Mod vs. Calibration - Mutual Exclusivity?

Regarding headphones for studio mixing & mastering, and the subsequent need for flatness and neutrality:

Sonarworks offer of individually calibrated hd650 seems like a great choice. Wouldn't it be contraindicated to then Coin/Foam/etc. mod these and interfere with the calibration?

I have heard of hd800 modded (dust cover) coupled with Sonarworks plugin, but not 650.

I'm trying to make the best choice in long term investment studio headphones (used exclusively, no monitors/room treatment) for EDM sound design, mixing and mastering (specifically very heavy, distorted rawstyle and cinematic/trailer music) to use in conjunction with my ATH-m50.

thank you

 

Definitely not mutually exclusive, you just have to know what to change. Generally fighting problems at the source (mods) is better than trying to mask them using EQ of any sort, but you might not always get perfect results, so EQ can still help with modded phones. With the HD650 you could probably still use Sonarworks because the mods don't change the FR too much, but with the HD800 the calibration will be way off after mods - and you shouldn't need any EQ with proper mods anyway. I have no experience with the M50s, but I'm sure mods can improve the FR quite a bit.

 

I think there are better options other than hd650 for EDM sound design, due to its bass roll off and acceptable but not great distortion figures that gives the bass a slightly bloomy character, fixing the bass roll off of the hd650 with eq only make the bass distortion more apparent. Planars like hifiman he400i/s or the monoprice m1060 have better bass extension and quality, but obviously there are going to be tradeoffs e.g. less dynamic.