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shadowmoses

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Posts posted by shadowmoses

  2. Posted · Report reply

    I did the standard Kees mod at first, but found that the while it did control the bass, my mids and treble sounded horrible. I suspected it was the culprit was the cotton under the drivers, so i cut away the part of circular pad that would have been under the driver and positioned it such that there would be no cotton under the driver and just like that, the effect on the kees mod on the mids and treble mostly disappeared while still doing its job on tempering the bass.

     

    The steps are:

    1. Find suitable circular contton pads of appropriate thickness (abt 2mm) You can try cutting from a rectangular piece, but i find the circular ones nicer to work with. Tip: You can find them at sephora, don't even have to buy them, just koup some from the tester makeup counters. (who says going shopping with a girl doesn't pay off? haha)

     

    2. Unscrew the driver housing (the big metal plate) from the headphone. Dun take out the wrong screws or you'lll be unscrewing the driver from the metal plate itself.

     

    3. Cut out part of cotton pad that would cover the drivers with some guesstimation after looking at drivers. Position cotton pad where it won't cover the drivers. Put back into headphone cups.

     

    4. Screw everything back on tight and you're done!

     

    Note: pls refer to original kees mod thread for pics and other steps. personally i find the adhesive cotton thing to be optional though i did paste one in the cup. they're cheap anyway and can be easily found at hardware convenience stores.

     

    Source and amp is headroom balanced desktop with home DAC.

     

    For single-ended, i find them to be not-so dependent on amping, they are efficient and can sound good without a powerful amp. Like most if not all headphones, they benefit from proper amping , but the difference isn't as great as say, for the HD650. Would say they benefit quite a lot from balanced drive however. The difference was very great for that improvement. Even ultrasone launched a balanced version of the Pro900s, which should be at least some sort of validation for that move.

     

     

     

  3. Posted · Report reply

    Own a PRO900, have to agree the stock Pro900 doesn't sound impressive, esp when it's not burnt in. After proper burn in and a recable (blue dragon on mine) however, it's a different animal haha. The mids are a lot more pronounced, though they not lush sounding like the HD650s. They have great bass, though it can be overpowering so i tempered it with my own version of the Kees mod. Treble can be harsh, and i find them particularly dependent on the recording of the music. None of my chinese cds sound good, with vocals being shrill and sibilant. But paired with well recorded acoustic and rock material, they blow my mind.

     

    Overall, not a pair of headphones that people will fall in love with immediately. They need time and some commitment for you to get used to the sound signature, but they've rewarded me with many a good evening of music :)

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Hey count me in for this!

     

    Providing these humble equipment:

    diymod iPod Nano Gen 1

    D2 Viper fitted with Predator clone opamps

    Atrio M5

    (and hopefully modded MS-1 with woodcups from jaben if I mod them in time)

     

    Interested to get poisoned for homerig.

     

    Haha bro you're coming! Awesome. Dun worry there's plenty of poison to go around :))

     

    Oh btw, since i got new-old camera again, i can help with the photography again, if there's still space in my camera bag. time to exercise the new flash.

  6. Posted · Report reply

    Any reviews of the APS cable?

     

    As usual, the problem i have when reviewing a cable is that i am unable to attribute which improvements in sound are due to a better cable and which are due to going balanced. All i can say is that the balanced APS does bring the HD800 to a whole new level, especially in the bass and details department.

     

    Can't really go into specifics as i've only been listening it for a few nights and my head still hasn't really wrapped around the sound of the HD800. But some of my impressions are, the sound is just a little too perfect, making it a bit harder to get into the groove of the music.. Not in such a hurry to get these cans now that my curiosity has been satisfied :))

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Are you using a HeadRoom UDAC/BUDA combo. Wow, I really want to try that out. Still waiting for my HD800 connectors to come in to have my balanced cable ready. =(

     

    Nope.. Just a normal headroom balanced desktop with home DAC and modules, will be bringing it to canslam but no fight with the apache la!

     

    Do let me know if you wanna try the APS balanced, I rarely use my HD800 atm as my amp it not ready yet..

     

    This i have to try as well! PM sent kopi..

     

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Honestly, there isn't - but we all know that manufacturers will charge a premium for high-end products even though customers won't/can't hear the difference.

     

    I know i'm stepping on a few toes here but the truth is the truth. I've done A/B comparisons and that's my findings. If you say, essence stx on audioengine a5s, then yea the difference is quite huge. But on $200+ speakers? The difference, imo, isn't enough to warrant spending $200 bucks for a sound card.

     

    lol, depends on which headphones you're talking about. The more high end headphones are not driven well by sound cards - dedicated headphone amp is a must to bring out the full potential. Plus, unless one are using jh13-pros or something equivalent, i don't see why one would use earphones at home when $-for-$, headphones are generally going to give you better sound.

     

    If you plan on using active speakers only, then at the same price point, it's much better to get a stand-alone dac. That is assuming you don't need eax and those gaming sound effects

     

    Agreed, on most stereo computer speakers (cheapo - $200+), one should not hear an improvement in sound from a better soundcard, assuming you're just using it for music and not gaming / movies with surround and the shebang.

     

    I skipped the soundcard altogether when i built a new com. used my trusty old iBasso D1 DAC out to active M-audio BX5as. At least my source will be decent haha

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Attending Can Slam after missing CanJam. Woot!

     

    Bringing:

    1. Laptop with lots of FLAC goodness

    2. Kimber USB

    3. Headroom Balanced Desktop with home DAC / Modules

    4. Silver Dragon HD650 Defoamed

    5. Blue Dragon Ultrasone Pro900 w/ Kees Mod

    5. Markl Modded Denon D5000

     

    All headphones are balanced :cans:

     

    That's all folks, cya there!

  18. Posted · Report reply

    They're the stuff that the opamps sit in.

     

    I tried the AD743s this morning and they seem to drive the HD650s a lot better than the 4841-2. everything sounds more natural, the hardness that i was talking about earlier was gone. Bass is better, but still not where it can be. still using the 6643 buffers, will try the 6655s soon.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks Mimi, i believe the IC sockets are abt $1 each at SLT. are there sockets of various qualities or they're all of the generic variety?

     

    Hmm.. i can almost swear the line-out sounds better after swapping the L/R and buffers. maybe it's all in the mind..

     

    single-to-dual adapter just arrived. that means AD743 can begin operations very soon... hehehe...

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Finally i've begun on my opamp rolling journey! thanks to PPkiller for his excellent workmanship on the soldering work!

     

    I've run into a problem wrt the DAC opamp socket. there's not enough clearance on the sides for the browndog adapter to be seated properly. the stock opamp comes on raised adapters with extended legs. How do i solve this problem? can i just get an IC socket from SLT which should give me enough height to clear the blocks at the sides?

     

    finally, some impressions: i'm really surprised the D1 can drive the HD650s pretty well! The mids and highs are very acceptable though it seems to have a harder nature than what i'm used to. the bass still sorely loses out compared to when driven by the LD mk V, but still listenable. soundstaging and openess is still good. Using the 4841-2 with 6643 buffers currently, and stock 8616 dac opamp.

     

    One last question: if i run the D1 using the line out, does the L/R and buffer opamps affect the line-out sound as well?

  21. Posted · Report reply

    Phew, my browndog adapters finally arrived after 1 month. I'm currently looking for L/R recommendations. I'm thinking of getting the AD4841-2.

     

    I also have 1xAD743, so i'll need to get 1 more. Problem is, i didn't order the single to dual adapter! does anyone have a spare?

     

    Any other recommendations?

     

    I also have 2 spare LMH6643s, if anyone wants them :)

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Hi, would like to clarify something with regard to the L/R opamp.

     

    If i want to use single amplifier opamps like the AD797 or the AD743, does this mean i need 2 of each and solder them to a Single-to-Dual Adapter before it can be used? Thanks in Advance!

     

    Also, what are u guys using for the L/R?

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