solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Jul 23, 2015 10:11:49 GMT
Has anyone here ever tried 'the mod' and if so, what were your thoughts on it? The ModYep did them many years ago but not exactly the same. You get a little more treble this way but I got something else in return:  I, however, did remove the entire front foam and replaced it with a nylon stocking. Liked it in the beginning but reverted back to stock. Removing the damping in the magnet isn't a good idea. Almost irreversible as well as it is nigh-on impossible to get the little foam disc back in there. Also played with various forms of back damping (like moving the front foam to the back) and adding foam in the back but ultimately reversed all mods (including the magnet foam) and felt it sounded best that way. Didn't do the quarter mod with the HD650, but did with other headphones. That may work better than removing the front foam completely. In the end I like the stock one (have one of the early so called veiled ones) and use EQ with those. NO 'veil' there on the Kameleon at all. I think in those days the HD650 was the best Senn could do with a dynamic driver and all the damping they used on the stock version was not something Senn threw in for nothing but was carefully designed that way. Sennheiser did make some changes to the HD650 to get it closer to the HD600 in some ways. The mods done at CS have been around on the web for almost 10 years already though. It's nothing new. Mostly all mods have been 'subjectively' evaluated. Very little measurements were made. CS does have some measurements though. Also many people played with pads. I feel (am pretty sure) that's where the biggest sonic differences will be had. Haven't see much measurements though. Given how well the FR response of the HD600 and HD650 is I highly doubt much 'real' improvements can be had that will give an even better FR. Pretty sure though that messing with the pads may result in different sounding HD650's and with some of those mods it may well sound 'better' to some. Too bad no one measures to confirm this. There are not that many modders that measure to confirm what they did though. |
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Jul 23, 2015 10:26:08 GMT
The hd650 still remains one of my favorite headphones after all these years. It offers an engagement factor and just plain musical fun that are very hard to match no matter how much money you spend... The hd650 never fails to deliver the music, never fails to be my warm blanket hp, and after all the years I've owned it it still finds ways to surprise and impress me. One of the best buys in the game IMO. Feel the same way. Certainly at that price point. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 14:37:22 GMT
Thanks for replying Frans, I might have known you'd have this covered already. I also don't find anything wrong in the 650 but I'm open to anything really. When I use EQ to level out the mids I kinda like it but it's almost impossible to get the whole midrange flat, even with a parametric EQ. It's a pity there's no software that would allow the user to simply draw on a graph the frequency response. Actually, maybe there is but I haven't come across it. It would be a cool idea. I'll leave my 650's alone though. I had noticed - and you highlighted - that there's a kinda acceptance that the back foam mod is reversible. It doesn't look an easy job to me either mate  Bugger that  I'm dying to try out the filter when it's available. |
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Post by ronzo56 on Jul 23, 2015 15:34:36 GMT
Word from Jeremy is it is in the works and should be coming soon.  If the filter does the same thing to the 650 as the SeNNator does, it will make it a different headphone, all in good ways. IMHO. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 15:54:14 GMT
Word from Jeremy is it is in the works and should be coming soon. If the filter does the same thing to the 650 as the SeNNator does, it will make it a different headphone, all in good ways. IMHO. This is my interpretation too. Funny thing though, although I've experimented a lot with EQ in the past I'm less inclined to do so now that I have the Project Ember. I've got a valve that manages to make the most glorious sound at bit-perfect and it's hard to imagine it getting much better. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2015 15:01:38 GMT
It's amazing just how similar the HD 650 sounds to the much less expensive PX 100-II's. I was struck by this whilst out walking the dogs so I had a rake around for FR graphs for both. Here they are..   |
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Sept 13, 2015 17:29:26 GMT
I have done some measurements on the HD650. Took a little longer than I thought it would. The report of my findings is found HERE. It's a rather big file size because of the plots ... 9MB Those that don't care about plots can safely skip this. |
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oldson
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Post by oldson on Sept 13, 2015 17:55:21 GMT
I have done some measurements on the HD650. Took a little longer than I thought it would. The report of my findings is found HERE. It's a rather big file size because of the plots ... 9MB Those that don't care about plots can safely skip this. wow, just had a look. that will take a few reads for me to digest. i am enjoying the sound as they are out of my Ember but fully intend to build a filter over the coming months. |
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Post by solderdude on Oct 18, 2015 22:00:59 GMT
Added some measurements of modifications using toilet paper and Brainwavz HM5 pads as well as SRH940 pads. File size has increased to 13MB ! The, quite extensive, measurement article is found HERE |
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 19, 2015 5:57:49 GMT
The hm5 pads do a similar thing to the t50. Perhaps pads are fairly consistent in how they affect headphones? (To a degree)
Wouldn't it be nice if there were some kind of logical set of rules that helps to predict the nature of changes that different types of pads offer? So, for instance, if the pad effect is consistent, the hm5 might actually be an answer to the Sony V6.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Oct 19, 2015 8:05:41 GMT
Will be trying them on the T50RP and cityscape uptown as well. In general there may be something to it (the pleather pads will probably boost the midbass where the velours may reduce subbass) but much of the effect depends on other factors such as driver diameter and how much of a 'path' there is between the rear of the driver and the front (the paper filters/ports) etc. I say slap them on the V6 and see what it does. Have measured HM5 pleather pads in the past (from Stratocaster) ... results below.  will measure them again and include the velours ones. They are very comfortable and nicely made. The T50RP is modified (acc to my manual with felt in front of the drivers) and the differences shown are between the SRH940 pads and HM5 pleather pads. I remember those pads to be smaller in size than the ones I have here though. The bass is about 20dB louder than 3kHz contents. With those pads one could say the FR was 10Hz to 20kHz +/- 10dB. |
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 19, 2015 9:17:57 GMT
The Sony loses a lot of mids so that the sound is 'distant' with sibilance and big bass whack. Even the AKG K545 sounds really fat by comparison with much better middle section. V6 is a strange headphone!!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 12:07:18 GMT
My mood has recently got a bit more upbeat so I'm now finally getting time to listen to music. I've been trying the Sonarworks Reference 3 plug-in at the same time and I'm now getting used to it's effect on the sound.
My Project Ember invariably runs these days with an Amperex Bugle Boy, low input gain, output caps by-passed & low output Z. That changes when I use the Sonarworks plug-in though. I can't stop myself from using a mid output Z setting. Seems I like warmth more than I thought. The beauty of the amp allowing me to up the effective warmth of the sound is that it really is only tuning the sound. The overall charcter of the Sonaworks plug-in is retained but things are just a bit mellower. I love this sound now.
This also allows me to hear an incredible amount of detail in the sound. There's more space between the musicians (on decent recordings), they're all allowed to breathe more. It depends on the music too I guess. I'll find out if I can ever be tempted to listen to loud rock music again.
As an aside - we went out for a fairly long night-drive last night. The tunes were Automat & then Shpongle. The stereo in the car is not the best but we had a great time.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Jan 24, 2016 12:39:20 GMT
Well that's really what listening to music is about Gordon. Just enjoying it. I sometimes think that we lose sight of that when some of us ramble on about gear!!  You've probably become quite used to the warmth from the Senns. I don't mind a cool sound or warm, because I think that my head adapts very quickly to different sound sigs and before long, I'm just listening to the music. The th900 has a big bass but is cooler sounding than the HD650. DT990 is still quite a warm sound with more of a bite at each end. I just flit from headphone to headphone and it no longer really worries me whether it's a Portapro or th900 or whatever. Music used to be a link to home for me. I never liked touring, ever, but when you have foreign tv that you don't really identify with, even if you understand what they're saying, you miss that link to home. So for me, having my music and preferably internet was a way of linking with home and my own bit of culture. Possibly for you now in Spain, there may be a little bit of that. Certainly with time, you might find a link in some way with 'home culture' is really very nice. Once I got past three weeks, I always started to miss home, no matter how beautiful or hot the country I was in. Would you believe, I felt very out of place in even Scotland? To me, it seemed distant and foreign in spite of the same language, but cooler weather. I felt very out of place and for me, three weeks was enough at a time. I never forget coming home once in the car. An awfully long drive and when I hit the Lake District, I felt as though I had arrived home in the south!! I felt that cut off. Loch Earne, I think it was where Zi stayed, was beautiful and the people nice. Went up mountains and off to Cairngorms but never could settle up there. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 18:54:48 GMT
Phew! Bullet dodged.
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Bugger that 
If the filter does the same thing to the 650 as the SeNNator does, it will make it a different headphone, all in good ways. IMHO. 
