This guide uses my Alessandro MS-2. I assume it will work exactly fine for MS-2i, 325, 325i. For plastic grados i assume it will work perfectly as well, except instead of having one metal cup and one plastic cup, you will have 2 plastic cups. If you have a wooden grado, please dont hurt it!
I used stereo plugs/sockets, but only due to availability. Mono plugs is all that's nessesary and i cant really imagine any benefit in using stereo There wasn't much in the way of mono gear at my local electronics place so i just used stereo and bridged the signals to make them mono
Shout out to friend and skilled DIYer pho_boi who did this with me.
---
Well, a while ago I posted that i wanted to recable my alessandros, and moreover make it so they had detachable cables. (original thread), since then a few others have done their plastic grados too, but i figured that I should post up how i did my metal alessandro MS-2s incase anyone is interested in doing this to their grados - particuarly metal ones which can be very daunting.
Tools Required:
1 pair of Grado/Alessandro headphones
Soldering iron
Solder
Hair drier
Tapered spoon
Dremel (or drill, probably)
Round hand file (optional)
A few cm of wire
2 mono or stereo 3.5mm sockets (2.5mm could also be used. There is little room for anything bigger than 3.5mm)
2 mono or stereo 3.55mm plugs (or 2.5mm)
Black electrical tape
STEP 1: Grand Opening
Firstly, you have to open the headphones. This is relatively easy but takes a bit of guts, as it is likely you're first attempt at doing anything with your headphones that may damage them. I personally scratched mine a tiny bit (as you'll see below in photos) by experimenting. Fortunately for you, I can give you the best method as a result of my experimentation.
Step 1a) Remove the pads. If you dont know how to do this, this guide isn't for you.
Step 1b) Remove the cups from the headband. To do this, just pull the plastic clamp apart a bit and fidget around with the cups until they come off. This is relatively easy (just a bit fidgety) and the cups should come off without anything breaking)
Step 1c) Get the blowdrier and apply it to the side of the grado casing on hot setting at a distance of around 10-15cm for around 1 -1.5 minutes. The purpose of this is to melt the glue that holds the grados together. Turn the cup around a bit to ensure that you're melting all the glue.
Step 1d) At the end of the 1-1.5 minutes, quickly get a tapered spoon and place the handle in the gap between the cups (in a metal grado, there is a metal cup and a plastic cup). Slowly pull the spoon across, so that the shape of the spoon levers the two halfs apart. It requires a bit of force but should come relatively easily. The metal on the grados will scratch quite easily, so if you're having to pull really hard, repeat step 1b again for a bit longer because the glue probably isn't melted properly
Step 1e) once the cups are apart, pull off all the excess glue, there's heaps.
STEP 2: removing the cables
Now that the cups are open, it's time to remove the cable. This is pretty straightforward for anyone who's make interconnecters etc before. If you haven't had any DIY cable experience, put your grados back together and start making interconnecters for a while. A little experience is nesssary. Heat up the wire and solder and remove the cables.
STEP 3: Ading the sockets
Now it's time to add the sockets. For my sockets, i used cylindrical 3.5mm stereo sockets because they're available and fit well. Others will probably work, and mono is all you need.
Step 3a) To put the stocket in you will have to make a hole in both the plastic half, and the metal half. We used a dremmil with a relatively small grinding tool to cut away at it.
The hole in the inner (plastic) part of the casing has to be large enough to fit the body of the socket (the wider part), as you can see in the photo below
Here is a before and after comparison of the size of the hole:
BEFORE
AFTER
(incase you're wondering why my plastic looks so mangled, that's just the black eletrical tape which i'll explain later. Also, for my own sense of ego- the hole is MUCH nicer shape in real life, i dunno why it looks all out of shape in this photo)
Step 3b) Expand the hole in the metal/outer cup. This hole only needs to be as large as the smaller, threaded part of the socket. If it is too large and the body of the socket fits through then it will look ugly and the socket wont be held in place. The socket is held in on one side by the end screw, and on the other side by the width of the body of the socket). Again, we used a dremel with a grind bit to make this hole, but i suspect a drill would work too.
As you can see, the hole is a decent size larger than the original. By making this just a hole (rather than expanding the whole of the original area), it will hold the socket in place wonderfully.
The socket should now hold in place in the outer shell when the end bolt is screwed on.
STEP 4: Connect the socket to the driver
Connect the socket to the headphones. Just use the wire you bought to connect the signal and ground.
See the photo below to see which is ground and which is signal
Connect the ground to ground and the signal to signal. If you're using a stereo socket, connect the 2 signals together with some wire.
STEP 5: add plugs to headphone cable
Get a 3.5mm plug and solder the blue wire to ground and the white or red wire to signal. do this on both sides of the V. Again, if you're using stereo, connect both signals with a wire.
STEP 6: Closing act
Now that you have a connected socket on your cups and plug on your cables, it's time to put the grado back together. The best way to do this is using electical tape
Simply get some black electical tape and tape it around the diameter of the plastic part of the grado (inner cup). This electical tape will provide sufficent friction between the 2 cups to keep them together, but will allow you to put it apart with relative ease if desired at a later stage.
If you find that the cups dont stay together, just put an extra layer of tape on
The finished product:
yay!
--
If anything is vague on this guide or hard to understand or requires more pictures, please let me know so i can fix it up. It's only a "first draft" of sorts
I used stereo plugs/sockets, but only due to availability. Mono plugs is all that's nessesary and i cant really imagine any benefit in using stereo There wasn't much in the way of mono gear at my local electronics place so i just used stereo and bridged the signals to make them mono
Shout out to friend and skilled DIYer pho_boi who did this with me.
---
Well, a while ago I posted that i wanted to recable my alessandros, and moreover make it so they had detachable cables. (original thread), since then a few others have done their plastic grados too, but i figured that I should post up how i did my metal alessandro MS-2s incase anyone is interested in doing this to their grados - particuarly metal ones which can be very daunting.
Tools Required:
1 pair of Grado/Alessandro headphones
Soldering iron
Solder
Hair drier
Tapered spoon
Dremel (or drill, probably)
Round hand file (optional)
A few cm of wire
2 mono or stereo 3.5mm sockets (2.5mm could also be used. There is little room for anything bigger than 3.5mm)
2 mono or stereo 3.55mm plugs (or 2.5mm)
Black electrical tape
STEP 1: Grand Opening
Firstly, you have to open the headphones. This is relatively easy but takes a bit of guts, as it is likely you're first attempt at doing anything with your headphones that may damage them. I personally scratched mine a tiny bit (as you'll see below in photos) by experimenting. Fortunately for you, I can give you the best method as a result of my experimentation.
Step 1a) Remove the pads. If you dont know how to do this, this guide isn't for you.
Step 1b) Remove the cups from the headband. To do this, just pull the plastic clamp apart a bit and fidget around with the cups until they come off. This is relatively easy (just a bit fidgety) and the cups should come off without anything breaking)
Step 1c) Get the blowdrier and apply it to the side of the grado casing on hot setting at a distance of around 10-15cm for around 1 -1.5 minutes. The purpose of this is to melt the glue that holds the grados together. Turn the cup around a bit to ensure that you're melting all the glue.
Step 1d) At the end of the 1-1.5 minutes, quickly get a tapered spoon and place the handle in the gap between the cups (in a metal grado, there is a metal cup and a plastic cup). Slowly pull the spoon across, so that the shape of the spoon levers the two halfs apart. It requires a bit of force but should come relatively easily. The metal on the grados will scratch quite easily, so if you're having to pull really hard, repeat step 1b again for a bit longer because the glue probably isn't melted properly
Step 1e) once the cups are apart, pull off all the excess glue, there's heaps.
STEP 2: removing the cables
Now that the cups are open, it's time to remove the cable. This is pretty straightforward for anyone who's make interconnecters etc before. If you haven't had any DIY cable experience, put your grados back together and start making interconnecters for a while. A little experience is nesssary. Heat up the wire and solder and remove the cables.
STEP 3: Ading the sockets
Now it's time to add the sockets. For my sockets, i used cylindrical 3.5mm stereo sockets because they're available and fit well. Others will probably work, and mono is all you need.
Step 3a) To put the stocket in you will have to make a hole in both the plastic half, and the metal half. We used a dremmil with a relatively small grinding tool to cut away at it.
The hole in the inner (plastic) part of the casing has to be large enough to fit the body of the socket (the wider part), as you can see in the photo below
Here is a before and after comparison of the size of the hole:
BEFORE
AFTER
(incase you're wondering why my plastic looks so mangled, that's just the black eletrical tape which i'll explain later. Also, for my own sense of ego- the hole is MUCH nicer shape in real life, i dunno why it looks all out of shape in this photo)
Step 3b) Expand the hole in the metal/outer cup. This hole only needs to be as large as the smaller, threaded part of the socket. If it is too large and the body of the socket fits through then it will look ugly and the socket wont be held in place. The socket is held in on one side by the end screw, and on the other side by the width of the body of the socket). Again, we used a dremel with a grind bit to make this hole, but i suspect a drill would work too.
As you can see, the hole is a decent size larger than the original. By making this just a hole (rather than expanding the whole of the original area), it will hold the socket in place wonderfully.
The socket should now hold in place in the outer shell when the end bolt is screwed on.
STEP 4: Connect the socket to the driver
Connect the socket to the headphones. Just use the wire you bought to connect the signal and ground.
See the photo below to see which is ground and which is signal
Connect the ground to ground and the signal to signal. If you're using a stereo socket, connect the 2 signals together with some wire.
STEP 5: add plugs to headphone cable
Get a 3.5mm plug and solder the blue wire to ground and the white or red wire to signal. do this on both sides of the V. Again, if you're using stereo, connect both signals with a wire.
STEP 6: Closing act
Now that you have a connected socket on your cups and plug on your cables, it's time to put the grado back together. The best way to do this is using electical tape
Simply get some black electical tape and tape it around the diameter of the plastic part of the grado (inner cup). This electical tape will provide sufficent friction between the 2 cups to keep them together, but will allow you to put it apart with relative ease if desired at a later stage.
If you find that the cups dont stay together, just put an extra layer of tape on
The finished product:
yay!
--
If anything is vague on this guide or hard to understand or requires more pictures, please let me know so i can fix it up. It's only a "first draft" of sorts
