Operation Dark Matter
We have been working on a new range of cables with a few improvements. Firstly we will be using a cotton cover rather than nylon and more excitingly we will be coating our Litz wire in graphene to add shielding without adding too much weight. We have made a few test cables by hand coating the wire but are now putting the finishing touches on a machine to coat it an anneal it automatically.
Here is a look at one of our test cables.
It is a balanced Audeze LCD cable with our new graphene coated ( dark matter ) wire.









4.4mm balanced Sennheiser HD650 cable
It looks like 4.4mm TRRRS balanced jacks are becoming more common now. They are good for us as they fit out fat cables much better than most 2.5mm balanced jacks.
I’m back – and knocking out a lot of headphones over the next couple of months
After a long break while I have been studying product design, I am back in the spraybooth and making some fancy headphones.
Here are some of the more interesting sennheiser HD25s we have done recently
Engine cover phase 3
filling in the background
Here I have hit it up with some mazda 29Y to match the rest of the car
on second thoughts – black is better
Engine cover Phase 2
I have now gone back in and added a bit more light, shade and detail
Airbrushing an engine cover for the CanMobile ;)
Phase one the design. I wanted to make something like Gem from tron with a rotary backpack
Next a bit of masking and spraying
Phase one complete – time to spray it with a mid coat so I can have a certain amount of “undo” when I put in some more detail
Modifying the AKG K702 to take a balanced connection
We spend a lot of our time modifying headphones to take a balanced connection from and am or DAP – it think this is the first pair a AKG K702 we can done. We were lucky enough to have a 4pin socket just the right size to fit in the original hole. Here is a handy video of the operation which may help if you fancy doing a bit of DIY or if you would like us to perform a similar operation on your headphones just let us know
Re-Cabling the Grado GS1000 for balanced connection
We re-cable a lot of headphones and convert a lot to balanced so when someone asked if we could do a pair of GS1000 I confidently said yes – no problem. Having done quite a few pairs of entry level grados I thought it would be easy enough… I was wrong 😉
Like with all the other grados they are glued together with hot glue but the ear cup is a single piece so very tricky to get to the back of the driver. In the end I had to use a modified scalpel which I heated with a blow torch to safely remove the glue without heating the delicate driver or earcup. It took four or five hours of heating and picking before they finally popped out. Once the driver was out it was plain sailing and while I was in there I changed the grille to a more open mesh. The time taken was worth it though because they are a thing of beauty.

A pair of Grado GS 1000 re-cabled for balanced connection
HD 25 headphone connection Mod
The Sennhesier HD 25 Headphones are legendary, having been around for over 25 years, they have been the headphone of choice for DJ’s and and recording professionals all round the world, and in all areas of the industry, this universal adoption has been down to there mix of fantastic audio quality/sound isolation, and there rugged reliability.
However this is not to say they we at custom cans do not see them back for repair from time to time, and as such we are always looking at mods and adjustment’s to improve the reliability of these fantastic headphones.
One of the most common issues we are being asked to fix is a loose or poor connection to the drivers, this tends to show as loosing audio in one ear, that can sometimes be fixed by wiggle of the cable, and is often caused by a bit of corrosion or dirt, between the connector and the spring in the socket that it connects to.
we have in the past produced a video on our you tube page showing how to cleanup and adjust these springs to try and improve these issues, but we have come up with a better solution.
As of today we have Replacement Gold Springs available to replace the stock ones that sennheiser supply as standard, the replacements will not corrode the same as the original ones, and as a side effect should also offer a better connection to the driver itself.

HD 25 Driver with replacement gold springs fitted
They will also fit the the HD600 and HD650 and all Sennheiser series of headphones that use the two pin spade connector.

Original & Gold Spring Comparison
they are available in pairs fro just £5 plus postage but they can be a bit tricky to fit, so if you are having an issue with your headphones we can also fit them for you, email us for details of out fitting and repair services.
Send in headphone modifications now available through the shop
We have been offering headphone modification services for quite a while now but normally people had to ask nicely and then we would give them the detail. Now we have simplified the process and made the pricing available on the shop.
We will be adding a few more services over the next couple of months but if you check out the link below we have already listed the most popular sennheiser and beyerdynamic mods on there
https://customcans.co.uk/s/s/index.php/headphone-modding-service.html

Some modified beyerdynamic T1 with detachable balanced cable

A pair of custom balanced DT770 studio headphones with a blue detachable cable

Modified beyerdynamic T5p with detachable custom litz cable

Some beyerdynamic T90 with a detachable cable mod

Modified HD650 with opened up drivers and mass loading








