HD800 "French Mod" aka "SuperDupont Resonator"

Hi Sorrodje,

very interesting mod. I had no idea that the silver screen would be that easy to remove, I always thought that it was being held down by the 4 screws around the edge! Such cheating Sennheiser! Haha.

As it happens I still own and use a pair of Shure 215's. They're perfect for audiobooks around town, isolating but no need for batteries. And as it happens I had a pair of foam tips size L handy. What are the odds right? I cut them in half and used the upper narrower part on my HD800's. I decided to place the cut surface facing outwards. The plastic center pin is not part of it. Quick and dirty mobile pic:



I don't have any measuring equipment in my home but I'm very familiar with the HD800, it being my primary headphone and having owned it for a long time. Subjectively speaking the change in sound signature reminds me a little bit of going from the HD600 to the HD650, it's not a big change but i definitely think the mod made the HD800 a little "meatier" sounding. I think the change may be more subtle than between the HD600 and HD650. There might be some extra bass, or maybe it's just that the highs are less pronounced. I don't think the mod made the headphone any "slower" sounding, but there might be a little less "air" in female vocals. On the other hand this "air" might very well have been artificial in the first place. I think some classic rock tracks I have sound less sibilant now.

I made the mod tonight so these are very early impression, but what I'm hearing so far is definitely interesting. There might be a little loss in the percieved pinpoint accuracy of imaging, on the other hand I think they might be easier to listen to with a lot of music now. I'll keep them like this for a while and see how I like it. Since I don't have any measuing equipment in my home I'm not going to ask to be put on the distribution list for your modded tips. But I'd be VERY interested to see what you can come up with here. I'll definitely buy (or buid) what you consider to be the final version of your mod.

I would also like to add to the discussion (without derailing it) that I personally don't like the stock cable for the HD800, I think anyone wanting to remove some of that HD800 "metallic" or "sibilant" character should consider a thick pure copper cable. I run my own pair of HD800's hardwired with a thick copper cable. The hardwiring may not be necessary, but I don't think the stock silver/copper combination is the best for the HD800.

 

Thanks! I know right. SBAF has been on my radar for a while, happy to jump in. I would also put myself in the "Die Hard" HD800 fan category, I respect what some other headphones on the market do (and those who prefer that) but the HD800 is still my cup of tea. The only other headphones on my radar that maybe could make me give up the HD800's are those that currently sit in the $3000 bracket... if you can guess which two specifically you'll get a gold star. Haha.

Anyway - the work you've done here is pretty fantastic. Essentially I get to try the HD800S for the price of an old pair of foam tips, hard to beat that value. I'll be happy to send you some "winemoney" if you ever figure out what the fnal incarnation of this mod might be.

 

Alright so initial measurements are in. It appears to measure about the same as the one that I made to try and copy yours and therefore also very close to my final version which closed the cavity on the back side of the driver instead of on the inside.

My version of the mod consists of a piece of 2mm foam with a 7mm hole at the opening and felt with a 10mm hole lining the cavity and then finally a foam disc on the backside of the driver to close the cavity.

Here is the Left side
Green = Stock, Blue = Official SD mod, Red = My version

Right Side
Green = Stock, Blue = Official SD, Pink = My version

 

Very much looking forward to this.

I also have a prediction to make... if my modded pair is roughly what the HD800S sounds like I believe the HD800 will go down from the wall of fame and the HD800S will take their place...

Too early to call it "better" after just 5h of listening, but this mod is definitely a change towards the more "forgiving" and "easy to recommend".

 

Not sure about that.

 

Yeah my HD800 do seem to measure a bit different than "normal" the channels also aren't matched as closely as what I've seen from most others HD800's. Both your version of the mod and mine seem to come very close to the same thing although there do seem to be some difference in the spectrogram/waterfalls. I'll post about it after some further investigation.

 

It may be that Sennheiser increased second harmonic distortion in the bass so as to make it sound warmer and fuller than the less distorted HD800. Doing listening tests now.

 

Just went back and looked at my distortion measurements and neither my version of the mod nor the official SD mod seemed to have any statistically significant difference (no actual statistics were calculated). All of my measurements had THD below 2% at the worst.
Edit: this was all at 90 dB

 

Here's my pdf booklet of all the measurements. Please do not pass it around outside this thread 'til I've posted. Thanks!

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/Sennheiser_HD800S_PDF_AllPlots.pdf

At the end of the booklet is the spectra of both HD 800 and 800S with a 40Hz tone. The 800S has 20dB more second harmonic at 80Hz than the DP mod.

 

Extremely interested in how this turns out. I have a set of HD800S incoming from Jan, so I'll probably have to just resell it stateside and try to find a mint-ish HD800 for sale somewhere. I prefer the look of the new HD800S, but I prefer less distortion pls kthx.

 

Wow. That ain't good.

HD800 with SD mod:



>>>>>

HD800S:

 

Same question. I'm guessing we'll find out in the article though. Also it's interesting to see how different the much older SN00457 measures than the newer SN15001 version. I wonder if this is due to the difference in pads that @Bill-P discovered between old and new HD800's.

@Tyll Hertsens Do the older HD800's have thicker pads on them? If so do the measurements look more similar if you swap in new "thin" pads?
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...read-version-1-0-released.27/page-5#post-6549

 

I'll tell y'all about the dots mod in the article, but it didn't seem to work as well as Sorrodje's. And sorry I can't answer some of the other questions...I've got to hit it hard now to get a post up.

It'll be Saturday now.

 

That HD800 S is looking like an HD700 in the bass.