SR60-Mod - Page 9  

Originally Posted by zero7525 

About a past mod you did, the mod of removing the plastic/button off the rear to remove sibilance. I know that you have completely abandoned the old shell, but I just want to ask - did removing the rear plastic/button really remove the sibilance? I'm going to remove the button (not the grille) off my sr 225, and I want to know if removing such a small object to increase airflow will be worth taking the grado apart again (did dynamat mod before).

You know, if you'd asked me about this mod before I'd tried it, I'd have laughed it off.  What you see and what you hear are two different things.  Some of the "best" ideas - on paper - turn out to be the lamest in practice.  But when I took off the button, I was surprised.  I had suspected that the button was a backdoor attempt to get more slam through a semi-open design.  Why, after all, would Grado put a button right there in the center of an air chamber whose purpose was to vent back waves with as little resonance as possible?  It didn't make sense to put a button there, a button that would deflect the sounds fired at it, some of them right back into the mix.  On the other hand, with all the venting around it, there was no possibility of building up any significant air pressure.  I thought I'd damp the back of the button and be done with it.

I don't remember exactly what it was that led me to finally get rid of the button, but when I did, the results were undeniable.  I'm not going to say everything went from night to day, but I did notice that the presentation was smoother - not placebo smoother but actually smoother.  One reason I'm trying to think outside the tube, so to speak, is the suspicion that skinny cannons are not as good at resonance reduction as either chamberless (ala HD800) or wider-chambered headphones.  If sound doesn't always behave like well-mannered commuters staying within the paths we prescribe, maybe we should redesign air chambers with that in mind.  But that's a different argument for a different day.

To get back to your question, I don't know if I'd call it "sibilance" per se, but there was definitely an issue created by the rear-screen button.  Once I got rid of it, I noticed an improvement in HF and clarity.

Originally Posted by baka1969 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilavideo  


"<Snip>... Now, before you cough up your Top Ramen, or whatever it is you're munching on between study sessions, keep in mind that people are paying a cool grand - and beyond that - to hear little coughs and breaths and off-mic comments and some guy opening up a bag of nachos in the fourth row....<Snip>"


This statement is the funniest and best I've heard. It's also so true. :) Great work!

Thanks!
 

Okay, here's the latest and the greatest.

On Friday, my wife is buying me an early birthday present: a drill press.  I look forward to the stability it will provide.  Till then, I'm taking it slower.  Today, after work, I made another "shell," this one with a center hole large enough to fit the front grill of any full-size Grado.  This will allow the mod to be reversible, should I (or anyone else) decide to go back to the plastic.  Because it goes right up to the lip or outer ring, where cushions are normally attached, I'll have to attach the cushion through other means, such as by glue or velcro.  The neat thing is that the "shell" doesn't stick out as far; it has a slimmer profile.  At the same time, however, it has a mass comparable to that of the hammerhead ring of the GS1000.  There are certain benefits in not having a long wooden tube, benefits exploited by the PS1000, with its non-resonant aluminum overshoe.  I don't have the magic of aluminum on my side, so free air will have to do.  With no additional wood to color the sound, the mids remain uncluttered.  There are limits to how low the Grado drivers dig, but I think this shell pushes the envelope as far as bass impact without coloring the rest of the presentation.

On the low side of things, I found out what the "four-connector cable" really is.  It's the use of two wires, instead of one, for each driver channel.  That's the reason the "garden hose" cable is so thick.  I remain underwhelmed.  I'm more impressed with the silver.

Originally Posted by EddieE 

You need to make a thread showing us how you got the driver completely out of the housing (unless I missed that somewhere and missed missing it) :-)

No problem.  It does take a bit of finesse.  When you open up the cups and look carefully, you'll find that there are plastic pieces that hold the drivers in place.  If these are removed, the drivers come out fairly easily.  I've had some sloppy retrievals that produced less than optimal results.  In one case, I bought an SR80 that was fried in one speaker.  This made it cost-effective to tear it apart and get my hands on every component part of the headphone, including the copper core, the magnet it surrounds (which comes right out), the magnet plate (which pops right out) and the mylar diaphragms, which I've handled and even washed in my kitchen sink.  It's amazing how these few parts, when introduced together as a system, produce such sweet sound.

The process of removing the driver is identical for all of the plastic full-size Grados.  I didn't photo-document the process of retrieving this SR80 driver, but I'll go ahead and do that with the SR60i, since that's what my friend wants.  He doesn't want any plastic, just driver, wood, wire and grill.

Originally Posted by MarcusP 

Hey, does these mods work the same way it does on SR80i's?

The mods are the same on any full-size Grado, just more likely to be done on the Prestige series rather than on the upper-end Grados - though I have a strong craving to punch some holes into an RS1.

Originally Posted by JoetheArachnid 

I can't help feeling that you're going to miss these pimped-out SR60s dearly once you've given them back to your friend... worth working on pair for yourself, perhaps?

I'd buy a SR60 and try some of these mods if it wasn't for the massive markup Grados get in the UK... it's the equivalent of $140 for an SR60. I'll wait until I can afford an MS-1, methinks. Even with customs and handling, it's far cheaper than the lowest-end Grados.

I think you're right.  I'm really fond of these now, but a deal's a deal.  I'll buy more silver braid and outfit another pair.  I do think it's pretty cool to get so much mileage out of a pair of SR60s.