home, and right now I don't want to do that...
ZorgDK
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Interesting, thanks. I agree they're quality drivers. I'm gonna start with putting some velour pads on.
Omnom
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Wow,
I recently found that you can stick pads from these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-SHP2000-Full-size-lightweight-Headphones-Corded-Audio-Headphones-/130728860339?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item1e700c1ab3
and replace the ones on the HTF600s,
Im not sure what Velour Pads are like but these are real comfy too!
Very Best,
I recently found that you can stick pads from these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-SHP2000-Full-size-lightweight-Headphones-Corded-Audio-Headphones-/130728860339?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item1e700c1ab3
and replace the ones on the HTF600s,
Im not sure what Velour Pads are like but these are real comfy too!
Very Best,
Bla4444
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Panasonic RP HTF 600 out of the box:
I v read about Panasonic RP HTF 600 so I bought one. I think it is no near as good. The senn px 100 much better in every aspet. The sound quality similar to sennheiser mx 200 or akg k 307, but those are cheaper. Altough a good headphone it really can't match to low-mid end headphones. The midrange is a big mess, the bass is bloating, but the soundfield is good.
I think for the price very good, but to compare with the ad 700 is a little funny. After the good reviews I am very dissapionted. Hope some burn in will help, but I can1t imagine radical changes.
I v read about Panasonic RP HTF 600 so I bought one. I think it is no near as good. The senn px 100 much better in every aspet. The sound quality similar to sennheiser mx 200 or akg k 307, but those are cheaper. Altough a good headphone it really can't match to low-mid end headphones. The midrange is a big mess, the bass is bloating, but the soundfield is good.
I think for the price very good, but to compare with the ad 700 is a little funny. After the good reviews I am very dissapionted. Hope some burn in will help, but I can1t imagine radical changes.
Rocko1
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Quote:
I 100% disagree. The Sennhieser MX200 are earbuds that sound horrible. Not sure what AKG K 307's are either. The soundstage on these is very nice. Bottom end is heavy albeit it a tad loose, mids are somewhat recessed and highs are rolled off but are clean and not fatiguing at all. Not many other $30 headphones with as good as sound as this.
I 100% disagree. The Sennhieser MX200 are earbuds that sound horrible. Not sure what AKG K 307's are either. The soundstage on these is very nice. Bottom end is heavy albeit it a tad loose, mids are somewhat recessed and highs are rolled off but are clean and not fatiguing at all. Not many other $30 headphones with as good as sound as this.
Bla4444
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I have to agree: for the price 30$ they are really good. In here they are approximately 65$. Yes the soundstage is very good but the sound quality can't match with M50 ad700 or shr 750.
In fact I think the sennheiser hd 203 is a better sounding headphone atough it has not so good soundstage. I don't want to say these are bad headphones, in fact sometimes they surprised me. When there are only a few instrument they realy shine, but the rp htf 600 can't handle well more complex symphonies. "Fun sound" is a little stange thing because sennheiser px 100 has much fun sound than grado gs 1000, but the grado far far superior. It is very subjective.
In fact I think the sennheiser hd 203 is a better sounding headphone atough it has not so good soundstage. I don't want to say these are bad headphones, in fact sometimes they surprised me. When there are only a few instrument they realy shine, but the rp htf 600 can't handle well more complex symphonies. "Fun sound" is a little stange thing because sennheiser px 100 has much fun sound than grado gs 1000, but the grado far far superior. It is very subjective.
rickdohc
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sorry, how are you comparing a 30 dollar with $100+ headphones? makes no sense to me.
for 30 bucks, they are ok (read, im saying OK). you wont find a lot headphones in the $30.00 range good or even decent as this one. you dont go over comparing $30 headphones with 100 or 200 headphones.
MX200.. sorry, i got almost all of those earbuds, and no way the sound the same, those earbus are lacking bass, for starters. i could go on and on.
sorry, how are you comparing a 30 dollar with $100+ headphones? makes no sense to me.
for 30 bucks, they are ok (read, im saying OK). you wont find a lot headphones in the $30.00 range good or even decent as this one. you dont go over comparing $30 headphones with 100 or 200 headphones.
MX200.. sorry, i got almost all of those earbuds, and no way the sound the same, those earbus are lacking bass, for starters. i could go on and on.
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