[thelostMIDrange]

only if special attention is paid to the finish to try and beef up the midrange which I haven't been totally successful with and gave up after I stumbled on limba........ I find mahogany, raw and with certain finishes, to sound thin and too airy. Which is also my impression of grados rs series so it adds up in my mind. Limba fills out the midrange with a richer sound and has smoother upper mids. My only other favorite wood is tiger maple.....not hard rock maple. tiger (figured) maple is much less dense than hard maple and the exotics. It's more middle of the road which is what oyu want to look for. Mahogany is actually real close to a soft wood in actual properties. It's basically a sponge with tons of holes (cells) and is too light both literaly and figuratively in sound.........walnut is probably my third choice and a way distant 4th koa.

 

[dorino]

Quote:

only if special attention is paid to the finish to try and beef up the midrange which I haven't been totally successful with and gave up after I stumbled on limba........ I find mahogany, raw and with certain finishes, to sound thin and too airy. Which is also my impression of grados rs series so it adds up in my mind. Limba fills out the midrange with a richer sound and has smoother upper mids. My only other favorite wood is tiger maple.....not hard rock maple. tiger (figured) maple is much less dense than hard maple and the exotics. It's more middle of the road which is what oyu want to look for. Mahogany is actually real close to a soft wood in actual properties. It's basically a sponge with tons of holes (cells) and is too light both literaly and figuratively in sound.........walnut is probably my third choice and a way distant 4th koa.

Remember I'm upgrading from plastic and, in part, looking for the RS series sound. I've heard a lot of good things about mahogany.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

still.................not sure if it's worth the $150 or so that you'd have to fork over for the mahogany and again, the finish can add to mahog's problems and who knows what anyone is wiping and spraying on and in their wood cups these days? It's a crapshoot. You'd be better off spending the money on magnum drivers first and stay with the plastic for now...........or buy an rs if you think you like super airy, no balls sound. which may be fine, especially if you like to hear male vocalists sound like women. If ound the rs had lack of lower mids.......my whacked theory is that grado tries to eq their drivers to compensate for the midrange thinness of mahogany by boosting the upper bass, and it ends up sounding thin throughout the upper mids because of this. If there was a way to get mahog to boost itself up a little more towards a center of the spectrum, i.e tru midrange, then it would be a better result..............................and this is exactly what limba does naturally

 

[dorino]

Quote:

still.................not sure if it's worth the $150 or so that you'd have to fork over for the mahogany and again, the finish can add to mahog's problems and who knows what anyone is wiping and spraying on and in their wood cups these days? It's a crapshoot. You'd be better off spending the money on magnum drivers first and stay with the plastic for now...........or buy an rs if you think you like super airy, no balls sound. which may be fine, especially if you like to hear male vocalists sound like women. If ound the rs had lack of lower mids.......my whacked theory is that grado tries to eq their drivers to compensate for the midrange thinness of mahogany by boosting the upper bass, and it ends up sounding thin throughout the upper mids because of this. If there was a way to get mahog to boost itself up a little more towards a center of the spectrum, i.e tru midrange, then it would be a better result..............................and this is exactly what limba does naturally

That's not my taste, but that's not what RS sounds to me like at all. My woodies are getting done and installed for a good price, and I'll be buying magnums soon too. I'll shoot an e-mail off to the guy doing the work and tell you what kind of finish he's using. What I've seen of his work on here has been straight praise.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

 I exaggerate for affect. Rs are nice phones. but you ahve to admit, they are a little 'airy' no?

 

[thelostMIDrange]

I think orenholzt uses shelac and wax top coat if that is who you are using. I have a set in mahogany with that exact recipe at the bottom of my cup pile. I should dig them out and re-listen. I recall it was a decent sound.

 

[dorino]

"Just enough blonde shellac to finish the wood" and a beeswax and carnauba polish.
 
You were right, Ohrenholz is doing mine. They are a little airy, but I've never enjoyed Grados for accuracy. They sound good (fun), not right. That's okay with me.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

ok, that's what I thought. Should be good. Ask if he treats the inside too and if it's with the shelac AND the wax or just the shelac.......if you can get 'hold of him before he's done, have him hold off on the wax on the inside of chamber would be my only recommendation. I found wax tends to smear the entire sound ever so slightly in a non musical way.

 

[dorino]

Quote:

ok, that's what I thought. Should be good. Ask if he treats the inside too and if it's with the shelac AND the wax or just the shelac.......if you can get 'hold of him before he's done, have him hold off on the wax on the inside of chamber would be my only recommendation. I found wax tends to smear the entire sound ever so slightly in a non musical way.

 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

just one more thought. He may not treat the inside with anything.........Which generally I have not found to be desirable as the finish can be the only way to refine the trebles and upper mids to taste.......but it also generally tends to thin out that part of the e/q in the process......But with mahog, it is already pretty lean in the upper mids, so I've never tried but may be actually desirable with that wood to leave the inside raw and unfinished as I found generally unfinished woods have a richer midrange if at times a bit 'chewy' for lack of a better word. But with mahog it may be worth it. So, either way, raw or shelac only would be worth trying......

 

[chachokat]

Just to double check, (thelostMidrange), you prefer honduran mahogany over other types, correct?  I believe this is what Ohrenholz uses

 

[thelostMIDrange]

Actually I tried 3 kinds of mahog, african, honduran and a odd species from indonesia. They each had issues imo. The honduran is the lightest and least dense of the three. It is also the only true mahogany for what it's worth. The others are in fact totally different species, they just look similar and share some properties. I also think he epoxies the holes for strength which is cool and again, this is because it is really almost a soft wood in it's sturcture. It's like douglas fir almost.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

He should start turning in black limba imo of course. Once you go black you never go back. I would be willing to send him a nice board if he doesn't have a local supplier. I may try and contact him about it. Seems like good people and I sure as hell don't want to get into the business of making cups. But someone should jump on this wood. Problem is the cosmetics. I love it personally, but it's not a dark wood and that seems to be the shade of choice for the average buyer. In which case, request he use walnut....it's dark beautiful and sounds real nice. If these guys know what you want, they will supply it. the old supply and demand law. So demand it !

 

[dorino]

Quote:

Actually I tried 3 kinds of mahog, african, honduran and a odd species from indonesia. They each had issues imo. The honduran is the lightest and least dense of the three. It is also the only true mahogany for what it's worth. The others are in fact totally different species, they just look similar and share some properties. I also think he epoxies the holes for strength which is cool and again, this is because it is really almost a soft wood in it's sturcture. It's like douglas fir almost.

 
He does epoxy the gimbal holes.
 
On shellacing the inside: 
Quote:

Yes, otherwise it would not offer any true protection.  Wood is very susceptible to temperature and especially humidity changes, the shellac helps to protect the wood by sealing it from ambient moisture.  On the inside I use only one good coating, to try to preserve the tone/resonant qualities as much as possible.

 
When I contacted him, he said he was already planning on looking into limba. I'd still consider myself a mahogany fan, having listened to Honduran mahogany cups before (on 80i's, no less!) and loved them.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

 
 
Ok good info, He's probably right about using a finish on both sides. May get some cracks over time if not.....maybe not but a seller always errors on the side of caution and low returns and unhappy customers. totally understandable. And again, this is also my preference (using finish on both sides) but it's for sound not protection, I"m a slave to sound and if I felt no finish was best, I'd take my chances with raw surface. But in fact I like the affect on the inside surface..........He should try a less invasive wipe on oil though which is what I use now. a couple coats of birchwood casey truoil. i.e. gunstock oil is pretty sweet, leaves limba affect but give some refinement to upper end. I like it with mahog too..Oils penetrate and visibly almost dissapear on the surface. shelacs, at least the one I used tended to sit on the surface more, intruding on the sound. What i call 'invasive' finish. whereas an oil is 'enhancing'. But where getting pretty deep into the nitty gritty here. These are super subtle details in sound alteration at this level. All these little things tend to add up though, and get enough ducks going in the wrong direction and the whole damn flock is headed for the swamp....sounds like you got enough ducks going in the right direction though........and since you like your rs grado, you should be happy with these cups coming. If you ever pop a magnum in the same cup though, it would be very reminiscant of rs sound ime. Just with some added magnum flavor no surprise.