CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Headphone Measurements => Topic started by: Marvey on February 23, 2014, 06:50:51 AM
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CEETEE introduced me to Bill-P and handed over these modded ESW10s to me for measuring. Some slight channel imbalance (right channel sounds more laid back than left - confirmed via reversing sides.) Actually sounds pretty good with slight emphasis on mids and occasional shout (probably the 3-4k peak) with certain recordings.
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Seems a bit similar (impressions and measurements) to the ESW10 previously measured (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,168.0.html).
I think I quickly heard an ESW9 @ BestBuy some time ago. Dunno how close that one is to the ESW10, but I thought it was pretty good for a closed can. Very elegant design.
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The ESW10JPN is still an awesome closed-back on-ear headphone by today's market standards. Plus it's one of the most beautiful headphones of all time in my opinion.
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3188/3054762736_91be7656ae_z.jpg?zz=1)
The ESW9 is also nice if it suits your needs, and in recent years Audio-Technica seems to have retuned them a bit to sound closer to the ESW10JPN.
The new ESW11LTD was a little disappointing to me, comparatively speaking.
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Were they ESW10s originally? In my brief discussion with him I believe he referred to them as originally ES10s.
I remember talking to him about how the bass response was vastly less exaggerated than on the original ES10.
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maybe they were ES10s.
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Yup, they were based on the ES10, not the ESW10.
http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/product.asp?catID=5&subID=38&prodID=3981
They have a larger driver (53mm vs 42mmm). The stock ES10 is pretty bassy, even compared to the ESW9. This mod seems to have tamed that down quite a bit.
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Well Bill-P was certainly quite successful. They weren't bassy at all. Heck, I thought they were ESW10s.
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Thanks for measuring these and for those who have listened to them.
I like the way Bill's ears work and where he tries to take his phones and combine components. He cares about the mids.
After the last Bay Area mini-meet, he improved this pair.
Fun to see that the FR matched the lack of annoyance at the problem spots and I will make note of the dips, they were better than at the mini-meet. This kind of feedback is what is very helpful to make other graphs meaningful and for reference.
:wheel:
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CEE TEE, you looked pretty happy with them in his photos. :)
I believe Bill mentioned he wanted to approximate the tonal balance of the SR-009 with his mods. A very deliberate effort was made to reduce the bass and maximize clarity.
A modder I met in NYC made similar modifications to his ESW9s and ES10s and utilized cork to great effect, as well as hybridizing the wood housings from one another using his ESW10 and W3000 as reference points. I'd be curious as to a cross-product of their efforts if they shared their techniques...
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If Bill's intent was to mimic the tonal balance of the SR009s, I would say that he was quite successful.
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Haha, thanks, Marv, for doing the measurement. Now I know what frequency response I was able to get out of those drivers.
Yeah, I meant to approximate the tonal balance of the SR-009 with this headphone, though the level and quality of the mid was more my personal preference. I wanted a headphone that would do vocals justice on a variety of sources.
The slight channel imbalance, I think, is actually due to the earpads. That's why I left the ESW9 earpads so that you can put those on. Please try another measurement with the ESW9 pads, if you don't mind, because I think swapping to those will have a pretty sizable effect on the graphs.
On a side note, CEE TEE, I have finally decided on what headphone to work on next. I think it'll be the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro Limited Edition. That one won't break the bank, and it seems like it's among the very few full-size headphones that won't necessarily require an amp. The other factor being that it's relatively easy to obtain a new pair still.
I had thought of Denons, but those are really hard to obtain now, and given that I still like Beyer's overall tonality, I think the 32 Ohm DT770 is a safe choice. Well, we'll see!
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Along a similar vein, you can try cracking open a Beyer COP and try balancing out mods with the adjustable bass vent.
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The slight channel imbalance, I think, is actually due to the earpads. That's why I left the ESW9 earpads so that you can put those on. Please try another measurement with the ESW9 pads, if you don't mind, because I think swapping to those will have a pretty sizable effect on the graphs.
Going to do this today. Hopefully I will have some time. Still fighting this bug and have to deal with BS work related stuff.
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Along a similar vein, you can try cracking open a Beyer COP and try balancing out mods with the adjustable bass vent.
Well, I got the DT770 Pro 32 Ohm studio version instead of the Limited Edition, since I've heard that the LE sounds "darker" and "smoother" than the regular version, which... actually doesn't sound all that impressive to me. It's easier to attenuate than to add, so if this one lacks treble to begin with, I don't think I'd be able to add that back in.
And I have never owned a DT770 before, but... playing around with this one, I found that there is indeed a small opening in the back for the bass. Plugging it does reduce bass roundness by a significant margin (much like with the ATH-W1000X that I used to own), so I decided to leave it alone.
Not sure how good the COP would sound... but I'm really liking the tonality of the DT770 now. The same mods that brought the midrange of the ES10 out so much seems to apply to the DT770, too, so maybe it's universally applicable?
I'll see if I can detail the process and what I'm using to mod the DT770 now... since it seems like modding the old Beyer drivers can bring about pretty interesting results!
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My DT770 actually has COP drivers (because the COP has T50rp drivers instead :)p17)
I still get that weird trebly peak in the DT770 so I've got some acoustic foam in the back and a piece of felt in front.
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With ESW9 pads.
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Wow, thanks, Marv!
It's great to see CSD so clean.
And that sort of confirms my suspicion about the ESW9 pads. They seem to increase upper mid ever so slightly.
My DT770 actually has COP drivers (because the COP has T50rp drivers instead :)p17)
I still get that weird trebly peak in the DT770 so I've got some acoustic foam in the back and a piece of felt in front.
I'm hoping I could have another pair of discerning ears to listen to my DT770 now. I seem to have been able to reduce the sharp peak with more specific shapes of felt.
Though the reduction came at the cost of clarity... so I'll play around with the shapes more and see if I can find a common ground that wouldn't reduce clarity.