[stratocaster]

You're a real maniac, lostMid. I'll certainly try out your voodoo and do a before and after. I never thought of applying any stuff inside the cups before. We need more modding, not just buying and assembling. Good stuff.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

this only recently solidified to me as being important. I had done it off and on over the last 3 months and wondered why some sets sounded more natural in upper mids than the others. I traced it back to this......... Started off totally disrespecting the finish, (months ago) then starting to realize the type matters, then, how it's applied and lastly the inner air chamber wall....so it was a process and last to come but just as important. The inner wall is where the 'action is'.....the great thing about the oils is that this process can be used. Not sure a poly or laqcur can be manipulated after it's applied and dried?  in addition to the fact I think oil may be best to use for other reasons......there is so much to experiment with just with 3 different oils and how they are applied onto one or two woods (mahog, limba- truoil, danish, linseed) that to think of all the other woods and finish choices and their permutations and combnations is way too much....have to narrow it down.....

 

[Triggerfish]

Thanks for the responses on that.  Hope I get the earpads in the mail today, and I'll take the scissors to the cords when I get home.  Really looking forward to finally hearing the magnum v4 sound.  Hoping it is incredible as I keep seeing the RS1s for sale in the forums and I keep wondering if I made the right decision in going with the magnums.

 

[chrislangley4253]

Quote:

Thanks for the responses on that.  Hope I get the earpads in the mail today, and I'll take the scissors to the cords when I get home.  Really looking forward to finally hearing the magnum v4 sound.  Hoping it is incredible as I keep seeing the RS1s for sale in the forums and I keep wondering if I made the right decision in going with the magnums.

answer is yes

 

[thelostMIDrange]

strato....this is a learning process but seems to me in order to really do the wet sand to the inner wall, the cup would need to really be saturated and penetrated with oil. I dip them usually to accomplish this, but have experiemented with wiping on as well. doesn't seem wiping gives quite enough penetration and also depends on the oil. the danish oil for example is thought to go deeper in. I originally started giving cups a full 30 minute bath in danish and felt the upper end was too artificial and so started just doing a 10 sec bath an wipe off of excess after 15 minutes.....My thinking is to try and get a sandwich of hardened finish outer, raw wood, hardened finish inner with wet sand as needed to dial in snare drums
 
 
like most things though, the more one learns the more one realizes how little is known. I feel real close now though and frankly could live with what i'm hearing for a long time but would like to try and learn some more during my down time. winter is my down time work wise but that will be changing soom so want to try and get as much experimented with as possible. that's why i am so intense about it right now. I also suspect mahog and limba will benefit from one oil over another and likely different for each, but same application and wet sand technique......My impressions at this point is that danish is a snappier harder sound which will benefit the smooth rich limba and teh tru oil helps warm up the mahogany and slow it down a little........But this is from random listening. I will be trying to to direct a/b's of these different oils....but of course need to make  a bunch more 'donor' cups to do this.I'm thinking of just making some cylander shapes without the end detail to save time?  right now i need to go buy and mill up some more limba. My wife wonders where the hell I am all the time and that's not gonna work for much longer i suspect !

 

[stratocaster]

Quote:

right now i need to go buy and mill up some more limba. My wife wonders where the hell I am all the time and that's not gonna work for much longer i suspect !

That may happen
Guess you can imagine what my lady was thinking once she saw me diving into her lingerie drawer on my lookout for some 'material' I could use to 'undo' my punched Grado-driver vents.
 

 

[dorino]

Quote:

That may happen
Guess you can imagine what my lady was thinking once she saw me diving into her lingerie drawer on my lookout for some 'material' I could use to 'undo' my punched Grado-driver vents.
 

Oh wow. That's hilarious. Your SO's underwear is a part of your headphone.
 

 

[t-crisis]

lostMIDrange you should get a job working for Grado, or do a start-up company that makes high-quality custom wood headphones. Then again I'm afraid of what a business approach can do to a man... I'm glad you're here to help and not to solicite 

 

[t-crisis]

69 post FTW

 

[Grev]

Quote:

I have iPod -->CLAS--->O2/Arrow (3G)/MiniWatt (v1)/M-stage/LF339/Sansui AU717/Toshiba SA7100/Pioneer SX1250....CMOY 2.2
So far I think the O2 is a no brainner if you are in the market for an amp. While I do not recommend tubes, if you already have a tube amp and you are into tube rolling, then this headphone is a must. Not because it's synergistic but because you can really tell the difference between the tubes. However, be warned that if you are annoyed by residual hum from heat build up or your tubes are in any way "noisy/microphonic" then you will not want to use these phones for extended listening. 
 
Unlike the Grado's the Magnum likes voltage (similar to LCD-2 in fact) not necessarily huge watts, but voltage. Obviously the 1250 (165w) is not really a good match because even with the -20db engaged there is not allot of action on the volume pot. But surprisingly all the other amps pair well. In fact, I would say this is the most versatile driver I have encountered. As thelostMidrange has pointed out, these drivers (once burned in) pair well with just the bare source. But I find the CLAS-->O2 combo really synergistic, and its sort of portable (plus the O2 only costs $30 more than the drivers).
By the way my favorite portable set up is the nano--->LOD--->shadow, in fact that has to be my most used combo (because its so pocketable).
 
What it comes down too, IMO, is that these drivers are super revealing and as long as your source is good especially the files (!!!LOSSLESS!!!) you will be 90% of the way there. With something like the CLAS you are 99% of the way there. Choosing an amp then becomes a decision of what type of sound you are after, bright (nuforce, ibasso...) neutral (O2, Arrow, M-stage, 339..) or dark (RSA, Sansui, ALO...).
 
I hope this helps


 

Thanks for that.
 
 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

moved my haphazard behind teh scenes research over to the more appropriate diy section to keep this thread clean. check it out if interested. it ain't pretty though you've been warned
 
 
 
 
 

 

[chrislangley4253]

 
thelostMIDrange is the man to follow
 
If you don't know, now you know..
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/592921/cup-tuning-basics

 

[sluker]

Need to wake up this thread. It's like you guys went to sleep after you got your headphones built.
I had an old LCD-2 headband lying around (got the leather one a while back). So I decided to try my spare Grado gimbals with it. It just fits at the largest extension, and I wear the standard Grado band on the lowest possible setting. So needless to say this will not be an option for everyone. But comfort wise it's great, super light and just enough clamping force.
 
By the way these are v3.5 drivers in Mahogany cups from thelostMidrange. The bass with these cups is addictive, hard to describe but it has this bouncy feel to it almost reminds me of the D7000 but with an open feel.
 

 

[Twinster]

Very nice headband. I had noticed that the Audeze headband was using similar adjusting setup to Grado and was asking myself if it would work. You just answer that question. Thanks look very good.
 
I'll try to contribute to this thread later today with my latest upgrade on my Magnum V4....To be continued.. 

 
Quote:

Need to wake up this thread. It's like you guys went to sleep after you got your headphones built.
I had an old LCD-2 headband lying around (got the leather one a while back). So I decided to try my spare Grado gimbals with it. It just fits at the largest extension, and I wear the standard Grado band on the lowest possible setting. So needless to say this will not be an option for everyone. But comfort wise it's great, super light and just enough clamping force.
 
By the way these are v3.5 drivers in Mahogany cups from thelostMidrange. The bass with these cups is addictive, hard to describe but it has this bouncy feel to it almost reminds me of the D7000 but with an open feel.
 

 

 

[rogan]

very sleek! what headphone amp is that?
 
Quote:

Need to wake up this thread. It's like you guys went to sleep after you got your headphones built.
I had an old LCD-2 headband lying around (got the leather one a while back). So I decided to try my spare Grado gimbals with it. It just fits at the largest extension, and I wear the standard Grado band on the lowest possible setting. So needless to say this will not be an option for everyone. But comfort wise it's great, super light and just enough clamping force.
 
By the way these are v3.5 drivers in Mahogany cups from thelostMidrange. The bass with these cups is addictive, hard to describe but it has this bouncy feel to it almost reminds me of the D7000 but with an open feel.