Best mods for HD-600s?

[Jim R.]

There must be dozens of mods for the HD-600s (It is rumored that Sennheiser made these cans so they could be modified), and I'm looking for any modifications that people thought worthwhile, and also what effect did they have on the sound. I'm not going to use wood cups to turn them into closed back cans -- that much I know.

Many people will probably say to replace the stock cable, but I've already done that with a Wy Wires "Red" set. BTW, the reviews on these cables is rather mixed, but the HD-600s are one of the cans that are supposed to work exceptionally well.

Anything else, especially if it's fairly easy to do.

Of course, I won't do any of this until the s.e.x 2.1 is built and the cans and amp are broken in  -- I'm not going to mod anything until I get some listening time on the stock cans.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Thanks,

Jim

[JamieMcC]

Save yourself the trouble and buy some T1's or hd800s 

[Deluk]

If you want to go down that route a bit of Googling will find you some how to articles. I'd think that most of them will change the characteristics of the cans but may or may not improve them. Most of them have you removing foam. My HD600's came from the first owner with a set of custom cables, about £100's worth, but I found them to emphasise the top end too much compared to the H600 standard ones. That made a lot of music tiring to listen too. For just a few pounds I bought a set of HD650 cables, standard Sennheiser ones, and found they gave a good overall improvement over the HD600 ones. Try those, the change gets positive reviews. You'll need to find a lot more money to get useful improvements. Sennheiser have recently released an improved version of the HD800 which appears to have fixed some of the customer complaints so maybe one to aspire to. An intact pair of HD600 will sell on for more than a modified pair so something to consider.
Happy listening.

[Jim R.]

Well, I've owned the 800s, 650s, and the 600s just sound like music to me. I also don't at all care for the Beyer sound. Then there's that other problem - money :-)

I'll google for 600 mods and see what I get. I also have the Wy Wires RED headphone cables, and I'm not at all concerned about resale value -- I'm basically done gear swapping.

Thanks for the ideas though.

-- Jim

[ALL212]

Keep this updated please!  I've toyed with the idea of the HD800's but haven't had the cojones to drop the coin yet.

[johnsonad]

Jim,

I'm listening to a brand new pair of HD600's as I type this.  They have been burning in over the last two days and are starting to sound decent.  I'm using a new HD650 cable with them and have been working on stretching out the band using CD cases. 

I had a pair of these years ago but they were sold off.  These are surprisingly none fatiguing and will be hanging around.

What about the sound makes you want to modify them?

Regards,

Aaron

[Natural Sound]

The only upgrade I did on my HD-600's is replace the cable. Several years ago Bottlehead sold a beefy cable with an even beefier right angled connector on it. I believe it was called the "BottleHeadphone cable upgrade." It made a significant difference in the overall sound. I still use it today. Although it is no longer offered at Bottlehead there are others out there that sell similar upgraded cables.