Grados are dead basic, Sennheiser has German engineering. 

There's also adding extra foam and whatnot to make the 555s into 595s.
 
Mostly its just because Grados are easier to disassemble though.

 

bobsayshi said:

Quote:

bilavideo said:

I don't remember the last time I've seen a Sennheiser fanatic doing much of anything to their headphone.  It's not because Sennheisers are perfect.  It's because Sennheiser fans don't touch their headphones, except to put them on and take them off.  There's no pad swapping.  There's no woodification.  There's no damping of driver backs or headband reinvention.  Over at Team Sennheiser, a recabling is the ultimate upgrade..

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I disagree. http://apuresound.com/hdsennmod.html

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I like the line, "[size=small]Now that your headphone is completely modded find yourself a nice upgrade cable."  To be fair, this is certainly a "mod."  No doubt about it.  But, like the general difference between the Sennheiser and Grado "house sounds," one is polite while the other deserves its own pirate ship.  People dress up to wear their Senns; they get naked to wear their Grados.[/size]
 
1. Sennheiser people pry their cups open with their bare hands - and without breaking a nail - because their headphones come with removal panels that are easier to take off than the lid on a cannister of Playdough.  Grado people come at their cans with sharpened spoons, screwdrivers, boiling water and hairdryers set to "Lava III."  Nobody ever told a Grado lover to "Place your nails into the outside grill and pull gently."  That's because a Grado modder is performing a break-in of sorts.  From the moment you win the battle of the hot glue, you're off the reservation.  No permission is granted; no forgiveness is wanted.
 
2. Sennheiser people remove pads from both sides, which is as easy as pulling tissue out of the box.  Grado people have to bring a steak knife and after cutting out their grill cloths, they have to meticulously pluck every spaghetti fiber left behind.
 
3. Sennheiser people vent their drivers by taking tweezers and pulling out a little bit of foam covering the driver back.  Grado people vent their drivers by punching holes through the driver cloth and sticking an adhesive damper - like Dynamat - to the magnet back.
 
4. Sennheiser people open up the rear grill by purchasing - from Sennheiser - a more open rear grill for $8/driver.  Grado people tear off their rear buttons, cut out their plastic grills, or trash their plastic cup in favor of exotic woods or just a nasty piece of lumber.  Grado people also look high and low for better pads - including the "wrong" Grado pads and pads from other brands' headphones.  It's not unusual to find a Grado lover wearing pads from Sennheiser or beyerdynamics - or constructing their own monstrosity like some of the kitchen sponges I used to use.
 
What's interesting is that, in modding, Grado people and Sennheiser people are doing much the same thing.  They're pulling out filters and opening up the grills in order to get at clear, resonant-free sound.  But because Sennheisers have no wooden air chambers to amplify the bass, they're either closed cans, smaller PortaPro-like numbers, or amp-dependent Godzillas.  Grados maximize the acoustic benefits of open air chambers.  Tweak 'em right and you can get an amp-like sound out of even the most basic models.

Am I weird for liking both Sennheisers and Grados?
 

 

bobsayshi said:

Am I weird for liking both Sennheisers and Grados?
 

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No, you're weird for liking Grados.  Here's to the freedom to be weird.
 
You're actually cooler for liking more than one brand.  It means that you're into sound rather than brand.  And as one moves up the product line, it's amazing how the brands seem to converge as if following similar principles.

So I just made some DIY pads for my SR80is, trying to copy the flats.
 
I don't know my audio terms too well, but I can safely say that bass quantity has been increased and the sound is more 'in your face', so I guess what little soundstage there was has been made even smaller. I'm really happy with the results, especially apparent with Futile Devices by Sufjan Stevens and The Time is Now by Moloko.
 
Making them was easy, I had some soft foam material that my Wahl clippers came packaged in that I cut into squares. I used a couple of rubberbands to pull back the material over the SR80is grill, and they stay hooked on behind the ridge that keeps the normal pads on. I trimmed the excess with scissors. This foam is a little thicker than the thin part of the grado comfies, but it's not dense at all. The pad looks like that of the Sony MDR-210LP, google for pics.
 
Can't take pics, could take some later if there's interest

3. Sennheiser people vent their drivers by taking tweezers and pulling out a little bit of foam covering the driver back.  Grado people vent their drivers by punching holes through the driver cloth and sticking an adhesive damper - like Dynamat - to the magnet back.
 
OK....so the Dynamat goes on the back of the driver on the silver backing part, just a thin layer, medium layer, big glob!! I'm anal I need exact specs...like do we cover the entire back of the driver or do we make like
a cinched in hourglass looking thing like I've seen...Personally if its required to paint them purple and put yellow dots on them I'm in....LOL. Did I miss the dynamat video?? My kid is coming to visit tomorrow and bringing a cam...watch out...

So I failed on 2 of my 3 goals today. I was able to get a 8 piece hole saw set for $6 (thank you Harbor Freight). But I couldn't get any wood harder than oak, which will be my practice wood, and wasn't able to find any grill material cheap enough for my liking. I might need to just break down and pay $8 from Staples for a letter tray I am going to cut apart.

Sorry, Double.

Amazon has sheets of different stuff:
http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Mesh-025-Wire-Diameter/dp/B001CTWYB6/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3LYV4G4Y0TICP&colid=2PFESG72VH9S6
more:
http://www.amazon.com/Brass-Mesh-0075-Wire-Diameter/dp/B001CTWYO8/ref=pd_sbs_indust_3
 we got options out there....hahahaha...

I have to say that all Bill's rant seems to point to for me is how much John Grado really, really doesn't want you to mod his cans. I mean, the sheer effort required to get inside a Grado is ridiculous, compared to a pad removal and three screws on my HD 595s. I think that maybe Grado people have an inferiority complex about how hard it is to mod their cans, and so they feel they must try extra hard to prove how awesome their mods can be.
Sennheiser people are all like 'Yeah, but our cans were actually good to begin with. We can rest easy knowing that our $1400 HD 800s aren't held together with hot glue and don't use the same drivers as the PX 100s'.
Then Grado people are all like 'Yeah, but... uh... so moddable! Right?'
The Sennheiser people guffaw, lean back in their leather armchairs and swirl their brandy before taking a candid sip. Let the street urchins have their fun. They will never know true music.
 
Heil Sennheiser!
 
[/joking]
 
I have both Senns and Grados and love both. Although I'd like to point out that my Senns are currently more modded than my Grados...

Grados are actually the easiest cans to mod that I know of.  Its because they are held together so simply.  There are no tiny clips to break, no screw heads to ream out, no screw holes to strip, no stupidly tight tolerances, and no delicate sub-assemblies.  They're all held together with friction and hot glue.  Most anything short of completely removing the driver is very unlikely to cause any permanent damage, and even that's not too hard.
 
Last but not least, it is utterly impossible to make them look any more ghetto than they come from the 'factory' so you don't have to worry about how the final product looks. 

 

burnliff said:

So I just made some DIY pads for my SR80is, trying to copy the flats.

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Very cool!
 

OK....so the Dynamat goes on the back of the driver on the silver backing part, just a thin layer, medium layer, big glob!! I'm anal I need exact specs...like do we cover the entire back of the driver or do we make like a cinched in hourglass looking thing like I've seen...Personally if its required to paint them purple and put yellow dots on them I'm in....LOL. Did I miss the dynamat video?? My kid is coming to visit tomorrow and bringing a cam...watch out...

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It's not there so much to prevent reflections as to clamp onto something that likely to shake like a mother and add that shaking to the presentation. It's used a lot in car stereo applications where doors and other parts of the car shake with the bass beat and add an annoying buzz or rattle.  I didn't use it until recently, when these guys convinced me to go for it.  I'm glad I listened.  It really does make a difference.
 

sharkz said:

So I failed on 2 of my 3 goals today. I was able to get a 8 piece hole saw set for $6 (thank you Harbor Freight). But I couldn't get any wood harder than oak, which will be my practice wood, and wasn't able to find any grill material cheap enough for my liking. I might need to just break down and pay $8 from Staples for a letter tray I am going to cut apart.

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A lot of the wood you find at hardware stores is practical stuff.  Tonewoods are harder to get.  Do yourself a favor.  Google "mahogany" and then hit "maps."  You should pull up some sources you'd have never considered.  I didn't realize there was a place, just 15 minutes from my house, where I could buy mahogany - and man, mahogany may not be the ultimate tonewood but it's probably the most reasonably priced and it's easy to cut.

Quote:

joethearachnid said:

I have to say that all Bill's rant seems to point to for me is how much John Grado really, really doesn't want you to mod his cans. I mean, the sheer effort required to get inside a Grado is ridiculous, compared to a pad removal and three screws on my HD 595s. I think that maybe Grado people have an inferiority complex about how hard it is to mod their cans, and so they feel they must try extra hard to prove how awesome their mods can be.
Sennheiser people are all like 'Yeah, but our cans were actually good to begin with. We can rest easy knowing that our $1400 HD 800s aren't held together with hot glue and don't use the same drivers as the PX 100s'.
Then Grado people are all like 'Yeah, but... uh... so moddable! Right?'
The Sennheiser people guffaw, lean back in their leather armchairs and swirl their brandy before taking a candid sip. Let the street urchins have their fun. They will never know true music.
 
Heil Sennheiser!
 
[/joking]
 
I have both Senns and Grados and love both. Although I'd like to point out that my Senns are currently more modded than my Grados...

Click to expand...

JoetheArchnid, you are now the official king of "screw with their heads."  You had me to the end, when I had to unball my fist and go get a cookie.

sharkz said:

So I failed on 2 of my 3 goals today. I was able to get a 8 piece hole saw set for $6 (thank you Harbor Freight). But I couldn't get any wood harder than oak, which will be my practice wood, and wasn't able to find any grill material cheap enough for my liking. I might need to just break down and pay $8 from Staples for a letter tray I am going to cut apart.

Click to expand...

Just thought I'd point it out, Oak is really hard. Here's a small chunk of the Janka scale: http://www.advantagelumber.com/janka.htm

African Mahogany, Alder, Poplar, Cherry, Soft Maple, Walnut, S. American Mahogany, Cocobolo == All below the hardness of any Oak

There are plenty of nice tonewoods that are harder than Oak (Red or White) but I just figured I'd point out that there are a lot of good woods that are softer than oak.

Yeah I got these suckers done for now.
 
Using 1" thick oak with a 2" inner hole and 2.5" outer hole. They are a simple slip on cup, but for now, this is all I really am interested in.
 
Lets say these are in the "proof of concept phase". Got them together and am really happy with them. The biggest problem was that the oak really dulled my blades I think. After 3 cuts though, I have two nearly perfectly symmetrical cups. I need some grills to get these guys done and will likely be staining them tomorrow to see how things come together. Going to hit some more stores tomorrow to try to find cheap letter trays to cannibalize, if not I need to suck it up and pay the $8 for one from Staples or Office Depot. Considering how many of the tools I had, I am still under $20 in costs for these which makes me happy.
 
If I feel industrious later, I might take some pics of these unfinished messes.