AustinValentine
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2013
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Happy New Year Head-Fi,
For my New Years Resolution this year, I decided to lose a little weight. I thought I would start with the headband on my SRH840s!
I was inspired to do so by these threads and their most excellent mods:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/484116/my-shure-840-mod-warning-lots-of-pictures
http://www.head-fi.org/t/485381/shure-840-frankstein-headband-mod-mission-complete
http://www.head-fi.org/t/654807/shure-srh840-impressions-its-awful-headband
I love the sound signature of these headphones, as they sound something like a circumaural Sennheiser HD25 Amperior. The only problem with them is the wholly horrific fit that results from it’s headband. The 840’s headband suffers from a tragic lack of padding and causes major discomfort due to roughly 60g of extra extra rubber and hard plastic.
Using the previous modders as a template (credit to KimLaroux and Swbf2cheater for their mods), this is what I‘ve done to the headband thus far:
1. To remove the headband, cut along the seam carefully. There are two wires inside, and you want to make damn sure that you don’t cut either of them. Carefully take out the white “padding” strip and extract the giant, hard piece of rubber. Don’t just yank it out as the sliding mechanisms on the sides can slice your cable right in half. Pull the ends of the decal covering out of the sliding mechanisms if you want to preserve it for the final mod.
2. Once you remove the headband and the plastic sliding mechanisms, this is what the 840 looks like. I removed the small black rubber pads as well, and in their place I put magical 3M Dual Lock. Are they sponsoring Head-Fi yet? If they aren’t, they should really get on that. I reattached the white plastic and foam pad to the bottom using DL and attached the cable to the center top using DL and a very small piece of packaging tape. To preserve the top curve, I used the bottom section of the original headband cover. After that, I measured the decal section that I would need to rewrap the headband. Cut it out with a utility knife and throw the rest out.
3. BONUS ROUND. My wife is a professional wig maker. When you want to affix something without adding bulk, Supertape Wig Adhesive is the way to go.
4. Get a hot glue gun ready and glue the back of the covering, pulling it around and sealing it to the foam pad one side at a time. You can also stitch it by hand, if you want.
5. New Years Diet Resolution: Accomplished! Who know weight loss could be so easy? The headphones are infinitely more comfortable, better looking IMO, and far more portable. I’m going to try them for a week or so, and if they need it, I’ll install either an HD580 or HD650 headband to add padding to the top.
