[WmAx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob80b Make sure you use REAL WOOL and not a polyester based material. Wool is the best for absorbing vibrations which is then dispersed as heat, (on a small scale of course.) Also I believe Pinkfloyd posted a thread quite awhile back on damping his K501's with bluetak.

While wool is an excellent acoustical dampening material, it is not effective for mechanical vibration dampening. A mass-loaded material such as bitumen, lead or even the blue tack is required for such a property as mechanical dampening of vibrations.

-Chris

 

[Rob80b]

You are right about the damping, the wool is best for absorbing vibrations already set in motion while damping materials do just that, stop things from vibrating in the first place. Experimentation is required to find out which works best in each particular situation.

 

[Ferbose]

Just washed my K501 earpads this afternnon, while I am doing T-amp break-in and can't use my phone.

This is the first time I washed the pads in five years. There is a little hole in one of them at the ear region. Everything else seems fine--good built quality.

In case you wonder, NO, I did not hear any difference after washing the pads.

Except when the foams were slightly wet (I thought they were dried and put tem on), and it sounded worse when wet.

 

[Ferbose]

So, has anybody tried putting Scotch tape over K501 at home?
I am eager to hear people's experience with this tweak.

 

[Nak Man]

Sorry forgot to update.

I did ... exactly at same position. I'm not good at hearing different violin sounds but somehow I hear less 'edgy' upper mid / low treble as in sibilants. I even listened to same song over and over to make sure that hardness was gone. However, when I measured them using simplified method, the sibilant peak was still there. Just for fun I will take the tape off and do another reading soon (not that it's a better tool than my ears in any way). So either I was under heavy medication or your tweak did indeed help the mids !

Now if we can only work the bass up to senn's level ...

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nak Man Sorry forgot to update. I did ... exactly at same position. I'm not good at hearing different violin sounds but somehow I hear less 'edgy' upper mid / low treble as in sibilants. I even listened to same song over and over to make sure that hardness was gone. However, when I measured them using simplified method, the sibilant peak was still there. Just for fun I will take the tape off and do another reading soon (not that it's a better tool than my ears in any way). So either I was under heavy medication or your tweak did indeed help the mids ! Now if we can only work the bass up to senn's level ...

Thanks a lot, NAK

Look forward to your FR graphs.
I was worried that if a tweak is too cheap no one would bother trying it.

If a $200 cable can improve the sound, it would have more news value.
If $0.2 tape can improve the sound, people may not be so excited.

 

[Nak Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferbose I was worried that if a tweak is too cheap no one would bother trying it.

A reversible tweak is always fun to try - but I would get replacement pads first before squeezing them permanently as in Chris' tweak ! I'll measure them as soon as possible, but not too soon. =)

 

[Bill Ward]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferbose So, has anybody tried putting Scotch tape over K501 at home? I am eager to hear people's experience with this tweak.

Sorry, Ferbose, I should have chimed in as well. I'm using the tape tweak, and I also am getting a smoothing out of the treble response. I had the perfect test disc, a European import recording that was unpleasantly harsh in the upper register. The tape seems to take that away, and I thank you for the suggestion. I suppose I might just be experiencing that notorious placebo effect, but the tape stays on because I like the effect, placebo or no.

Regards,

BW

 

[PinkFloyd]

Must try the tape tweak with the K-501

I tried it with the HD-600 quite some time ago, you can stick the tape on the outside of their grilles, sure the sound changed but I can't remember the exact details right now..... I'll have a go with the K-501 instead

Another worthwhile tweak is to stick blobs of blu tack at strategic points on the outside of the grille.... arm yourself with about 12 blobs of warm blu tack (roll them in your fingers to soften them) they should be pea sized in dimension.

Sit down with your headphones on listening to music..... place the blobs of blu tack on a table in front of you.... 6 to the left, 6 to the right. start off sticking one blob on either side of the grill (left and right) keep the phones on whilst you're doing this...... after you apply each blob have a good listen.... you may not require 6 blobs per grille, there is no set way of doing this just juggle the position of the blobs around until you've tuned the housings to your personal taste.

Once you have tuned the phones with your blobs you now have the "sweet spots" pinpointed and you can replace the blobs with a more permanent solution..... remove the blu blob and replace with a similarly sized squeeze of hot glue in the same position (it's more permanent than the blu tack) if you don't fancy applying hot glue to your grilles you can cut up chair gliders (sticky backed felt pads) and attach them.

Of course this makes a difference as you are altering the tuning of the enclosure..... it may "look" silly but can improve the sound.

I'm off to tape my K-501's, yes you guessed right, with rainbow foil.

All the best.

Pinkie.

 

[Don Quichotte]

I tried the Scoth tape tweak last evening and today. My findings partially reflect yours, but with certain differences. On the positive side, the bass deffinitely gains more body (there's more medium and upper bass, I'm sure about it - I really liked this!) and the treble becomes obviously sweeter – which makes it somehow more pleasant. On the negative side (cause for my ears there seems to be a negative impact on the sound as well): the treble looses some of it’s sparkle and appears to be less crystaline and slightly subdued compared to the non-tweaked version, and I cannot tell yet if also slightly less detailed or it’s just an illusion due to the decrease in quantity; the air, impact (I do not mean “weight”, which is increased by this tweak) and “vibrancy”, for lack of a better word, the K501 are capable of appear a bit less impressive. It’s like the phone is better ballanced, more competent, sweeter yet less charming. I did not notice an improvement of the transients. Perhaps I would slightly preffer the tweaked sound for exclusive violin listening, but overall I passed.

I must add that my choice of leaving the phones untweaked is heavily influenced by the player I am using with them, namely the Cambridge D300. It’s a warm player with a colorful sound, with slightly compressed dynamics yet at the same time a very spacious soundstage, with full bass and the most awkard treble I’ve ever heard: very very sweet and silky (equal in this respect to players costing many times more), yet at the same time very uneven (some frequencies are somewhat insufficient, while others are seriously subdued, making some cymbals sound great with nice decay and extension while others are lacklustre and with a severily shortened decay) – overall I would say the player is lacking in treble quantity. As you can see, a very different picture from the sound character of Ferbose’s Benchmark (as I could understand from other posts and reviews). I am almost sure that with a lean or slightly bright source I would have preffered to leave the tweak on.

Oh yes, and I used “3M Scotch tape for decorations” – I don’t know if it really makes a difference, but who knows, tape elasticity and so on…

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Quichotte I must add that my choice of leaving the phones untweaked is heavily influenced by the player I am using with them, namely the Cambridge D300.

Very nice point. The tapes have only minor influences on sound quality. Whether they bring perceived improvement probably depends on upstream equipment and personal taste.

I have become a big fan of Scotch tapes after this expereience. Now there is some hiding behind my tweeter's grille to redirect treble energy away from me. I changed from a hybrid (tube/MOSFET) amplifier to a class-T switching amplifier which is brighter.

By the way, your review comparing K501 and HD600 two years ago is the best review I have ever read on this forum. You brought art into writing about audio, bravo!

 

[Nak Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferbose Look forward to your FR graphs.

Well it seems that I need Alexander's help (fake head from headroom) to get a proper measurement, as my quick n dirty method is not up to par to capture changes from this tweak. The mic can only take 'general impression' of phones but not fine readings plus it is quite position dependent. I measured with tape on, took it off and can't really re-create the initial FR (with tape on) later on with enough accuracy.

However, several repeated runs showed that tape (red curve) shifted / affected area between 3-5k: reduced the 3.5k output while increasing 4.5k level:

Interestingly, untweaked 501 (white, bottom chart) overall resemble my favorite 595 (yellow lines here) more than tape tweaked one (red):

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nak Man However, several repeated runs showed that tape (red curve) shifted / affected area between 3-5k: reduced the 3.5k output while increasing 4.5k level:

Wow, I am impressed.
Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[Nak Man]

Thanks for the kind words and for sharing the tweak idea ! That was not a appropriate phones measurement at all but the mic was too long to put inside any head-like enclosure. At least we get a rough view of affected violin area. =)

 

[Frazze]

Interesting tweak, since it's so simple.

I have the DT831 which is a bit on the bright side and could use some more bass impact also.

I'll try this tweak on them when I get home next week to see if they can benefit from it too. They are not as open as the 501 but who knows...I'll keep you upposted on the result/impressions.