[inteificio]

Hi,
 
As a few of you will know the Grado SR125 is a nice sounding phone for the price, but extremely uncomfortable.
The Phillips are EXCEPTIONALLY comfortable, but have the audio quality of a duck farting.
 
Id you do not know what the phillips look like, look at my avatar, they are bigger than they look, much bigger.
 
My plan was quite simple, mount the drivers of grado in the housing of the phillips.
 
So simple I did it.
Just opened up the phillips, removed the strap from the grado and put the whole unit inside each phillips enclosure.
 
Problem was, this left the Grados further way from your ears so sounded poor.
 
Stage 2:
 
Get the driver closer to the ear.
 
I removed the foam pads from the front of the SR125 and placed behind the grado then put back in the enclosures.
As the foam is rounded it nicely supports the driver and allows it to be rotated so it lines up with my ear.
 
So we now have the drivers supported well, touching my ear but applying no pressure. So comfy and sound great.
 
This got me wondering about stage 3, which is where i need your help.
 
Stage 3:
 
Is there anything I can do to the enclosure to sonically enhance the phones?
 
the grados are currently being supported by their own foam pads. 
 
Would it benefit if I glued them in place?
dampen by filling the enclosure with something heavy and pliable like playdo or solid like plastic.
 
The vent on the back, does that have an optimum airspace, or completely open? would it benefit removing the extra wire cover.
 
Any other suggestion to make this the best value, but ugliest phones ever?

 

[inteificio]

Does anyone want photos?

 

[ThermL]

I'd absolutely love photos this sounds very interesting

 

[inteificio]

 

[inteificio]

As you can see I have removed the front part of the phillips enclosure and the Grado just fits in the gap nicely. When i put the padding back in, everything is held in place.
simple but effective.
 
My question relates to the space around the phones.
 
Should I fill this with something?

 

[choka]

Wow, good idea! I recently killed the drivers of my HP890 during a DIY testing and is thinking of throwing it away, now you've given life back to mine. Let us know what's the impact on audio quality on doing this implant. I might do the exact same thing.

 

[inteificio]

The audio of the SR125 is already a mile ahead of the phillips, but OMG do they hurt.
The sound quality of the Grado is highly related to the distance of driver to the ear, closer the better.
 
This allows the driver to lie flat on the ear, but to be comfortable.
 
Definite sound quality improvment for stage 2.
 
 
I am tempted to try stage 3, but its a lot of grief.
 
I was hoping for one of the modding experts to say you need the drivers to hang free, or be weighed down, or damped to get the best sound.
 
Stage two is a major win, I will probably try damping and weighing down one side to see what it does.
 
 
I would say bad luck on blowing the phillips, but it might be a win!

 

[Bilavideo]

Are the Phillips shells open or shut?  The first photo suggests open, with rear grills suggesting the HD600/HD650.  Other photos suggest closed.  I can't tell which is which.
 
If the Phillips sounds horrible, it may well be because you've got a closed can with no damping of the inner chamber, just a giant pill box made of plastic.  First thing you should do is find some felt or other sound-aborbing material and line the chamber with it.  If you're in a real DIY mood, carefully open the chambers of the Grados and carefully remove the Grado driver, or at least the rear chamber of the Grado.  You should build a baffle that fits the Grado driver the way the other headphone's baffle fit its driver.  This will give you the benefit of the baffle (separating front waves from back waves) and also hold your Grado driver at the right distance from the ear.
 
As an ad hoc solution, resting the Grado on its cushions was a clever idea.
 
Also, for what it's worth, the idea of wider chambers, rather than longer ones, is actually where Grado should have been going.  It didn't because Grado is tooled for a certain barrel-shell design, which all the full-size Grados share, from the SR60 to the PS1000.  I don't think barrel cabinets are favored in the loudspeaker world, precisely because the barrel shape restricts the lateral dispersion of back waves, unnecessarily forcing them to compress and ricochet back and forth across a tube.  If Grado intended to produce a semi-open headphone disguised as a fully-open can, that explanation is as good as any for the barrel chambers.  Otherwise, the restricted aperture of the barrel design can only add resonance by squeezing the backwaves into an undamped tube the same diameter as the driver itself.  It may be that Grado wanted to vent the HF (which is more directional) while providing a lateral backstop to the LF but I've found that tube-shaped chambers are not as open as chamberless backs.  The giant pillbox design of the Phillips may not sound very good but that may have to do with a variety of issues, none of which I know enough about to discuss.  The important thing is that the wider chamber is the better idea, not that you'll be able to make use of it if you keep your Grado drivers in that barrel chamber.

 

[inteificio]

Ok, since seeing Bilavideos thread I have had a bit of fun.
 
I have removed the gause on the front and opened up the holes on the back of the driver.
I have made the Phillips fully open.
I have used a few handfulls of thermoplastic to lock the driver in place and couple it to the housing.
 
Photo's attached.
 
I have yet to put any baffle on the back, as truthfully I don't understand this!
 
Photos are attached so you can see the current progress!
 
So any suggestions what I should do with the chamber at the back?

 

[inteificio]

I decided to do the mod to only one side at first so i can do a fair comparison on what works, what doesn't
the left is modded, the right left 'normal' (stage 2 above).
 
I turned on the left channel, and it immediately sounded awesome, so a good start.
switching balance to the right gave a slight realisation, it sounded exactly as awesome. My conclusion I started with an awesome pair of phones =-)
 
After a bit of listening with both channels on the sound is very similar but with slight differences.
There is only one difference I can describe.
 
When the music is quite loud and there is a tone that increases in pitch the balance will switch to the right the higher the sound goes.
Basically I think the the higher notes are a bit more relaxed after the mod.
 
To me this is a good thing as at higher volumes I thought the pre-mod was a bit treble heavy.
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nF9NgaYi5yYSjxjV3tKJ5f0dmEyBnn1tsI5ITlyQu2g?feat=directlink

 

[inteificio]

Just had a thought, does the grill play a part in chamber size, or is it just for protection/cosmetics?
 

 

[inteificio]

OK stage 3 complete, and working great!!!!!!
 
Most of my projects I do just for the challenge, if there is an improvement then win!
 
The project with the least effect was the Hydra mod on DIY auido, but lets face it, a powercable mod, I wasn't expecting much.
 
This is without a doubt the best result on ANY mod I have done, it is amazing how these phones have changed.
 
 
All you need for this mod are the two pairs of headphones, some polymorph plastic (if you haven't heard of this stuff, buy a lot, potentially the most useful DIY thing ever) and a 5cm pipe coupler.
 
takes pads off the front of phillips and unscrew the front enclosure, bin it.
You will see some metal tags in the rear enclosure, pull these up, you should now be able to push the back metal grill off.
 
Get an old CD or something similar. Cut this to size so it is fits on the front of the enclosure.
 
Glue this in place.
 
While the glue is drying do the mods listed in the SR60 mod. Bilavideo runs this in the full size headphones.
 
now cut a hole about 1cm larger than the driver (bin the rear chamber of the grado).
 
This bit is complex, but makes it comfortable so do it right!
 
Put the drivers loosely in the holes, put the pads back on the phones.
Now using polymorph use it to stick the driver in place so it is lined up perfectly with your ear, but not putting pressure on. You need to be wearing the phones while doing this. keep on taking the phones off, adding more polymorph, then putting back on. You should use about two handfuls of poly on each side. 
 
Final bit, before the poly is fully dry, cut the coupler in half (or just use a 5cm wide pipe) so you have a 3cm long section. Stick in the polymorph so it acts like a rear chamber for the driver.
 
Easy!
A picture says a thousand words, but as this has a target audience of 1, can't be arsed.
 
If you need any help just ask.
 
 
 
You can use any phones with large enclosures for this.
 
This is a mod of 3 parts.
 
I used the upgrades from Bilavideo SR-60 mod thread.
I used the 'new earcup' mod from this page http://gilmore2.chem.northwestern.edu/projects/showfile.php?file=grado_prj.htm
 
Then I put the drivers touching my ears, lined up perfectly, and set in a few hundred grams of plastic.
 
The results are amazing!