HD800 (S) Ultimate Mod

I was thinking about that because I now have to buy some new dekoni pads for the next one.

I'm going to have to lay low untill its its measuremed by someone else..

Apologies to all if it sounds like I am exaggerating or whatever colorful I sound.

 

Sorry for mix up. That was my sony.
Here is my 800X:

The thing as a whole is pretty flat.
CSD:

I will get the before images tonight once home.

 

Final tunning:
FR:


CSD:


Dist:


Cleaned up the trebles a bit & lessened it a touch.
CSD had fishtank noise in background.

 

After covid19 scare/quarantine is over in future, I would be open to let anyone hear my HD800X if they are in NY.
If they want to hear a larger, deeper, more bass and more natural and more detailed sound over stock.
Not going to argue pettyness of the measurements here.
It is what it is.

 

That's ok to be mad I won't hold it against you.

I realize this place not for me.
I have contributed much here in past for nothing.

Your getting offended doesn't add to your credibility.

My measurements is very linear as the Headphones sounds.

I'm more polite than the majority of posters here.

I know its hard for you guys to accept someone other than Cali crew can have a breakthrough.

Too bad for you.

 

I think many do appreciate the work you put into mods, just that this specific forum doesn't like the way you sell them: your tone is arrogant and hyperbolic. I understand fears about your mods being "stolen" but you've gone through great lengths to be more opaque than granite.

Also, despite having been asked many many many many many times I don't believe you've shared meaningful (i.e. your own measurements on the same rig with legible settings) before and after measurements.

The voicing for basically all your mods look v-shaped with way more treble than most prefer, myself included. My interpretation could be wrong BUT HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE KNOW WHEN YOU DON'T SHARE MEASUREMENTS OF KNOWN REFERENCES OR HAVE SENSIBLE PARAMETERS FOR CSDS AND WHO THE f**k USES 20dB INCREMENTS FOR FR THAT ISNT HIDING SOMETHING?

Right, I give up now. Sorry for the noise.

 

Trebles in line with lower mids makes for neutral sound.

20hz in line with 1khz makes for percieved bass extension.

Dip at 4k only lessens the forward nature of the driver.

No dips or peaks in trebles adds to realism without signature sound.

A totally flat line is not what any Headphone has.

Did feel good to post that "auto-correct" nonsense?

Learn how to read a FR response.

 

Since you are the great FR expert, explain me something, don't your mods make it super bright? Also the "Trebles in line with lower mids makes for neutral sound", so it doesn't matter what's in between?

What you write is, in a human behavior perspective, "interesting". You are s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ (creepy).

 

Not sure if it's the right place to post this, but I tried this mod recently and have a few questions and am looking for feedback of people who might have followed the same instructions or have experience with modding the HD800.

I added the rug liner as described but didn't like it too much, I feel like the HD800 lost its open character and sounded semi-closed. It also lost a lot of air. Maybe I used too thick of a mesh? Did someone experience this as well?

I am not very bothered with treble - I attempted this mod with the promises of better imaging, etc etc. Actually, I quite liked the stock version. I am one of the weirdos who actually enjoy treble.

Likewise, I felt that the inserts in the middle of the driver of a foam tip were not to my taste either.

So right now I just have the Dynamat on both sides of the driver. Like said on the other website, putting it just on the outside doesn't really make sense, and I can attest for this in my perception. I kept the ring holding the driver in and put dynamat on top. The tutorial removes it, but I am not sure if it's ideal. The screws were really tight, and if the goal is to stabilize the driver, then I don't see why removing the ring would help.

Having both the ring and dynamat led to something that is maybe even a bit over damped. The decays feel shorter, getting close to Stax territory.

Unfortunately, I slightly damaged my pads in the process of experimenting, putting them on and off again and again, images follow. I am wondering if there is a way to fix them? I suspect I am significantly losing bass. I am not exactly sure which model they are, as I bought them along with the headphone second hand. I wonder if other, thicker pads would help (as described on headfi).

I am wondering about removing the grill entierly. Has anyone tried this? If they cause all these undesired reflections, then why not remove them altogether and get something even more open? I am concerned I'd lose on some other frequencies though. I'd try it before even asking, if it were not for my damaged pads.

If only I had the money for the JAR mods...

 

Lately I’ve essentially copied the StefanAudioArt mod except the hardwire of the cable, which is to say I removed the dust covers, the metal ring that “holds” the driver in place (it doesn’t do this as much as it dampens it, afaict) and the outer port grill/ mesh on the other side of the cup, replacing the ring with some washers and a couple of torx screws. I’m pretty stationary so I’m not much worried about the driver moving around much, and it doesn’t easily move even without the washers/torx screws, really. Anyway, imaging does seem a smidge better to me this way, and articulation of detail also is improved but there’s a detriment to delineation of it - a smidge more blur between the frequencies. What sub-bass the 800 has is also worse probably, but I don’t care much for bass. I’m liking it so far.

 

Personally I found that removing the metal ring cuts subbass out. its not a solution for me.

 

I am really intrigued, could you please share any instructions/tips on how to reproduce it? I started to understand that modding is quite addictive, well worth a pair of pads...

 

I basically just copied what I saw here in this Head-Fi post where a user posted a picture of their StefanAudioArt-modded 800's:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/saa-hd-800-modification.700953/page-7#post-11868760

So: remove dust covers, unscrew the screws securing the metal ring around the driver (T6 Torx screws/screwdriver). This will also unattach the plastic ring on the opposite side of the cup that has the text "High Definition Driver 300 Ohms" on it, which happens to secure the mesh/grill on that side of the cup also. Remove mesh/grill. Get some square washers that fit the T6 screws, use those to "secure" the driver and re-attach the plastic ring on the opposite side of the cup, or if you're feeling daring just leave everything as is but be careful to not shake or move the headphones around much when listening or when not so as to not allow for the driver to flop around a bunch (now attached by a hinge-like housing that is part of the section where the wiring for the cable connectors connects to the driver itself and/or resting on a depression in the cup). StefanAudioArt, per the pictures above from the HF user, seems to only reattach with two of the original four Torx screws. They also hardwire their "Endorphin" cable to the headphone and remove the cable connectors, but I don't trust myself around a soldering iron enough to brave that.