Ti_Leo

I was playing around with my recent-found dynamat-like material, I applied some strips of it to the inner wall, but I just didn't like the metal sheet of the material, so I put some sound damping foam on in, so I made two layers of rings.

Then I found that the vocal was quite muffled. I didn't think my boring mod would make any sense, but after taking the foam off, the liveliness of vocal was back.

It's a great experiment to me, because I did want to tune down the highs a bit, so now I left 1/3 ring of foam in, and I'm happy. (other changes to my HE6SE: ZMF suede pads with bassports, 3D printed grill. Yes, I'm sensitive to treble peaks)

Ok, 13 minutes later, I came up with a theory: because the treble was compressed more in reaction videos so relatively, mids got more pronounced.

Warmpoo FTW!!!

= Equal points:
= Same painful headbands.
= Same build.
= Same cable.
= Same overall feeling of sound. (Sorry I really don't want to dive deep on these two headphones.)

- points for Deva Pro:
-- I can't use my freaking 3.5mm balanced cable due to the freaking Bluetooth thingy compatibility.
-- Bad earpads compatibility, not the normal Hifiman ring type pads mounts... Sigh.
- More expensive for ~ same sound.
- I don't think I can do easy grill mod on this one.

Oh, one more thing (or two), both HE400SE and Deva Pro are the "Stealth Magnets" version. The magnets... are not that D-shape in their promoting materials. It's just like the designer made the bevel width 3x, and that's it.

I don't know how hard it is to work on magnets, but that doesn't feel "stealthy" enough to me.

I'll stick to the VU meters.

Cat eyes are next level

Where's the dislike button ...?

Still, could be my half broken Rag, but everything else sounds OK, except some known issue to me. Yea, maybe need to look elsewhere. (ESP 95X is goooood!)

Do you have any other amps to test on? or pick up something popular on the used market so it's easy to resell.

Ok, I blew the dust off my Vali 2+, and plugged it into my system.

HD800 sounds smoother on Vali 2+, and I just feel little fatigue, definitely bearable. But it also just sounds a bit plain, while it sounded much more assuring on Rag.

Come to think of it, the pain could even be caused by higher volume on Rag? Because it was really good, I needed more!

Guess HD800 + Rag is not a good match, here at least.

That's a Piety + EC ZDT Jr.! Love that. Thanks for sharing!

Oh my, a Piety? Galactic Mind!

The headphones with that setup makes me sad

Thought these videos were interesting: https://youtu.be/GAxOMfiqiVg?si=3CKyWM22g4HuuA1H and https://youtu.be/CO5zoyIbV40?si=rL9dxoxMeNkVkzeq
Second one has a test where there are some considerations if there is a transformer involved.

Sorry guys, I really tried to take them apart, I even unplugged everything and put my screw driver out. But living in China, I need to do OT, sigh.

The noise should be from a cheap voltage adjustable PSU. I swapped it to a fixed V one, and the noise was much lower now (but still auditable from Ragnarok V1 -> E-mu Teak only. HD800, HE6SE and even ifi iESL -> KOSS ESP950 sounded OK)

The cheap power conditioner is Weiduka AC2.2, I believe it's normal transformer type? Ref pics: https://hifi-inside.com/audio-cable-accessories/ac-power-distributor-filter/weiduka

The expensive one: Chang Lightspeed CLS 3200 ISO MKII. I did open it up, one of the LEDs were gone but the "candles" looked OK? Ref pic:https://www.audionet.com.tw/data/attachment/forum/201611/01/150822ctb8ovbbh4kvt484.jpg

I've used the older pair quite a bit (it belongs to one of my colleagues), and was fine with it on the same setup. Today I read someone mentioned HE6SE v1 with older SN (started with 80 / 81) could be using old HE6 drivers, I didn't believe it, but I thought it might worth an AB test, so here I am.

(Grain of salt reminder: 1. Small sample size. 2. Variable mentioned above 3. Short testing time period. 4. Dumb ears)

I had one of those earlier 6SEs and kinda regret ever selling them. They were a good contrast/addition to my 4 screws. I have never found v2 to be even remotely as well done. Warm, powerful, ver nice slam, well balanced with OG pads and also Velpads. Those v1 were goldilocks headphones.

@Huhnkopf I thought HE6SE was already a "degenerated" HE6, but really didn't reckon they had to pull anther one on HE6SE V2...

And here comes the FAQ: HE6SE vs HE6? I guess the HE6s are leaner with more authority? But how about technical things like details? Thanks.

Did you try iems? To be clear it can still give problems depending on tips used. If i don't use comply foam or spinfits i can get L/R balance issues.

IEMs sounded OK? The only earplugs / earbuds had that "imbalance" to my ears were Sennheiser MX90. IEMs really didn't caught any problem iirc.

But yea, adjusting the position of the headphones helps, but it's just weird...

Probably an ear shape thing then. Speakers are also fine i guess?

You purchased a Bee?! Did you not see the sbaf impressions thread? Was it @ChaChaRealSmooth ’s impressions that convinced you to buy? That guy!

Do Bee and Hive have the same pad dimensions? They look like Brainwavz which I believe are 100mm in diameter.
https://www.amazon.com/BRAINWAVZ-Round-Replacement-Memory-Earpads/dp/B072PPPWBF
There are a lot of pad options at 100mm but I dont believe any of them can fix Bee. Only equalizer.

@Philimon I liked Hive a lot and I was lazy reading at that time. The "dark old Audeze sound" description, I thought it was like LCD 2.2 pre-fazor sound, which is great, but actually, nope!

The Pads dimension looks the same on both models, but getting Brainwavz to China is quite... not worthy for me. Yea... fixing Bee can be rough...

Happy new year! Going out with my mom tomorrow to a pan-Asian food festival. But too broke to give her a nice, fat red envelope full of stax.

@caute Come on, spending quality time together is the best!!

I currently kinda happy with ZMF perforated pads (don't know which model, and they might even not be from ZMF, just something similar...)

Doh!

Oof! The drivers are not exactly the same.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/rhythmdevils-modded-orthos.11649/page-2#post-368546

@Philimon Dang it... Really thought they were the same. Pad rolling on V2 was like just 30% effective comparing to V1, so my cheap-fake-Beyer-pads-bass-cannon mod wasn't a success on V2. #buyV1sellV2

Yeah, those connectors fraggler linked are super easy to work with.

Yes, these thick ones look so much better and I see the possibility of using thick cables! Nice! Thank you all!!

Here are a few photos of my cable with them. You have a built in cable crimp to keep it steady while you solder the two pins. Super easy and the connector screws off and accommodates fairly thick cables.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AZAYpdYGPS1mvTY87

I find the RDAC bass to be mostly neutral, not massive slam but not lacking slam either. Modi Multibit has more immediate and obvious slam to my ears.

@Tchoupitoulas I don't know, to me it might not be that hard hitting (but of course, hard enough), but there's something about the sound or timbre or texture of the bass that makes it really good to my ears. I didn't really heard that with RDAC + Liquid Platinum. Maybe it's "synergy"?

@Merrick I can't recall the bass difference between RDAC and MM when I did comparison on Liquid Platinum... But I'm not really sure it's just "bass force" or volume that made RDAC + ZDT Jr. sounded great to me, there's something like chewy texture that made the bass shined. Sorry I just don't know the right term for this...

But then, MM sounded really "3D" with LP, that's like the only thing I remember...

@CEE TEE Hahaha, I'd say it's more of an acquired taste, as there was a time that I thought ZDT Jr. was too tubey...

Ah, gotcha! Well, glad you are getting used to it now…

So good, now I want more, MORE!!! (another unit for home use maybe?) (Yep, I know it's hard to get one now.) Any way, thank you!!!!

I guess tapes wouldn't work, how about a little hot glue?

Blu-tack

Really? Can't think of a better solution, thanks!!