[Capt. Z]

Some month, one of the driver in my old bust trusty Grado SR60 gave up. Was trying to find a used one, but no luck. Thought about getting SR325, but then was reading up on the Magnum Driver.

So I ordered a pair of Magnum V8.1 and a set of genuine Grado L-Pads.

I have seen loads of the wooden DIY jobs here on Head-Fi, but I wanted to keep the whole build low cost. Besides I usually use my Grado SR60 while working outside, so I did want anything fancy looking or too heavy.

Rhydon was super helpful and usually answered my emails in minutes. "Together" I was able to liberate the old driver and prepare the thimbals for the Installation of the Magnum driver.

I now have one of the most 'fun to listen' headphones I ever had, and that for 'only' $ 135 investment.

Wondering how much I would have had to invest into the Grado line-up to get similar great sounding headphones.

The lows go pretty low and are plentyful without overpowering, mids are warm and full without being muddy and the highs are well extended without becoming overbearing. Even locking the headphones up to my laptop or XDuoo 10 give my great listening pleasure.

Just got some cheap knock off Grado pads from China ($ 4) which give a little more bass and highs and make you fell even more involved with the music. Probably keep them on during the summer, since I don't mind if they get all wet from sweat. At the end of the season it's no big loss to just throw them away if they gotten too nasty.

Again, I am extremely happy to have gone the Magnum route and thanks again to Rhydon for his creation and great support.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

I'm curious if there is a comparison between the V7 and the V8 in here somewhere that I may have missed....?

I have recently completed two builds with the V7 in sets of sapele and walnut cups. I was very impressed with the V7 overall. Definitely deep bass with that driver, but somewhat loose and muddy in a Grado-type cup. I did a fair amount of experimentation, and found that I could achieve a much tighter and controlled bass response by inserting a round baffle with a 7/16" (11mm) punched hole just behind the screen material. I tried a wide range of baffle openings and found that to be the best balance.

In this semi-baffled configuration, there is bass with authority, solid down below 40Hz, and virtually no slop. I'm curious about the V8 now, if the frequency response may be similar between the 2 or if there may be some benefits to trying the V8.

A back wave Helmholtz resonator + semi open design.

Hmmmm.......

Well I cannot confirm about bass control but subbass will rise exponentially without bleed in mids.

Nice.


Well, Symphones magnum v8.1 + small liberator mod(11mm) + cocobolo wood cups

Dynamat on magnet side.

I will try this mod and try fine tuning it


If symphones can tell me the inductance, QTS, QMS, Qes ,DCR and some other factors of the driver, it would be even more nice. I can create some staged LCR circuit for driver to tune it to utmost flagship level sound.

 

[Konstantin690]

A back wave Helmholtz resonator + semi open design.

Hmmmm.......

Well I cannot confirm about bass control but subbass will rise exponentially without bleed in mids.

Nice.


Well, Symphones magnum v8.1 + small liberator mod(11mm) + cocobolo wood cups

Dynamat on magnet side.

I will try this mod and try fine tuning it


If symphones can tell me the inductance, QTS, QMS, Qes ,DCR and some other factors of the driver, it would be even more nice. I can create some staged LCR circuit for driver to tune it to utmost flagship level sound.

Uhm.... You can't accurately measure T/S parameters on a bending wave driver such as this.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Uhm.... You can't accurately measure T/S parameters on a bending wave driver such as this.

Thanks for reply.

I didn't know that we cannot measure a bending wave driver.


Well, we can have inductance measurement.
I need inductance and impedance at 500Hz for Magnum v8.1.
I think I have Impedance graphs, but having a inductance would help

 

[Konstantin690]

Thanks for reply.

I didn't know that we cannot measure a bending wave driver.


Well, we can have inductance measurement.
I need inductance and impedance at 500Hz for Magnum v8.1.
I think I have Impedance graphs, but having a inductance would help

Inductance is very low to affect an LCR circuit, you only need Impedance graph.

 

[normanu]

Some month, one of the driver in my old bust trusty Grado SR60 gave up. Was trying to find a used one, but no luck. Thought about getting SR325, but then was reading up on the Magnum Driver.

So I ordered a pair of Magnum V8.1 and a set of genuine Grado L-Pads.

I have seen loads of the wooden DIY jobs here on Head-Fi, but I wanted to keep the whole build low cost. Besides I usually use my Grado SR60 while working outside, so I did want anything fancy looking or too heavy.

Rhydon was super helpful and usually answered my emails in minutes. "Together" I was able to liberate the old driver and prepare the thimbals for the Installation of the Magnum driver.

I now have one of the most 'fun to listen' headphones I ever had, and that for 'only' $ 135 investment.

Wondering how much I would have had to invest into the Grado line-up to get similar great sounding headphones.

The lows go pretty low and are plentyful without overpowering, mids are warm and full without being muddy and the highs are well extended without becoming overbearing. Even locking the headphones up to my laptop or XDuoo 10 give my great listening pleasure.

Just got some cheap knock off Grado pads from China ($ 4) which give a little more bass and highs and make you fell even more involved with the music. Probably keep them on during the summer, since I don't mind if they get all wet from sweat. At the end of the season it's no big loss to just throw them away if they gotten too nasty.

Again, I am extremely happy to have gone the Magnum route and thanks again to Rhydon for his creation and great support.

Is it a improvement and how much of a improvement would you say are they over the 60's?
I have the 60's with some things done like mentioned on the forums to improve base etc.
They sound pretty amazing, how do the magnum drivers compare?

 

[Capt. Z]

Sorry if I can not give you an exact comparison between the Magnum 8.1 and the SR60. I have used them to infrequently over the past years. But the difference is pretty big. The bass in the SR60 is full and fun, but can be a little loose. The Magnum gets lower and is well controlled. Mids and Highs show loads of detail and transport you more into the music and musician then the SR60 can.

Having said that, the SR60 are awesome for their price. The Magnum 8.1 is just in a totally different legue for not much money if you can DIY or find some used once.

 

[Alcaudon]

Well... it took me almost forever, but finally I managed to find some spare time to finish a build and I just wanted to share it with you guys (sorry for the terrible pictures):

Some info, just in case anyone is interested:

Headband: Turbulent Labs Grado leather headband XL (inner frame salvaged from SR-60)
Rodblocks and gimbals: Concord Custom Lab
Cups: Aluminium, turned by a local machinist
Sleeves: Maple, turned by fleasbaby
Drivers: Symphones V8
Pads: Generic G-cush (I'm waiting for some L-cush to arrive, the ones I had just desintegrated in my hands while trying to install them, and I don't really like them with TTVJ flats).
Cable: Custom made, braided cable (the composition of each individual cable is: 24 awg, .50 microns 24k gold plated solid core 6N OCC copper conductor, cotton sleeve, teflon insulation, tinned copper tubular braided shield, teflon insulation, nylon multifilament sleeve).
Connector: Furutech FT-763R

Special thanks go to @fleasbaby for accepting the task of turning a set of wonderful (it still amazes me how perfectly they fit even though you did not have the actual cups with you) wooden sleeves for my not so standard cups, thanks!

Hope you like it guys!

 

[normanu]

Well... it took me almost forever, but finally I managed to find some spare time to finish a build and I just wanted to share it with you guys (sorry for the terrible pictures):


Some info, just in case anyone is interested:

Headband: Turbulent Labs Grado leather headband XL (inner frame salvaged from SR-60)
Rodblocks and gimbals: Concord Custom Lab
Cups: Aluminium, turned by a local machinist
Sleeves: Maple, turned by fleasbaby
Drivers: Symphones V8
Pads: Generic G-cush (I'm waiting for some L-cush to arrive, the ones I had just desintegrated in my hands while trying to install them, and I don't really like them with TTVJ flats).
Cable: Custom made, braided cable (the composition of each individual cable is: 24 awg, .50 microns 24k gold plated solid core 6N OCC copper conductor, cotton sleeve, teflon insulation, tinned copper tubular braided shield, teflon insulation, nylon multifilament sleeve).
Connector: Furutech FT-763R

Special thanks go to @fleasbaby for accepting the task of turning a set of wonderful (it still amazes me how perfectly they fit even though you did not have the actual cups with you) wooden sleeves for my not so standard cups, thanks!

Hope you like it guys!

Looks amazing!

 

[fleasbaby]

Well... it took me almost forever, but finally I managed to find some spare time to finish a build and I just wanted to share it with you guys (sorry for the terrible pictures):

Some info, just in case anyone is interested:

Headband: Turbulent Labs Grado leather headband XL (inner frame salvaged from SR-60)
Rodblocks and gimbals: Concord Custom Lab
Cups: Aluminium, turned by a local machinist
Sleeves: Maple, turned by fleasbaby
Drivers: Symphones V8
Pads: Generic G-cush (I'm waiting for some L-cush to arrive, the ones I had just desintegrated in my hands while trying to install them, and I don't really like them with TTVJ flats).
Cable: Custom made, braided cable (the composition of each individual cable is: 24 awg, .50 microns 24k gold plated solid core 6N OCC copper conductor, cotton sleeve, teflon insulation, tinned copper tubular braided shield, teflon insulation, nylon multifilament sleeve).
Connector: Furutech FT-763R

Special thanks go to @fleasbaby for accepting the task of turning a set of wonderful (it still amazes me how perfectly they fit even though you did not have the actual cups with you) wooden sleeves for my not so standard cups, thanks!

Hope you like it guys!

Fantastic! Beautiful work, and I am REALLY glad the sleeves fit so well!

 

[Rhydon]

Stunning! Great work!

 

[Alcaudon]

Fantastic! Beautiful work, and I am REALLY glad the sleeves fit so well!

I'm glad you like it. Actually, they fitted so good that, when I left them inside the cups (not very smart, I know) for a couple of weeks, I had a really hard time to get them out again (probably due to the expansion of the wood because of the different climate or the oil sticking to the walls of the cups). It took me more than an hour of careful fight to get them out, I could have left them inside if it wasn't because the grills were not installed... ouch!. Had to sand them slightly to be able to fit a thin layer of epoxy.

Stunning! Great work!

Thanks Rhydon!
I took fleasbaby's wise advice (thanks for that and for the foam by the way!) and used the foam fitting for the drivers, as I was way to scared to permanently glue the drivers to the sleeves (original plan was to use epoxy). If you don't mind that I ask you... what are your thought's on that method? I know that you said that having an airtight seal between the driver and the sleeve is critical, so I'm a little bit concerned about that.... do you think that the seal is good enough? Also... I tried to reduce the opening for the wires to a minimum (originally the cups were machined for a "slot" type wire entrance), so I made two aluminium inserts, with the exact inner diameter of the wire, that go all the way into the cup, leaving as little gap as possible between the insert and the wire. Picture for reference:

Again, original plan was to use epoxi to seal the wires from the inside, but, again, I was too scared of messing it all, so I ended up covering the wires from the inside with heatshrink.

 

[Rhydon]

Thanks Rhydon!
I took fleasbaby's wise advice (thanks for that and for the foam by the way!) and used the foam fitting for the drivers, as I was way to scared to permanently glue the drivers to the sleeves (original plan was to use epoxy). If you don't mind that I ask you... what are your thought's on that method? I know that you said that having an airtight seal between the driver and the sleeve is critical, so I'm a little bit concerned about that.... do you think that the seal is good enough?

You're ok. We still consider foam fits to be a viable option. As long as the driver sits snug within the foam then it should seal correctly.

 

[fleasbaby]

You're ok. We still consider foam fits to be a viable option. As long as the driver sits snug within the foam then it should seal correctly.

I like foam fit personally...

 

[Rhydon]

I like foam fit personally...

I will consider including foam pieces with the drivers from now on.