So I have HD280 Pro headphones in addition to my other headphones (a modified HD555.) I mostly use the other headphones, but every now and then I have to use the HD280 Pros (particularly if doing things out in public.) As anyone who is familiar with them must surely already know, the bass is terrible on them. I've already done the so called BluTak mod which absolutely helps, but it still leaves some of the fundamental problem -- the bass response itself. It's kind of a pain relying on equalizers -- especially since many devices lack a proper equalizer or even one at all. (Not that it occurs to any of them to ever actually LOWER bass, lol. There just aren't presets for this sort of thing and only graphic equalizers can cut it really.) Plus it's a pain on those that do have real equalizers since I have to switch back and forth for use with my normal headphones (especially since my normal headphones are some modified HD555s so this sort of bass reduction is only going to hurt, lol.)
I have no clue if you can really use a capacitor on headphones, but first as a test I tried to simulate the effects of a first order filter using the foo_dsp_xover filter (set to only do one highpass filter at about 60Hz to get it kind of close to where that ugly hump starts based on the frequency response graph from HeadRoom) and I'd say the results were excellent. It definitely took the edge off the bass and got rid of the worst of the distortive effects in some of the more bass-heavy music that I tried. It's not perfect and some careful equalization settings could of course do better, but it does a great job and would be perfect for keeping these as universal and portable as possible without having to fight with equalizers and such just to deal with the bass. The only catch is, as far as I can tell I'd need a fairly odd value capacitor (about 41uF according to the calculator.)
So I have this question: what would actually happen if I actually tried to use a capacitor on headphones? As I understand it, many amps apparently actually use capacitors on their outputs mostly to protect the DAC or something. I'm also using them with lower quality outputs like my PSP and I don't like using an external amp with these (they don't really benefit all that much anyway) so there's a bit of a range of devices they are used with. I never really fully understood how things like capacitors really work as it is, but how they would work (or not work) together especially is something I'm unsure about. Would this work, or would it just go very wrong or be a waste of time if I tried it?
Also, obviously I don't have capacitors like that just lying around and would have to order some. IF this would actually work, I'll still need to actually get the capacitors. Because it's such an odd value, I don't really get a huge selection available even if I just go by some that are fairly close (like 40uF for instance.) I don't want the filter to go too high since there's already a bit of a dip in the upper ranges of the bass (and more importantly, the mids are a bit recessed as it is, so I don't want to hurt them any) and if it goes much lower than 60Hz it starts to lose its usefulness. Besides places like Mouser, is there anywhere else I should be looking? I think I'm not going to get any real options as far as quality is concerned but it would be nice to have options at all at least and I'm not seeing many promising ones in that range on Mouser at least. I may just make a small part for the headphones to plug into that would hopefully not be too inconvenient (I'll probably do this first as a test,) but it would be nice if I could actually put the capacitors in the headphones directly if this works. Either way, I definitely can't use some of the positively gigantic capacitors that showed up in my initial searching at least. (Also, I have no idea what sort of voltage requirements it might have. These are fairly low power headphones so I can't imagine it would take a lot, but perhaps they still need to be of a certain minimum voltage rating?)
Is the whole idea just crazy, or is there maybe some chance it might actually work? If so, it could really do a great job of "fixing" these headphones so to speak.
I have no clue if you can really use a capacitor on headphones, but first as a test I tried to simulate the effects of a first order filter using the foo_dsp_xover filter (set to only do one highpass filter at about 60Hz to get it kind of close to where that ugly hump starts based on the frequency response graph from HeadRoom) and I'd say the results were excellent. It definitely took the edge off the bass and got rid of the worst of the distortive effects in some of the more bass-heavy music that I tried. It's not perfect and some careful equalization settings could of course do better, but it does a great job and would be perfect for keeping these as universal and portable as possible without having to fight with equalizers and such just to deal with the bass. The only catch is, as far as I can tell I'd need a fairly odd value capacitor (about 41uF according to the calculator.)
So I have this question: what would actually happen if I actually tried to use a capacitor on headphones? As I understand it, many amps apparently actually use capacitors on their outputs mostly to protect the DAC or something. I'm also using them with lower quality outputs like my PSP and I don't like using an external amp with these (they don't really benefit all that much anyway) so there's a bit of a range of devices they are used with. I never really fully understood how things like capacitors really work as it is, but how they would work (or not work) together especially is something I'm unsure about. Would this work, or would it just go very wrong or be a waste of time if I tried it?
Also, obviously I don't have capacitors like that just lying around and would have to order some. IF this would actually work, I'll still need to actually get the capacitors. Because it's such an odd value, I don't really get a huge selection available even if I just go by some that are fairly close (like 40uF for instance.) I don't want the filter to go too high since there's already a bit of a dip in the upper ranges of the bass (and more importantly, the mids are a bit recessed as it is, so I don't want to hurt them any) and if it goes much lower than 60Hz it starts to lose its usefulness. Besides places like Mouser, is there anywhere else I should be looking? I think I'm not going to get any real options as far as quality is concerned but it would be nice to have options at all at least and I'm not seeing many promising ones in that range on Mouser at least. I may just make a small part for the headphones to plug into that would hopefully not be too inconvenient (I'll probably do this first as a test,) but it would be nice if I could actually put the capacitors in the headphones directly if this works. Either way, I definitely can't use some of the positively gigantic capacitors that showed up in my initial searching at least. (Also, I have no idea what sort of voltage requirements it might have. These are fairly low power headphones so I can't imagine it would take a lot, but perhaps they still need to be of a certain minimum voltage rating?)
Is the whole idea just crazy, or is there maybe some chance it might actually work? If so, it could really do a great job of "fixing" these headphones so to speak.
Looks like the nominal impedance is 64 ohms. If you want a first order high-pass at 60Hz, a 41.4uF (microF) capacitor series will do the trick. Closest standard value is 47uF, polarized. I would use that.
You could put two 90uF polarized in anti-series to create a non-polarized 45uF if you think the output device doesn't have capacitors.
You could put two 90uF polarized in anti-series to create a non-polarized 45uF if you think the output device doesn't have capacitors.
I have to assume that the output device probably does have capacitors though.
47uF does appear to be too high. That's pretty close to 50Hz rather than 60 and when I tested it in Foobar2000 originally, 50Hz seemed to be too low. It's better than nothing I guess, but it's definitely best to aim for 60Hz as much as possible even if it means dealing with trying to find non-standard capacitors.
If you try it...
I'd recommend using very high quality caps. For a moderately inexpensive cap in that range you could try the 40uF caps from Dayton, bypassed with one of their excellent 0.47uF foil caps. Here are some links:
For the 40uF caps
Dayton Audio DMPC-40 40uF 250V Polypropylene Capacitor 027-442
For the 0.47 uF caps:
Dayton Audio DFFC-0.47 0.47uF 400V By-Pass Capacitor 027-458
Of course you could spend more and get these pricier Dayton caps (some people swear by them), also with the foil bypass caps:
Dayton PMPC-40 40uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor 027-260
I've used them and like them a lot, they really give the uber-expensive caps a run for their money. And with headphones, you're likely to hear the difference these will make, especially inner details the mids and upper registers. If you use these caps and your amp already has coupling caps in line with the headphones, you might want to eliminate those by shorting'em with a jumper wire.
Let us know how this pans out, I'd be interested to know if the impedance bump in the headphone's response doesn't still make it sound a little wooly/slow/fat/bassy.
BTW, it could also be that your headphone amp doesn't handle the aforementioned impedance bump very well, in which case one of the C. Moy headphone amps should help... check on ebay, there are dozens of them.
I'd recommend using very high quality caps. For a moderately inexpensive cap in that range you could try the 40uF caps from Dayton, bypassed with one of their excellent 0.47uF foil caps. Here are some links:
For the 40uF caps
Dayton Audio DMPC-40 40uF 250V Polypropylene Capacitor 027-442
For the 0.47 uF caps:
Dayton Audio DFFC-0.47 0.47uF 400V By-Pass Capacitor 027-458
Of course you could spend more and get these pricier Dayton caps (some people swear by them), also with the foil bypass caps:
Dayton PMPC-40 40uF 250V Precision Audio Capacitor 027-260
I've used them and like them a lot, they really give the uber-expensive caps a run for their money. And with headphones, you're likely to hear the difference these will make, especially inner details the mids and upper registers. If you use these caps and your amp already has coupling caps in line with the headphones, you might want to eliminate those by shorting'em with a jumper wire.
Let us know how this pans out, I'd be interested to know if the impedance bump in the headphone's response doesn't still make it sound a little wooly/slow/fat/bassy.
BTW, it could also be that your headphone amp doesn't handle the aforementioned impedance bump very well, in which case one of the C. Moy headphone amps should help... check on ebay, there are dozens of them.
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Well, on the voltage rating I just wanted to be sure since as I understand it it seems to be used more as a wattage rating or something in audio by most uses. Of course, we're talking about in the milliwatt ranges, so I mostly just wanted to be sure I didn't need to watch out for maybe some extremely low rated capacitors or something.
I was playing around with the filtering a bit more. I was worried that a filter that's too high would be bad, but it looks like I can actually get away with raising a fair bit. That little dip seems to not hurt things as badly as I feared it would. Well, bear in mind that my usual headphones are the HD555s, so some bass rolloff is obviously ok and this still isn't even remotely like the HD555s, lol. Sadly, it still lacks their particular "quality" of bass (I can't really put my finger on it, but to me something about the bass on the HD555s is just amazing to me) even with the filter (and obviously nothing short of some massive equalization will do anything for its weaknesses in the midranges) I was playing around and setting higher is actually ok within reason. So far in just some quick tests, I think I might be ok with as much as 113Hz even (22uF) for me. Though I can definitely tell that it wouldn't be ok for most people like this and they'd have to aim lower. Since a first order filter is actually a fairly light curve anyway (especially at such low ranges) its effect isn't terribly strong. Still, is there any standard value a bit lower than 113Hz (or higher than 22uF I should say) that I should test? If standard values suit me then I'll probably be more likely to find something that I can actually integrate into the headphones instead of keeping external.
This still begs the question of what will happen if the output of the device has a capacitor on it though. I guess what I'm really wondering is how strong the effect might be. If it's just a subtle effect that maybe shifts the curve just a bit, it's no big deal. If it's huge obviously that's a problem. I'm not really clear on just what sorts of capacitors they even use or exactly how they are set up, I just know that I've read that amps sometimes have capacitors on the output. It would be silly to order something and go through all the trouble to set it up on there only to find out that it won't work with the stuff I need it to work with most.
EDIT: Took too long to write my post (my browser keeps crashing due to something on another site freaking out whenever my connection messes up) and you got one in behind me there. First, those capacitors are HUGE. They're meant for speakers, not headphones. Second, I do think I will aim a little higher after all. Finally, while I do want them to be decent, I'm not going to be too fussy over quality since these aren't exactly the best headphones in the world. Just as long as they aren't actually bad it will probably be ok.
Oh, and as far as amps go, the fundamental issue is in the headphones themselves just actually having that sort of response curve. I get basically the same results from everything. For the record though, my favorite amp (the one attached to the Alien DAC I'm listening with on this computer) isn't just a CMoy, but one with the Analog Devices AD8620 OPAMP (via an adapter) which IMO blows away all the Burr-Browns and etc. (I actually have an iBasso D3 "Python" which I originally got for different headphones that don't suit me as well and I love the sound of this CMoy with the AD8620 far better in fact. So far as I can tell the only catch is that it eats 9V batteries for a light snack before breakfast. I was burning through alkalines and rechargeables pretty quickly for a while there. I gave up and got an adapter that lets me plug 6xAAs into a 9V plug and now it has been going strong for a very long time indeed. Part of the problem is they just don't make 9V batteries very well anymore since they are so rarely used and mostly just cram cheap Chinese-made AAAAs into the case with most 9V batteries.) As far as I can tell, none of the amps really seem to help with the quality of the bass on the HD280 Pros whether higher end or lower end. In the end, it's just due to their design and the not exactly high volume casing of the headphones themselves (I think before I modded them my HD555s actually had more room inside!)
I was playing around with the filtering a bit more. I was worried that a filter that's too high would be bad, but it looks like I can actually get away with raising a fair bit. That little dip seems to not hurt things as badly as I feared it would. Well, bear in mind that my usual headphones are the HD555s, so some bass rolloff is obviously ok and this still isn't even remotely like the HD555s, lol. Sadly, it still lacks their particular "quality" of bass (I can't really put my finger on it, but to me something about the bass on the HD555s is just amazing to me) even with the filter (and obviously nothing short of some massive equalization will do anything for its weaknesses in the midranges) I was playing around and setting higher is actually ok within reason. So far in just some quick tests, I think I might be ok with as much as 113Hz even (22uF) for me. Though I can definitely tell that it wouldn't be ok for most people like this and they'd have to aim lower. Since a first order filter is actually a fairly light curve anyway (especially at such low ranges) its effect isn't terribly strong. Still, is there any standard value a bit lower than 113Hz (or higher than 22uF I should say) that I should test? If standard values suit me then I'll probably be more likely to find something that I can actually integrate into the headphones instead of keeping external.
This still begs the question of what will happen if the output of the device has a capacitor on it though. I guess what I'm really wondering is how strong the effect might be. If it's just a subtle effect that maybe shifts the curve just a bit, it's no big deal. If it's huge obviously that's a problem. I'm not really clear on just what sorts of capacitors they even use or exactly how they are set up, I just know that I've read that amps sometimes have capacitors on the output. It would be silly to order something and go through all the trouble to set it up on there only to find out that it won't work with the stuff I need it to work with most.
EDIT: Took too long to write my post (my browser keeps crashing due to something on another site freaking out whenever my connection messes up) and you got one in behind me there. First, those capacitors are HUGE. They're meant for speakers, not headphones. Second, I do think I will aim a little higher after all. Finally, while I do want them to be decent, I'm not going to be too fussy over quality since these aren't exactly the best headphones in the world. Just as long as they aren't actually bad it will probably be ok.
Oh, and as far as amps go, the fundamental issue is in the headphones themselves just actually having that sort of response curve. I get basically the same results from everything. For the record though, my favorite amp (the one attached to the Alien DAC I'm listening with on this computer) isn't just a CMoy, but one with the Analog Devices AD8620 OPAMP (via an adapter) which IMO blows away all the Burr-Browns and etc. (I actually have an iBasso D3 "Python" which I originally got for different headphones that don't suit me as well and I love the sound of this CMoy with the AD8620 far better in fact. So far as I can tell the only catch is that it eats 9V batteries for a light snack before breakfast. I was burning through alkalines and rechargeables pretty quickly for a while there. I gave up and got an adapter that lets me plug 6xAAs into a 9V plug and now it has been going strong for a very long time indeed. Part of the problem is they just don't make 9V batteries very well anymore since they are so rarely used and mostly just cram cheap Chinese-made AAAAs into the case with most 9V batteries.) As far as I can tell, none of the amps really seem to help with the quality of the bass on the HD280 Pros whether higher end or lower end. In the end, it's just due to their design and the not exactly high volume casing of the headphones themselves (I think before I modded them my HD555s actually had more room inside!)
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If it needs to be small...
Maybe the best option would then be some Elna Silmic, 20 or 22uF. You could probably get away with as little as 6.3V rating, with the signal levels you're generating you'd probably never damage the cap. Heck, even a 3V cap would likely work OK.
Those special CMOY amps should have zero trouble driving the cans with a series cap.
I'm still thinking the impedance bump is gonna make it sound fat and or slow, even with the cap.
Maybe the best option would then be some Elna Silmic, 20 or 22uF. You could probably get away with as little as 6.3V rating, with the signal levels you're generating you'd probably never damage the cap. Heck, even a 3V cap would likely work OK.
Those special CMOY amps should have zero trouble driving the cans with a series cap.
I'm still thinking the impedance bump is gonna make it sound fat and or slow, even with the cap.
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I'm not as worried about the CMoy as the rest. I almost never actually use the HD280s on it, I was just saying that it's among the things I've tested with. The CMoy can't really be very portable (it stays in a fairly large tin along with the Alien DAC) and I can't really afford to make one that is portable just now. Also, I really hate using an amp and try to avoid it when I can. I've actually even mostly focused on DAPs that don't need external amps such as practically everything Cowon makes and I now have an Archos 43 "Internet Tablet" (aka PDA since it's a small one that fits in a pocket rather than a true "tablet.") But my biggest concern are things like the PSP. It has a terrible sound system, but still manages to drive these headphones sufficiently for music games and it's probably these music games where I'm most concerned about the HD280s.
And yeah, nothing will ever 100% fix the bass. I don't even think equalization can get it completely right. I'm just trying to "tame" it so to speak.
And yeah, nothing will ever 100% fix the bass. I don't even think equalization can get it completely right. I'm just trying to "tame" it so to speak.
If you're using a CMOY why not build active EQ into it? I did that back in '84 at a TV station so the 'talent' wouldn't mess with the LF filters to eliminate close mic proximity effects in the sound booth. It made everybody happy. I added 12dB of low end boost so they thought they sounded 'right' (to themselves of course) and left all the LF cut switches active (except the one new non-switchable filter I added). Of course if the 'talent' REALLY knew what I had done besides giving them new headphones.......
G²
Like I said, I don't really use the HD280 Pros with the CMoy. That was just for testing purposes mostly. Also like I said, I hate using external amps with portable devices such as the PSP. Such devices may not drive them perfectly, but low power headphones like these actually do surprisingly well with such headphones.
If you don't really care about fidelity, do check out the Fiio E3, it is more of a bass booster than an amp IMO. It is dirt cheap and is very small. If you have the right cable, it basically hangs inline with the cable and become part of it. If you make the capacitor contraption I doubt you can get much smaller than it.
That said, I find it an irony that you don't mind a full sized headphone like the HD280 yet you mind the size of a portable amp which tend to be smaller, some of them are so small that you don't feel a thing if you Velcro it to your earcup or headband. Essentially making your headphone active.
That said, I find it an irony that you don't mind a full sized headphone like the HD280 yet you mind the size of a portable amp which tend to be smaller, some of them are so small that you don't feel a thing if you Velcro it to your earcup or headband. Essentially making your headphone active.
Why in the world would I want to boost the bass when the fundamental problem with these headphones is that the bass is too much already?
I don't mind the size of a portable amp. Using a portable amp is not the same thing as the size of a portable amp. Also, as I said, I was hoping if this works out I could put the capacitor inside the headphones and just don't want any really gigantinc things like those 250V capacitors that were the first thing I originally found in a 40uF. And no, you can't just velcro an amp on there. You'd have to have a cord running into it and then to the player so you'd have to either recable the headphones with a tiny cable just to go to the amp or you'd have cables hanging from your head. If I were going to use an amp I'd stick with using it the proper way. The problem is just dealing with the amp itself. And I've always thought it was silly to do that if you don't have to anyway. As I said, many devices can handle even my better HD555s surprisingly well (even my PSP seems to be able to handle them decently, though my 3DS definitely has issues with them and drops the soundstage to about the size of a closet) so why use an amp with them unnecessarily? Anyway, even if I were going to, it's pretty much going to have to be something like a CMoy with, as was already discussed, a custom filter. Fiio doesn't make anything with a bass REDUCTION filter.
Do the HD280 Pros really count as "full sized" headphones? They're smaller than my HD555s even... They're closer to supra-aural headphones like the Denon AH-D1001s I used to have. To me at least, full sized headphones are headphones like my old AH-D2000s. I don't mind full sized headphones (as I said, it was never about the size) but I consider these to be small and portable.
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Wow...
At the beginning you rambled quite a bit about bass problem without bring too specific. The hint is that you said you wanted to "lower" the bass, which I read as the bass wasn't deep enough for you, when you meant you want to decrease/reduce the bass. HD280 are not known to be bassy, if I've heard people complain about them it would be they sounded too lean. If they sound bloated, something is probably wrong. May be you are underpowering it, may be you got a fake, may be you just don't like it. Either way stuffing a capacitor in there won't right the wrong.
So I assumed. I misread you, I'm sorry. I hope you feel better.
And yes, circumaural headphoned are called full size headphones.
At the beginning you rambled quite a bit about bass problem without bring too specific. The hint is that you said you wanted to "lower" the bass, which I read as the bass wasn't deep enough for you, when you meant you want to decrease/reduce the bass. HD280 are not known to be bassy, if I've heard people complain about them it would be they sounded too lean. If they sound bloated, something is probably wrong. May be you are underpowering it, may be you got a fake, may be you just don't like it. Either way stuffing a capacitor in there won't right the wrong.
So I assumed. I misread you, I'm sorry. I hope you feel better.
And yes, circumaural headphoned are called full size headphones.
I didn't think I needed to be specific. HD280 Pros are very well known to be too bassy and to have distortions (though much of this distortion is caused by the casing, hence the BluTak mod.) Perhaps you got it mixed up by looking into the HD555s I mentioned I usually listen to? Many people dislike their bass rolloff and it definitely takes some getting used to. I've attached a graph of the frequency response curve (courtesy of HeadRoom) of the HD280 Pro below. Note the rather steep upward curve as the frequencies approach the bass ranges. In fact around 40-30Hz it actually has almost a +6dB response (and yes, just a few instruments can go as low as 40Hz, but even as it approaches that range it's still up by quite a bit.) It doesn't start to drop off close to 0dB until about 70Hz or so -- almost out of the bass ranges. There's a very small dip in the upper ranges, but other than that the entire bass frequency range is well above neutral on the HD280 Pros. (Perhaps anyone calling the HD280 Pros "lean" listens to R&B or something? That "thumping" sound many people like actually starts at higher frequencies than they may realize and might just fall into that tiny valley -- though I do try to avoid things with that sort of "bass" and can't say for sure. When I talk about bass, I actually mean things like bass guitars, a double bass, and so on. To some extent I might include some instruments like the cello that actually can go pretty low at times.)
Now, if you were accidentally looking at the HD555s instead, their bass response curve is a very different story with a steep decline starting at only probably about +1dB or so and going straight below 0dB almost immediately. THESE people might call "lean" and they'd probably be right (but the quality of that bass is through the roof.) Just to be clear though I'm not looking to make the HD280s sound like HD555s, I'm just looking to get that ugly bass hump to be less extremely high.
Now, if you were accidentally looking at the HD555s instead, their bass response curve is a very different story with a steep decline starting at only probably about +1dB or so and going straight below 0dB almost immediately. THESE people might call "lean" and they'd probably be right (but the quality of that bass is through the roof.) Just to be clear though I'm not looking to make the HD280s sound like HD555s, I'm just looking to get that ugly bass hump to be less extremely high.
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No you didn't. Think, that is.
Most complaints about 'terrible' bass mean 'inadequate' bass.
You've written paragraphs and paragraphs of densely packed text without making your point clear. Most people just skim the surface of stuff like that to try to extract the basics.
'What would happen with capacitors on headphones?' Do you mean series or shunt or just taped to the headband?
Have a bit of consideration for your readers.
50uF is too high.
Anyway, the initial test seems to have gone fine. With normal music the effect was a bit more subtle than I expected even after playing with the crossover component (but I may have had it set wrong -- it's really meant to simulate high quality crossovers fourth order filters on full speaker systems even) but the effect was definitely noticeable. Especially when I tested with a 60Hz sine wave test tone (definitely not subtle there!) So far I've tested the CMoy, my PSP, myArchos 43 PDA and even my Cowon D2 DAP (which I read on one site while trying to find out if anyone had ever even tried this uses capacitors on the output) and the results were good with no oddities that I could notice. The bass is no longer so headache inducing. I'm no audiophile to tell you how much it helps the quality of the bass, but I felt like it helped a little bit even in that respect. Still not as good as most other headphones in its pricerange, but at least it helps. I guess, more than anything else, my goal here was to keep the bass from having that almost headache inducing irritating feel it had and this definitely helps to do just that.
So I'm going to call this a success and order some better quality ~20uF capacitors.
Ah, the trolls distracted me with their complete and utter derailment of the topic and I missed something obvious. Since I later established that a lower capacity (higher frequency filter) is actually ok within reason, I can just use a couple of 47uF capacitors in series (opposite poles) to test since that should effectively produce ~23.5uF. It probably goes without saying that 47uF capacitors are ridiculously easy to find and I was able to salvage some from some old power supply. Obviously the quality is hardly ideal, but this is just a test (I'll buy better capacitors later.)
Anyway, the initial test seems to have gone fine. With normal music the effect was a bit more subtle than I expected even after playing with the crossover component (but I may have had it set wrong -- it's really meant to simulate high quality crossovers fourth order filters on full speaker systems even) but the effect was definitely noticeable. Especially when I tested with a 60Hz sine wave test tone (definitely not subtle there!) So far I've tested the CMoy, my PSP, myArchos 43 PDA and even my Cowon D2 DAP (which I read on one site while trying to find out if anyone had ever even tried this uses capacitors on the output) and the results were good with no oddities that I could notice. The bass is no longer so headache inducing. I'm no audiophile to tell you how much it helps the quality of the bass, but I felt like it helped a little bit even in that respect. Still not as good as most other headphones in its pricerange, but at least it helps. I guess, more than anything else, my goal here was to keep the bass from having that almost headache inducing irritating feel it had and this definitely helps to do just that.
So I'm going to call this a success and order some better quality ~20uF capacitors.
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I would recommend using a frequency generator to see where your lower hearing limit is at and then just filter everything below this from your headphones, if you are looking to go that way. just remember using one component will give you a first-order audio filter, so the slope is very gradual, so you might want to build a second- order high pass using an inductor in parallel with the capacitor in series. There are calculators available online for this to make it easier for you. Just google frequency filter calculator. You may also want to build a filter so that you can pull out the components and change them when you want to. Just an idea!
Bump
So after all this time I thought I'd bump this and let anyone who might be interested (as well as anyone who might happen to search) know how well this worked out. It definitely helped with the HD280 Pro. Along with the Bluetak mod, it definitely got the bass to be much less distorting and the mids were a bit less recessed. I further did another mod to increase the inner dimensions a bit more (basically I cut an area behind the driver into the top part of the cup and then sealed that part completely so that the end result is nearly as much noise attenuation/isolation as before but with the inside a bit wider.) Now the HD280 Pro is almost actually enjoyable to listen to. In fact, at times they almost felt as nice as the HD555 headphones I was comparing them to at the time after that final modification in conjunction with those capacitors acting as a filter on those lower frequencies. Overall it made a very dull and dark headphone actually rather nice to listen to. Mind you, I won't deny that it was the combination of these two modifications that truly made the HD280 Pro nice, not just the one, but the first order filter definitely was a huge part of it and even without the second part of the mod (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone who isn't pretty confident about messing with such things as it takes a lot of doing) and I think it made the HD280 Pro a lot better even just on its own. Especially combined with just the Bluetak mod (which is pretty simple to do anyway and I would recommend to anyone who knows which end of the screwdriver to hold.)
Just this past week I also had the idea to do this on something I should have actually done it on even sooner -- before the HD280 Pro in fact: IEMs. I can't speak for everyone, but for me IEMs have always had positively obnoxious bass. Very bloomy and almost outright painful with the bass' extremeness having the same result of causing other frequencies to feel much more recessed in comparison. Working with a Klipsch Image S3 which has 18 ohms I put a couple of 150uF tantalum capacitors connected "anti-series" as mentioned before to create a non-polarized capacitor essentially of the average of the two (so much easier to do the math when only working with two.) That makes for about 75uF for a high-pass filter beginning at about 118Hz. Probably a little too high, but I wanted to really hit those lower frequencies hard with this. Anyway, the end result is: my IEMs are no longer obnoxious! The bass no longer hurts so much, the mids and highs don't feel recessed at all, and they're much less fatiguing for the most part. They'll never compete with the comfort or quality of my real headphones, but when I need something that can fit in a pocket and which works without needing an external amp this actually is quite decent. I'm tempted to suggest that all IEM users who have the knowhow to build a simple adapter might just want to give this a try and see how much less obnoxious they can be after this. (People who incorrectly believe that they love bass -- and I disagree that it is a love of bass if you intentionally overdrive and distort it to the point it drowns out everything else -- might need to give it a bit of time to get used to it, but I'm personally of the mind that even they would love the extra clarity this can ultimately produce.)
So after all this time I thought I'd bump this and let anyone who might be interested (as well as anyone who might happen to search) know how well this worked out. It definitely helped with the HD280 Pro. Along with the Bluetak mod, it definitely got the bass to be much less distorting and the mids were a bit less recessed. I further did another mod to increase the inner dimensions a bit more (basically I cut an area behind the driver into the top part of the cup and then sealed that part completely so that the end result is nearly as much noise attenuation/isolation as before but with the inside a bit wider.) Now the HD280 Pro is almost actually enjoyable to listen to. In fact, at times they almost felt as nice as the HD555 headphones I was comparing them to at the time after that final modification in conjunction with those capacitors acting as a filter on those lower frequencies. Overall it made a very dull and dark headphone actually rather nice to listen to. Mind you, I won't deny that it was the combination of these two modifications that truly made the HD280 Pro nice, not just the one, but the first order filter definitely was a huge part of it and even without the second part of the mod (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone who isn't pretty confident about messing with such things as it takes a lot of doing) and I think it made the HD280 Pro a lot better even just on its own. Especially combined with just the Bluetak mod (which is pretty simple to do anyway and I would recommend to anyone who knows which end of the screwdriver to hold.)
Just this past week I also had the idea to do this on something I should have actually done it on even sooner -- before the HD280 Pro in fact: IEMs. I can't speak for everyone, but for me IEMs have always had positively obnoxious bass. Very bloomy and almost outright painful with the bass' extremeness having the same result of causing other frequencies to feel much more recessed in comparison. Working with a Klipsch Image S3 which has 18 ohms I put a couple of 150uF tantalum capacitors connected "anti-series" as mentioned before to create a non-polarized capacitor essentially of the average of the two (so much easier to do the math when only working with two.) That makes for about 75uF for a high-pass filter beginning at about 118Hz. Probably a little too high, but I wanted to really hit those lower frequencies hard with this. Anyway, the end result is: my IEMs are no longer obnoxious! The bass no longer hurts so much, the mids and highs don't feel recessed at all, and they're much less fatiguing for the most part. They'll never compete with the comfort or quality of my real headphones, but when I need something that can fit in a pocket and which works without needing an external amp this actually is quite decent. I'm tempted to suggest that all IEM users who have the knowhow to build a simple adapter might just want to give this a try and see how much less obnoxious they can be after this. (People who incorrectly believe that they love bass -- and I disagree that it is a love of bass if you intentionally overdrive and distort it to the point it drowns out everything else -- might need to give it a bit of time to get used to it, but I'm personally of the mind that even they would love the extra clarity this can ultimately produce.)
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