JXBJXB
100+ Head-Fier
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I present to you "JXBJXB's Sexy Pantyhose 580 Grille Mod."
Ever since I took the grilles off of my Sennheiser HD580s, I've been looking for a way to preserve the much more open, airy sound and wider soundstage that occurs (to my ears) when you do so. One option, evidently, is to order HD600 grilles and use those instead of the ugly plastic 580 ones. But wouldn't no grilles be better still than the HD600 grilles?
Leaving the grilles off the headphones completely isn't really an option because a) that would be ugly and we don't like ugly and b) offers no protection to the back side of the driver.
I ordered a pair of 600 grilles from Sennheiser last week, but they'll take 4-6 weeks to get to me. I desire more instant gratification. So I asked Sennheiser to send me another pair of 580 grilles to try a completely reversible mod. If somebody else has posted something like this before, I completely apologize but I didn't see anything like it in various searches. Here goes.
What you need:
1 pair stock 580 grilles
1 pair black pantyhose
1 "krazy glue" pen or similar
Drill and large (1/2") bit
Dremel tool with sanding cylinder
Nibbling tool (available from Radio Shack)
Utility knife
Pencil, paper, scissors
Time involved:
About 45 mins/grille
Steps:
1) Get a large drill bit and drill two or three holes right next to one another in the middle of the grille.
2) Use the nibbling tool to (carefully) remove the bulk of the plastic mesh.
3) The nibbling tool can get pretty flush to the edges of the grille, so take off as much of the little plastic nubs as you can without damaging the grille rim.
4) Next, use the Dremel tool to carefully sand around the edge on low speed, removing the rest of the nubs left from the plastic mesh.
5) Take a sheet of 150 or 200 grit sandpaper and sand around the rim to make it nice and smooth, being careful not to nick up the lovely bluish-teal Sennheiser paint job.
6) Put your new "grille rim" down on a piece of paper and trace around the inside with a pencil. Cut this out with scissors - it is the template for your new pantyhose grille mesh. Put the template down on a one-layer section of the black pantyhose and carefully cut around it with a utility knife (fresh blade works best.) While you've got a fresh blade in the knife, you might carefully run it around the inside of the rim to remove any final little nubs from the sanding.
7) Here's where things get fun. We want to glue the hose mesh around the rim on the inside with the krazy-glue pen. Working with the pantyhose is pretty much like working with spiderwebs.
Plus, you can expect to glue your fingertips to the inside of the grille rim at least four times. But the idea is to use the glue sparingly and tack the pantyhose around the rim on the inside. I also made sure to keep the "grain pattern" of the pantyhose vertical to the longest dimension of the grille on both sides for aesthetic purposes. Be careful to not put runs in the hose, nor get excess glue on the hose.
8) After a while, it looks like this:
9) Here's what it looks like on the inside after four or five spots of glue:
10) Once you've tacked the pantyhose all the way around the rim, it looks like this on the inside:
11) And the finished product looks like this on the outside. The black pantyhose is almost see-thru but once it is on the headphone, the effect is actually quite nice.
12) The finished product mounted on otherwise-stock 580s. I like the stock cord over the HD650 upgraded cord - I find the overall presentation lighter with more "air" around voices and instruments:
How does it sound? Well, it sounds just like the HD580s do with no grilles. So if you like that sound, here's a way of making it more permanent and not having to spot the cash and wait patiently for HD600 grilles. When my 600 grilles do finally arrive, I will report back with a comparison.
Comments, ideas to improve, reviews after you've done this are encouraged. Thanks!
Ever since I took the grilles off of my Sennheiser HD580s, I've been looking for a way to preserve the much more open, airy sound and wider soundstage that occurs (to my ears) when you do so. One option, evidently, is to order HD600 grilles and use those instead of the ugly plastic 580 ones. But wouldn't no grilles be better still than the HD600 grilles?
Leaving the grilles off the headphones completely isn't really an option because a) that would be ugly and we don't like ugly and b) offers no protection to the back side of the driver.
I ordered a pair of 600 grilles from Sennheiser last week, but they'll take 4-6 weeks to get to me. I desire more instant gratification. So I asked Sennheiser to send me another pair of 580 grilles to try a completely reversible mod. If somebody else has posted something like this before, I completely apologize but I didn't see anything like it in various searches. Here goes.
What you need:
1 pair stock 580 grilles
1 pair black pantyhose
1 "krazy glue" pen or similar
Drill and large (1/2") bit
Dremel tool with sanding cylinder
Nibbling tool (available from Radio Shack)
Utility knife
Pencil, paper, scissors
Time involved:
About 45 mins/grille
Steps:
1) Get a large drill bit and drill two or three holes right next to one another in the middle of the grille.
2) Use the nibbling tool to (carefully) remove the bulk of the plastic mesh.
3) The nibbling tool can get pretty flush to the edges of the grille, so take off as much of the little plastic nubs as you can without damaging the grille rim.
4) Next, use the Dremel tool to carefully sand around the edge on low speed, removing the rest of the nubs left from the plastic mesh.
5) Take a sheet of 150 or 200 grit sandpaper and sand around the rim to make it nice and smooth, being careful not to nick up the lovely bluish-teal Sennheiser paint job.
6) Put your new "grille rim" down on a piece of paper and trace around the inside with a pencil. Cut this out with scissors - it is the template for your new pantyhose grille mesh. Put the template down on a one-layer section of the black pantyhose and carefully cut around it with a utility knife (fresh blade works best.) While you've got a fresh blade in the knife, you might carefully run it around the inside of the rim to remove any final little nubs from the sanding.
7) Here's where things get fun. We want to glue the hose mesh around the rim on the inside with the krazy-glue pen. Working with the pantyhose is pretty much like working with spiderwebs.
8) After a while, it looks like this:
9) Here's what it looks like on the inside after four or five spots of glue:
10) Once you've tacked the pantyhose all the way around the rim, it looks like this on the inside:
11) And the finished product looks like this on the outside. The black pantyhose is almost see-thru but once it is on the headphone, the effect is actually quite nice.
12) The finished product mounted on otherwise-stock 580s. I like the stock cord over the HD650 upgraded cord - I find the overall presentation lighter with more "air" around voices and instruments:
How does it sound? Well, it sounds just like the HD580s do with no grilles. So if you like that sound, here's a way of making it more permanent and not having to spot the cash and wait patiently for HD600 grilles. When my 600 grilles do finally arrive, I will report back with a comparison.
Comments, ideas to improve, reviews after you've done this are encouraged. Thanks!
