Ok, I'll play in the DIY pool. Probably drown, but it's for science.

Pulled my T50s out of the closet. They got a ton of studio use 10 years ago. Put them on with and without earpads. Not much difference. So there's that. New pads are mandatory. Cruised the 700+ pages of the BMF epic thread. Will attempt my variant on the DBV #3 with the materials at hand. If I like the sound, comfort and can get my head around, uh, under, the weight, then I may either tweak some more or consider the pro modded versions. Or not. I like to tweak. Prefer to tweak songs than damping material, but it's for science.

Will need to build a crude measuring rig too. How hard can that be? Not fond of building BMF's human dummy head system tho. That's gotta hurt!

Thanks for the assistance, encouragement or insanity. ;-)

I think I know the problem. We're all assuming different things. Some recommendations are coming from experience in the studio, some are coming from experience in music listening. I made some recommendations based on my assumptions and they got rightfully torn apart by others. I listen to music on different gear than I mix on. I'll get to that in a bit.

You have a track you're using for auditioning gear. What does it sound like on some wicked flat studio monitors (Dynaudio or such), or in the car? Do you have coherency issues if you play only the left audio track? What does it sound like on stuff that's not headphones? Are you pleased with how it sounds not on the K240DF?

The more time I spend in the studio the more I stop nagging about every crazy detail in an instrument because I want it ALL to sound right, not to sound like you can hear three microtones and two overtones coming from the same instrument. Just like applying the principle of using a dynamic mic because it sucks some life out of the instrument but lets it cut through the mix to sound right in the end. Therefore I use two low-end systems and I seem to be getting it "right" way more than I used to. I just use the K171 Mk II and a Cambridge Soundworks radio with the loudness off and the bass dialed back 1 notch. That's it. Everything I produce on those sounds good on everything it gets played on from iBuds to the car to mega systems. It's so massively counterintuitive to some but it's the best in terms of end results of material. I don't use my IEMs or any of my other cans. I could tweak the music enough to enjoy what I make with those but nobody else would like it.

So, don't get a hyper-resolving headphone because to get that AND coherency will cost you preciously either by dollars or tinkering or both.

How can we measure cohesiveness? The 840 have lots of separation between elements in a mix, but it's what it does to the individual elements that's disturbing. Very puzzling. Maybe it's as simple as the 5Khz ring-a-dingie as seen in purrin's CSD.

Haha. It's interesting you measure that. I recall having an in person discussing the 840 with LFF and Anax: "Plasticky timbre", "A beautiful woman who is bad in bed", etc.

• I wonder about harmonic distortion - I didn't take that measurement back in those days.
• The slightly rising response from the upper bass toward the treble may be a huge contributor to this lack of coherence.
• You can look at this other way: a shallow dip between 200Hz and 2k. That's never good. Talk about the fundamental note region being sucked out...

One of these days I'm going to do a good write up on T50RP modded - without revealing any trade secrets.

One of these days I'm going to do a good write up on T50RP modded - without revealing any trade secrets.

Oh...my, that would be excellent. Especially if you leave out the fiddly bits. After a few hundred pages into the epic BMF thread at HF, am now wondering if I ever want to view the internet again. ;-) Damping a small pressure chamber should not require a degree in fluid dynamics and a certificate from the Micro Assembly Department, but it would seem to help.