So, I have consistently been dissatisfied with the pad choices for my SR60i's. The L-Cush (better known as the bowls) have seemed not terribly comfortable when I have tried them out briefly. The S-Cush (better known as comfies or flats) seemed a bit muffled before I quarter modded them, but then put my ear a bit too close to the driver after, which emphasized the mids too much, in my experience. So I wanted something that created a little more room for my ears to sit, that had no foam between the driver and my ears and that was comfortable.
Well, I had a bunch of extra foam left over from a case I built recently. It was some white, urethane, 1 inch thick hypo-allergenic foam I bought from wal-mart. Just out of curiousity, I decided to create what amounts to a "cover" for my quarter modded flats. (I'll post pictures shortly so that you can see better than my description will allow). basically, I cut a circle out of the foam that is about 1/2" in radius larger than The stock Grado S-Cush pads. Then I cut a 1/2" hole the size of the S-cushes into the foam. I had to "scoop" out the foam with an exacto knife after cutting the shape out. At this point the result was a 1/2" deep indentation that the S-cushes neatly fit into. From there I cut a hole that was the same size as the hole in my quarter modded S-cushes, so that when they were put together, there was essentially an uninterrupted tunnel for the sound to flow through.
Putting these on my Grados, I found that since the white foam from walmart was significantly softer than than the foam Grado uses, the pressure from the headband basically pushed my ears far enough into the foam that my ears were basically just above where they would have been on a stock set of L-Cushes. And since my ears were basically enveloped in extremely soft foam, they were substantially more comfortable. This foam is substantially less "itchy" than the Grado foam. Additionally, since the pressure was more evenly distributed compared to the S-Cushes and especially the L-Cushes, there were no painful pressure points. On the down side, they are now about as warm as circum-aural closed cans with pleather.
The sound is much fuller. The bass is a touch better. Sound isolation is slightly better. They sound a good bit less colored. This just furthers my belief that 50% of the difference between the various Grado models is pads.
This began as just me messing around, but I liked the result so much that I'm now considering refining them. As you can see, they're fugly beyond belief. What I'm considering is putting black pantyhose over them, then taping the outer edges with electrical tape (for the grado increased bass tape mod). I think/hope that would make them look decent. I'm also thinking of experimenting with putting a bigger indentation on the front of the foam covers, so that the result is essentially an angled driver.
I guess the plus side is that these are my home headphones, as I typically use my Denon AH D1001's for portable use.
Hungover pictures, FTW!:
Well, I had a bunch of extra foam left over from a case I built recently. It was some white, urethane, 1 inch thick hypo-allergenic foam I bought from wal-mart. Just out of curiousity, I decided to create what amounts to a "cover" for my quarter modded flats. (I'll post pictures shortly so that you can see better than my description will allow). basically, I cut a circle out of the foam that is about 1/2" in radius larger than The stock Grado S-Cush pads. Then I cut a 1/2" hole the size of the S-cushes into the foam. I had to "scoop" out the foam with an exacto knife after cutting the shape out. At this point the result was a 1/2" deep indentation that the S-cushes neatly fit into. From there I cut a hole that was the same size as the hole in my quarter modded S-cushes, so that when they were put together, there was essentially an uninterrupted tunnel for the sound to flow through.
Putting these on my Grados, I found that since the white foam from walmart was significantly softer than than the foam Grado uses, the pressure from the headband basically pushed my ears far enough into the foam that my ears were basically just above where they would have been on a stock set of L-Cushes. And since my ears were basically enveloped in extremely soft foam, they were substantially more comfortable. This foam is substantially less "itchy" than the Grado foam. Additionally, since the pressure was more evenly distributed compared to the S-Cushes and especially the L-Cushes, there were no painful pressure points. On the down side, they are now about as warm as circum-aural closed cans with pleather.
The sound is much fuller. The bass is a touch better. Sound isolation is slightly better. They sound a good bit less colored. This just furthers my belief that 50% of the difference between the various Grado models is pads.
This began as just me messing around, but I liked the result so much that I'm now considering refining them. As you can see, they're fugly beyond belief. What I'm considering is putting black pantyhose over them, then taping the outer edges with electrical tape (for the grado increased bass tape mod). I think/hope that would make them look decent. I'm also thinking of experimenting with putting a bigger indentation on the front of the foam covers, so that the result is essentially an angled driver.
I guess the plus side is that these are my home headphones, as I typically use my Denon AH D1001's for portable use.
Hungover pictures, FTW!:
