Poor Man's FD01 (HSE A2000 modded)

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by james444, Jan 25, 2019.

  1. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Great right out of my phone. While my JVCs are out on loaner this is a surprisingly decent backup. Not as resolving as the JVC and the effortlessness isn't there, but they're pretty good beaters with good timbre and a surprisingly nice FR.
     
  2. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I fiddled a lot with air venting and tips and come to the conclusion you can get almost any sound out of these...but only one works well for me. These earphones are extremely tip sensitive with my ears.

    My problem is that the largest stock tips are too small for me. Using Tennmak Whirlwind wide-bore tips (which come close to the stock tips in their geometry) made the mids shouty and tinny and the image too bright and aggressive. Certain thick-walled narrow-bore tips produced a fuller midrange but also a boomy bass that remained somewhat boomy even with air-venting. But generally, if somebody finds the sound too bright, try narrow-bores.

    I finally settled for the good old Rock Zircon stock tips (photo) and an air vent with lots of windings (the tips were the only positive thing of the Zircons).

    The air-duct method by itself worked very well for my Sennheiser Momentum in-ear and Sennheiser CX 5.00, too. No micropore mod necessary. If you have one, try it. The original bass was unbearable and you will be surprised by the depth and clarity added.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2019
  3. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    I examined the Japanese reviews of these Alpexes and found the recommendation of breaking them in for 100 hrs (allegedly recommended by the manufacturer).

    While being aware that the benefits of a burn-in or break-in are questionable, the skeptic in me broke/burnt in my opinion about this.

    Fact is:
    • A sine sweep cannot detect any differences between before and after
    • Any mechanical device (e.g. a membrane) benefits from break-in (from the Grado boss)...the question is how much of it is audible
    • You probably have no luck with BA drivers
    • Sennheiser claims their stuff sounds good right out of the box

    My previous observations:
    • Generating an FR graph from a sine sweep obviously does not give you any information on timbre, bass decay etc. (anything related to quality)
    • The graphs of the Brainwavz B100 and B200 match in their low half although their low ends sound completely different: the B200's bass has a much slower and more realistic decay. Therefore, if a single DD's membrane gets a bit looser after a long break-in, this likely cannot be measured with a sine sweep. Whether it gets loose enough to make a big sonic difference may be doubted.
    • The term "burn-in" remains bogus as it comes from the cable sellers...a membrane does not burn.

    My perception after 100 hrs of break-in is:
    • The A2000s sound smoother to me after break-in. This is probably a self deception -- but even if it is pure imagination, the break-in has achieved its goal.
    • After having broken my brain in for a couple of weeks now, they also look stunning. While many may find their cylindrical shape unexciting, they are classic Bauhaus metal design "form follows function."

    In summary, the A2000s are really good earphones...I am saying this while struggling with writing a review of a 6-BA earphone that presently tortures me trough a Chopin cello concerto.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2019
  4. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Uhm. Its been measured before though.

    I really don't understand how people can think this doesn't happen, there's physical materials flexing and their mechanical properties *will* change over time, for the simple reason that they're not magical.

    To believe otherwise is to believe all the millions of dollars poured into material fatigue research, and the technology that came from it, was all a scam.
     
  5. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    I continue to enjoy these, however, I do wish that they had removable cables. The strain reliefs already look like they are stretching a little bit, which doesn't seem to bode well for long term use. These are inexpensive enough that I might get another set and try to mod some sockets onto them.
     
  6. james444

    james444 Mad IEM modding wizard level 99

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    I think the core question in that regard isn't whether break-in happens at all, but whether the changes involved are significant enough to make an audible difference. In my own measurements, I haven't seen a change over time so far, that was significantly larger than the typical variance between different measurements on the same day.

    From my experience with IEMs, I'd say the buildup of earwax / gunk on filters is more likely to make them sound "smoother" over time than break-in of materials.
     
  7. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Probably going to find it more so on hybrids with larger, bass-only DD drivers.

    By multiple reliable accounts, the CA Solaris experiences this to an extreme degree.

    But there's always going to be some effect in the first few tens of hours on DDs - as the suspension opens up and goes to full elastic deformation on the whole excursion spectrum, the resonant frequencies of the whole system will unavoidably change, moving the pistonic/nodal transitions around, and affecting the exact deformation modes.

    I suspect this is the cause of the "roughness/grain" that "goes away" that you see reported so often in these cases - any radial differences in the suspension's properties getting broken in.

    If someone were to take a really stiff suspension driver - like a pa woofer - and measure the deformations of the cone at non-pistonic frequencies i bet you'd see some really interesting shit. As a bonus you'd likely have to use lasers, and that makes it automatically awesome.

    Anyway barring extreme cases, on small rigid iem drivers it should be at steady state in 50 hours tops.
     
  8. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    Since this thread should not be taken hostage by fundamentalism, I repeat that I still like the HSE-A2000 a couple of days later...the rest behind a spoiler.

    I have not heard of measurements supporting break-in but I repeat I can imagine that there are changes that cannot be measured with a sine sweep -- which, as said, may be rather small. This is supported by the observation that two very similar FR graphs may belong to totally different sounding earphones.

    The idea of replacing micropore tape (or coating it) with gunk for taming treble is eye-opening. People who needed different earphones for different genres may now be able to restrict themselves to a single earphone with different gunks. For example, adding baby oil to a metal filter may bring the best out of the Schulmädchen Report soundtrack (photo), and creamy horsepoo may help making country music more palatable whereas a vodka concoction could accelerate speed metal. The possibilities are limitless.



    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2019
  9. james444

    james444 Mad IEM modding wizard level 99

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    You're of course right. I hope remaining skeptical for lack of measured evidence doesn't count as fundamentalism.
     
  10. JayC

    JayC Resident Crash Test Dummy

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    Enjoying these quite a bit! I initially tried subbing the micropore tape with masking tape since I didnt have any on hand, and didnt really like them. Got the micropore in the mail yesterday and its a big difference

    Thanks @james444! I'm not willing to spend $300+ on earphones anymore since I only use them at work sometimes. These really serve my use case and more :)
    I've also got the Blitzwolf BW-ES1 and these are a bit better in terms of headstage and timbre
     
  11. randytsuch

    randytsuch Friend

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    Would like to add my thanks to @james444.
    Ordered a pair a little while ago, takes a bit to ship from Japan since I went cheapest method. Bought mine from ebay.
    Out of the box, they are ok, but bass was overwhelming to me. I broke them in for a few days, and bought the 3m tape.

    Modded my pair. Started with 10 turns, but decided to make another one with 9 turns. I'm using the kz tips that have little grooves surrounding the hole, in kind of a star burst pattern. They are cheap, and fit my ears well. They were a little tight to install, it helped to put the iem in a vise while I installed the tips.

    So with the mods, really like these. I'm using them as my daily iems now. I like that I don't really have to worry about them since we are relatively cheap, will probably buy a backup pair.

    I also like I can add turns to tune the bass, I'm trying to decide if like the level at 9 turns. Sometimes it seems a little bass heavy, other times it seems great lol.

    Cable seems microphonic to me, but I added a clip to the cable and that helps, too bad I can't replace it.
     
  12. Mdkaler

    Mdkaler Friend

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    Very nice work James. I like these a lot.

    One thing though. The holes kept closing up and even disappeared. It can get a bit annoying as it happens about a couple times a week. Anyone having the same issue?
     
  13. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    My tubes close up entirely pretty quickly due to the inner plastic of the foam tips I am using. I need to experiement with something a little more rigid to protect the tube, although I don't hate how much bass there is, especially when in noisy environments.
     
  14. spoony

    spoony Spooky

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    I got these and I'm using a little stripe of craft felt instead of the micropore roll to let the pressure escape.
     
  15. Mdkaler

    Mdkaler Friend

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    Well the bass tube compression can be a problem too. But I was referring to the screen/mesh/filter.
    Sorry I don't know what's the correct term for it.

    Sometimes the hole completely disappears and I need to poke a new one.
    Now I just make the hole bigger and hopefully don't need to bother with it again.
     
  16. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    My front filter holes close up too. Not as badly/quickly with the 3M micropore as with the thicker J&J stuff, and with a bit of waggling of the twistie wire in the hole it takes longer.

    I'm using mine mostly commuting, for which 8 winds on the bass-relief roll is good.
     
  17. spoony

    spoony Spooky

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    I'll try and measure a damping roll inside the nozzle akin to the FD01 mod vs the hole-in-the-micropore mods.
     
  18. james444

    james444 Mad IEM modding wizard level 99

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    From my experience, the front filter holes seem to last longer, if I poke them near the edge and after the tips are already on the nozzle. But yeah, unfortunately they tend to close up after some time, so I check that whenever I clean the tips.
     
  19. spoony

    spoony Spooky

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    So I tried sorbothane, paper roll and dense foam roll nozzle damping vs micropore, here are my findings:
    nozzle.png

    A little spread out:
    spread.png

    As you can see, micropore is really effective in smoothing the peaks without sacrificing much extension.
    If anyone is interested in the 'foam roll', it was made out of a thin (~1mm) slice of an open-cell foam cosmetic pad, rolled inside the nozzle. These are the pads.

    No exact measurements of applied materials due to lack of time, but you get the overall picture.
     
  20. Mdkaler

    Mdkaler Friend

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    Another observation. The bass tubes tend to collapse and get compressed severely after a few days, at least tubes made with 3M Micropore tape.

    Experimenting with other materials to try and have the tubes remain breathable. For now I am trying with soft materials, but might end up using tiny plastic pieces.



    When the bass tubes work as intended, they make these little buds shine. Treble is somewhat tamed, but the energy is still there to give nuances and spatial cues more presence. Layering is also considerably better, different instruments jump out more, and vocals are more natural; in a sense some muddiness is taken out and the headstage is bigger.

    Overall the sound leans toward neutral and dry. It has decent extension at both bass and treble, and pretty good response to bass boost. Makes me want to turn up the volume, and that's when I know something is done right in the mids, as I tend to EQ down the mids for meh headphones/speakers.

    It is pretty amazing what these can do, and I am only feeding them with the little Fiio Q1. When paired with Lyr 3, there is noise with high gain setting; that's a bit disappointing as the low gain setting compresses the dynamic range IMO.
     

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