I bought some Grado SR60i off Amazon for the stellar price of $35....the catch was a wait time that was a few months. I figured it would be a cheap way to dip my toes into Grados. Then by coincidence I did some contract work for a guy that has an online high end audio shop. (Imagine my surprise walking through his garage, into the house and seeing out of the side of my eye 3 boxes of Hifiman HE 1000 V2.) He said he'd give me a great deal on anything I want. I said what about the RS2e he said $300. That got me really interested in Grados. So I did a ton of reading about: mods, comparisons of ALL the different models, SennGrados, Woodies etc..... I was somewhere around page 160 of the "SR60 -Mod" thread when I found out Amazon had canceled my order for the $35 SR60i and refunded my money. I'm stuck. I think Grados are the missing piece in my little modest headphone collection (I can finally sell off/give away some headphones and stop shopping for new ones and just listen to my music, imagine that!) So far I have gotten a Phillips Fidelio L2 and a Modhouse Argon for $100 each. If I spend $300 on some RS2e that just destroys my cheapskate budget to pieces. I already have some drivers that I think will work well (they are brand new out of a Superlux HD668B) For the headband, if the Sony MDR7506/v6 type headband is cheaper I would go with that. (I like that headband a lot actually.) I already have a bag of 3.5 mm jacks. I need: y cables, headband, cups and pads. So....can I build a Grado style can for $100 to $150 that will be on the same sq level as my other headphones?
If you already have the tools to fabricate the earcups and gimbals etc, maybe; but your driver sources are going to be limited to the Koss Porta Pro.