Grado modders go Magnum

[Currawong]

I wonder how the C6 3D printed cups would compare to the original aluminium Magnum housing that I have. The aluminium brings out more treble than the wood pair I have by a considerable margin.

 

[thaddeussmith]

What are people using as the flat spring material in their headbands when going with custom gimbals/rod blocks? That seems to be the one piece I cannot source without scavenging a pair of OEM grados.

 

[Currawong]

  What are people using as the flat spring material in their headbands when going with custom gimbals/rod blocks? That seems to be the one piece I cannot source without scavenging a pair of OEM grados.

Scavenging a pair of Grados is indeed what people do, if they don't buy a generic Sony headband. 

 

[northendjazz]

Just waiting for the last couple of parts for my V7 build, including this headband  http://www.rholupat.com/products/leather-band.html
also rodblock  from the same source "Update issue (August-16) : include inner metal band "  but before I was struggling to find those pesky metal spring bands. I was thinking of sacrificing my alessandro ms1 for the headband, do I liberate the drivers and put them in wood cups? I may do they where very cheap not a lot to risk but I'm unsure if its worth it?

 

[fleasbaby]

  Just waiting for the last couple of parts for my V7 build, including this headband  http://www.rholupat.com/products/leather-band.html
also rodblock  from the same source "Update issue (August-16) : include inner metal band "  but before I was struggling to find those pesky metal spring bands. I was thinking of sacrificing my alessandro ms1 for the headband, do I liberate the drivers and put them in wood cups? I may do they where very cheap not a lot to risk but I'm unsure if its worth it?

 
Check out this thread for ideas on what to do to an MS1. Haven't heard of folks doing this in a while, but it was popular...
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/323271/alessandro-ms1000-and-ms-ultimate-diy-modding-56k-warning
 
Secondary thread:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/417594/alessandro-ms1000-owner-appreciation-thread

 

[xuan87]

Just finished building 2 headphones over the weekend, one with the Symphones Magnum V7 drivers and the other with Nhoord red drivers. A very simple affair, easily the most time consuming portion is the braiding of the cable.
 
I bought the headphones frames from Taobao and it comes fully assembled. The wood are South Africa Ebony and Rosewood. Each frame is about $100 shipped to Singapore, and come with 2 different set of pads, 3M grills and pads which I didn't use.
 

 
The cups are screwed together, with SMC connectors, so it's a simple matter to unscrew the cups, attached the drivers to the cup lids with double-sided mounting tapes (because the drivers are slightly smaller than the lids), solder the connecting wires to the drivers and screw back the lid. At this point, your headphone portion is basically done.
 

 
Here they are with the balanced cables attached. I used silver plated wires terminated in 4 pole XLR plugs.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

Can you give the links for those cups?

 

[xuan87]

Here you go:
 
Taobao

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

Thanks a lot friend How do you find the sound? Are the 2 kind of drivers good for that kind of cups?

 

[xuan87]

So both my Nhoord and Magnum has about 10-12 hours of burn in and I took 20 mins last night to do a quick A-B comparison. There is nothing objective about this, purely subjective, but the characteristics of these 2 headphones are actually quite different.
 
The Nhoord will probably be the more popular options with most people: it's slightly warmer, and has more of a V shaped FR with more bass quantity, making it the more fun headphones to listen to out of the two.
 
The Magnum will be more popular with critical listeners or what I call the HD800 club: It's more neutral and transparent, more flat and technically more superior compared to the Nhoord (more resolving and more detailed). But it's also more sterile, a little (very little) thin, and I found the trebles to be quite fatiguing, depending on the song I'm listening to.
 
In the end, it's hard for me to pick a winner between the 2, because I do like a flat neutral headphones (that's why I have the R70X), but I like a fun warmer headphones too (that's why I have the THX00).
 
More detailed impressions to come after they both have 50 hours burn-in, but I don't think my initial impressions will change much.

 

[northendjazz]

So I sort of finished my V7 project, well I'm waiting on a nicer headband but I can't see the crumby plastic one when I'm listening. Un-burned in and I can hear what others have said about the V7's its hard to say exactly what i like about them but it would be list of I love the Timber etc.. I suppose I'm learning that I must be a critical listener and the V7's are everything I've been looking for.  This means I can finally thin out the headphones with a "fun sound" if I want that I can listen to "fun music"?
 
 
The V7's will now go on a tour of all my amps and a Sansui AU2200 arrives tomorrow

 
 
Pictures when I have the new headband from Rholupat.

 

[KeithG]

Here you go:

Taobao

Interesting.

 

[fleasbaby]

I wonder how the C6 3D printed cups would compare to the original aluminium Magnum housing that I have. The aluminium brings out more treble than the wood pair I have by a considerable margin.

From what Rhydon told me the cups are designed affect the driver as little as possible, hence the minimalist look and the foam mounting of the drivers. I haven't heard the all aluminium Magnums, but I suspect the V7 in the C3 cups will definitely be a different beast...

 

[Konstantin690]

Measurements of the Magnum V7 are HERE

 

[wormsdriver]

here's my Magnum V7 build. Aluminum cups, mahogany sleeves, grado 4 conductor cable and headband assembly:

 
I have now switched to a jmoney headband.