“If what you want doesn’t exist, make it yourself!”
Just a dude insane about Sennheiser headphones, and making things for himself because nobody has made them.
Then, some people wanted what I had made for myself, so I’m sparing some time to try working on them.
It’s been quite the journey- learning new things, meeting new people. Being able to work on the things you love is one of the best things about life.
Works
Models
Search
The original models that I started out with. It’s a very long story how I got started.
Some links where you can read up: Product info, impressions/measurements, more recent impressions, here also.
I first made this in 2017, trying to fix the HD650 for myself. The stock 650 for me had one problem which is that is has a strange midrange resonance that is very annoying when listening to nice mid-centric. This especially ruins the experience when listening to delicate vocal tracks.
Damping the earcups alleviates this issue, and tightens up the bass etc, but.. that means going grill-less, and that has its own issues. The headphone becomes very shouty. That’s because it has no acoustical optimizations.
So, the sea of mods online on various forums did not do it for me. I didn’t like how shouty they became. I set out to make the best 650 for myself… but then people found out about what I was doing, and wanted a pair for themselves. That’s how I started.
Later on as I saved up more money I tried researching the HD600 and HD580, and made the appropriate adjustments to those. It looks like the JAR600 is the most popular, because it sits right inbetween a stock 650 and 600 yet has controlled treble and plentiful bass.
I really dislike working on these, because they take so much time and require so much attention. When I first made these, I made it for myself, so I thought I would be making it only once. Who knew I would have to be repeating it over and over?
But I don’t change the procedures, because that’s the only way to guarantee sound quality. There’s no good sound without great care and attention. Time and time again, I have found that putting more careful effort into each pair definitely comes with proportional rewards in sound quality.
Price: 600 USD
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
OG models (JAR580/JAR600/JAR650)
Some links where you can read up: Product info
In the OG model, I had to make a choice between acoustic chambering, and dampening. The OG is the result of the latter route, and this is the result of the former.
The question I sought out to answer was, “Would an acoustical optimization of the 600/650 earcups sound good even at the cost of decreased damping?”
It was difficult to find a good balance between the two. For example- simply increasing the part height would give more space for dampening. But there’s no guarantee that it will sound good. (It didn’t sound good, I tried- essentially it’s because the higher the part goes, the more “cavelike” the enclosure gets. Which is not good.)
The OG has more weight to the sound. It has a tad bit more heft to the subbass and has a very controlled treble. It is characterized as more of a smoother sound.
The B has a tighter bass and snapper transients. It has a wider soundstage and highly precise imaging. You can feel the air has room to move around without being sharp or sibilant.
I think the two sound different. But they are both good in what they do. Most importantly I did not want to release a product that will be overshadowed by its older brother. It stands its own.
Price: 350 USD
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
B-models (JAR580B/JAR600B/JAR650B)
Do you think I’d do this if I didn’t like what I was doing…?
Yes, I really, really like the HD800. It’s probably my favorite headphone.
But I wanted to find a way to solve the sibilance without losing its expansive, detailed stock character. It’s difficult to use this headphone stock. (keep in mind I don’t use the dust cover.)
If I found a mod online that suited my needs, I wouldn’t have made this. But there wasn’t. All the mods I’ve tried decreased the stage or muffled details, or killed the treble, or combinations of these.
The HD800 is insanely sensitive to everything. A 1mm difference in the filleting curves is the difference between a sibilant structure and smooth structure. I must have iterated maybe over a few hundred of those designs before settling on the best combination.
I bought 800s from every serial range to survey its differences, and see how I would need to approach each different serial.
The driver work was also very difficult- I blew many drivers in the process, and a lot of money was burned.
But I did all of this because I wanted to make the best headphone for myself. I worked on this twice as hard as the OG 6x0 models. I am happy to be using these as my main pair these days.
Price: Inquire
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
JAR800
The JAR800S was made to be a slightly different character from the JAR800.
It was aimed to maintain is slightly warm character over stock while helping its ability to resolve treble.
I found that Sennheiser had made some design decisions that increased bass but unfortunately made the 800S more sibilant in certain frequencies. Basically, the 800S lost its ability to resolve in return for an increase in bass and a shift in tonality.
So, my objective was to help maintain the 800S its character as per Sennheiser, but help it resolve just as well as the previous 800.
Impressions thread coming up soon.
Price: Inquire
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
JAR800S
This is an interesting one. I first did not like the 660S stock. I found it to be basically a brighter 600 with slightly more resolution in the treble. I did see that detail did increase in the highs, but.. why? Why would anyone use this over stock 600?
Then a friend asked me to try making this, based on the OG design. I did, and- I was honestly surprised by the results. I know it sounds like a cop-out, but this sounds like the lovechild of a 600 and 650.
It’s currently gaining good popularity because of its high efficiency, which makes it more friendly for portable and gaming use.
Some impressions here.
Price: 350 USD
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
JAR660S
I sometimes do special orders like this one here. This is the JAR600B but based on a vintage black silk pair.
These have the widest soundstage than any of the 6x0 designs I’ve made and they are my favorite next to the JAR800. Just look at how transparent it is. The design uses zero foam, and so you get direct driver awesomeness, without all the bad side effects of doing that.
I didn’t know a HD600 could sound like this. Take the stock HD600, remove any shoutiness and brightness, open up the staging and improve the resolution, and this is what you get.
But these are very difficult to make and require a lot of care and attention. It is insanely time consuming, so they are treated as special orders.
Price: Inquire
Headphone not included. See here.
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
Special Orders
Info
Overview
Search
Contact
For general inquiries or order inquiries contact me though here:
jupiteraudioresearch@gmail.com
I may or may not be able to work on your pair depending on real life commitments.
Before contacting me please check the “how does it work?” tab.
I won’t reply to you if you ask “is the headphone included”. (Please stop asking this)
Speak Korean? 군필 한국인입니다. ㅎ
Note: I am moving countries in January and I don’t know in what capacity I will continue.
2017-2022 Jupiter Audio Research