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post your grado mods....
Sep 28, 2014 at 7:06 PM Post #5,446 of 8,992
My take on the HF1...mahogany sleeves, new grills...SR60 drivers for now, I want to graduate to Sennheiser PX100 ii drivers soon...









Credit to @Kamakahah for the cable btw...beautiful work :)
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 7:38 PM Post #5,447 of 8,992
fleasbaby said:
My take on the HF1...mahogany sleeves, new grills...SR60 drivers for now, I want to graduate to Sennheiser PX100 ii drivers soon...









Credit to @Kamakahah for the cable btw...beautiful work
smily_headphones1.gif
Click to expand...

Nice, did you put some stain on that Limba?
 
Sep 28, 2014 at 8:14 PM Post #5,448 of 8,992
7keys said:
Nice, did you put some stain on that Limba?
Click to expand...


No...the sleeves are mahogany, that I tried to stain a deep red color. I didn't like it, so I sanded them and used Tung Oil...so it's a mix of those two over mahogany :)
 
Sep 30, 2014 at 11:38 PM Post #5,452 of 8,992
Hey guys,
 
I have discovered something rather unique with Grado rs1i's (burn in about 25hrs)
This was noticed after comparing to my Grado Sr80's (pink drivers) the mids were slightly recessed and tops pushing a lot on the rs1i's.
 
 
So i then discovered serendipitously that covering the air vents cup opening with my hands slightly would change the sound signature.Then I thought what could I use to slightly close the vent rather than the open air...?
I looked around and saw some scotch tape and placed a strip across the vents at 180 degrees and wowza the mids and tops are now neutral along with the bottoms producing a spectacular sound which is extremely neutral.
 
 
Now they produce a amazing reference sound and I can't guarantee what yours will do but if you have these rs1i's wooden cups or perhaps rs2's,gs1000 anything with the wooden vent openings place the scotch tape across the vent like in my picture below.
 
 
Sound signature is taught, imaging is locked in and its extremely flat across the freq range especially bottom to mids and tames the harsh top end of the rs1i's. I am now on par with my pink driver sound(flat and accurate) which i extremely prefer.

 
Good luck and hope this helps others with these looking for better accuracy :)
 
Oct 1, 2014 at 12:58 AM Post #5,454 of 8,992
Indeed.
I am quite shocked and gave feedback to Grado.

For something claiming to be reference it hardly is more apt is "fun" and considering the price I paid extremely disappointing. Thankfully the cheap fix creates a flat neutral sound which is more akin to reference.
Surprisingly my grado vintage sr80's with pink drivers helped in ascertaining what was missing. Yes a 15 year old prestige series headphones. Makes you wonder doesn't it?
Good thing you can remove the scotch and return to fun sound. I prefer the scotch tape mod overwhelmingly.
Please post your thoughts curious if others have similar findings.

EDIT: 2 - More testing reveals very linear sound signature(flat) as you turn the volume up. Previously as you turned up the volume the top would take over producing harsh sound (fatigue) in my ears. Now more neutral and punchier and tops tamed neutral sings and the flutes, woodwinds sounds lovely. Really love these cans now especially with the large cup size the soundstage is rather lovely.
 
Oct 1, 2014 at 12:18 PM Post #5,455 of 8,992
I've done a lot of experimentation with the size of the openings in the cups I've been making. You can tune the sound significantly. 
Grado has done a pretty good job, even the Grado label in the middle of the opening is there for tuning purposes.  
 
Oct 3, 2014 at 11:47 AM Post #5,458 of 8,992
...a little more work done this week. Starting an interesting non-Grado project this weekend too (LCD-type ring cups for some vintage ortho drivers someone shipped me...
 
Some cups made with the old non-i SR series dimensions in mind. They are an inch long...no extra weight around the face:
 

 
These are a second pair, same style, with a larger inner chamber and smaller face (not finished yet, thinking Tung Oil again, but might do Danish with a gold tint to it instead). In the background you can see I disassembled those HF-1 clones I made to make some adjustments. I didn't like the length (they were about 5mm longer than they should have been) and the driver seat was an eighth too shallow for my tastes. Made the cable access a notch as opposed to a hole as well...just to try it out:
 

 
And this is my bloody messy workshop :D
 

 
Oct 3, 2014 at 2:20 PM Post #5,459 of 8,992
xlr8 said:
  Hey guys,
 
I have discovered something rather unique with Grado rs1i's (burn in about 25hrs)
This was noticed after comparing to my Grado Sr80's (pink drivers) the mids were slightly recessed and tops pushing a lot on the rs1i's.
 
 
So i then discovered serendipitously that covering the air vents cup opening with my hands slightly would change the sound signature.Then I thought what could I use to slightly close the vent rather than the open air...?
I looked around and saw some scotch tape and placed a strip across the vents at 180 degrees and wowza the mids and tops are now neutral along with the bottoms producing a spectacular sound which is extremely neutral.
 
 
Now they produce a amazing reference sound and I can't guarantee what yours will do but if you have these rs1i's wooden cups or perhaps rs2's,gs1000 anything with the wooden vent openings place the scotch tape across the vent like in my picture below.
 
 
Sound signature is taught, imaging is locked in and its extremely flat across the freq range especially bottom to mids and tames the harsh top end of the rs1i's. I am now on par with my pink driver sound(flat and accurate) which i extremely prefer.
 
 
Good luck and hope this helps others with these looking for better accuracy :)
Click to expand...

 
This is interesting. I tried this on my RS2is (though think they are an early 'e' version, red drivers with the 1/8" termination). I only tried it on a couple of songs so far through my MBP, but it seems to me the sound is a touch warmer, more intimate. Maybe a touch less air. It does elevate the lower mids and upper bass a little. Strangely note that the very upper frequencies stand out a bit more too.
 
Something to play around with. I'm new to the headphone thing, which I'm finding interesting. Appreciate the tip.
 
Oct 3, 2014 at 7:51 PM Post #5,460 of 8,992
Thanks one1speed.
Keep listening cause I have found it to be more intimate and natural tone. I thoroughly enjoy the cans now and can listen for hours whereas before I kept taking them off after 5-10min wondering is there something wrong...
Make sure tape is taught and roughly at same positions on each cup (use letters as reference) no pun intended :)
One thing I listened for when I originally did the testing was flute sounds. Previously(default stock) it was harsh tone not natural like SR80. After the tape mod v2 (there is another tape mod) flute tone was perfect like sr80.
 
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