Vented pads for more subs in planar magnetic headphones

[ysh767]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has tried using vented ear pads with planar magnetic headphones. If you have, could you please share your results? I noticed that the Verum 2 uses vented pads, which seem to enhance the sub-bass. Sub-bass is something that many planar magnetic headphones lack, so I'm curious to hear about any experiences with this modification. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments!

 

[castleofargh]

For clarification, there is a set of pads sold with the Verum2 that have a "bass port" of sort, which is a hole going through the pads. The effective result seems to be a bass boost, but that's compared to quite different pads(material and shape apparently). I could only find SBAF's FR graph, and one in a video review, and while both show some boost compared to the other pads, the impact and frequency concerned were significantly different. So IDK if it's a matter of pre-production change, reliability issue, change caused by head size/internal volume, or whatever?


@ OP, IDK precisely how things work acoustically because all I know about concerns speakers where the "box" and the listener aren't on the same side. But what's sure anyway is that the diameter and length of the hole, along with the internal volume, are what determines whatever resonance is going on. So having that on the pads seems to me like a challenging choice. The tube itself can be fixed and precise, but the internal volume is harder to perfectly control.
Otherwise, having a loss of seal in itself, will result in a low frequency roll off, so I'm not confident that coming up with holes in pads for any other headphone would be a great idea. Again, I don't know the exact acoustic principle here(if someone knows some formula for IEM venting ports maybe?), but some things are universal. An extra hole will cause a roll off at low frequency. So the hole and the resonance it creates can only oppose that roll off in the frequency resonance area. Below that, it's going to be worse than no hole and a good seal. So having that precisely tuned is of great significance to avoid turning a hopeful bass boost into a bass roll off.
Also for speakers, I've always heard that we wanted the biggest holes possible to reduce the noise created by air blowing through it. We're talking of much smaller air displacements with headphones, but again IDK at which point that becomes relevant again. Someone with actual acoustic know how surely could help me here and clarify things instead of me just showing potential concerns that might not be relevant.

 

[dunring]

I've just tried two fenestrated pads for Beyerdynamic. They looked great, like other designs. There was a catastrophic loss of bass because the flimsy foam used. It made a DT770 250 ohm sound like an AM radio. So I'd pass on the AliExpress cheapo pads, done with those. With good foam they usually sound more bassy than velour but not as much as full leather.
The best compromise with slotted was the Dekoni fenstrated. If you currently have velour it will increase bass but lose some treble response or extension at the same time.
I'd really recommend using an equalizer for bass instead of using a pad material they weren't designed for. I learned that the hard way.

 

[2leftears]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has tried using vented ear pads with planar magnetic headphones. If you have, could you please share your results? I noticed that the Verum 2 uses vented pads, which seem to enhance the sub-bass. Sub-bass is something that many planar magnetic headphones lack, so I'm curious to hear about any experiences with this modification. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments!

As @castleofargh already said, sub bass-boost using a vented 'system' (pads in this case) likely involves a Helmholtz resonator. In conventional speakers the Helmholtz resonator setup will result in a bass boost at a specific tuned frequency band around the resonance frequency of the resonator, but below that the bass response of the speaker will drop off a cliff as the bass speaker and bass port will eventually be out of phase and (more or less) cancel each other.

In ported pads I'm not sure what the effect will be, or whether there will be a near total loss of bass for the very low frequencies; it depends on what other (outside) vents those pads have I think.

Maybe it is also possible that some vented pads (not necessarily the ones for the Verum 2) don't actually result in a bass boost, but simply a flattening of the base response by reducing/absorbing an existing bass 'hump', helping 'unmask' the perception of the sub-bass response below it. Sometimes improving the sub-bass perception is a matter of reducing the masking bass hump just above it. In my experience, to some people that trick may sound like 'less bass', but others will perceive it as more 'extended' bass.

 

[bigshot]

Headphones don’t tend to have a lot of sub bass. And very low frequencies are felt more than heard, which isn’t reproducible with headphones. If the thing was tuned to a good lower bass frequency, it would give the impression of a bass boost without the curse of an obvious low end roll off.

 

[2leftears]

Headphones don’t tend to have a lot of sub bass. And very low frequencies are felt more than heard, which isn’t reproducible with headphones.

It depends on the model headphones; some provide quite a decent amount of bass all the way down to 20Hz. But as you say, when you get to those low frequencies it is the whole-body-sensation that headphones cannot reproduce.

I often suspect the overly bass-heavy headphones that some people prefer are an attempt to compensate for that loss of whole-body bass sensation. Whether one could consider that a 'misguided' attempt depends on one's personal preference I think. But I find that training oneself to differentiate between feeling the bass and hearing the bass helps appreciate the cleaner bass-neutral characteristic of some of the better monitor headphones.

 

[bigshot]

That’s called a bass hump, and a lot of headphones use that because sub bass doesn’t come through with headphones like it does with speakers.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

I'm no expert on pads but I will say, having bought a few really disappointing sets, that you should stick with a company that puts some science and actual engineering into their pads instead of some random company that just puts foam in pleather and pumps out a product that's going to make a headphone sound worse, not better. Dekoni is your best bet IMO. I'd suggest emailing them about the headphone model you want to alter the sound of and seeing what they have to say. They're nice people over there.

 

[colonelkernel8]

By far the most important factor here is are the headphones closed-back (sealed) or open?