[Grimspoon]

I've had a pair of Grado SR125s for quite a few years now, I know it's not the best in the Grado family, but they were mine and I loved em!

Despite my love for these headphones, their cables suck. Over the years I've had to re-solder the connection several times do to accidentally yanking the wire and from the wires twisting inside the can.

I recently discovered the headphone community and their mods, I thought since I've re-soldered the headphones a few times in the past, I might as well give it a shot. So I ordered a couple 3.5" mono mini plugs, phone jacks and got to work.

At some point between de-soldering the cables and wiring the jacks, I screwed up, royally! I must have got the transducers too hot cause now I get no sound out of my headphones at all.

Is this a total write-off or is there any way to bring these things back to life?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Do you have a multimeter? You can check for continuity through the voicecoils. If there is, you can probably save the drivers. Hopefully, there's a fault with your cable or a short somewhere.

You might want to call Grado and see what they'd charge for new drivers. It migh t cost less than another pair. You could also get an iGrado and transplant the drivers - I think they're almost the same. You could also put them up in the For Sale Forum. Someone will want them to hack on - don't just throw them away.

 

[scytheavatar]

If you have the Grado SR125s for quite a few years now, it's about time that you get an upgrade. Maybe the SR225?

 

[Brighten]

Try to fix them first. If you can't, just sell em'. Or, if you really hate the cable just upgrade.

 

[Grimspoon]

scytheavatar, you're absolutely right. I decided to go all out though, and ordered some GS1000 and am working out a deal on an amp. Hopefully the GS1000 show up by Friday.

I bought them sight unseen, but I'll demo the setup for a while and see if its right for me. If not, it might turn up on the exchange.

As for my SR125's, I emailed Grado about it but they never answered me back. When I bought these I was having a particularly difficult time sourcing a place to buy them (in Canada), and I ended up ordering them from some medical lab specializing in hearing rehabilitation (or something along those lines) from USA.

Being in Canada, and ignoring Grado's territorial selling boundaries, I suspect I'm SOL as far as my SR125's are concerned. This is the feeling I got by being completely ignored by Grado's customer service.

These weren't exactly cheap at the time either, especially with the cost of importing them.

Edit:

Brighten, It's def not the cables. Plugging in the factory cable and touching the exposed ends to my crappy PC speakers, I am able to get sound. It's definitely the transducers. I'm not a pro by any means, so I thought I just soldered it up wrong, but after touching the wires directly to the transducer and not getting a sound, I'm pretty confident I ruined em, probably with the soldering iron.

Any idea what broken SR125's are worth? Being in Canada I can't imagine they're worth more than the cost of shipping to whoever might actually want em.