Alessandro MS1000 and MS Ultimate - DIY & modding [56K warning]

[nickchen]

I proudly present the actual FOTM in the german hifi forum,

Alessandro MS 1000



Part 1: Basics

What is a MS 1000?

An Alessandro MS 1000 is a DIY tinker can. You need 3 components to build one:

An Alessandro MS1


Indispensible: 1 Set of distancer pieces, be it the famous "Liberators" (reversible) from Darkaudio in Poland...or a comparable DIY solution out of wood (to be glued)


A set of Grado GS1000 Pads


Optional: A piece of felt to be glued into the inner part of the distancers. Tames the highs, if you do not belong to team treble.

History: How did the MS 1000 come into existence?

Pure chance. A coincidental synergy effect.

I once had ordered the Liberator distancers when they were still in production. I quite liked their effect on my MS2i, consequently I build something analogical out of wood for my MS1 after I had sold MS2i & Liberators. A nice effect at least, an Alessandro with a bit of soundscape - not spectacular, but nice.

Then I went to a bigger german meet, where someone mentioned his unloved GS1000 Pads, which (as you might know) sound absolutely horrible on every "normal" Grado. I wasn't too exited, but nevertheless put them on my MS1, which had the distancer pieces on...and then a little miracle happened!. That thing turned out to become the sensation of the meet, someone baptized the result as "MS 1000" (wasn't me), so that is what many folks in germany organize and build right now, and that is what I wanted to share with the outer world in form of this thread.

What are the main sound differences between a MS 1000 and a stock MS1?

Everything and nothing.

Who has ever tinkered Grados and Alessandros with Beyer pads, sock mods or alike might already has experienced, how horrible squawky things can sound when being misequipped and unsuitable. Here is the good news: Nothing changes, the mids and highs keep their complete stock homogenious consistency.

The emotionality and musical bandwidth (I am picky with this) changes at least a bit. The MS 1000 still provides the right "tone", and the amount of genres that can be thrown onto it has changed remarkably, the MS1000 is a musical bandwidth monster of the HD600 sort. Things have a bit moved away from the ancestral blues- and rock corner (it still can do that) in favour of electronica, progressive, post rock, hiphop and all other stuff the stock MS1 did not like that much.

Nevertheless, much more changes.

First thing you notice to have changed is the bass. The MS 1000 provides mentionable deep bass, whereas the MS1 has almost none. The punching kick has decreased a bit, but overall, you get a very good "audiophile" bass with some extra layers. There is still no intruding of the bass into the other frequencies. The sheer bass amount is somewhat on MS2i- or CD3000 level, a bit more than the DT880 - that is no big boomy midfi bass for sure.

The biggest change, the real sugarpiece of the MS 1000 in comparison to stock, is the enormous monstrous soundscape it provides. After almost 3 weeks of testing, I have to announce that the soundscape easely exceeds the DT880 and even of the huge caveous CD3000. The increased distance from eardrum to the driver leads to a kind of "natural crossfeed", where the usual position of the music somewhere in the head gets totally dissolved. This reminds me a bit of nearfield solutions à la K1000, it's easely one of the greatest soundscapes I ever experienced.

Consequently, we have an Alessandro which really exceeds at (!) ambient stuff or snobbish post rock and can be (at least) consulted for classical. Much better than stock. Of course, voices or brasses don't have the highend authority of a K701 or a DT880, but apart from that, it sometimes rivals or even beats my venerable CD3000 for electronica or post rock music. I guess you agree that this is a quite recognizable progression.

Comfort is great - logical. With the GS1000 pads, you get an almost circumarual wear feeling with almost no weight at all.

Result:

The MS 1000 is a completely new creature, which provides good sound, a highendish soundscape, and a level of detailling that easely exceeds the usual midfi contenders (HD595, A900, DT531, ...). Not as "audiophile" as a K701 or a DT880, but loads of fun on at least D2000 quality level.

How can I get an MS 1000?

First, you need an Alessandro MS1. Next thing necessary are GS1000 pads, the actual best source for that is Todd the Venyl Junky (at least outside the US). EDIT: Canadian store "Planet of Sound" turned out to be even cheaper, especially under actual € exchange rates.

Bigger problem are the distancer pieces (and believe me, you need them, doesn't work without).

DISTANCER SPECS

Don't try just to put GS1000 pads on your [whatever], it _kills_ the mids. One possibility is that you are good at DIY and build your own (inner diameter 40 mm, total height 13-14 mm, and 3 drills à 1,5 mm per distancer), or you are not so good at DIY and need someone's help (see below) - maybe Darkaudio can be convinced to get back in business. If you plan doing the mod with original Darkaudio Liberators, it turned out to sound best with 3 drillings à 1,5mm (that has to do with their lower overall sealing). If you are from North America, you get Distancers from RDS, if you are from the EU or elsewhere, you can contact me.

Update 2009-08-13: "Raw" distancers can be ordered for (almost) free from Jmoney Audio now.

DISTANCER VARIATIONS

Some uttered issues about the soundscape being big and airy, but lacking precision in respect of instrument placement. For that purpose, I developed a SHORTER DISTANCER (11,5 instead of 14mm), and also one bevelled set. You also see the black distancer on the pic, which is the "stock" one.



As one of our kraut headfier follows the bluetac fixation principle with his MS Pro "Ultimate", we could easely compare the results with my "stock" Ulti. The bevelled distancers simply sucked (satirical wideness of soundstage), but the shortened distancers made a really nice result:

• same amount of deep bass, but more kickbass (almost like unmodded)
• more "Grado" energy with the mids section
• more realistic soundscape
• more realistic instrument placement
• only downside: Loss of that special airyness that mod is famous for, you end up DT880Pro-ish or so in that respect

The guy ended up keeping the shortened version on his MS Pro, whereas NoXter and me still prefer the airier stock version (but not by much). It's a question of taste and genre choice.

As summary, the mod seems to be fully adjustable, if you want airyness (e.g. electronica and classical) you choose 14 mm, if you want more Grado sound and more soundscape precision (e,g. Rock & Metal) you choose 11,5 mm or so. I guess also something "in between" with 12,5 or 13mm might turn out to sound really nice.

What about other Grado/Alessandros models to be pimped in that way?

See & read below. These modifications on the MS Pro -> "MS Ultimate" turned out to be the really big thing.
Modifying Grados in that way is unfortunally somewhat ambivalent (Ssss-Booom). Some folks quite liked a SR325 with distancers and bowls, but I do not agree with these opinions.

[nickchen]

Part 2: Boutique

[nickchen]

Part 3: Other models

My buddy Noxter has the complete Alessandro line (MS1, MS2i and MS Pro), a W5000, a W2002 (gone: W1000 & W10), a DT880, a MB Quart 400...
...so we consequently became curious how this mod would be like if being put onto a "better" model than the little MS1.

We put a closer look on the Alessandro MS Pro



Verdict:

That was very similar to the MS1000, in the same way that the MS1 is similar to the MS Pro. I'd say this is almost like the MS1000, being presented on the quality level of a DT880/K701/HD650 - but no clinical "boredom" as these!!! Moreover, a Jack of all Trades, we just didn't manage to find anything where this monster failed. Noxter consequently baptized it
MS Ultimate.

Next thing was comparing it to a reference, of course we chose the mighty W5000. We compared them for ~2hours side by side, covering every genre thinkable, and in the end, the mighty W5000 was shattered. My buddy went home in deep thoughts, and next morning, he decided to sell his W5000s, as they were absolutely redundant when having such a strong and entertaining performer as competitor.

Go figure!

The overall result is somewhat very close to a "Grado'ed" K701. Tonality is very similar to the AKG, but you get (a bit) more bass, more emotion and better genre bandwidth. The K701 has a more precise soundscape (good for orchestra), whereas the MS Ultimate soundscape is wider (good for echoes and other sound effects).

Edit, almost 2 years later: The "Ulti" is still my favourite set of cans. I really looked for something better, but haven't yet to find anything. The HD800 and the Stax fraction are boring, ATs and Ultrasone don't sound natural, and DT880/K701/HD650 also don't cut the mustard. If the new T1 doesn't surprise me, I fear I have to stick with the Ulti for lifetime.


MS 2000i:

No pics available, and we only made a brief test. The mod works as well here, but IMO not as good as on the MS1 or MS Pro. The MS 2000 can sound damn great (even better than the MS Ultimate), but with the "wrong" genre and timbre, everything gets shrill, annoying and pushy. Somewhat the similar problem as the stock MS2i, not my cup of tea. You may like it though.

Edit: Quite a while later, NoXter & me managed to work out a handling for the MS2i, which provides a similar effect as "1000ing". You equip it with HD414 pads or comfies, and you glue AKG K270 velours pads onto them. You get a nice wide soundscape (not as monstrous as MS1K or the Ulti though), and the stock shrillness gets even dimished to a certain extend. We think that this is a good thing, as this is the main reason why the MS2i has so little amount of longtime owners.


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Thanksgiving

Many thanks to the german users Cynric and ATHome for the beautiful high quality steel grid. My special thanks to the german user Saibot for the GS1000 pads. Thanks to all those german users, who accompanied me through the process and beared my partly overboarding enthusiasm.

Disclaimer

Everything mentioned here is just my opinion and has no claim to be universally valid. It's your ears, tastes and listening habits which decide how things have to be judged.

I'm not a native speaker, so please excuse misplaced or ridiculous formulations.

[mnemonix]

I have a pair of dismantled MS-1s ripe for conversion. I think I'll give this a go. A plumbers supplies might provide some rigid pvc pipe of the right diameter to make the liberators.

[malldian]

Looks pretty awesome... making me consider buying a MS1 to give it a shot.

[malldian]

Any ideas on where to get the liberators?

[nickchen]

I made them this way:



Whatever you choose as material, take care to stay within the 4 cm diameter. One earlier attempt I made had a slightly bigger diameter and sounded really horrible.

[^adm^]

Great piece of work there.
Nicely done.

[vvanrij]

Anyway some non-diy'ers could get this? The website stated that they don't deliver the 'liberators' anymore, and I wonder if I could do this mod to my 325i's

[riceboy]

Great write up. Very nice and I bet they sound great. Thanks for the hard work and info.

[nickchen]

Not a overwhelming problem for me to help at least EU-headfiers with this mod. Things would only get complicated when it gets to overseas.

[TopPop]

Wow... my MS-1's are feeling extremely self-conscious right now!

Wonderful work, I'm sure they do sound amazing. It'd be nice to be able to order Liberators again so that the rest of us could try something like this... I don't have the tools to make my own!

Congrats, and thanks for the write up.

[RokabillySwagger]

Anyone able to put together some decent mechanical drawings of the DarkAudio Liberators so I could try and make some Please? I was going the SR-60/80 route with my next headphones but the MS-1s just got a huge boost in my book. I just need basic dimensions so i can machine them properly out of nice wood. and maybe try to make some woodie cups while i'm at it. I'll post pics if this ever happens.

[vvanrij]

I live in The Netherlands, how would you be able to help me, do you make the mod yourself?

[nickchen]

Please contact me per PM if you want help, I am somewhat unsure what I am allowed to do here in "publicity".