The HD800 & HD800S thread

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by sorrodje, Oct 11, 2015.

  1. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    The Gungnir Multibit just sounds better overall than the DC-1. Burrito filter yo. The Emotiva DC-1 is just less than half the price, more features, better connectivity, and less warm-up.

    I would take DC-1 any day though over Modi Multibit and Bifrost Multibit, especially the Modi Multibit. Not even fair.

    Edit: Can't you get the DC-1 really cheap in Canuckistan?
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2017
  2. FallingObjects

    FallingObjects Pay It Forward

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    DC-1 is about $700 maple monies, and there are a few records of sales of people selling theirs secondhand in the $300-500 range. Even new, I think it's a pretty more reasonable purchase than a Gungnir Multibit which costs about $1,650, though I like the aesthetic of the Gungnir Multibit more and I'd imagine it would hold its value better with being up-gradable in the future.

    Ideally I'd be buying these without paying extra for shipping, but I'm waiting until I'm finished Uni if I'm buying directly from a store, since I pay 12% tax in BC (where I'm studying) and 5% in Alberta (where my home is).
     
  3. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Used DC-1 for 300 CAD is amazingly cheap.
     
  4. FallingObjects

    FallingObjects Pay It Forward

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  5. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Modding update for my HD800s:

    Following @Serious advice I cut down the ring of 1/8" sorbothane I have round my driver to reduce its outer diameter. This removed all the harshness I was hearing before. Subjectively, technicalities are now unaffected vs stock except for bringing the recessed mids up a little bit. What seemed to have a greater beneficial affect was adding in a sorbothane flap covering the trapezoidal-shaped area. Mids were more prominent, but also everything seemed a bit clearer and more focussed.

    This got me thinking. What I did was to take the rear side of the cups and stick sorbothane on all the black plastic areas which support the silver screen around the driver. It's almost stealthy, because the sorbothane is exactly the same colour as the plastic.

    [​IMG]

    Impressions? Well, at the very least it is heavier :) I find it hard to be certain of my impressions with modding but I am fairly sure that I hear a cleaner, more delicate transient response. Also seems a bit more relaxed, in the sense of just feeling less distorted and easier to listen to. Sometimes in music you get chords which have certain consonances between the harmonics that sound really amazing and it feels like the occurrence of these has shot up since doing this mod. I may be imagining this last one, but maybe tonality seems a bit more cohesive?

    I would say this is worth a go, it's cheap enough and super easy and reversible. It's also a no-cost mod in the sense that it doesn't make anything worse. Sorbothane I used is here.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2017
  6. vinylpancakes

    vinylpancakes New

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    I like listening to music. I'm an average person. If the sound doesn't get my attention some how, I will move on. I don't overly study this. If something sounds good and I like it, I may buy it.

    These were listened on half my main rig, and half my bedroom rig. My UPS wouldn't have survived the trip with the Gungnir Multibit so the Modi Multibit came due to its quicker warm up time. For the amp I used a Lyr2 with "Premium" (72-74?) Reflector 6H23p-EB tubes. Both units were powered on for more than an hour. I used the USB input on the Modi Multibit with my iPad.

    When headphones are needed I daily drive HD650 when I can. HE-400i when I can't. The reason for this/these listening session(s) (HD-800S, Elear, Utopia, HE-500, Amiron) was the intent to purchase LCD2's after hearing them several times before. I walked away with a mint pair of HE-500's instead. I'm not a bass head, or a fan of the "other" far end. For instance I have to be careful if I'm in the mood to crank the headphones a bit on the HE-400i with its high end.

    I mainly listen to metal and rarely have a clear state of mind.

    I know my impressions are not much. I will leave that to the pros. Always listen for your self!

    Elear: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...cal-elear-and-utopia.2270/page-59#post-129791

    Utopia: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...cal-elear-and-utopia.2270/page-59#post-129791

    HD-800S: I quickly ended my listening due to the hot treble going on. Plus they just sounded too lean. Bad combo. I was surprised about the available bass. When you see these in real life, and feel them, they just look like they'd have zero bass, but that isn't the case. I can't comment on the quality due to the short length of listening. Comfort and looks were good. For me, I don't think a mod would fix this hot treble, but like I said as well, the music was too thin anyways.

    Amiron: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/beyerdynamic-amiron.3506/page-4#post-129793

    HE-500: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/hifi-man-he500-thread.431/page-4#post-129792
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2017
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    Why the hell did you post the same thing over three threads?
     
  8. vinylpancakes

    vinylpancakes New

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    I removed the irrelevant headphone information from each post that didn't belong to the respective threads. I left links to the other phones since they were all listened to in the same session, this could effect why I may have stated what I did. I left the beginning background info in each post as someone may not come into this HD800 thread or the Elear and Utopia, like i never have before, to understand where I may be coming from.
     
  9. Maxx134

    Maxx134 Dunning–Kruger effect poster boy

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    This is similar to what I encountered with my damping :
    [​IMG][​IMG]
    ...
    [​IMG]
    It was more focus.
    I used dynamat extreme.
    I will look for some spectral decay plot images to see if any difference visible.
    Edit* I cannot find that image, but here is thread post showing how similar my headphones are to the 800s:
    http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-august-ny-area-measurements-by-serious.2518/

    Also, to get the 800s type sound, I have chosen a discontinued Senhieser foam instead of the familiar SD mod in center.
    Edit*
    For some reason I don't have any pic of my Senheiser material used for making 800s type sound.
    I will take a pic and upload soon.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2017
  10. Maxx134

    Maxx134 Dunning–Kruger effect poster boy

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    Last edited: Apr 27, 2017
  11. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Thanks @Maxx134!
    Do I have to remove the front driver ring in order to remove the cage over the rear of the driver?
    Do you reattach the cage after damping? (I seem to recall reading that this a good idea to prevent random bits of metal from around the house getting sucked into the magnet)
     
  12. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    The silver metal ring holds the outer ring, which holds the mesh cage. You will have to unscrew the 4 torx screws.

    When you do that I think you should try to listen to it without the metal ring and also without the metal cage in the rear. I removed mine more than a year ago and haven't looked back. I'm not too worried about metal bits flying into the driver and even then the cage hardly prevents that.
    The front metal ring I replaced with a more absorptive material to try to absorb reflections and minimize diffraction. The ring on the back also doesn't seem to be optimized against diffraction effects. It (measurably) boosts the lower and mid-treble somewhat.
     
  13. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    So on yours the front ring is simply not there, and there is felt or similar covering where the ring used to be? No Torx screws any more?
     
  14. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    Yeah, I replaced the metal ring with felt. At one point I will screw the screws back in similar to how the SAA mod did it. Right now there are no screws which obviously means you have to be careful not to press on the driver as that will break the seal.

    It's important to get the right kind of felt, but I still haven't tried all the materials that I want to. The right material there will change the tonal balance around 2kHz and (compared to the metal ring) clean up CSDs noticeably around 8 and 10kHz. On a flat plate coupler there's barely any difference, though. The right midrange tuning depends on a variety of factors, for example If you have the SBAF mod installed or not and how it's cut out, how worn your earpads are, etc.
    The felt reduces 2kHz a bit compared to more reflective materials like the metal and the dynamat. I think you have about a 3db window of adjustability where with different materials and slightly different ring sizes you can very precisely get to a certain target for your upper midrange balance. 0.5db can make a big difference here and you can even make 0.2 or 0.1db changes.

    Technically I also find it to sound better without the ring in the rear, but I wouldn't recommend removing it. I feel a ring with more rounded edges on the inside could be an improvement, but I haven't tried that yet.
     
  15. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    I too have been pursuing additional Vibrational Management Control based in part upon the SAA mods.
    Currently I'm at gen-3.5 status and have more fussing to follow thru with.

    I acquired one of the 3Dio binaural microphones and use it with Audacity to help dial in my mods.
    This has significantly sped up the process of tweaking the VMC that I'm using.

    Thus far I'm rather pleased with the results. :)

    JJ
     
  16. Maxx134

    Maxx134 Dunning–Kruger effect poster boy

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    As member serious said, this SAA type rear grill removal does benefit the sound.
    To me, it definitely reduced treble fatigue, and my main obervation would be due to the rear reflection caused by the grill.
    Anyways, I was able to achieve similar result with the fine mesh version of shelf liner inserted on grill.
    That way it look stock in keeping the grill, but either way should be ok.

    The only suggestion I would definitely NOT suggest is to leave the screws out...
    You definitely need the screws back in, but also will need some washers to replace the metal ring if removed.






    Which ring is in the rear?
     
  17. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    Sennheiser calls that internal flat ring the Holder Counter Bearing.
    I call it the clamp ring as it clamps the driver into its mounting gasket (Compensating Ring TEP) using the external mounting ring (Decorative Ring) to anchor the driver and clamp ring to the rest of the ear cup (Acoustic Baffle) using those 4) T6 torx screws (1.8x8).

    The names Sennheiser uses to describe their parts are often rather descriptive of their function, as is the German way of things.

    JJ
     
  18. Maxx134

    Maxx134 Dunning–Kruger effect poster boy

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    Oo interesting , What vibration area are you pursuing?

    The only vibration control I know of with SAA,
    is their super hyper bowl techno jargon theories in their website.
    It's sound impressive, yet haven't actually seen any implementation besides the metal ring removal

    I have approached this topic with my own dynamat extreme mod which is more vibration control as it replace the metal rings with dynamat rings.

    Anyways, Goodluck & let us know if any progress.
     
  19. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    What I've come up with thus far is a way of modifying the mounting of the drivers, along with dealing with the 'trapezoid's' influence in the ear cup.
    The results I'm seeing coming back from the 3Dio binaural mic setup are most encouraging.
    I still have some dialing in to do to my 'measurement capture system' and also refining the details of how I'm applying my ideas of VMC.

    My previous setup (gen-2.5) was easily eclipsed after I started using the 3Dio binaural mic which means I can now chart the changes as I can much more rapidly refine this approach.

    But I gotta say I'm rather encouraged with what I'm hearing while listening to music at this point.

    JJ
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2017
  20. Maxx134

    Maxx134 Dunning–Kruger effect poster boy

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    So what improvements you notice any sonic changes?

    For me, the damping gave a slight impression of being more like Lazer sharp image focus.

    Soundstage space ambiguity decreased substantially even before placing an SD type mod.

    I think it affected the frequency area of metal mesh basket resonance interaction to driver.

    I have seen others try to dampen the basket but it lead to closed in sound.
     

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