Aizura
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2010
- Posts
- 728
- Likes
- 59
So, as a lot of you guys may know, sound depends on many factors. When designing a headphone, manufacturers have to consider many variables that affect the sound, far more than simply the type of driver that is used.
In fact, the sound of the driver is highly dependent on it's surroundings. A driver may produce lots of bass, but it simply may not reach the user's ears effectively due to lack of seal or distance from the ears.
The bass frequencies (or any other frequencies) may even be partially cancelled out by parts around the driver that start to resonate when the driver moves. This is actually how noise cancellation works, it produces sounds that cancel out incoming sounds. So the more resonances around a driver, the more sounds become inaudible or less defined.
A good example of this is the Sennheiser HD555/595 and HD558/598. With these models, the lower priced model has exactly the same drivers as the more expensive one, but has a foam insert in the cups that partially block the air ventilation to the driver, making it sound less open and with less treble.
Sennheiser put alot of effort in designing the frame of the HD800, it needed to be as resonance-free as possible for the best possible sound. Cheap headphones often have a creaky plastic housing and is very prone to resonating and forms a very big part of the reason why it sound worse than more expensive models.
In this thread I've posted pictures of my Ultrasone HFI 580, which I modified by applying Dynamat Extreme dampening inside the cups and on the back of the driver. This made an amazing improvement in the sound quality: http://www.head-fi.org/t/725192/interesting-ultrasone-hfi-580-mod#post_10676923
To be sure it wasn't an exception, I've tried the same mod on my Sony ZX700.
This is how the ZX700 look like when stock:
The magnet is ring-shaped, the hole in the middle of it is covered by a round white cloth.
I applied some Dynamat on the magnet and the plastic surrounding the driver:
I also applied a good amount of dynamat on the inside of the cups, on which I applied some thin cotton wool:
With these headphones, the improvement is just as big as with the Ultrasones, if not better!
The amazing improvement in the sound quality, just by dampening the driver housing, showed me that another big reason to make cheap headphones out of cheap materials is to make the sound worse. This way they can simply alter the sound of an existing driver without having to produce an entirely different driver.
Often times the actual driver unit is not much different between differently priced models. Most of the difference is in the housing. This also seems the case with Grados and for instance the Beyer DT770/880/990, where the drivers are pretty much identical upon inspection.
So head-fiers, if you are not satisfied with your cans, maybe they just have a crappy housing that needs some love! Get to work!
BTW: They also feel a lot higher quality. If you tap on the housing with your fingers, it no longer makes that characteristic cheap tinny plastic noise, but a quiet and solid "thud". The headphones also noticably gained some weight, that Dynamat is remarkably heavy relative to the amount of material.
In fact, the sound of the driver is highly dependent on it's surroundings. A driver may produce lots of bass, but it simply may not reach the user's ears effectively due to lack of seal or distance from the ears.
The bass frequencies (or any other frequencies) may even be partially cancelled out by parts around the driver that start to resonate when the driver moves. This is actually how noise cancellation works, it produces sounds that cancel out incoming sounds. So the more resonances around a driver, the more sounds become inaudible or less defined.
A good example of this is the Sennheiser HD555/595 and HD558/598. With these models, the lower priced model has exactly the same drivers as the more expensive one, but has a foam insert in the cups that partially block the air ventilation to the driver, making it sound less open and with less treble.
Sennheiser put alot of effort in designing the frame of the HD800, it needed to be as resonance-free as possible for the best possible sound. Cheap headphones often have a creaky plastic housing and is very prone to resonating and forms a very big part of the reason why it sound worse than more expensive models.
In this thread I've posted pictures of my Ultrasone HFI 580, which I modified by applying Dynamat Extreme dampening inside the cups and on the back of the driver. This made an amazing improvement in the sound quality: http://www.head-fi.org/t/725192/interesting-ultrasone-hfi-580-mod#post_10676923
To be sure it wasn't an exception, I've tried the same mod on my Sony ZX700.
This is how the ZX700 look like when stock:
The magnet is ring-shaped, the hole in the middle of it is covered by a round white cloth.
I applied some Dynamat on the magnet and the plastic surrounding the driver:
I also applied a good amount of dynamat on the inside of the cups, on which I applied some thin cotton wool:
With these headphones, the improvement is just as big as with the Ultrasones, if not better!
The amazing improvement in the sound quality, just by dampening the driver housing, showed me that another big reason to make cheap headphones out of cheap materials is to make the sound worse. This way they can simply alter the sound of an existing driver without having to produce an entirely different driver.
Often times the actual driver unit is not much different between differently priced models. Most of the difference is in the housing. This also seems the case with Grados and for instance the Beyer DT770/880/990, where the drivers are pretty much identical upon inspection.
So head-fiers, if you are not satisfied with your cans, maybe they just have a crappy housing that needs some love! Get to work!
BTW: They also feel a lot higher quality. If you tap on the housing with your fingers, it no longer makes that characteristic cheap tinny plastic noise, but a quiet and solid "thud". The headphones also noticably gained some weight, that Dynamat is remarkably heavy relative to the amount of material.
might try this with the Monoprice project I'm planning. Thanks for sharing. 