A record of remodeling cheap Sennheiser headphones into luxury model headphones with a single driver


by

Philip Fibiger

Blogger Mike Boshan has published a record of remodeling the headphones `` HD555 '' sold by German audio equipment maker Sennheiser into `` HD595 ''. According to Mr. Beauchamp, the only tool needed to convert the $ 199.95 (about 28,000 yen) HD555 to the $ 349.95 (about 49,000 yen) HD595 is a screwdriver.

Sennheiser HD 555 to HD 595 Mod – mike beauchamp
http://mikebeauchamp.com/misc/sennheiser-hd-555-to-hd-595-mod/



Sennheiser HD 555 to HD 595 Mod | Hacker News

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36377875

In large-scale manufacturing industries, it can end up being cheaper to downgrade an existing high-end product than to design an entirely new product to fit a price point. This allows manufacturers to omit certain features of high-end products while still using existing molds, parts and assembly lines.

According to a post on the social news site Hacker News thread that featured Mr. Beauchamp's blog, ``Intentionally limiting the performance of products that are not different or using different labels when there is no difference between products. For example, making a difference in price is called `` product binning ''.

Below is an image comparing the disassembled image of HD555 owned by Mr. Beauchamp himself and the disassembled image of HD595 posted on Head-Fi of the audio equipment community site. I can't see any difference in the driver unit between the HD555 above and the HD595 below.



Comparing

the diaphragms , there are no major differences between the HD555 and HD595, although there are slight design differences.



On the other hand, looking at

the housing , there is something like a rectangular sponge stuck on the inside of the HD555, but you can't see it on the HD595. According to Beauchamp, about 50% of the vents facing the outside are blocked by this sponge, so the HD555 and HD595 have slightly different frequency characteristics . Except for this point, the only difference is the appearance, so in order to remodel the HD555 to the HD595, you just need to disassemble it and remove this sponge, Mr. Beauchamp points out.



As a method of remodeling the HD555, first pull the ear pad part that touches the ear and remove it. Then use a screwdriver to open the headphones and remove the black sponge stuck to the back of the vents. After removing the sponge, assemble the headphones as before, attach the ear pads, and you're done. ``It's a good time to clean the earpads and headphones while the earpads are removed,'' said Boshan, who recommends cleaning the headphones with a damp cloth.

According to Mr. Beauchamp who finished the remodeling, the actual sound difference between HD555 and HD595 is very small, but the difference between the two is remarkable. ``The sponge attached to the HD555 seems to slightly change the frequency characteristics of the headphones, giving the two models, HD555 and HD595, their own sound characteristics and frequency characteristics,'' speculates. 'Both headphones sound good, but the HD595 reproduces a wider range of frequencies more flatly,' he said.


by

Lemsipmatt

“Sennheiser recognizes that there are a certain number of people who would rather spend their money on headphones that can produce a flat sound without emphasizing any frequencies, so the HD595 is better than the HD555,” said Beauchamp. I think it's getting expensive,' he said.

Mr. Beauchamp got a lot of suspicions that ``I may have incorporated a more expensive headphone driver than HD595 when remodeling'', but after that, a forum dedicated to headphone topics Head-Fi A member sent an image of the HD555 and HD595 driver, revealing that Mr. Beauchamp has not changed anything other than removing the sponge.



In addition, Hacker News pointed out , ``By remodeling, it seems that we succeeded in making the same headphones as the HD595, but the quality of the headphones themselves may have deteriorated due to the remodeling.'' In addition to the standard check, it should be reported that the modification was successful after conducting an appropriate frequency characteristic test.'

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