[ruhenheiM]

I decided to build my dad a pair of headphones for his 50th birthday and since Grado headphones are regarded as the best in the world, i decided to model my headphones strictly after them, and after salivating over the posts about Grado Labs here, i couldn't prevent myself from making an homage to their methods.

In the design i have combined the Grado HP1000 concept with the look of the GS2000.

The first step was figuring out how the circuit of the Polarity switch in the headphones would work, so i used a pair of safety headsets and simply soldered the polarity switch, fixed them into the safety headset, used some sub-standard dynamic drivers to see if the polarity switch circuit worked, all this was done via Point To Point soldering. I checked the polarity by ear, using sheffield audio's 50 Hz polarity pulses and a circuit as follows :-

https://forum.digikey.com/t/polarity-reversal-using-a-dpdt-switch/626
https://www.stereophile.com/content/inverting-polarity-1

I started by figuring out the design of the housing and whether the whole thing would actually be acoustically sound, so after a bit of trial and error i came up with the final dimensions.
The wood is Indian Oak, but i would have personally gone for Rose wood. I made them on a wooden lathe in college and sanded it later by hand to get the finish i wanted.
I attached Grado styled cushions as well but they weren't very comfortable.

Almost all of the money for the headphone went into the drivers, wires and polarity switch, making the drivers the most expensive component of the build. I would not settle for any ordinary driver for my dad, and was even modded and installed an Orthodynamic driver during experimentation, but since he works in an environment where there are quite a few magnetic elements i swapped them out for the best dynamic driver i could afford at the time - Here's the link if you wanna check these out:

https://es.aliexpress.com/item/3294...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

The next was the UHPLC wiring, which took a bit of time but i used RCA jacks in case he would want to plug them into his old stereo radio, i gave him an RCA to 3.5 mm conversion jack for when he would want to use them with his phone or MP3 player. I soldered them to their respective ends and used multiple coils of heat shrink cable fixed around each other to seal them into the headphones. Then i drilled holes into the black wire mesh that gives the headphones their open-back appeal, fixed the polarity switch knobs into them, and then soldered the six pin DPDT switch to the UHPLC cables, and finally added the drivers in, soldered them and sealed the whole arrangement.

I also built an external polarity switching circuit as cheaply as i could so that i could try out the polarity switching with my ATH-M50's.

These headphones would not sound good without a decent amplifier so i followed the instructions to build one of these-

https://www.instructables.com/id/Class-A-Hybrid-Headphone-Amp/

P.S- I made this post after the user 'protoss' encouraged me to do so. Thank you.

it's nice to see DIY spirit still out there!
is there any particular reason why did you put polarity switch to the headphone?

 

[Naack]

I have tried doing that, but alas it is still there (granted I didn't use any compressed air out of fear of damaging it). The rattle only happens when I turn the volume up louder, but it is fine if I keep is fairly quiet.

 

[zazex]

Have you heard and compared the GH2 Cocobola Ltd Edition with the 500e's ? Do you find the 500e's a bit heavy to wear for extended listening periods ?

Haven't heard the GH2. I did have the GH1 (native maple) which I liked,
but I liked my RS1i's more.
Haven't ever felt that the 500e's were heavy to wear.

 

[Burhanuddin]

it's nice to see DIY spirit still out there!
is there any particular reason why did you put polarity switch to the headphone?

Yes. My father listens to a lot of music from the 20's and 30's, and the audio engineers back then did not pay much attention to audio polarity as it was always 'mono'. Music softwares nowadays take the 'mono' input and can convert it to 'stereo' but the principle remains the same, that switching the polarity switch would cause a 180 degree phase shift in polarity and produce a sound with a different character entirely. Thus, my father can go back in time and actually check if the engineers had appropriately wired the microphones to their correct polarity.

 

[zombywoof]

@Burhanuddin Thank you for sharing the details of your project. I found your posts to be very interesting as I have often wondered about the purpose of the polarity switches. What a wonderful and unique gift for your father.

 

[railcannon]

Hello everyone. I have a question.
Has the grado RS2e package changed recently?
I know that the Grado RS1E package has been changed to a monochrome package.
But what about RS2e?
I remember the latest history of the RS2e package is an orange and white paper box.
Am I Right?

 

[zazex]

Hello everyone. I have a question.
Has the grado RS2e package changed recently?
I know that the Grado RS1E package has been changed to a monochrome package.
But what about RS2e?
I remember the latest history of the RS2e package is an orange and white paper box.
Am I Right?

During the several years I've been buying Grado headphones,
I've never seen them boxed the same way, regardless of model.
(Including the 80, 80i, 125, 225, 225i, 225e, 325is, 325e, GH1,
RS1i, RS2e, GH4, 500e.)
If you want some more definitive info, I'd recommend that you
email Grado Labs; they're very customer-friendly. Calling them
during business hours is another option.

 

[paulybatz]

Love the PS1000s I picked up...hate that cardboard box.

 

[ParaLoganGrado]

Love the PS1000s I picked up...hate that cardboard box.

Awesome! What revision? Gimme some impressions! I've been neglecting my Grados for dat planar bass lately and need a reason to come back

 

[paulybatz]

They’re the first ps1000
I scored a new old stock pair a couple months ago...
I really enjoy them...they are my favorite with Jazz...some say heavy. I don’t think so...I just think if you’re going to charge over 1k for a headphone you should get a case...

 

[railcannon]

During the several years I've been buying Grado headphones,
I've never seen them boxed the same way, regardless of model.
(Including the 80, 80i, 125, 200, 200i, 200e, 325is, 325e, GH1,
RS1i, RS2e, GH4, 500e.)
If you want some more definitive info, I'd recommend that you
email Grado Labs; they're very customer-friendly. Calling them
during business hours is another option.)

Thanks for the kind answer.
Actually, English is not my major language.
Also, I have already bothered them with the minor issues of my GS3000e.
So even if it looks weird, I'm trying to check it myself for a while.

 

[ruhenheiM]

They’re the first ps1000
I scored a new old stock pair a couple months ago...
I really enjoy them...they are my favorite with Jazz...some say heavy. I don’t think so...I just think if you’re going to charge over 1k for a headphone you should get a case...

do you find any imperfection in their chrome finishing?

i just realized their old finishing looks more like a ps2000e smoky chrome finishing

 

[paulybatz]

Mine is bright and shiny

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Just listening to the Grado 3000e through my Chord Hugo 2 which arrived today.

Initial impressions is that they are a nice balanced headphone across the whole frequency range, and look very nice too. Quality is very good.

The cocobola wood has an interesting and strange smell to it...like a cement & clay mortar mix kind of smell.

Over this coming extended weekend (public holiday in UK this coming Friday) I will test them out against my Beyer T5P Gen 2's and the recently bought Grado SR80e's with the original pads and aftermarket G size cushions (which also arrived today) across a wide and different range of genres.

In the meantime I will try and get around 50 to 60 hours of burn in between now and Friday.

 

[THGM]

They look a beautiful pair of headphones. Enjoy!