Mr. Speakers Ether

I liked the first ether c but not the 1.1... maybe this sounds like the old one and not so wonky. I'll buy one.

 

MrSpeakers just announced a tuning pad upgrade for Ether Flow and Ether Flow.

Edit: adding in link
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mrs...atic-headphones.814156/page-339#post-14510364

 

I f'ing hate how MrSpeakers comes out with these upgrades that are well documented, tested, and reasonably priced. It really kills the need to spend all that time with mods and experimentation, removing all the fun and frustration that goes along with potentially breaking the headphones to make them sound a little better. I'm so glad none of the other headphone manufactures do this. They all know their headphones sound perfect when released and never need to be modded, so why not just design new headphones with slightly better specs and the end users gets brand new headphones!

 

Hmm yeah... this is worth trying on my 1.1

 

Just ordered a 1.1 kit for my Ether C Flows. Don't mind sending Dan $30. He's a great tinkerer, and if you get the chance it's cool to see his "factory" out in San Diego. The rooms filled with industrial 3D printers running fill-tilt are pretty cool, and in his office you can see (and hear) the 2-channel speakers he designed way back in the day. Interesting but painful story on why they never saw the real light of day in the market...

 

Got a Flow 1.1 kit in the mail yesterday for my open Flows. I used a 2-ply TP as extra damping before that made the flows sound much better for me. Just using the paper filter "decal" (it's a sticker that goes into the area on top of the flow baffles) and the stock damping already on the Flow still had a bit too glarey of a sound for me. The 1.1 white and foam filters in the earpad cup help but narrow the sound stage a bit. I went with the white filter in the end since the foam one was too thick, making the pad space too small for my ears to sit comfortably. Sadly I couldn't compare the new filters to originals with TP since the 1.1 mods and extra damping lower the overall volume by a few DB that makes a direct comparison hard. Overall I'm liking the 1.1 mod with the white filter though.

 

Sent an email over to Dan about the Flow 1.1 upgrade and what to do with the old damping: whether we should put it back under the pads after installing the paper decal filter or to get rid of it. His reply:

As for myself, I think I prefer the sound with the old damping still in it, but I love the flexibility that we have now with the extra filters that go inside the pad and the original damping underneath the pad.

 

I was wondering about that as well! Thanks for getting the info directly from Dan.

So your setup is now:
- Paper decal
- Original round dampening pad
- 1.1 white rectangular filter pad

Is that right? Just about to start playing with the options myself - got the kit a day or two ago. It shipped really quickly, which was nice.

Cheers

 

Yup, that's what I currently have myself but might play around with it more when I have the time to. I noticed that the original damping's material looks very similar to a combination of the black felt and foam insert layered together but didn't try out to see if the effect is the same. My main gripe with the in-pad inserts is that they reduce the space inside the earcup and touches my ears which is a bit uncomfortable. I might play around with placing the inserts underneath the pad instead of the original damping.