Sennheiser HD650 Love (Appreciation Thread)

Did you mean this post?

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...ove-appreciation-thread.44/page-25#post-41199

 

Not quite, but it might do at a pinch.. thanks for looking!

 

@Kattefjaes , here you go buddy

 

When Zonto states in the spoiler:
"Rear foam removal is covered in the first post of this thread."
I think he is referring to just the rear foam removal - but not the spider cage, here in the first post:

Then Zonto goes on to explain the spider cage removal, in the same spoiler:
"Per recent helpful suggestions here, I used small, side-flush wire cutters to remove the spider cage after rear foam removal. Any remnants of the spider cage nubbies were easy to clip off to make that plastic ring flush with the magnet for later dampener treatment. Remember to cut the spider cage off while the cup is upside down."

@zonto, can correct me if I got this wrong.

Edit: Marv did not do the spider cage removal in the first post.

 

Thanks chaps, the nice clear "after" picture is particularly nice. "Measure twice, cut once" and all that!

 

My impressions of the dynamat mod is that it is very nice and really easy to do. I started with the placement of dynamat as pictured by @AustinValentine. Results were bass that was tight and detailed with a reduction of the normal 650 midbass warmth. I did notice an effect on the upper mids - lower treble that seemed to dry out details and some overtones compared to normal. This was especially evident on a track with harmonica on Donald Fagens Morph the Cat cd.

I decided to take out two little pieces of dynamat at 1 o'clock and 8 o'clock. That restored the overtones and harmonica naturalness at the expense of just a hair more warmth in the midbass. All in all a great result for my ears and setup.

I have a Jotunheim that I am trying as an amp only and really like what it does to punch through the mids as many have discussed. Not sure if you would need to remove those above mentioned little pieces if you use a Jotun.

 

Try damplifier pro instead of Dynamat xtreme...free sample from second skin.
I preferred it to Dynamat extreme!

 

@James Whiting EDIT - Never mind I used search and found your comments in about 12 posts.

could you point me to your subjective impressions of both? Or brief synopsis here.

Come to think of it, anyone try mortite (moldable weatherstripping)?

 

I ordered three free samples but Second Skin canceled two, so it's one per person sadly.

 

I ordered one free sample pack for my full HD650 mod.

A few months later, I ordered another free sample pack in anticipation of having a HD650 with only the Damplifier Pro portion of the mod for whenever I get a Jot. (The HD650 + Jot mod recommended by a few members here.)

I don't know if I slipped through the cracks or if they were fine with giving me a second sample pack for the additional $7.50 shipping.

 

Here is the latest changes with foam completely removed behind the driver and using 1/2" inch thick large lifesaver /dougnut of foam around it over approximately same size ring of damplifier pro, underneath applied to the magnet structure! Foam butts up against the grille.

This is the most detailed open sound I have managed to get from the HD650 . So here are all the mods on these:

1. Nickel mod to front foam
2. Rug/Shelf liner under front foam on baffle.
3. Rear foam plug and plastic assembly removed.
4. Damplifier Pro in all specific spots and also covering 2 of the paper ports. 4 covered is the fastest transient w/ best dynamics and kick but found it to be a bit to strong in the lower mid bass! Damplifier Pro ring around
the back of the magnet...spaced to leave 1/4" gap between driver diaphragm opennig and the edge of the ring
covered with 1/2" thick open cell foam.(Cut down from cheap foam paint brushes)
5. 1/8" Felt ring around the outside of the backplane.
6 My own more open grille. Determined I like the standard grille off better than the std grille...So I made my own grille from walmart office magazine holder! Cut with tins snips and shaped by slowly pushing the metal
into the back of the std grilles and then hand smoothing and shaping the outside edges!
7. 1/4" wide 1/8" thick diffusion/diffraction ring around the edge of the grille frame! This was a mod continued from trying on original std. grille that I felt slightly improved openess, detail, and made the sound a bit
smoother overall!
8. Grille painted with Nail Polish and Clear Coat!
9. Cable is Zenwave Audio D2 interconnect converted by Dave to a headphone cable using two seperate runs! Connectors are Eidolic rhodium plated copper 1/4" and Furutech FT-2PS (hd 650 pins) rhodium over occ
phosphor bronze! Much better than stock cable, although stock cable sounds pretty good!




Happy Listening

 

@James Whiting
Are you going to the SBAF meetup in November? I have to hear these monstrosities for myself. This looks insane and just keeps captivating my interest!

 

Not in any position to do so! They do sound much better than stock. I have taken every idea and suggestion on this site and applied it. It has taken a few months of fiddling and a lot of hours of listening.

Happy listening!

 

Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XX ???

 

If Massdrop actually did make a HD6XX with Sennheiser, what would we expect it to sound like? A super 650?

 

A super HD650 with real sub bass ?

 

I guess my wish list would be a 650 with updated drivers that have many of the community mods built in.

 

I wonder if this was what Marv was talking about?

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?profile-posts/3737/

 

Recently I've been spending a lot of time with the Jotunheim (rather than the Mjolnir 2) and the HD650s (dampener + rear foam and spider removal). The modding situation seems to be slightly different and I thought I'd post a quick update. My previous setup is described here.

- With the Mjo2 it was hard to get the HD650 midbass under control, especially after rear foam removal. Adding stuff behind the magnet hole was the best option, but it partially reversed the nice effects of removing the rear foam in the first place. With Jotunheim the midbass is much less prominent, and nothing seems necessary behind the driver on this count.

- Another reason to add stuff behind the driver is to control the backwave after rear foam removal. I think this is really important to getting the modded HD650s to sound their best. With Mjo2 after rear foam removal, some tracks felt a bit uncontrolled in a way I can't exactly explain, a bit like being on the deck of a ship lurching around. To control this I put a bunch of stuff in the rear cavity, but away from the magnet. The Jotunheim's supernatural grip on the drivers lessens the need, but I think a little bit of something back there is still helpful to stop treble reflections bouncing around. You lose a slight acutance (tubey halo around transients) but you gain a decent amount of transparency when there's a lot going on up top. It also smoothens out some of the very occasional weird shit that Jotunheim does in the treble.

It's a trade off and the sweet spot may vary but I encourage people to experiment. In the end I settled on this arrangement:



That's 1/16" felt in (despite appearances) a handsome dark blue. There's a bit more dampener underneath, but not covering the vents. I really recommend trying the felt. I found going closer to the rim than this caused a suckout out maybe around 1khz. Also I tried a felt donut over the dampener donut, but it seemed to me like that just took away bite without adding further transparency up top.

 

Lots of weird experimentation going on here