[jocar37]

I've owned a pair of Grado SR225s for about 20 years. They still sound great. But while the original earpads lasted quite a while, I've had to replace pads with increasing frequency over the last few years. They just seem to disintegrate fairly quickly. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue?

I got tired of paying $20 a crack for replacements, so I just ordered Geekria's replacements on Amazon. They've got a 4+ rating and cost half what Grado charges. I don't have them yet, so I don't know how good they are. But I was wondering if anyone could recommend something you could use to treat earpads so they don't disintegrate without impairing their sonic qualities or comfort level.

 

[drewfus420]

I have found that the MS1000 pads seem to fall apart even quicker than the other Grado pads. I go through 2-3 sets of MS1000 pads for every regular Grado pad on phones I ise about equally as often and are stored the exact same way. The guy at my local hi fi shop warned me about this when I first ordered the MS pads 8 years ago, and 4 sets later I now believe him. Why are their most expensive pads the flimsiest?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

But I was wondering if anyone could recommend something you could use to treat earpads so they don't disintegrate without impairing their sonic qualities or comfort level.

Sock Mod and wash the sock frequently since part of the wear is due to sweat acidity.

And maybe have your blood uric acid levels checked. That goes higher as you age. I've always had my eyeglasses rusting wherever metal meets my skin and at 23 I just woke up one morning with a swollen foot. High fat, high tofu/miso diet.

 

[jocar37]

Sock Mod and wash the sock frequently since part of the wear is due to sweat acidity.

Excuse my ignorance, but would you mind explaining "Sock Mod?"i I found a reference to a Grado sock mod citing a thread on headwize.com. But:
1. It seems that headwize.com is defunct and that the thread that actually explains how to do it is inaccessible; and
2. comments I did find about this sock mod suggested that while comfortable, the resulting sound "sucked ass."

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Excuse my ignorance, but would you mind explaining "Sock Mod?"i I found a reference to a Grado sock mod citing a thread on headwize.com. But:
1. It seems that headwize.com is defunct and that the thread that actually explains how to do it is inaccessible; and

You take the leg section of a sock and pull it over the earpad, like wearing a useless condom. That last part is important, because any overlap in the driver hole and it will start affecting the sound.

2. comments I did find about this sock mod suggested that while comfortable, the resulting sound "sucked ass."

1. The sound alteration depends on how much overlap there is over the driver and how thick the socks are when it does overlap. So there's a variation depending on what kind of sock somebody happened to use.

2. Some people actually have high frequency hearing loss, so they like the treble peak and hearing the cymbals right outside their ears no matter how disproportionate to where the others are (which aren't anywhere near the correct place on the Z-Axis anyway if you're using a Grado), so losing some of that treble is disastrous.

3. There's a "Garfield" earpad protector available somewhere online that does the same thing, called that way because it looks like it was made from the cat's fur (it's really orange). I've only ever seen it on RS1's locally.

----

Another alternative is to blow $200 on a wood earpad adapter from Headphile so you can mount Beyerdynamic earpads.

If you have access to a 3D scanner and printer and can do CAD, you can scan the lip of the Grado headphone, then the Beyer earpads, and go into CAD and design your own adapter and print it. This is more for being able to use a circumaural pad than just longevity on the supra-aural pads however, although a Beyer wrapped in velour or real leather (with regular wipe downs of leather conditioner) will last longer than the exposed Grado foam pads and similar replacements.

Drinking alkaline water might help too in case it's your sweat acidity that has affected the earpads' life.