Bilavideo
Caution: Incomplete trades.
- Joined
- Feb 29, 2008
- Posts
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- 128
Flats are, by far, the best way to get the best bass out of a Grado. For $35, you're getting a tremendous transformation. The only problem is that you may also end up with a muddier presentation than you like.
Somebody came up with a decent adjustment. If you have the guts to try it, you cut around the inner ring, essentially widening it and reducing any blockage. This opens things up nicely.
But what do you do when you've opened the ring about as much as you can but you still feel the presentation is still a bit muddy, especially on certain tracks? I took the bass ring off a pair of bowls, cut to a height of a few millimeters. This provided a little bit of extension, slightly increasing the ear/driver distance but not to the same degree as the jumbos. It also keeps the contact surface firm, which provides better bass kick than with the comfies or bowls, both of whose tops are too soft.
Finally, it provides a circumaural approach, which actually takes all the weight off the ears. With my HF2's, the weight of the cans is substantial enough that the comfort factor spikes when you get them off the ears. So now, I've got that lush HF2 bass, but I've also got a more open, HF friendly, presentation - but one that stops short of the sibilance created by the jumbos. The result is a hybrid pad that works better than the bowls or the jumbos, precisely because it takes the virtues of the flats and incorporates them with extension. I can't say enough about the virtues of having a firm contact surface, as opposed to something soft. It really does make a difference.
Somebody came up with a decent adjustment. If you have the guts to try it, you cut around the inner ring, essentially widening it and reducing any blockage. This opens things up nicely.
But what do you do when you've opened the ring about as much as you can but you still feel the presentation is still a bit muddy, especially on certain tracks? I took the bass ring off a pair of bowls, cut to a height of a few millimeters. This provided a little bit of extension, slightly increasing the ear/driver distance but not to the same degree as the jumbos. It also keeps the contact surface firm, which provides better bass kick than with the comfies or bowls, both of whose tops are too soft.
Finally, it provides a circumaural approach, which actually takes all the weight off the ears. With my HF2's, the weight of the cans is substantial enough that the comfort factor spikes when you get them off the ears. So now, I've got that lush HF2 bass, but I've also got a more open, HF friendly, presentation - but one that stops short of the sibilance created by the jumbos. The result is a hybrid pad that works better than the bowls or the jumbos, precisely because it takes the virtues of the flats and incorporates them with extension. I can't say enough about the virtues of having a firm contact surface, as opposed to something soft. It really does make a difference.
