post your grado mods.... - Page 3

Beyer DT770 headband.

Oh okay thanks! I remember seeing the phone number and part # for it around. Does anyone still have it?

Cool, where did you get the metal grills from?

I like to know also.

Did you have to glue the metal grill on the headphones?

He got metal mesh off the grills/filter for some computer fans I do believe.

Edit: and no, you don't really have to glue them if you fit them snuggly enough...otherwise a dab of hot glue will work nicely!

I'll post my mods here in a bit after I find the pictures!

The grills were made from fan filters that come with some Thermaltake computer cases (Tsunami, XaserII, and a few others IIRC). They are very strong, yet thin.
I wanted to use something like this for the full geek effect, but didnt have any on hand: http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/mer...duct_Code=5430

I installed them with superglue, ghetto, but works

I'm not completely finished with my Grado modding. I've tried a small number of mods already on my SR-125's and SR-225's but I eventually restored the 225's to stock condition and I've since been messing around with the 125's.

So far I've modded the stock cable, shortened it and re-soldered a straight Switchcraft 3.5mm mini plug, for better use portably.

Then I rescreened the 125's with some black metal screens, I think they look awesome and are much better than the stock plastic ones. I cut the black screens out of of my old Klipsch 2.1 subwoofer grill with some tin snips, worked like a charm and look excellent IMO.

After I finished my rescreening, I went ahead and sanded off the already faded black lettering and buffed it to a smooth almost shiny black finish. All of the silver paint rubbed off the rings on my 225's so I swapped out the rings to make the 225's stock and sanded the rings on the 125's.

Pictures of the rescreening process and finished (for now ) project can be seen here. Also, here's a rather dark picture of some of my pads that I frequently roll on and off my 3 pairs of Grado's. So far I very much prefer the bowls on the 125's and 225's, and will switch between bowls, Senn 414's, and Todd Flats on my MS-2i's. I've found that he MS-2i's are the only Grado so far that I can use the Flats without losing too much detail, it's quite nice. Though I have yet to consistantly use my modded C-pads. They are unported, so that might be the problem, just too muffled.

Next up on the list is to get the detachable cable mod going and probably a Beyer headband pad, dunno yet though. I will also be re-cabling my 225's with material's yet to be decided and after hearing about mjg's experience, I'm debating on whether or not to send in my MS-2i's to Larry!

They actually look quite a bit better than that. i took that photo at night so it didn't come out too great.

MS-2 with detachable cables. I also have yellow senn pads but not in that photo.

I'm gonna upgrade the cables when i find some good wire to use



That's the hole we had to drill in the metal to fit in the sockets. Yes, that IS a scratch fixing that may be my next mod

I've got some C-pads arriving soon to replace my hacked AKG501 pad mod.

For you cheapies, it can be done with most headphone pads, I just happened to have an extra pair of 501 pads. The 501 pads are perfectly sized, rest directly on the driver housing and don't press on the driver, and don't interfere with headband adjustments.

Parts: Glue (try to pick one that doesn't melt rubber and plastic) and a rubber sheet, ideally about 2mm think. You'll need at least a 160x80mm sheet if you're using 501 pads. More or less depending on the pads you choose.

Instructions: Cut rubber sheet in shape of pad, just slightly smaller than actual pad. Cut a hole in the middle (adjust as you deem necessary) sized to fit the notch on the grado driver housing. Glue the adaptor on, let dry, then slip on the pads.

Wow uve got balls dude. I could never open up my SR325is and mod them. I would prob end up screwing them up.

Anyway I ahve just rescreened my SR80s and willl be getting a detachable cable.

Nice work hugs...

So i guess now you can experiment with different kinds of cables?

MS2's seems to really like silver.

See if you can get some silver dragons on there, that would be pretty sick.

SR-80's: 3 easy-does-it mods

Replaced vinyl headband with thin, supple leather, dyed black and padded
= Looks and comfort upgrade.

Replaced plastic grill and button with thin metal mesh; inked black
= Looks and sound upgrade.

Squished bowl pads (significant exhaustion of their resilence) and fitted each of the outsides with 6 pieces of regular clear 15mm wide scotch tape
= Comfort and sound upgrade.


Edit: typo

You say sound upgrade.. did you really notice a change in the sound?

It may just be me, but my modded MS-1s have a bit less bass than stock, although its more controlled and the highs seem to be just a tad brighter.

Most people who have done this mod dont report any change in sound..

Money is my main problem at the moment (ha, on headfi?). I'll probably start by DIYing myself some cables with just that normal silver plated copper teflon cable stuff that's always on ebay.

I heard that silver sounds bright, would you agree? Because the MS-2s are already pretty bright as it is. Silver cables dont push them over the edge?

50% of the purpose of adding the plugs was so i could make more convenient cables (eg, thin portable cable terminating in 3.5mm plug, extra long cable for listening in bed), and 50% was to try and upgrade sound quality. Oh, and 5% was just for fun .

I'll try buy some different kinds of wire to DIY myself some cables to compare first, and once i find which metal sounds best i may buy some pro cables (eg silverdragon)

Not always the case, that's a bad stereotype.

Black SIilver cable (which i can only assume silver, don't know a terrible bunch about it) took ms2i to a different level as everyones been talken about...


Yet, Silver in general offers alot of detail, speed, as far as being bright, thats characteristic of a bad cable i think, not silver in itself. I guess compared to more run of the mill copper cables (cheaper), comprable pricewise silver cable may be more caste into that bad stereotype.

Yet, when you go up and up , silver on my ms2i actually made them sound smoother, go figure ; )