Give them more time. Burn them in. When I got mine I did not like it for the first time. Know I love them. With BTR5 I have excellent āportableā solution.
Because of a big size driver they sound open and surround.
Hi, welcome to HFGF! I hope you can find a solution here.
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I had a similar reaction when I first attached the gl2000 to the zen dac can combo. Fortunately, I had a sabaj da3 laying around and hooking that to the gl2000 was magic. I really think the gl2000 doesnāt like the Burr Brown dac, it likes the sabre dac. I now use the Khadas tone 2 pro with the gl2000 and itās amazing.
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Took me quite some time to get them where I wanted them. Tons of EQ tweaking, did the tuning paper removal mod, brain burn-in, physical burn-in, pad swapping. Theyāre work. Some people like them out the box but I think they need a lot of help to get the most out of them. Sounds like youāre willing to put the effort in, so just be patient with them and keep tweaking, hopefully youāll be able to get them to a place youāre happy with.
I will say that the massive soundstage experience you were expecting probably wonāt be found here. The way the stock sound fucks with the mids creates an illusion of space, but if you āfixā the mids you lose that. They still sound big-ish but I have yet to achieve anything close to a āsurround soundā experience with them.
Tubes really finish it off. Did you pull the paper off the driver itself or just the grill mesh?
GL2000 is alread a smooth and relaxing tone, the zen dac / can just double down that. I agree sabre dac sounds better, I run it off SMSL SU-9 and prefer that
Removed all the paper, left the mesh for protection. I had them on a tube hybrid prior to selling it but prefer the solid state sound.
The ifi zen dac is more suitable for the neutral-bright HD560s than weird-warm gl2000.
Also, DO NOT trust Zeos, or anyone for that matter blindly. You have been warned. By the way, the GL2000 retails for roughly 450 USD in China including the nice case and cable. Think about how much goes to the actual driver manufacturing
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So the new Topping L30 came in yesterday. I was also able to run these on the hybrid tube. I have to say, after the EQ, mod (removed everything), and proper power, these sound significantly better than the 560s. Iām surprised that they work well on the tube. Overall, the experience is improving. Will check back in, in a week when brain and physical burn in are done.
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Glad to see you enjoy them
is it worth it though? you pay 600 then have to totally take them apart void the warranty , completely change the EQ and then they finally are better than a 250 dollar used headphone 560? seems like its better to sell it and get an open box sundara or 5xx for 120$ - 250 for sundara and have perfect freq response. maybe less bass but can EQ. my 5xx with eq has literal sub-woofer sub bass the driver is extremely capable in the newer nano thin diaphragms,
to each their own. i didnt like the gl2k but more so that my friend had been basically either lied to by Z or Z has no ability to review the sound of products. its one or the other and maybe that made me not like them a little more. either way glad you enjoy them more after the mods. modding is fun. you shouldnt have to mod 600 pair though. i think we can all agree on that. at 200? hell yes.
i feel similar about lcd headphones basically require EQ . but they are well designed at least. and are very high performance even without EQ and top teir with EQ which the gl2k and 5xx cant say even after EQ.
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Iāve heard that people do some mods on GL2000. What are these mods?
Done by Pokrog
Personally I like it a lot better with the mod!
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Iāve spent a long time reading through this thread and the mod youāve described seems to achieve what Iām looking for so Iām getting ready to give it a goā¦ But I have a few questions questions / concerns:
1 Dust - you mentioned you left the outer most mesh to protect the driver from dust. Does keeping it (while removing the glued piece) affect the sound in any way?
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As an alternative would using something like sheer curtain fabric be suitable with a planar driver (Iāve used it before on dynamics. It covers well without any noticeable sound colouration but does fray around the edges when cut). Something like this - Voile Sold by the Metre Sheer Black 150cm (59) Wide by Maple Textiles : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen
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I have the newer version that came with the D pads. I noticed in your mod link that there is the extra mesh around the driver. Did you keep that in or remove it?.
Iāll need to find a felt material to go behind the ear pads to tame the treble. I love crisp highs but thereās limit. Most of all Iām looking forward to clearing up the mids and opening up the stage.
How would you say bass sounds post mod?
Thanks
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So I would say the outermost mesh is good enough to protect from dust and really doesnāt effect anything. I found some 1.6mm felt and used the pad adapter as a stencil and cut just inside the stencil traces and put the felt behind the pad. The felt thatās there already behind the pad adapter can be removed as it is kinda redundant and makes my ear touch inside the pad when you add the felt. Bass after the mod bass is noticeably more refined while keeping that nice texture it had before. Still punchy and very crisp but also still no real āslamā like with some harder hitting dynamics but I personally like well controlled bass more than in your face slam anyways so for me itās great. That muddiness across the whole frequency range disappears.
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Thanks for the quick reply! Iāll let you know how I get on.
Also on a side note, you can totally cut the felt to match the shape behind the pad adapter and actually screw the pad adapter onto the felt to hold the felt in place. Only reason I didnāt do that is that I sometimes take the felt out and itās easier to have it behind the pads.
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Mod doneā¦ 2 papers gone, kept the external mesh, no felt.
First impressionsā¦ It hasnāt corrected the mids quite to the extent that Iād hoped but it has adjusted it slightly for the better.
What I can say is that the sound definitely feels wider and more holographic than stockā¦ Iāve never tried the Arya or HD800s but would really love to compare them to the GL2K now for soundstage cos these really feel huge!
No treble issues for me post modā¦ I probably donāt need the felt (unless you (@Pokrog ) think it would further adjust the mids?)ā¦ I a/bād the stock and then the modded GL2ks against Grado Hemps (which i was also having fun listening to while tinkering with the 2Ks)ā¦ The treble is tame by comparison to the Hemps no matter what state the 2ks are in (and I love the Hemps)ā¦
All in all happy with the mod so farā¦ Will sit with it for a week or so.
What pads are you using and what amp?