The impedance issue may indeed be the issue (not sure of course, best to check with Joe/John Grado). Is it possible that the HP-1s you have are one of the 1st versions or prototypes of the HP-1000 headphones and the impedance was adjusted later for the production run? I remember Bozebutton's pair being the newer shiny metal finish and yours having the matte silver finish. The Melos was designed specifically for the HP-1000s and I believe that it gives a great deal of gain.

I wonder if its your cable. I had a pair of 225s that were very scratchy sounding like you describe, and did this intermittantly. Just when I thought the problem was gone it would return. The cable turned out to be loose and the scratchiness was microphonics from the cable.

Fred,

To boil down, this is what is happening with your cans:

1. They have some sort of distortion on your Gilmore and it only.
2. Aforementioned distortion went away when the same cans were plugged into the Melos.
3. Using Tom's Grados you didn't get distortion from the Gilmore?

If all these are true you have a small snag in that your problem is intermittent and will be hard to trace. A few questions come to mind though:

1. Did you use the same headphone jack on the Gilmore for your cans AND Tom's?
2. Do you get the same EXACT distortion from BOTH headphone jacks on the Gilmore?
3. Do you get any wiggle or movement from the normal headphone jack you use on the Gilmore with the cans that have the problem?


Regardless of those results, try these also:

1. With your cans plugged into the Gilmore try wiggling the jack to see if the problems stays the same, gets worse, or gets better.
2. Next, wiggle the cable itself in various places along its length to verify that there isn't a problem with an intermittent break in the cable.
3. Next, wiggle the cable near the drivers?
4. Switch the phase switches back and forth and check for problems again. Try using them in opposite configurations to see if that makes any difference.
5. If you have a multi meter handy try checking the resistance of each channel of the cans to make sure there isn't a problem there.
6. Pray that Grado Labs can find the problem and fix them for cheap or free!!!!!

thanks doug,

I've tried most of the giggling suggestions so far, but one thing I need to clarify. I heard the distortion on EVERY amp EXCEPT for Toms Melos. I heard it on my Gilmore V.2 the Carlo Modded V.1 I just bought from him last night, and my new MPX3 as well.

It kind of snuck up on me when I realized that the beautiful sounds I was hearing on the maestrobated Melos were not being interfeered with.

I'm stumped! I called Grado Labs today---unfortunatly johns on vacation till monday. I was given joes number, but no one has picked up as of yet... I guess we'll see what happens

Fred

Gopher,

Joe'll get back to you, I got to talk to him a couple of weeks ago and he was every bit the courteous, professional, and support-concious guy we'd expect. I had a part I needed for my HP-1s and he sent them quickly and the price was reasonable, he even offered to calibrate and test my headphones... too tempting.

Congrats on the DACt'd Gilmore, great amp

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Fred,

There's your problem. I said Jiggling suggestions, not Giggling suggestions. Laugh as hard as you might it won't affect how your cans sound. If you actually try moving the thing around it might help.



Ok, bad joke, but I liked it. Your problem is one that Mr. Grado will have to help with. The fact that it sounds good with the Melos, but not with the other amps is a mystery only the designer or a troubleshooter with the cans in hand can get to the bottom of.

I just got off the phone with John Grado and was greated with some mixed news. Unfortunatly the drivers are the culprit and they have to go. Fortunatly, they're getting sent out with 2 other HP-1000 series headphones to have their drivers replaced with other hp-1000 series drivers Didn't know they were still around. Joe Grado apparently is moving his home and will not be offering any sort of support for HP-1000 headphones after these three until third quarter 2004, so I guess I lucked out and just made it.

The not so lucky news... I paid more for these things then I'd wanted to in the first place... this puts total cash expenditure at over a grand :-/ I dunno, I mean--it'll be nice to have the privledge of burning in HP-1s, but Jeez! I doubt I can sell these down the road at what was spent on them now.

The person who sold me them offered to cover the costs of repairs, but I feel really bad accepting it, as I truely believe he was absent of malice when he sold me them. So I guess I'm gonna atleast make a modest contribution to the repairs.

Oh well. What can you do?

Fred

All things considered, I'd say you got off lucky. Better to pay more and have the classic phone in like-new condition, than to own a very heavy and expensive pair of earmuffs.

Gopher, You probably won't want to sell them anyway. I'm glad it worked out for you.

However if you do, I would appreciate a pm!

Gopher, if the seller was truly offering to pay for all repairs, even though you don't think he knew it was screwed up, take half of the repair cost from him. Whether you think he knew he had a faulty pair of HP1s or not, he still obviously feels somewhat guilty or else he wouldn't have offered to cover the whole thing. It'd help the sellers conscious to at least do that. That way it's not so much a bear on your wallet while also not making the seller pay for a fix he didn't make necessary. Besides, it's not often you'll find a person as nice as that, make sure they're appreciated!

at the risk of comming off like a complete *******, my financial arangments with the seller are my own. The seller is a friend of mine and as such we have reached a universally satisfactory agreement.


Just to play the devils advocate--whether the person realizes it or not, I paid a highly inflated (from original msrp) price for a used but functional product. While its always nice to help someone out, I find that preceeding advice to be out of place and something that should be left up to the buyer.

If I were to purchase a car from an individual, which unbeknownst to him had a problem with the transmission which he failed to represent at the time of negotiations then no matter how nice a guy and truly underinformed he was, I don't think any resonable expectation could be placed on my head to chip in (remember still being the devs. ad. ) --in this case I elected to split the costs for the sake of friendship and the head-fi community, but in the real world, things do not work that way.

Hope I didn't come off as a dick, I'm really not--just differing in opinon about expectations placed on a buyer.

whoa, they still have HP1000 drivers?
thats good news man...atleast your baby will be as good as new. Hopefull in the end it will be all worth it.
Let us know how you find the phones after they are repaired.

cheers

Gopher,

As a disinterested party, I think a better approach to answering DLP's post might have been to thank him and ignore it or just explain a bit more of the background as you did. Your original posts did not mention that this was a friend you were dealing with. I think DLP was only trying to be helpful. Just my two cents, take it or leave it!

Greg

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agreed, he was only trying to help, and i would have posted the same thing.





whatever... back to the subject...


WOW, you know what i would give to burn in hp1's?

well, not much, cause thats what i got right now.