They have everything they need to make an improved version, yet they aren’t making one…
I don’t see why they can’t replace the dismal headband, remove the garbage fabric from behind the grilles and replace with thin foam, and improve the earpads. It’s easy. It’ll make it so people wouldn’t have to go through the burden of modifying them.
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I’ll be taking mine apart sometime this weekend to see what has changed .
Listened to them stock for a few minutes .
I’m liking what I’m hearing so far.
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Likely it wouldn’t have been possible to implement those changes on a fast enough time scale for the V2’s. Not only that, it might not have been cost effective even if the consensus is that it would produce a better sounding headphone. Most of the people taking a risk on a $350 chi-fi headphone likely don’t mind or even enjoy making a few tuning changes themselves after all…
The wire change actually makes sense to me now. The current through those wires creates a magnetic field, and because they’re directly over the driver, it could induce an unwanted current addition in the membrane wire. It might have been suuuper small, but a good idea after all. Too bad it looks so sloppy…
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Well the modding has begun.
XL pads on …check.
Screen off of metal plate…check.
Yes the wiring on the 2nd batch doesn’t look nice ,maybe down the road a rewire will happen.
For right now let’s enjoy .
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I went off the review and views of people as a group not the review of one person to make my decision to purchase .
Not everyone is going to like the headphone ,so far I do .
I listen to Rock ,Blues etc and they fit my genre of music.
Maybe DMS got a faulty Phantom. 
I’m curious on his HF 580 review, as I currently use that as my daily.
It is possible on a bad pair.
I may pick up some 580’s down the road
I just like planar .
It’s the exact same pair that Z reviewed. It’s probably not faulty. That unit is making it’s rounds.
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Eww, looks like cold and disturbed solder joints.
Yep it is .
I’ll be rewiring and resoldering sometime down the road .
I think it’s the same pair z reviewed
It’s the same pair. He shipped it out to DMS last week.
Source: A recent DMS video from Z’s apt
Not sure if another opinion/experience is wanted on these headphones, but I’d like to share mine. One member of this thread described himself as, “you’d be hard pressed to find anyone on this site less qualified to comment”. I literally raised my hand when I read it because I count myself in that category.
Still, I’d like to help anyone else that has order remorse/anxiety or is on the fence and would like extra information.
My pair came from batch #2. Fallopian tube wiring. I did get two pairs of pads. The rest is the same as has been previously pictured from others in the 2nd batch.
I’ve been in this hobby about 6 months, so I only have a few cans to compare this to. I currently own the Argons, m40x’s, Monoprice Retros & Porta Pros. I have owned (and sold or returned) the 58x Jubilee’s & the Philips SHP9500.
I’m not typically super picky on build. The finish of the metal on these bugged me a little though. Almost felt like if I wasn’t careful I could cut myself on the edges. Didn’t love that but not a big deal. They are big, but when I put them on they felt lighter than I expected.
I try to do as much research as possible and I beat myself up over purchases, so when I first put this on, my heart sunk. DMS was right, I thought. These are awful.
I’m not great at describing sound, but I’m going to try. Even though I had instant buyer’s remorse, putting these on were an education. If you listen to reviews and read the forums you hear terms like sound stage, detail, separation, warmth. Instantly these cans practically defined all of these terms for me (good and bad). The detail was amazing. I could hear instruments in a distinct way. “THAT is what separation means!”, I thought.
I was exhilarated by how I was able to categorize sound like never before, but wasn’t thrilled that my $350 purchase sounded muddy, lacked any warmth or depth and had this weird synthetic sound. Almost as if sound could be metallic. Not pleasant.
Although some have said they sounded great out of the box, I knew others needed mods to get a good experience. I hoped I was the latter and started with a pad swap (Z hasn’t let me down yet, so I went with the ZMF Suede Ovals).
The pad swap took away the muddy sound and in a huge relief, took away that metallic, processed sound. I breathed a sigh of relief, but they weren’t “End-Game” impressive to me. I haven’t heard a $2,000 headphone, but I knew that wasn’t it.
After listening for a while with just the pad swap and doing A/B tests with the Argons, I was deciding that I preferred the Argons. Before I list them on AVExchange, let me try the other mods I thought.
I removed the grills and the two small pieces of foam and gave it another try…
HALLELUJAH!!! Fireworks!!! Trumpets…whatever other dramatic sound
I was not ready for the difference. I had never heard anything like this. The sound stage was so wide. I looked around like my brain thought people were in the room. Everything was so tight. The drums on “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band almost scared me. I tend to listen to the same music over and over again, so I can pick out little differences. Some songs sounded so much different and in a good way. Just so detailed. I’d heard one reviewer/commenter say “addictive detail”. It really was. I don’t like to play headphones loud, but I found myself turning it up and up. I couldn’t get enough. Snare drums just have this tight punch and kick to it (I know, not good sound descriptors lol). Listening to Jim Croce songs was unbelievable. You could feel the guitar strums. Just a really cool experience.
What a transformation. Went through this whole progression with my brother and when we tried them with the foam pieces removed along with the grills, it was unlike anything our imagination would have allowed us to think sound could be like.
Went back to the Argons (which I LOVE) and couldn’t listen to them. Argons had a warmth and depth advantage, but the sound stage and detail of the Phantom made me consider the unthinkable. I may end up selling my beloved Argons. More testing is needed to determine that.
My final configuration was a copy of Ohmboy’s mod (one small piece of foam in the middle, with a larger piece of 3mm foam covering the rest of the ear cup, held in place by the grill with the fabric removed. That smoothed out things and just brought everything into a really nice sound that I’m loving.
Honeymoon assessment is I can see them being an end-game headphone for me. I’d like to try a $1,500-$2,000 pair someday, but for now, I think I’m done chasing.
The sources I used for testing were Topping DX3, Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digtial w/Emotiva Basx & Fiio K3. Of the three configs, the Topping DX3 was the best, followed by the Pre Box/Emotiva combo with Fiio K3 being last and serviceable.
This was ridiculously long, but hopefully this is helpful if you’re like me and agonize over these types of purchases. This was my experience. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone in this thread that contributed mods, reviews and thoughts.
tl;dr: What a journey from stock to modded. Awesome roller coaster with a good ending. Well worth $350 even with the rough edges post-mods.
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Did you use the same 3mm foam that Ohmboy used?
Thanks for the info ,I’m looking around to see what I can find also.
Thanks for the review ,very informative.
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The foam discs I ordered off ebay (the link is way earlier in the thread somewhere) finally came today and I began to set about actually modding these for the first time since I got them (besides changing the pads anyway). I can agree, after some testing, that Ohmboy’s configuration (one original small foam disc in middle,3mm larger foam disc on top,grill fabric off) sounds great and that’s what I’ve settled on. Now I need to start the long and winding journey of pad swaps
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Nice write up, That’s exactly how I felt about the phantoms before and after the mods. I’m still working on my review. I have the script done and all the b-roll shots taken. I just need to finish my voice over and edit the video together, plus take a few more measurements. I’m really glad you like them, and I’m glad everyone got together and shared modding tips too!
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