[wind016]

Hey guys,
 
Sorry for being new to this, but do I have to gather all the parts of the Thunderpants myself?

 

[Epoch]

No, you can pay Smeggy to gather them all for you and present you with a kit.  All you need to do to finish his kit is to put in on your head and plug it in.  Other than that option, you do need to gather your own parts.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Ok messing with the headbang kind worked but there is one problem I use glasses and it lifts the pads that aren't that big and the seal goes off..

 

[Epoch]

If reading here has taught me anything, sight is overrated.  You can always take off the glasses, sit back, and enjoy the music.

 

[Br777]

Quote:

Ok messing with the headbang kind worked but there is one problem I use glasses and it lifts the pads that aren't that big and the seal goes off..

 
bend the glasses, get new glasses.. or... its time to invest in contacts

 
or +1 on just taking off the glasses.. gotta keep your priorities straight...

 
 

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Quote:

Quote:

Ok messing with the headbang kind worked but there is one problem I use glasses and it lifts the pads that aren't that big and the seal goes off..

 
bend the glasses, get new glasses.. or... its time to invest in contacts

 
or +1 on just taking off the glasses.. gotta keep your priorities straight...

 
 

lol contacts camon.. Its just music.
 
Yeah I get the most enjoyment  from listening sessions in bed before sleep but I don't have money for a bed rig, besides that  I can't just lay down and listen to music I have to be doing something so usually that's when I'm on the computer(I'm not retired to just lay down all the afternoon eh)

 

[scompton]

The two pair I've heard had O2 pads and they weren't a problem with my wire frame glasses.  If you have big ear pieces on you glasses, you're probably out of luck.  Otherwise get thick soft pads.

 

[reminence]

I just purchased a used pair of t50rp and have already begun modding. I have removed the port dampening and started mass damping with blutak and filling the cups with very thin packing foam. I will eventually get some woodies and go full thunderpants but for the moment I'm gonna mod the stock cups. Can anyone give me a few tips in regards of getting maximum bass? I have just come from my xb700's and ported dt770's (even more bass) so although i can hear it i really want a lot more.
 
If anyone has any mods or ideas i will probably try and combine them all

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

I just purchased a used pair of t50rp and have already begun modding. I have removed the port dampening and started mass damping with blutak and filling the cups with very thin packing foam. I will eventually get some woodies and go full thunderpants but for the moment I'm gonna mod the stock cups. Can anyone give me a few tips in regards of getting maximum bass? I have just come from my xb700's and ported dt770's (even more bass) so although i can hear it i really want a lot more.
 
If anyone has any mods or ideas i will probably try and combine them all

Work gradually so you can hear what each change does (if you have the patience).  To maximize bass, get rid of the felt behind the driver, then get yourself some micropore and transpore medical tape.  The driver itself has a nine-square grid.  Transpore (plastic) goes in the corners, Micropore (paper) goes on the sides, leave the middle empty.

 

[reminence]

Thanks joelpearce,
 
I removed all the felt and the bass opened up a tad but still no where near the spl im looking for.
Any other suggestions?

 

[Uchiya]

Oh man I want!

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

Thanks joelpearce,
 
I removed all the felt and the bass opened up a tad but still no where near the spl im looking for.
Any other suggestions?

When you mass damp the cup and baffle (I recommend dynamat), it quiets the headphones in general, but has the side effect of shrinking the size of the enclosure slightly, which seems to bring out the bass for me.  As well, as you start to do some dampening, it has more of an impact on the treble, so the bass sounds louder in comparison.
 
The Transpore (plastic) tape also seems to do wonders for bringing out bass.  I wouldn't cover the whole back of the driver with it, but you might want to put some on all four corners then leave the rest empty at first to maximize bass response.

 

[Ikarios]

I received Vaughn's paperstone "Darthpants" in the mail this morning. I've been excited to hear Thunderpants ever since I listened to T50RPs - I liked their sound and technical ability, but something was holding them back. I was hoping that something could be removed via the Thunderpants damping and cups. Well... let's just say I wasn't disappointed. This has it all - high-end detail and extension, nice crunchy mids, and deep, hard-hitting bass. I have to say this is probably the best-sounding headphone I've ever owned. I tried some bass test tones just for fun, and these go down to about 20hz or so until it starts to fall off. It's pretty incredible how heavy the bass can hit when it wants to be. On Liquid Tension Experiment's Acid Rain, I could actually feel the kick bass - something I've never experienced before, "feeling" a bass kick through headphones. It was pretty sublime

 
That said, they are indeed extremely heavy - probably what makes them sound so good in the first place. Vaughn used rubber-cemented XB700 pads, which provide an airtight seal (and I mean airtight - my eardrums can tell). They DELIVER the bass like you've never seen. Unfortunately, the airtight seal comes at a price. The 2" thickness of the pads means that the heavy cups are further away from my head, which, if you know physics, is not a good thing. It makes the cups feel much heavier than they probably actually are, and any slight movement by me rocks the cups a little bit, which in turn changes the pressure inside the pads, which acts on my eardrums. It's actually a little bit annoying. I ran out to CVS when I got dinner to pick up a little container of rubber cement. I plan on trying Denon D2000 pads, which are quite comfortable and have at least a little bit of depth to them. I'm hoping I won't take away too much of the bass that the XB700 pads give while providing increased comfort.
 
That said, if you like the sound of the T50RPs, but want more - Thunderpants are what you're looking for (hey, that rhymed!). I'm looking forward to personalizing these headphones to make them the best they can be.
 
Also, a side note - I'll be receiving a pair of Darth Beyers (V2) in the mail in a week or two or three... it should be interesting to see how the original woody-cup-mod headphones stack up to the Darthpants. I haven't been this excited in a while!

 
EDIT: has anyone tried LCD-2 earpads with the Thunderpants? They seem like they would work.

 

[Epoch]

I haven't been using mine much due to other projects taking up time and the need to modify the headband so that I can wear it with some comfort.  That said, I do enjoy them, but I think that mine are actually a little too bass heavy.  I know that it is heresy to say that, but I honestly think that there is just too much bass in mine.
When I combine the current comfort issues (due to my sloth/lack of time) and what might actually be too much bass, I am actually using my HD650 more often.
 
Its been a little while, I will have to put them on my head again and re-evaluate how they stack up.  It could be due to my ports, the wood of my enclosure, or maybe its just me.  Time to do more listening.
 

 

[Ikarios]

Okay, so I tore off the XB700 pads (carefully, of course) and started swapping between the D2000 pads, stock T50RP pads, and the XB700 ones. Here's what I've gathered:
-The stock T50RP pads are the worst of the three - they don't seal all that well and boost a portion of the upper mids that I don't care for (Vaughn didn't either)
-The XB700 pads provide the thumpiest bass of all of them, but seem to have a somewhat W-shaped frequency response - upper bass/lower mids and upper mids/lower treble seem a little bit recessed. The depth of the pads is also a little problem; aside from the air-pressure problems, they add a little bit of "hallway effect" to the sound, like you're listening to music through a short hallway. This adds soundstage but probably contributes to the W-shaped response I heard.
-The D2000 pads are great, much more balanced than the XB700 pads. When adjusted to get a proper seal, the bass is present, not thumpy, but still pretty extended. However, there's something missing in vocals... they don't sound completely natural. This could be due to the cloth that the D2000 pads have, inside the "ear hole". It's not completely transparent (I test this by trying to talk through the cloth, lol... but I think it works) so this might be the problem. I want to cut out the cloth but these are expensive pads, so... maybe I'll wait. Also, the D2k pads remove a bit of the soundstage from teh XB700 pads. They could use a little more depth...
 
I'm still looking for that perfectly thick, sealing, leather pad. I think the O2 pads are it, but they're pretty expensive... I'm going to try messing around with other things first, like maybe beyer leather pads or something.
 
EDIT: Oh, also, the bass quantity VASTLY depends on how well the pads seal. If your cups don't sit quite parallel to your head, your pads probably won't seal properly, and that takes away a significant amount of the bass. The XB700 pads were easy to get a seal with since they're so soft and have memory character. With the Denon pads I had to bend the metal adjusters to get them to sit right.