[volly]

but could also be a nightmare

@p1zzap1e
Mayflower uploaded a modification video for the T50RP MK3 a while ago. In my opinion a good starting point.

IKR....it was a nightmare to get the bass to my taste....I just gave up and left it stock! Pads worked well in that department for me!

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

Yeah I’ve read that, but because of my lack in experience and knowledge I don’t understand the differences it would create sound wise and why someone would recommend to use clay instead of acoustic felt in the back of the cup as felt seems to be the most used material. I have acoustic felt at home and plan to use it, but when I saw some recommendations to use clay instead I started to wonder what differences it would give the sound.

The blue tac adds mass. Making the baffle harder to move. Allowing the driver to do what it needs without the baffle shifting underneath it.
-Less distortion. In theory anyways

The felt is more about air control. Controlling how the driver interacts with air controlling the movement of the driver. For instance if you have too much bass, it could be the driver is under damped. Too much movement allowing for easy, big, low frequency movements of the driver.
-Controling the air, to control how the driver responds to frequency. Getting the sound signature you want

The acoustic foam on the cups themselves is for controlling reflections. So you're only hearing the sound of the driver, instead of all of the reflections aswell. This to me seems to be one of the more important parts to a headphone. Open backs for instance don't really have reflections. (yes I know they do, but it's safe to say MUCH less). Problem is with closed headphones, you only have so much space to create a material or area to absorb sound. The lower the frequency, the longer the wave, the thicker the acoustic foam has to be. (DCA Sleath uses quarter wave resonators to help with this is my understanding.
-Controlling reflections to try and remove that "cup" sound and weird peaks in frequencies

Acoustic engineering gets pretty insane. And honestly our little group modding t50rps barely scratches the surface of the things that can be done to change sound of headphones.

 

[p1zzap1e]

Thank you for all the valuable tips! Il start going slow and listen to them stock, then change pads. After that start to slowly mod them and listen for the differences. Can’t wait!

 

[p1zzap1e]

The blue tac adds mass. Making the baffle harder to move. Allowing the driver to do what it needs without the baffle shifting underneath it.
-Less distortion. In theory anyways

The felt is more about air control. Controlling how the driver interacts with air controlling the movement of the driver. For instance if you have too much bass, it could be the driver is under damped. Too much movement allowing for easy, big, low frequency movements of the driver.
-Controling the air, to control how the driver responds to frequency. Getting the sound signature you want

The acoustic foam on the cups themselves is for controlling reflections. So you're only hearing the sound of the driver, instead of all of the reflections aswell. This to me seems to be one of the more important parts to a headphone. Open backs for instance don't really have reflections. (yes I know they do, but it's safe to say MUCH less). Problem is with closed headphones, you only have so much space to create a material or area to absorb sound. The lower the frequency, the longer the wave, the thicker the acoustic foam has to be. (DCA Sleath uses quarter wave resonators to help with this is my understanding.
-Controlling reflections to try and remove that "cup" sound and weird peaks in frequencies

Acoustic engineering gets pretty insane. And honestly our little group modding t50rps barely scratches the surface of the things that can be done to change sound of headphones.

Thanks for a good explanation. Starting to understand the process a little bit more.

 

[GREQ]

A question to the experienced modders: most guides say that blue-tac/clay should be on the baffle, and acoustic felt on the inside/back of the cup together with tape and cotton. But I have also seen and read about people using clay/blue-tac on the inside of the cup where most guides say to use acoustic felt. Anyone who can give an simple explanation of the differences? Maybe a bad idea to use both blue-tac on the baffle and the back/inside of the cup.

Since it hasn't been repeated yet, it's also important to make modding choices based on ease of use and longevity.

• blue tack - very easy to use and remove and good longevity
• plasticine/modelling clay - MUST be oil-free, or it will cause the plastic to become brittle and crack - easy to use but extremely difficult to clean up/remove
• sorbothane - very easy to use but double-sided tape will eventually weep residue and be somewhat difficult to clean up after a year or two
• paxmate - easy to use + good longevity
• fo.Q - easy to use + good longevity
• micropore tape - very easy to use but bad longevity, will eventually weep sticky residue and be somewhat annoying to clean

For these 'reasons' I mostly stick to using fo.Q and Twaron Angle Hair for most mods these days.
I now avoid clay/plasticine completely, and only use sorbothane and micropore tape in rare cases where it's either more isolated or easier to clean/replace in future.

Paxmate doesn't provide much mechanical damping, but has the awesome effect of EXTREMELY high passive noise cancellation when used all around the cups.

 

[IvanDrago]

fo.Q - easy to use + good longevity

This one SH-21k?

 

[GREQ]

This one SH-21k?

I'm using TA-102
... but I have to stress the returns are realistically not worth the cost.

While it is one of the best of the market, no market headphone uses damping materials like this.
It's much better to just use/design a headphone that is mechanically dead from the start.

 

[p1zzap1e]

Got a hold of some sheep wool. Going to wash it and see if I can use it instead of cotton I like the thought of t50’s as some sort of Frankenstein of headphones. An arm here, a leg there. Give it some current and see what moves.

 

[DeweyCH]

I finished modding out my T50rp mk3s tonight.

Started with them already having been rewired as balanced with TinyXLR ports, and wearing the ZMF lambskins.

Opened them up as I hadn't actually done anything to the acoustics. I had gotten for myself some non-drying modeling clay and some Dynamat Extreme sheets:

And then I did the needful. Modeling clay around the drivers in the gaps in the baffles, the Dynamat cut OK and adhered to the inside of the cups, and some cotton for damping:

Listening now. They sound a whole lot better. Vocals were recessed and tinny/echoey before. Now they're still a bit recessed, but have good body. Detail is quite good. Bass is fantastic... almost overwhelming at times and running towards bloomy, but overall pretty solid.

 

[IvanDrago]

The material you´ve used for the cups looks like semi-closed cell, soft-elastic cellular rubber and not felt, right?

I´ve only 4mm paxmate like (closed cell foam) and 2 mm adhesive felt at home. Tried both. In my opinion the foam works better to eliminate reflections but wonder how the semi-open foam wil work. Unfortunalty i could´nt found a reseller in europe as a private customer.

Inside of cups covered with adhesive felt - left just the bottom vent open.

 

[GREQ]

The material you´ve used for the cups looks like semi-closed cell, soft-elastic cellular rubber and not felt, right?

I´ve only 4mm paxmate like (closed cell foam) and 2 mm adhesive felt at home. Tried both. In my opinion the foam works better to eliminate reflections but wonder how the semi-open foam wil work. Unfortunalty i could´nt found a reseller in europe as a private customer.

In this case as shown in the photo, its 2mm felt with adhesive backing.

These shells sound too 'dead' with paxmate, so I actually prefer a bit of artificial depth caused by reflections or not completely deadening the backwave.

I may revisit the mod in future, but as it is right now, I'm rather pleased with the result.
It doesn't work for all genres or recordings, but when it does, I love it.

 

[IvanDrago]

These shells sound too 'dead' with paxmate

I know what you mean. Maybe i will try a combination of both materials.
Another question: whats the best method to dampen a humb in the 600-800Hz region?

 

[GREQ]

Another question: whats the best method to dampen a humb in the 600-800Hz region?

That's a bit too specific for my skill level

 

[IvanDrago]

That's a bit too specific for my skill level

That’s not the answer I wanted to hear at all

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

In this case as shown in the photo, its 2mm felt with adhesive backing.

These shells sound too 'dead' with paxmate, so I actually prefer a bit of artificial depth caused by reflections or not completely deadening the backwave.

I may revisit the mod in future, but as it is right now, I'm rather pleased with the result.
It doesn't work for all genres or recordings, but when it does, I love it.

I know what you mean.

It's a hard balance. If you somehow magically manage to deaden every single bit of reflection off the cup, it actually opens the sound stage, but doing that is difficult of course

But this is the best part of modding, and the T50rps, getting it to sound exactly how you want