HD 800 Nothing New minimal change mod

Goal:

First I should acknowledge the huge amount of experimentation that has been developed by this community for the HD 800. This modification is completely derivative, and I in no way claim authorship for the design. In my aim is to contribute to this existing body of knowledge my meager experimentation.

By now my ears are very used to modified HD 800 sound, but I find existing templates unnecessary apart from the ring, and sought to implement a felt ring, like the many others used, but with the goal of minimal change to the sound signature, but to alleviate the ear pain associated with the stock HD 800.

I have no idea how this mod measures. I also have no idea how similar ring style mods compare. What I can say is that this mod, to my ears, achieves the goals I set out to achieve. It is easy enough to fabricate using readily available materials, and works well with the stock dust covers in place. Despite the thickness of the felt, this mod has minimal change to the overall sound signature. It does not cure the treble peakiness of the HD 800. There still is some treble liveliness, but the overall treble is slightly attenuated. There are no weird side effects I can detect, but I make no promises that other ears won't detect any.

I would welcome feedback and experimentation with felt materials, however I am currently unwilling to experiment further due to repetitive strain injuries.

It should be quite precise if printed on A4 with no scaling, I measured directly from the HD 800 using a caliper. The outer diameter of the outer ring should be 69.8mm. The inner ring should be 56mm.

Materials:

• 5mm stiff adhesive backed felt (advertised for protecting furniture and wooden floor) I purchased this felt from a hardware store.
• Craft knife - ideally with a thinner blade. (If you are looking for a design classic: the NT Cutter A-300)
• Template
• Double side tape (for fixing template to back of felt) I prefer thicker double sided tape if possible.

Method:

• Prepare template. Apologies - I wanted to attach my template but do not wish to link to my personal file sharing services in fear of incurring spam emails. Use whichever precision gaphics sofware you are most comfortable with. I like Adobe, but there are likely many other free alternatives. Could use CAD if you have that. I measured directly from the HD 800 using a caliper. The outer diameter of the outer ring should be 69.8mm. The inner ring should be 56mm. Make sure to print without scaling and measure to verify accurate print.
• Fix template to back of adhesive backed felt with double sided tape
• Cut template shape using craft knife. Best technique is to press the knife precisely downward (not angled) and to repeat this small cut at a few millimeters apart. Following this, the felt can be cut in a circular motion following the smaller incisions. Best to be patient and ensure quality/precision of this step rather than have to re-cut the template.
• Remove HD 800 dust covers
• Fix felt rings to metal ring
• Replace HD 800 dust covers
• Enjoy less ear pain (hopefully - I make no guarantees)

I hope this is useful. If anyone can suggest how I can improve this post advice is welcome.

 

Have you tried the SBAF absorber yet? I feel like the ring mods, especially the thicker ones make the midrange timbre less natural.

 

Not the SBAF community mod specifically. I have tried shelf different shelf liner material before and not had much luck as I felt it seemed to make the bass warmer. Of course SBAF mod is using quite different shelf liner so I would need to try that specifically to be able to compare...

This is very stiff felt - it holds its own shape like cardboard, and I have used a minimal width - just over 6mm between the inside and outside rings. The acoustic properties are likely quite different. The mod also seems to sound best with the dust covers in place, while previous felt ring type mods were more or less OK with the dust covers removed.

Midrange timbre naturalness was not something I was listening for, but I would consider this mod different to previous felt mods in that there is less impact on bass warmth and overall frequency balance is closer to the stock. With classical music and vocals I can't notice anything that stands out as compromised timbre - however we all listen differently so I can't be sure we have the same thing in mind. I would say however that I am fairly sensitive to timbral issues. As an example, my demo with the Abyss AB1266 lasted all of about 10 seconds for me to determine that the timbre with strings was way off. I also can't stand many multi BA in ears due to timbre and crossover issues. However I can't say for certain there are no issues other poeple will detect, again due to my limited comparisons at this time - just that nothing jumped out at me up to now

Could be that the mod has disastrous consequences I have yet to detect - I am hesitant to undo the modification so unfortunately cannot provide too much detailed comparison between this and stock form or other mods. My selfish idea is that other people would try out this mod with similar material and provide feedback. This might be hard as I am located in Australia and hardware supplies brands might be different in the states. I might see if I can con some locals into trying it LOL.

 

You should give it a try then. Being located in Australia, the shipping will be very expensive. I'm not sure if there are people with the material where you live but if there are they might be able to ship some to you.
It could also very well be that there are certain things about the sound of the SBAF absorber that you don't like, it's probably not for everyone.

I felt the same way when I listened to it. Still, there are other great qualites to it.

So this has more bass warmth than the other ring mods? Sounds like this could be pretty good.

It could also be that it makes the midrange more natural, I can't really say.
For what it's worth, I used to use a thin felt ring + Anax 2.0 liner type of mod for a long time.
Good FR in the upper mids and treble with more precise imaging were the main thing I focused on for my HD800 mods. The combined SBAF absorber and SD mod seem to get very close to achieving that goal for me.
I think the ring mods generally lift the 500-1000Hz region and smooth the treble region a bit, depending on the material used. All of this depends on the width, thickness and specific material, so I can't really say how yours sounds. I also want to try other materials myself. I'm currently using a relatively soft type of felt instead of the metal ring. in addition to the SBAF and SD mods. I feel like a stiffer type of felt would certainly be worth trying.
I will make a HD800 mod megathread in the future, with in-ear measurements of popular mods and my own impressions. Of course I cannot guarantee that my own in-ear measurements will be of much help to other people but they certainly match what I hear much much better than the regular coupler measurements.

Do you have something like a HD650 or speakers to compare to? I used the HD600 and at the latter stages my dad's speaker setup to compare to, to make sure that the midrange sounded natural.
Many people take issue with the stock HD800 midrange frequency response (myself included), so I was quite surprised to see how natural the HD800 could sound with some modifications. That driver is really something special.

 

That sounds like a good idea. Maybe maintain wiki with different mods and measurements. I could probably produce another copy of this version of ring to send to someone to measure.

By now my brain is very used to the presentation of HD 800 however I still find perfectly flat has the best possible timbre presentation. SD mod does a great job of smoothing out the mids and trebles but for me had negative influence on bass presentation and to lesser and more intangible degree sounded a hair "breathless."

I suppose my RE-400 earphones are my reference for neutral frequency response, and really flat frequency response is my ideal as I find timbre just sounds so correct from a flat response. RE-400 can sound metallic at times but this rarely shows up. Mostly seemed to show when using iDSD...

I think this type of material for ring has a bit less bass warmth than the anax 2.0 style ring mod I had before, and also perhaps a tad more forward mids than stock even with the dust covers in place. Some might find it a bit shouty, but still less fatiguing than stock. I guess that would be consistent with more lower mids coming through - so might not be your cup of tea. I put this down to maybe bit of trumpet effect due to dense and thick ring. Could be negative influence on soundstage as well, but I am not overly concerned by soundstage.