Alessandro MS1000 and MS Ultimate - DIY & modding [56K warning]

Jul 23, 2008 at 6:51 PM Post #166 of 2,483
nickchen, may i ask you a couple of questions about the mod you did on your ms1...i'm considering to build a pair of wooden cups for my ms1, for aestethic purposes only...but i have a concern, surely a wooden cup will have a larger outer diameter than the original plastic one, and that c-shaped piece of plastic that holds the cup allows for maybe 3-4mm more than the original diameter, how did you fix that ? or were your cups not larger than the grados ? what's their outer diameter ? I also see those cups by headcoverage...they seem to be way thicker than the stock one, don't they stretch the plastic a bit ? Thanks in advance..
 
Jul 23, 2008 at 10:48 PM Post #167 of 2,483
I had visitors round last night so didnt get time to work on them & decided to let them burn over night and do the mods tonight.

I used 3m D/sided tape to hold the distancers in place and sealed the edge with a fine line of some white coloured blu-tac. Everything seems to be holding well but i guess time will tell. While i was at, i decided to go the full hog and re-screen them too, which turned out to be a lot easier than i thought.

SS850007-4.jpg


In stock form i thought they sounded pretty good, nothing special but certainly worth $99. With the jumbo pads and distancers the difference is amazing, they have a nice deep bass & amazingly big soundstage. Midrange is very good and overall they feel very lively and punchy, you could quickly forget you wearing a fairly budget priced headphone.

These are stonking good value for money and really do lift the MS1 into another league.
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 7:38 AM Post #169 of 2,483
Quote:

Originally Posted by Meliboeus /img/forum/go_quote.gif
surely a wooden cup will have a larger outer diameter than the original plastic one, and that c-shaped piece of plastic that holds the cup allows for maybe 3-4mm more than the original diameter, how did you fix that ? or were your cups not larger than the grados ? what's their outer diameter ?


Yes, the wooden cup is thicker than the stock plastic thing, but not that much. The "C-shaped" fork gets stretched a bit more when being put back to work, but not in a critical way. You need to cut off the lower parts of the fork though to turn it form O-shaped into C-shaped. O-shaped the woody is really too thick. Can't give you exact diameters as I'm in office, but I have a wall thickness of approx. 2,5 - 3,5mm in mind. That value depends on the wood utilized as well on your tinker abilities.
Quote:

Originally Posted by lisnalee
In stock form i thought they sounded pretty good, nothing special but certainly worth $99. With the jumbo pads and distancers the difference is amazing, they have a nice deep bass & amazingly big soundstage. Midrange is very good and overall they feel very lively and punchy, you could quickly forget you wearing a fairly budget priced headphone.
These are stonking good value for money and really do lift the MS1 into another league.



Glad to hear that you like them, Damian.
smily_headphones1.gif

That rescreening really helps a lot getting the optical impression closer to the acoustical abilities. Nice work.
Quote:

Originally Posted by magma_saber
Can you attach the GS-1000 pads on stock MS-1s or do you need the distancers to put on the GS-1000 pads.


They suit physically, but it sounds sub zero without distancers.
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 7:51 AM Post #170 of 2,483
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Yes, the wooden cup is thicker than the stock plastic thing, but not that much. The "C-shaped" fork gets stretched a bit more when being put back to work, but not in a critical way. You need to cut off the lower parts of the fork though to turn it form O-shaped into C-shaped. O-shaped the woody is really too thick. Can't give you exact diameters as I'm in office, but I have a wall thickness of approx. 2,5 - 3,5mm in mind. That value depends on the wood utilized as well on your tinker abilities.




i did some measurements...inner diameter of the cup may be roughly 48mm, i'll sand down 1-2cm at the end of the cup to about 50cm so it can fit the plastic driver case...then an outer diameter of about 57mm should be right, that means 4.5mm wall thickness, and it should fit the "c-shape" without forcing it too much...i'll try if the process i have in mind it's a viable way to build cups...i'm afraid it's not, but i'll do it...
biggrin.gif
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 7:58 AM Post #171 of 2,483
I suggest destroying the original cups. That motivates severely to be successful!
tongue.gif
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 11:03 AM Post #172 of 2,483
Hi all. The GS1000 pads are in da house yo! Damn customs cost me 42EU for two pairs
eek.gif


However.. Very bad news. My MS-1 is somewhat damaged.. I started a new thread here.
The thread should explain it all.
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 4:54 PM Post #175 of 2,483
Quote:

Originally Posted by magma_saber /img/forum/go_quote.gif
What is sub zero sound? Is that when the mids are killed?


No, the mids get an awful plasticish and queeky touch. A satire version of the AD2000.
Quote:

Originally Posted by magma_saber
How would the sr80 bowls sound on the MS-1?


Very good. Stock MS1 sound best with bowls or reversed HD414 pads. But that is all "oldschool" and a bit offtopic in this thread. If you look for more info on padrolling for stock Grados & Alessandros, use the forum engine for a search.
 
Jul 24, 2008 at 7:33 PM Post #177 of 2,483
The distancers get glued onto the inner surface of the earcup. For pics, please take a look to the first 3-4 sides of this thread.

You get the distancers from me if you are out of the EU and from Ryan if you are from North America. But that is far from professional state and should be handled with PM.
 
Jul 25, 2008 at 12:28 AM Post #179 of 2,483
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The distancers get glued onto the inner surface of the earcup.


I still prefer blu tak (or similar).It does the trick very well and this way the mod is easily reversible (or adjustable which might be necessary as we recently learned by nickchen's findings about the 95% seal).
And think about the resale value ........
 
Jul 25, 2008 at 2:23 PM Post #180 of 2,483
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Glad to hear that you like them, Damian.
smily_headphones1.gif

That rescreening really helps a lot getting the optical impression closer to the acoustical abilities. Nice work.



Thanks Nico, the grills are only temporally fixed into place. The original black grills are completely glued into the cup with superglue or something similar so i only removed the centre portion for now.

Any suggestions for getting the rest of it out without destroying the cups?
 

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