doobooloo
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2002
- Posts
- 2,544
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- 11
i posted a thread about two weeks ago about my new grado 225 driver mismatch. at that time, i thought my grado had some serious driver mismatch, specifically with the right channel having larger lower bass.
after two weeks of playing around, i found out several things:
[size=small]YES the grados are VERY pad dependent! (as a recent post verified!)[/size]
a few months ago i purchased an SR-80 and returned them because they were too bright and seemed to have no bass... then i got the ety 4p which seemed to have no bass at first but slowly revealed quality bass hidden in the amazing detail... this led me to think, hmm, maybe the grados were like that and i can learn to enjoy them now. thus my purchase of the 225s.
when i got my 225s i still felt the harsh highs and (relatively) no bass. ultimately facilitated by the driver mismatch disappointment, i started to play around with the pads. i did the sock pad mod from headwize, which, to my amazement, bloated the bass beyond belief. quantity-wize, it was a monster! through this i realized that these cans had potential for a very balanced sound, and remembering people raving about the long-dead flat pads, i decided to make something similar.
i got the small round pads from the backphone that came with my nomad jukebox 3 (and never was opened haha) and cut a hole the size of a penny, put them on the grados, and stretched the bowl pads and put them over them (more like behind them). these pads fit the can perfectly, and were a little thicker and denser (~5mm in thickness) than other headphone pads - which i think attributed to its good bass enhancement. at the same time, of course, it muffled the top end a little. but i was amazingly satisfied (this was when i posted, "my grados are like my portapros!"... they were really like that, except with boomier bass...
then i got sick of the sickening boomy bass and decided to make the hole larger. i got to the point where the hole was the size of the white mesh, and when i put them on - WOW! so balanced! the tight bass, great mids, not-harsh highs - just amazing! i guess this is what you guys say about the flat-pad greatness.
oh, and they're much comfier than the bowl pads alone, too!
i am away from home right now, as soon as i can take pictures of my new pad mods i will post them up... in about two weeks. the modded pads look like two rings...
they're great! (and cheap!)
[size=small]driver mismatch or recording mismatch?[/size]
is it really the driver mismatch or an intended misplacement of the recording? (the drumset is on stageleft, etc.) i recently realized that on some recordings of similar bass punch and depth and freq., the bass is perfectly centered. and in some rare recordings, the bass is located towards the left side... which led me to think... when people master music, do they purposely put the basslines to the right side (or the left side) to convey that the bass is coming not directly from the front? hmm... i can't think of any other reason for this left-right bass mismatch since counterexamples of my grado's manufacturing fault theory have been discovered...
AND now that i listen more carefully, i feel the same mismatch from all my other headphones, even my HD-600. but of course, much less pronounced.
so, the difference is there in the recording, but... in the senn's case because it is more open and the driver is placed away from the ear the bass difference cannot be felt as much... whereas in the grado's case the driver's right there stuck on the ears (and the cans are so accurate) so even minute differences in bass responses create a slight offset in bass imaging...? hmm...
i'm just wondering if i should just accept it as it is and think that slight offset in bass imaging is meant to be like that and enjoy the music without worrying about my ears or headphones being messed up or... call up grado for a replacement or something.
at this moment the mismatch is bothering me so much that i can't focus on the music. i need to be comforted with the assurance that something isn't wrong - my ear, grados, or music - so that i can just put the worry aside and actually LISTEN to music again!
...help?
after two weeks of playing around, i found out several things:
[size=small]YES the grados are VERY pad dependent! (as a recent post verified!)[/size]
a few months ago i purchased an SR-80 and returned them because they were too bright and seemed to have no bass... then i got the ety 4p which seemed to have no bass at first but slowly revealed quality bass hidden in the amazing detail... this led me to think, hmm, maybe the grados were like that and i can learn to enjoy them now. thus my purchase of the 225s.
when i got my 225s i still felt the harsh highs and (relatively) no bass. ultimately facilitated by the driver mismatch disappointment, i started to play around with the pads. i did the sock pad mod from headwize, which, to my amazement, bloated the bass beyond belief. quantity-wize, it was a monster! through this i realized that these cans had potential for a very balanced sound, and remembering people raving about the long-dead flat pads, i decided to make something similar.
i got the small round pads from the backphone that came with my nomad jukebox 3 (and never was opened haha) and cut a hole the size of a penny, put them on the grados, and stretched the bowl pads and put them over them (more like behind them). these pads fit the can perfectly, and were a little thicker and denser (~5mm in thickness) than other headphone pads - which i think attributed to its good bass enhancement. at the same time, of course, it muffled the top end a little. but i was amazingly satisfied (this was when i posted, "my grados are like my portapros!"... they were really like that, except with boomier bass...
then i got sick of the sickening boomy bass and decided to make the hole larger. i got to the point where the hole was the size of the white mesh, and when i put them on - WOW! so balanced! the tight bass, great mids, not-harsh highs - just amazing! i guess this is what you guys say about the flat-pad greatness.
oh, and they're much comfier than the bowl pads alone, too!
i am away from home right now, as soon as i can take pictures of my new pad mods i will post them up... in about two weeks. the modded pads look like two rings...
[size=small]driver mismatch or recording mismatch?[/size]
is it really the driver mismatch or an intended misplacement of the recording? (the drumset is on stageleft, etc.) i recently realized that on some recordings of similar bass punch and depth and freq., the bass is perfectly centered. and in some rare recordings, the bass is located towards the left side... which led me to think... when people master music, do they purposely put the basslines to the right side (or the left side) to convey that the bass is coming not directly from the front? hmm... i can't think of any other reason for this left-right bass mismatch since counterexamples of my grado's manufacturing fault theory have been discovered...
AND now that i listen more carefully, i feel the same mismatch from all my other headphones, even my HD-600. but of course, much less pronounced.
so, the difference is there in the recording, but... in the senn's case because it is more open and the driver is placed away from the ear the bass difference cannot be felt as much... whereas in the grado's case the driver's right there stuck on the ears (and the cans are so accurate) so even minute differences in bass responses create a slight offset in bass imaging...? hmm...
i'm just wondering if i should just accept it as it is and think that slight offset in bass imaging is meant to be like that and enjoy the music without worrying about my ears or headphones being messed up or... call up grado for a replacement or something.
...help?
