that’s what I heard as well. it’s kind of a you either hate it or love it type of headphone. kind of a shame considering how beautiful the cups are.
That’s interesting. You’re the only person I know that’s heard them and didn’t like them.
I think they may have updated the cable recently, but I don’t know if they’ve done anything regarding fitment.
@fireWire87 they are gorgeous.
I owned them for a month, and really don’t think I would say they are worth, but I guess it depends on the person and how much you can actually get them for
my initial idea was to just cover existing cups in resin but now I might consider making a mold and making actual resin cups just for shits and giggles. I have nothing better to do during this lock down. though i’d imagine it might do some funky stuff with the sound as resin is not as dense as certain woods.
Finally with the new NON perforated Accessory House pads and Dekoni attenuation rings installed.
Bass is a bit down but very satisfying. Comfort upgrade us huge. Now let’s see when I feel less lazy and install the Tune up kit.
How much would you say they are worth? Do they have the detail retrieval of a LCD4?
I would guess no
I would only pay about 1.25k for one tops, rhodey has always answered the 2nd question lol
There you go! Congrats.
Both my E-MU Ebony cups and dekoni rings arrived a few hours ago. Let’s go in order: The cups look exactly the same as fireWire87’s, taking a picture that does justice for them is actually way more complicated than installing them.
I absolutely love everything this did to the sound, I’m not kidding, maybe the bass became a bit less apparent, but that’s only because everything else sounds way better. I would describe it as several small changes that add up and change the characteristic completely.
I didn’t like the vocals on the mahogany too much. What I’m going to say might seem a bit exaggerated, but it really felt like someone was trying to shout into my ears compared to my previous headphones, and that still doesn’t quite catch what it feels like, it’s like the source of the vocals is between your two ears, inside your head, and they are shouting out on your earholes. This opened up soundstage and blended the vocals into the music, which is not the same as making them stand out less, it feels like they are now exactly where they should be.
Highs are all around less shrill, much tamer. I couldn’t really enjoy music with too many highs with the mahogany, but I can do it with this, no problem at all.
I didn’t notice any difference in the bass region, the whole signature became flatter so it’s a bit less in your face, maybe this is the only thing I will miss from my Mahogany, but it’s a worthy trade-off.
Detail also improved noticeably, enough so that it should be one of the major points to consider when someone is trying to decide between the different cups.
Now, regarding the AHG pads with Dekoni rings. Yeah, it seems like the problem was with the rings I made previously, and now the sound quality is noticeably better, it’s exactly the same as stock. It still does retain the same change in sound signature that the AHG pads have compared to the stock, though, just to a lesser extent. It slightly increases the highs and slightly reduces the bass, but that creates a big enough gap for it to sound too bright for me, so it’s completely out of question.
However I’ve actually got an idea. Reading how the sound changed with the thickness of the custom rings A_COC0NUT made, I thought why not use more rings, so I did. Since I only ordered one pair I could only test this with one side, but I think it might be somewhat closer to the stock sound signature. I’m not certainly sure, though. Does anyone here have two pair of rings, and care enough to test this?
The consensus is that the ebony cups are the most refined, the purple hearts are the most fun, and the mohogony cups are the worst due to some unpleasant resonances in the treble.
As for the AHG pads and rings, maybe try some thicker rings. It shouldn’t be to hard to find some sheets of soft vinyl on Amazon or something (actually I tried looking and you may as well buy some Ovaltine) and you can use the dekoni rings as templates. Also I would recommend the driver side Lawton tune up. It doesn’t change the frequency response but improves the quality of the sound (less harsh highs, cleaner mids, etc).
I’ve read the whole thread, so I think I’m fairly caught up on the consensus!
My Lawton tune-up kit is already ordered, but I don’t think I will invest any more time into custom rings considering the earlier failures. I’m waiting to see if someone feels like trying what I suggested before ordering another pair of rings myself.
I could probably try. I’ll update you later today after some testing.
I’d really appreciate that!
OK. So good news bad news.
Good news is that stacking rings emulates the effect of thicker rings.
Bad news is that this dose not seem to effect the highs at all really.
I tested by down mixing to mono in foobar and putting my two thinner blue rings in the left channel, then only one, and listening for any sounds to be off center. I then did the same in the right channel. To test an extreme I took both blue rings plus a third that I keep as a template and the thicker brown ring, double sided taped them all together for a total thickness of about 2mm and repeated the test. This made the difference OBVIOUS. Thicker rings do, in fact, result in more bass, but do not seem to have any real effect on any other frequencies (at least none that I could tell).
In conclusion, if you want more bass, stacking attenuation rings will work (just be sure to double sided tape them together to keep them aligned), but it will not help with harsh highs. The only way to deal with that is either the Lawton driver side tune-up or maybe a piece of foam in front of the driver.
Great, thanks for the info!
I’ll give them another try when my tune-up kit arrives. If that’s not enough, I’ll probably just buy the other AHG pad that looks like the stock pads.
I can’t overstate how satisfied I am with the ebony cups though. It’s like I’m listening to a different recording of every music I know, easily one of my best purchases of my life. So far I haven’t found anything that doesn’t sound awesome with these, whereas I found plenty with the Mahogany.
So before I completed my mod I thought I would need the attention rings so I purchased the Dekoni’s, but it turns out that I did not need them because of the Lawton cups (they act like well designed subwoofer enclosures).
When I ordered the rings I thought of the possibility of reflections coming from the back of the rings so as a solution I ordered this:
Premium quality suede sheets 8.5"x12" with super-strong self-adhesive backing. Ideal for making peel-and-stick (self-stick, stick-on) soles for dance shoes, various colors. [SUEDE-DIY-r01]. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBJLNW2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_QrhSEbM2J7E6H
I didn’t mod the rings because I didn’t need them, but I think this would work at taming any reflections and also serve to make them sturdier, and more robust.
That might make the bass even more pronounced. It would make them thicker and add a new surface to possibly absorb the highs.
Those were my thoughts as well. It seems simple enough, too. Just apply the rings to the suede, and cut out.
Glad you’re enjoying the Ebony cups. I know you’re waiting on the tuning kit but it’ll only further improve the sound