[BrianKT]

SR225i drivers in Paduak cups by fleasbaby and they sound just as fine as they look.
 

 

[fleasbaby]

SR225i drivers in Paduak cups by fleasbaby and they sound just as fine as they look.

Glad you like them! I've always thought the 225 is the sweet spot if you're going to mod a pair of Grados...

 

[DavidA]

Glad you like them! I've always thought the 225 is the sweet spot if you're going to mod a pair of Grados...

Gotta agree with you on the 225, best value of the Grado line.

 

[zombywoof]

I completed my SR125i mod project with the addition of a leather headband from Turbulent labs.  I am very happy with the outcome.  The headband is nice quality and a snap to install.  After installing the rosewood cups (also from Turbulent) I did some damping inside the cups and on the rear of the driver with sorbothane, but feel that it took some of the crispness away from the treble.  I removed the sorbothane and used some thin felt only on the inside surface of the cups.  This seemed to be more to my liking.  These now sound really nice.

 

I would say that these are a nice complement to my RS2e's.  To my ears I would say that the bass is a bit more pronounced on the modded 125i's compared to the RS2e's.  All in all a very worthwhile project.  I think I ended up with a first class pair of headphones, tuned to my liking, for a very reasonable price...under $200.  Hopefully this is not addictive.

 

[DavidA]

  I completed my SR125i mod project with the addition of a leather headband from Turbulent labs.  I am very happy with the outcome.  The headband is nice quality and a snap to install.  After installing the rosewood cups (also from Turbulent) I did some damping inside the cups and on the rear of the driver with sorbothane, but feel that it took some of the crispness away from the treble.  I removed the sorbothane and used some thin felt only on the inside surface of the cups.  This seemed to be more to my liking.  These now sound really nice.

 

I would say that these are a nice complement to my RS2e's.  To my ears I would say that the bass is a bit more pronounced on the modded 125i's compared to the RS2e's.  All in all a very worthwhile project.  I think I ended up with a first class pair of headphones, tuned to my liking, for a very reasonable price...under $200.  Hopefully this is not addictive.

Good Luck with that

 

[Konstantin690]

We have now three independent driver manufacturers and I thought of asking for a driver loan to shoot some measurements.
All three responded in kind and send their drivers for the purpose of this review, so a huge thanks to Rhydon from Symphones, Jaco from Nhoord Audio and Chris from Elleven Acoustica for giving me the opportunity for this to happen, cheers guys.
Some technical data as provided by the manufacturers:
 
Magnum V7
We use a specially coated mylar diaphragm. The coating itself is a secret as its something we’ve developed in house for the past 5 years.
Its function is to absorb break-up modes which are responsible for much of the distortion in today's headphones.

Voice coil material is Copper Clad Aluminum. This is preferable over copper since its an order of magnitude less in weight.

The drivers use aperiodic damping.

Made in Canada

 

Nhoord Red

3D printed Nylon driver cover with a protective nylon mesh Diaphragm Mylar with a proprietary formulation coating
NdFeB Magnet,
Voice Coil Hybrid Copper & Aluminium 
Proprietary Damping formulation on the back of the magnet cover
We recommend that the drivers be press-fitted into wooden cups, with the face of the driver flush with the edge of the cup.
Made in South Africa

 
Ypsilon
Machined Aluminum shell
High energy NdFeb Magnet
Heat treated Mylar diaphragm
High Purity Copper coil
Impedance: 32 Ohms
Efficiency: 105.4db/1mW
Frequency Response: 18Hz - 22000Hz
Made in Germany

 

 
 
On to the measurements:
 
Impedance and Phase.

 
 
 
Impulse Response.

 
 
 
 
Frequency Response.

 
 
 
 
Cumulative Spectral Decay

 
 
 
 
Total Harmonic Distortion

 
 
 
What you MUST keep in mind is that we are dealing with RAW DRIVERS here and not complete and assembled headphones, measuring drivers is much more "trickier" than measuring complete headphones, the manufacturers have absolutely no control over the use of their drivers, which is, virtually infinite possibilities.
Starting with a capable driver is important but does not guarantee a great sounding pair of headphones if everything else in not up to par, as any great chef will tell you, how you prepare a dish is more important than the ingredients used, ingredients help though.
What I used here, after consulting all three manufacturers which agreed, is a pair of RS1 clone mahogany cups, EZ L-Cushions, stock Grado headband and eight core cable from PS1000.
 
I used any amplifier a could put my hands on, Fiio E07K, FiiO E12 MB, Benchmark DAC2 HGC, Violectric V281, Lehmann Black Cube Linear (Ebay clone, very good) and a Kevin Gilmor Krell KSA5 clone (note to myself: I have to build one of these, awesome), source was through an audio purposed build NUC i3 motherboard with a custom linear PSU running a stripped down version of Puppy Linux with ALSA and Deadbeef, listening mostly 24/96 of music I'm very familiar with, also used a Wadia 861 and a few vinyls.
 
Listening
 
I'll try to keep this short, I also asked the opinion of a colleague and headphone aficionado who's ears I trust, both our opinions pretty much lined up.
 
The Nhoord is one of these cases that sounds better than it measures, the Frequency Response peak around 10kHz does not sound bad mostly because of the dip between 4kHz - 8kHz, the bass has great impact although overpowering but balances nicely with that treble peak, overall has a very strong V shape character with recessed mids that hides the ugliness of bad recordings (or bad amplifiers/sources) but also hides a lot on good ones. It has a resonance problem (CSD Graph) around 2kHz that is at times audible when played loud, (if I HAD to put my finger on it, I'd say that the somehow flexible 3D printed shell to be responsible) oddly, the 10kHz resonance is not that audible, soundstage is somehow narrow but has great depth, better matched with "lively" sounding amplifiers.
 
The Magnum V7 retains much of it's predecessors V shape overall character but now has a tad more midrange presence which was missing before, the bass has also great impact compared to the Nhoord, not so overpowering but draws too much attention especially on electronic music material with artificial bass, the Resonance (CSD Graph) at 2kHz is not audible and the 9kHz is only audible when called to play loud, sounds a tad grainy at times, soundstage is wider than the Nhoord, better matched with "darker" sounding amplifiers, overall very fun and easy to listen.
 
The Ypsilon has a more even Frequency Response profile than the others, neutral and natural sounding, nothing peep out and draws attention, doesn't have the overpowering bass quantity of the V7 or the Nhoord but has better bass quality and the best midrange/treble of the three, the Resonance (CSD Graph) at 2.5kHz is broad enough and it's not audible, has the ability to better "tell" the differences between amplifier/sources, can sound boring if mated with the wrong amplifier (that Ebay Lehmann Black Cube clone was a great match BTW).
 
Sorry for the long post, hope it helps someone.

 

[DavidA]

@Konstantin690, appriciate your effort in doing the testing.

 

[Arty McGhee]

1.  

  @Konstantin690, appriciate your effort in doing the testing.

yes thanks much looks like you put a lot of hard work into it
 
good science!!

 

[droopy1592]

  We have now three independent driver manufacturers and I thought of asking for a driver loan to shoot some measurements.
All three responded in kind and send their drivers for the purpose of this review, so a huge thanks to Rhydon from Symphones, Jaco from Nhoord Audio and Chris from Elleven Acoustica for giving me the opportunity for this to happen, cheers guys.
Some technical data as provided by the manufacturers:
 
[Mod Edit: Please don't quote entire, large posts.]

People like you contribute immensely to the community.

i like the magnums but have ps500e to be Vshaped and dark. I have some custom made Ypsilons with 325 original cups and some custom made sleeves by Elleven Acoustica coming within a month or so. I'll give you guys a review when they get back from Greece. 

 

[GREQ]

Impedance and Phase.

 
Impulse Response.

 
Frequency Response.

 
Cumulative Spectral Decay

 
Total Harmonic Distortion

 
I feel like a bigger story would be told if a couple of stock Grado measurements were posted alongside for comparison.
SR80 or SR225 would probably be best as they're the most popular.
I know it's a lot to ask, but would that be possible?

 

[Konstantin690]

@DavidA, @Arty McGhee, @droopy1592
 
Thanks.
 
 

   
I feel like a bigger story would be told if a couple of stock Grado measurements were posted alongside for comparison.
SR80 or SR225 would probably be best as they're the most popular.
I know it's a lot to ask, but would that be possible?

 

I'll publish some measurements next time I'll have my hands on either of these, but for what it's worth and from previous experience, all three drivers tested above performed better (meaning much cleaner looking CSD plots and lower THD%) than any stock Grado with the plastic chambers (SR60 up to SR325) I had ever measured.
From memory, only the stock PS500 and RS1 had a tad cleaner looking CSD than the Nhoord but higher THD%, the Magnum V7 and the Ypsilon builds measured above (RS1 mahogany clone cups, L-Cushions) measured better than any stock Grado in every aspect, sounds "better" too. ("better" is a very relative term, but that's how it "feels"

).

 

[thaddeussmith]

what characteristics do you attribute to "lively" and "dark" amps? Trying to determine where my custom SEP tube amp would sit and which of the 3 drivers tested would be better suited. I'm using a JDS Labs ODAC with Raspberry Pi and have typically used Klipsch speakers.. It's a very clean setup, transparent, but not clinical. So I guess "lively"?

 

[DavidA]

@Konstantin690, remember a ways back you and I were having a disagreement about the PX-100ii driver?  Was wondering if you ever measured a few to see if they really vary that much since it was the driver that many were using at first before we started to find that there seemed to be really varied impressions between builds.

 

[Konstantin690]

  what characteristics do you attribute to "lively" and "dark" amps? Trying to determine where my custom SEP tube amp would sit and which of the 3 drivers tested would be better suited. I'm using a JDS Labs ODAC with Raspberry Pi and have typically used Klipsch speakers.. It's a very clean setup, transparent, but not clinical. So I guess "lively"?

 
There's not a definitive answer but do a Google search on the impact of headphone amplifiers output impedance vs frequency response, there are some good articles floating around.
 

  @Konstantin690, remember a ways back you and I were having a disagreement about the PX-100ii driver?  Was wondering if you ever measured a few to see if they really vary that much since it was the driver that many were using at first before we started to find that there seemed to be really varied impressions between builds.

 
No sorry, I never measured them because I abandoned the PX100ii builds.

 

[ChijiroKuro]

Greetings from Spain!!
 
My first "mod", but really is a restoration of a break Grado with alternative driver.
 
Some elements from a "325" chassis from scratch...
Symphones V7 drivers
Wire&World Nano Eclipse Headphone (Cu OCC) cable
 
The V7 is a winner!!!
 
Paint is black... Automotive class.
 
Sound & music are amazing. The V7 is a goal!!! with the wire&world cable.
 
K.R.
ChijiroKuro
 
PD: For now I can´t post pictures. Sorry.