[knowhatimean]

Very amazing stuff..

I heartily agree that if you are serious about upgrading your HD800 cabling that you, indeed google this thread. After viewing this thread (& not really having an upgrade budget) I was emboldened enough to carry out staightwiring  headphone cables myself ! The biggest challenge may have been when I decided to cut the existing wires, and carry through attaching a set of DHC "Molecule" hp cables.
 
Even if you're not comfortable doing the straightwiring yourself , if you disassemble everything to the point where cables are ready to be attached maybe you can get a local tech or a tech friend to do this step w/ a cable you've provided for them. I didn't have much trouble working w/ the cable I used as it really isn't that bulky a cable so I was able to easily work with it without actually removing the drivers from their basket seatings . (If this is a Technically incorrect MOW then by all means, don't do it this way; I was able to "pull it off",but it took me hours to do things that probably shouldn't take that long ! I'm stoked with my results nonetheless)
 
One of the things I've noticed since getting rid of the connector connections is that there was a slight channel imbalance that I really wasn't even aware of that is comparatively now gone ! I don't listen to much music other than Orchestral , so the spread of right to left soundstage information is solidly more continuous sounding without some of the sags that occur from time to time.
 
I think staying with cable connectors on these headphones is a mistake for reasons already mentioned in various places !

 

[Maxx134]

After much comparison between my now hardwired hd800 and my friends normal hd800 ,
I would have to say with the hd800 you can hear the diffetence.

 

[knowhatimean]

After much comparison between my now hardwired hd800 and my friends normal hd800 ,
I would have to say with the hd800 you can hear the diffetence.

Glad to hear you took the step to hardwire your HD800 !
 
If all the other conditions concerning these headphones are met, the 800s are absolutely champs at allowing you to hear subtle
fine detail you're not likely to hear on ,other than few, other headphones. The connectors on the headphone cables can act like a slight "choke" point to even a bit more subtle music information. Whenever there is another connection in the signal path something known as "Insertion Loss" occurs. The best connection would be a wire organically grown directly from music source to the driver, but you'd have had to taken way too much LSD to believe this was possible. The best we can hope for is to eliminate whatever connections we can. We're only talking about subtle differences here, but subtleties add up .
 
I tend to agree with you on preferring a Copper wire as that was why I used that nice DHC cable that I used !
 
Hope you're enjoying your HD800s
 
~steve

 

[soundseeker21]

Does this reduce the soundstage at all?

 

[purrin]

Less diffuse, in effect a reduction of the width, but more precise localization. Highly recommend against this mod if you prefer the more wall-o-sound effect of the stock HD800.

 

[knowhatimean]

Yup, I find it kind of amazing that Sennheiser thought that this "Ring Radiator" really "worked" for all genres of music playback
without changing any elements of what actually might exist on the recordings !
 
Oh well, the good news is that it's correctable if you find that the Sennheiser Soundstage is overpowering the existing soundstage
on recordings that have it ! There are whole genres of music that may sound better simply for the fact that the existing sound stage is minimal or non-existent at best in these recordings so Senny is  giving them a boost !
 
One size fits all rarely works for everyone ! (I'm certain that Sennheiser is going to put out a "contract" on me one of these days)

 

[knowhatimean]

Less diffuse, in effect a reduction of the width, but more precise localization. Highly recommend against this mod if you prefer the more wall-o-sound effect of the stock HD800.

I was thinking about that wall-o- sound effect of the stock HD800 , & decided what it reminded me of ., a reverb,circuit.

The edges of the protective screens that sit behind the drivers on each earcup are part of a "ring-driver-screen" sandwich that is held in place by the 4 screws that hold things in place . The protective screens are acting like springs that are vibrating from whatever musical energy is coming from the drivers & then this energy is passing through those shiny rings !

Depending on which size Anaxx mod damping ring you place on top of the rings you can lessen this "Reverb" considerably . If your listening preference is to completely remove the Reverb you have 2 choices. You can leave this screen completely off (which I feel made a more significant positive change than the mod makes by
itself) or attach the screens to the outer frames of the headphones .

Modded these puppies are "World Class" headphones . Stock, I don't think they rise much further the than very good expensive "Consumer Grade" headphone designed to make all types of mediocre recorded music sound
the best it's ever sounded ! Personally , I see no point to listening to less than well recorded music (you might as well just turn on the TV instead)

 

[Wildcatsare1]

I was thinking about that wall-o- sound effect of the stock HD800 , & decided what it reminded me of ., a reverb,circuit.

The edges of the protective screens that sit behind the drivers on each earcup are part of a "ring-driver-screen" sandwich that is held in place by the 4 screws that hold things in place . The protective screens are acting like springs that are vibrating from whatever musical energy is coming from the drivers & then this energy is passing through those shiny rings !

Depending on which size Anaxx mod damping ring you place on top of the rings you can lessen this "Reverb" considerably . If your listening preference is to completely remove the Reverb you have 2 choices. You can leave this screen completely off (which I feel made a more significant positive change than the mod makes by
itself) or attach the screens to the outer frames of the headphones .

Modded these puppies are "World Class" headphones . Stock, I don't think they rise much further the than very good expensive "Consumer Grade" headphone designed to make all types of mediocre recorded music sound
the best it's ever sounded ! Personally , I see no point to listening to less than well recorded music (you might as well just turn on the TV instead)

Would you mind posting pictures of your mod?

 

[knowhatimean]

I can't say I can agree with the animosity towards SAA mods, as it's your choice to have anyone do something
to your headphones. It's not really reasonable to be angry after you discovered you could do the mods yourself, it's called free enterprise !

Well give the thread a look & see if you want to get this involved with this project. I'm very satisfied with how my HD800s have turned out to the point they work great for all my headphone listening needs . They work well enough for me to use as tool to look at other parts of my playback setup that can be impoved

Give things a try , you can always find some help if you get stuck !

 

[johnjen]

snip...

I can't say I can agree with the animosity towards SAA mods, as it's your choice to have anyone do something
to your headphones. It's not really reasonable to be angry after you discovered you could do the mods yourself, it's called free enterprise !

Well give the thread a look & see if you want to get this involved with this project. I'm very satisfied with how my HD800s have turned out to the point they work great for all my headphone listening needs . They work well enough for me to use as tool to look at other parts of my playback setup that can be impoved

Give things a try , you can always find some help if you get stuck !

Modifications, such as those found online for the 800's, are impressive and can ameliorate many of the foibles inherent with the 800's.

And for me, all those that I tried went a long way in lowering the 'Listener Fatigue Factor'.
This in turn allowed further tweaks elsewhere in a kind of domino effect.

But the combined sum total of all the mods that SAA uses (many of which I have not seen online) and the subsequent system tweaks, allowed me to take my system to a whole nuther level or 2 or 3.

Just say'n is all.

JJ

 

[knowhatimean]

I'm not familiar with all that SAA includes in their modification package, but I was pretty certain it probably went a bit more than the likely oversimplification of it mentioned in the thread I suggested !

Having had several thread discussions with Jon about this mod was the reason I even mentioned this ! By the
same token there really isn't any complete certainty you won't be able to reach a very high satisfactory level of low LFF by your own efforts alone, as most of us have pretty different associated playback equipment & as a result the fatigue tolerance level will be different due to the interaction of the headphones with this equipment !
(& how picky you are with the source material you normally listen to , to begin with as they say GIGO; why would you buy HD800s & listen to G)

In other words the higher the integrity of everything you're using the easier it will be to reach the ideal low
LFF you should be trying to reach .

 

[Thenewguy007]

Can someone tell me the differences between Mod 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0?
 
Is the 3.0 version even out? Seems like the 2.0/3.0 mod is the same thing?

 

[johnjen]

Can someone tell me the differences between Mod 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0?

Is the 3.0 version even out? Seems like the 2.0/3.0 mod is the same thing?

That's easy.
The differences are 1. :atsmile:

And at this point I'd recommend that you tell us what these differences are.
Expend the effort, demonstrate some tenacity and install these mods for yourself.

Then tell us what you hear, which one you like, and why.

That's what these mods are all about, taking a hands on approach, getting involved enough to determine, for yourself, rather than asking others for their opinions.

There comes a time when your involvement is WAY more important than simply asking others to tell you what is and isn't significant.
These mods are cheap and easy to perform and as easily removed if they don't meet with your approval.

And as the saying goes, Try It, You'll Like It!

JJ

 

[Thenewguy007]

That's easy.
The differences are 1.

And at this point I'd recommend that you tell us what these differences are.
Expend the effort, demonstrate some tenacity and install these mods for yourself.

Then tell us what you hear, which one you like, and why.

That's what these mods are all about, taking a hands on approach, getting involved enough to determine, for yourself, rather than asking others for their opinions.

There comes a time when your involvement is WAY more important than simply asking others to tell you what is and isn't significant.
These mods are cheap and easy to perform and as easily removed if they don't meet with your approval.

And as the saying goes, Try It, You'll Like It!

JJ

 
No, I'm asking what's the difference in installing these mods is, not in the sound difference.
Seems the the 2.0 mod discussion just blended into the 3.0 mod discussion.
 
The first post was never update & there isn't a wika page for this.
I still don't know what's the different procedures & materials used between 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0.
 
Googling Anax mod just bring up this thread, one from a different site & the innerfidelty review which just links back to the old thread.

 

[johnjen]

No, I'm asking what's the difference in installing these mods is, not in the sound difference.
Seems the the 2.0 mod discussion just blended into the 3.0 mod discussion.

The first post was never update & there isn't a wika page for this.
I still don't know what's the different procedures & materials used between 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0.

Googling Anax mod just bring up this thread, one from a different site & the innerfidelty review which just links back to the old thread.

There is little difference in installation.

Most of your answers exist 'over there'
but you can go here
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/diy-modification-sennheiser-hd-800-anaxilus-mod#EQXDgvxd8RHaydt9.97
and get more detailed info for one variation.

JJ