[IvanDrago]

Hi,

does anyone know where to get the original G pads in europe for cheap?

I’ve found a nice handmade pair from shipibo and wonder if this will also work with this mod. Maybe someone has already tried and would like to share his toughts.
https://www.shipibo.audio/product-page/shipibo-audio-earpads

 

[exe163]

Very impressive indeed, but I have neither tool nor skills to craft a distancer, please inform me if there are other solution for the states.

13 years later, I am finally able to do this mod!

As a bonus, I designed a snap on ring. It can glued to the distancer. The combined unit then can be snap onto the MS1 (I am guessing by extension, any Grado). This way, the mod is non-permanent and I can more easily switch back to stock if needed. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4922720

I also paired it with Aliexpress special G-cush. Not sure if it's exactly the same thing but I feel less guilty purchasing and modding my old headphones.

 

[IvanDrago]

As a bonus, I designed a snap on ring.

Nice work! Thanks for your upload. How do they sound compared to the original Alessandro?

 

[bukumurah]

Make sure to use the genuine grado big foam earpads.. the Chinese knockoffs have bad frequency response that is all over the place compared to the genuine ones

 

[IvanDrago]

Make sure to use the genuine grado big foam earpads..

I am not sure if i‘ve got the original ones. I’ve ordered 2 months ago from ttvjaudio.
https://www.ttvjaudio.com/Grado-G-Cushions-or-Jumbo-Pads-p/gra0000053.htm

 

[exe163]

Nice work! Thanks for your upload. How do they sound compared to the original Alessandro?

With little experience modding headphones I was still able to notice a massive difference in bass and sound stage as many claimed. It definitely changed the sound signature compare to classic Grado. I don't think it transforms the MS1i into a $1000 headphone. It's more different sounding than objectively better sounding, though I do like the change quite a lot. This could be because of my Chinese knockoff pads or not adding all the felt at the right places, too .

Make sure to use the genuine grado big foam earpads.. the Chinese knockoffs have bad frequency response that is all over the place compared to the genuine ones

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try upgrading the pads in time as the real deal is 10x the price I paid for mine. I bit hard to stomach some foam for $50 even in the US. Definitely not going to claim they are the same or similar enough, I was still able to sound signature change without or without the distancer mainly due to the geometry of these pads.

EDIT: After listening stock MS1i with S-cush then MS1000 back-to-back, I strongly prefer the MS1000. The bass and sound stage made the biggest difference to make the instruments more alive. The vocal sounded more distance, quiet, and, oddly, sometimes too hollow. The piercing highs are still present once a while. I might need to address it with a felt layer as suggested by the mod. Though, these are not the most resolving headphones so I am not sure if it's worth the trade-off in clarity. Overall, I am pretty happy with the results so far. These are still fun compare to "normal" headphones like the HD6XX. But it's no longer one-trick like standard Grado SR series.

 

[knopi]

Nice work! Thanks for your upload. How do they sound compared to the original Alessandro?

From my experience I would not recomend stock MS1 sound is too close, compressed, lifeless as other Grado with small pads.
But MS1000 is completely different, it is so fine great sounding headphone and cheap and easy drive as bonus. For me it is best buy after years and I heard almost everything on market, of course I know better sounding headphone but there is always problem after some time aa why I pay for this $1-2K when I am ok whit this.

So big thanks to nickchen and others.

 

[exe163]

Back with an update. I had a chance to try out authentic G cush and SR80x from a friend.

First, I was completely wrong about the aftermarket G cush vs genuine Grado brand. I had done some research and very unscientific hearing comparison between the two, both with MS1000 mod and stock (my distancer is detachable, see earlier post). The former added bass and muddies the sound while the latter decreased bass and brought the highs forward slightly, relative to L cush. The sound signature was much better after switching to genuine Grado G cush. All accounts of the sound characteristics from the thread were roughly inline with mine experience. From my personal preference, the bass was too strong with 13mm spacer and in turns made the treble too shrill. I tried putting a thin felt layer over the driver. It resolves the treble issue but it also muffles the sound. MS1i is not particularly resolving in today's standard. I haven't tried putting cloth on the bowl as it's hard to manage and, I hate to say it, quite unsightly.

For version 2, I natural tried the recommended modification without going too far off the beaten path. I printed a 11.5mm version detachable now all in one piece (will upload to the same thingiverse shortly). Because of the lowered distance between the driver and my ear, both bass and treble shrills were decreased. The treble still bothers me a little bit and this is the area I need to work on next. All in all, I am ashamed that I doubted the mod and went with aftermarket pads against everyone recommendations. I will be purchasing my set of authentic G cush shortly. Sadly I don't have a way to measure the frequency response but someone else who did a very similar mod did and experience roughly echoes what's documented. The variant of the mod used is 12mm distancer.
http://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1458.0.html

Now onto the interesting part. I read in the thread that SR series were not a good candidate for this mod. I imagine this is mainly because of the frequency high frequency peaks of the older SR80s. I put v2 of the distancer onto SR80x, which has an updated driver with higher resolution, better bass extension, and less peaky highs; generally considered more neutral compared to classic Grados (from my hearing only, can't find FR curves online atm to confirm). The results were really good! Compared to the MS1000, everything sounded more detailed and full. Bass and sound stage had even a greater impact from the mod. The 11.5mm distancer helped it not becoming too bassy and overpowering. But because the higher are not as peaky, the shrilling issue I had with MS1000 was lessened. Mids are great as usual. To my ears, SR80(00)x sounded better than MS1000. This could be mainly due to SR80x stock sounded way better than MS1i in every respect. However, something still feels a bit off. This could be an interesting direction for the mod to continue onto X series drivers. From my limited experience, something still feels "off" about the SR80(00)x. I don't have a lot of time to further investigate.