Grado science and oddities

Grado stuff for the most part, again. -- Link to the Grado factory!: http://www.gradolabs.com/page_tour.php

1 - 40 of 276 photos

My SR100-0-r, an oddball. Those are the very first headphones by John Grado (they used red because it was the color for the HP1-2-3, I guess, but changed rapidly to white/silver).

Unlettered driver.

May 14, 2012

HF1 Prototype sold on TTVJ to Zuqi on Head-Fi... I've read somewhere there maybe another HF-1 prototype in circulation.

May 14, 2012

8 conductor vs 4 conductor John Grado Cable

May 14, 2012

May 15, 2012

Chrome PS500 (prototype, or early batch)

May 14, 2012

Chrome PS500, images from a Yahoo.jp auction

May 14, 2012

May 15, 2012

Naked GS1000 -- I call them GS1000 without "i" because they have square rods, which was probably already changed when the "i" came out

May 14, 2012

Buttoned RS2 ... non-"i". This is one of the worst looking, lol. The "Grado" lettering looks like it's going to fall off.

May 14, 2012

The infamous pink driver... no one really knows why some have them, and some, sometimes older Grados, doesn't

May 14, 2012

May 15, 2012

Dirty drivers, this black colors is caused only by foam particles.

See next picture headphone's driver, the same headphone, cleaned.

May 14, 2012

RS1 prototype, one of the oldest RS1, and both drivers are of the whitest type.

Shallow round cable cut-outs.

May 14, 2012

Grado RS1 prototype (the pictures here are all of the same RS1 that I purchased), made in 1994, it came from the factory with a 8 conductors cable installed, the same one that Grado started using in 2009 on their "i" upgrade. I guess it was an early experimentation, lol. It sounds awesome :D :D

May 15, 2012

Unusually well padded brown headband, oldest button type but this time the font is in italic so it's a rare thing... a small detail but a rare one. I mean, those big buttons with the tall font are already rare enough, lol.

May 14, 2012

Same unusually padded brown headband RS1, you can see without gold lettering on the rodblocks (I have no idea why, most of them were). (3)

May 15, 2012

Good shot at the older flat pads, older drivers (not turned pink but slightly black), brown headband, metal rod tips, and gold lettering together

May 14, 2012

Same unusually padded brown headband RS1, you can see without gold lettering on the rodblocks (I have no idea why, most of them were). (2)

May 15, 2012

Same unusually padded brown headband RS1, you can see without gold lettering on the rodblocks (I have no idea why, because most of them were).

Except the wood was treated by a Head-Fier

May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

This happened because the pads were put on the RS2 before the glue (or the varnish) had finished dried

May 14, 2012

My mismatched drivers AND replaced screens SR200 next to my SR100-0-r

May 14, 2012

Voice coil entry on a HP2 driver (this area is protected by some kind of hardened white paste on the nowadays black Grado drivers)

May 14, 2012

A crack, a hair, or a stray copper strand of the voice coil, under or in the dome of the diaphragm.

May 14, 2012

May 15, 2012

Dome and undome comparison, by Larry at Headphile.

May 15, 2012

May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

Cleaned HP2, which I kind of regretted doing when I started to realize this wasn't dirt at all and more like some sort of acoustic oil.

Highs became more prominent without it, but they still were very good to the ear.

May 14, 2012

Before cleaning... I've removed this acoustic oil and it increased the highs.

May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

Domed HP1 (not my picture, it's from a Head-Fier I forgot the name of :/

May 15, 2012

May 15, 2012

The two Joseph Grado cables. Some HP1-2-3 also came with a blank cable though, which is weird and uncommon.

Standard is more bassy. Ultra-wide bandwidth is more detailed. Know one really knows which is best or which was first. There was hypothesis that Standard was a response because the Ultra-Wide was too bright, and that Ultra-Wide came after, as an upgrade and to go inside the HPA-1-2 amplifiers. Both are contradicting themselves.

I don't know much myself about the geometry of the Standard cable, I think it's plain twisted copper stranded conductors, twisted together. Both are four conductors, but HP1-2-3i comes with a dual Ultra-Wide cable, which make it 8 conductors. Stay tuned for pictures of the geometry of Ultra-Wide Bandwidth.

May 14, 2012

Headband is held by a hex screw, just like the driver. I had the tool to liberate my driver (which is also held by hexagonal screws, six of them), but not the right sized Allen wrench to play around with this one, it is a bit smaller.

May 14, 2012

Difference in the headband of the HP1-2-3 and the SR1-2-300-325-0.

May 14, 2012

Sharp metal cut outs, although it never caused any serious problem (they are shallow cuts) even with years and years of use. There is just one case I have a picture of where it managed to get through the sheath completely.

May 14, 2012

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Comments (7)

devouringone3 5/15/12 at 10:08pm

Hey guys I've been trying like crazy to re-order these pictures properly, it's hardly doable... maybe there is too much pictures, or the Head-Fi Gallery system isn't mature enough. Maybe it's because of the traffic, let me try another day... this album photo would do great with some order in it.

Benny-x 5/21/12 at 1:20am

"So most head-di'ers aren't audiophiles", awesome. Nice pictures by the way, it's fun to see what stuff someone else in the same hobby finds around the internet that they think is interesting. I liked most of them.

devouringone3 5/21/12 at 11:47am

Yeah I find that stuff thoroughly interesting, lol. Even though any non Head-Fier would find absolutely nothing in these pictures other than rubber, wood, plastic and metal.
I don't remember saying that "most head-fi'ers aren't audiophiles"?
Although some people do think audiophile is a derogatory term.

Benny-x 5/21/12 at 7:02pm

Yeah, anyone else wouldn't find anything in them, besides maybe some strange Asian girls wearing giant gold headphones...
As for the Audiophile thing, it's in one of the pictures you have. It's a comment by some guy who's avatar looks like a peashooting-plant from Plants vs. Zombies. It was funny. As for it being derogatory, I don;t find it to be. I suppose some people could, but I just think of it as a technical term for anyone interested in audio to this degree :-) When I talk about it though, I always say I'm just really into music and components ;-)

devouringone3 5/21/12 at 7:12pm

Yeah me too lol... I say that I have headphones that are "good sounding".
On AnythingButiPod.com forums the term "audiophile" is highly frown upon because it makes them think of the guy from Head-Fi who listens to cables and headphones, but not the music. Music is a pretext to listen to headphones, instead of the contrary, but I don't think such a thing really exist. Everyone here try to honor their music, and buy gear because they like it and want it to make the best out of it.
Hey, people change their avatar, lol, I'll try to browse my pictures to find the comment in question but you should tell me on which image he did it ;) instead.

Benny-x 5/21/12 at 7:24pm

Haha, I didn't know that. I'm not a member over there, but I do visit from time to time when I can get some info they have. As for that definition, I can understand how people come to that conclusion, there's a lot of gear-traders here that cycle through gear so often that I can't see how they enjoy any music they're hearing. But at the same time, I wish I could have heard some of the stuff they've listened with :-p But yeah, like you said, most people are just trying to make their stuff sound as good as they can so that they can enjoy it :-)
As for the picture, it's one of a member called "Bellsprout", so maybe a Pokemon or Digimon character? Anyway, here's the link, http://www.head-fi.org/gallery/image/view/album/649542/id/607036/sort/display_order . It's also photo 203 if that doesn't work.

devouringone3 5/21/12 at 7:31pm

OH YEAH, LOL, THAT! :P The joke was mostly about the Bellsprout Pokémon hahaha. Actually I did not even got to remember that thread until you got me reading the text in the photo. I first though you were relating to a commentary made about one of the picture in my album. Yeah that thing looks like the plants-defender in Plants vs. Zombies ;) except Pokémon came like 10 years before :P.
The thread in question, http://www.head-fi.org/t/606277/audiophile-not-a-music-lover, in the first post, has a link to Ken Rockwell's opinion about audiophiles, and it's definitely one of the nastiest around, lol. Actually it tarnished the word a bit for me, after a read of the article.
Thanks for clarifying this small issue lol