[simonatsea]

Well, after reading the glowing reviews I decided to purchase some V9’s. I’ve had a pair of 3D printed wood cups which I had never used for the build. Turned out the inner dimensions were just a little big for the driver. I used some thin closed cell vinyl foam(sound deadening material) on the inner lip of the cup with some double sided carpet tape.
I used some Zu audio teflon SPC(Mobuis) for the internal hook wire in the cups. Initially I had added a piece of 4n 28g solid silver in Teflon to the hook up wire but have since removed that.
My cable connectors are supplied from Mrspeakers to use my Norne Vanquish SE cable and balanced Mrspeaker XLR cable from my AD Primes.
I used pure copper screen material for the cup mesh.
G cups seem to have a much more balanced sound than my L cups. Although limited time has been spent with the L cups so far.
First off my balanced cable did not seem to work with these drivers. Not sure why, one ear was very weak and distorted and the other had no sound. I installed the connectors as per Mrspeakers wiring guide... so far its a mystery... do the hookup wires have to be the exact same length if there are multiple wires per pole?

Listening.... well at first I found them to have very thick deep bass, maybe not the last word in texture though. They were filled with detail, detail monsters I would say, but almost to a fault, a little tipped up towards the treble region. I found them to be fatiguing and a little tizzy and could show some simbalance. I decided it could be the pure Silver wire inside the cups that might be the culprit. I did a little open heart surgery and the tizzy harsh highs we gone.
They seem alot more balanced now, less fatiguing and though a little less resolving(maybe in a good way though).
This is my first foray back the magnum/grado sound but I was hoping for more soundstage, imaging and depth. Currently I am not getting that. They do sound great and I love the open feel and sound of the headphones.
Its just when I put my Mrspeakers AD Primes(closed back) on the layers and depth of the sound is delivered in spades. The magnums make those sound really good...

Maybe its my 3d printer wood cups not being of “Tone wood” or the internal dimensions not being just quite rite but I am a little under whelmed by the whole package. They sound amazing for $149 USD but I guess I was just expecting a little more in the soundstage, laying, imaging departments...

They are light, comfortable, open and balanced. I made them and I think they look pretty cool but I would trade them for Audeze LCD-3f’s given half the chance.

Maybe some different cups might happen at some point when I get feeling crafty again...

More pics to come

 

[simonatsea]

More pics

 

[Philimon]

Does anyone build to order? I dont have a soldering iron.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

Does anyone build to order? I dont have a soldering iron.

Send fleasbaby a PM. He turns great cups and does great builds as well.

 

[ChijiroKuro]

Greetings from Spain, good people.
Moving forward step by step, little time to enjoy.

Perfect seat & seal with the new material at the edge of the V9

Direct welding to the V9, for now.

No absorbent or anti-resonant material.

@fleasbaby cups are amazing and sound is... mmmm... a big step forward in all aspects. Thanks @Rhydon , again, for a "perfect" driver, sure.

Cheers!!!
C.K.

 

[fleasbaby]

Greetings from Spain, good people.
Moving forward step by step, little time to enjoy.

Perfect seat & seal with the new material at the edge of the V9
Direct welding to the V9, for now.

No absorbent or anti-resonant material.

@fleasbaby cups are amazing and sound is... mmmm... a big step forward in all aspects. Thanks @Rhydon , again, for a "perfect" driver, sure.

Cheers!!!
C.K.

Great stuff...I have a pair of V9s waiting for me to install them and try them out. Need to maybe set aside time this weekend to get them set up.

 

[Geezer Rock 001]

I was rocking my V9 s last night. I have been a big fan ever since their intro. They need more love prople!!

 

[basman]

I'm still struck with the V7 and thinking going straight to V9.

 

[joeq70]

Another year, another Magnum build! I've been away awhile, but I just ordered the Symphones V9 and some cups. Looking forward to giving these a spin

 

[mwildebeast]

If the pictures don't attach properly they are posted at https://imgur.com/a/1fOesaO

Received my V9's 3 days ago and installed them.
Should mention that they are well packaged inside the cardboard delivery box.
A new thing other than the grills compared to the V8's is the thin rim of foam that circumferentially surrounds the driver.This makes it dead easy to install them into the cups - no need for plumbing tape or blutack to get a good seal.
Had a quick listen without burning them in.
Initial impressions are they sound a lot like the V8's which is a good thing.
Might post further impressions down the track. I have Nhoord Reds and Elleven Acoustica Epsilon G1's to compare to as well.

Just out of curiosity, have you had a chance to compare the V9's to the Nhoord Reds or Elleven Acoustica Epsilon G1's? I'm considering doing a build with the Symphones V9, and I'm very curious to know how they compare to other drivers commonly used in custom Grados, and I'm guessing not many people have heard more than just one or two of the four drivers you mentioned.

 

[Stapedius]

Just out of curiosity, have you had a chance to compare the V9's to the Nhoord Reds or Elleven Acoustica Epsilon G1's? I'm considering doing a build with the Symphones V9, and I'm very curious to know how they compare to other drivers commonly used in custom Grados, and I'm guessing not many people have heard more than just one or two of the four drivers you mentioned.

Its hard for me to compare the 3 drivers with all other things equal because I have used a different wire for each build.
I have also modified my G1 as I found the stock G1 to have too much bass which bled into the mids - I closed some of the holes on the back of the driver (opposite to how some have vented their stock grados to get more bass).
I find the Nhoord Red V2 and Symphones V8/V9 to have a similar sound signature - a lush sound with warmth.
I find the G1 to have a bit better clarity and detail.
Soundstage is not vastly different between the 3.
The 3 sound more like each other than they are different - they are siblings I guess. I would be happy with either of them. Pricewise I think it is G1>Symphones>Nhoord.
This is just based on my listening and others may differ. I dont consider myself to have golden ears.
My setup is FLAC - playing through VOX on a MAC - Wooaudio Wa7 fireflies - rholupat wood cups - using G cush cushions for all 3.
Hope this is of some help.

 

[DavidA]

Just out of curiosity, have you had a chance to compare the V9's to the Nhoord Reds or Elleven Acoustica Epsilon G1's? I'm considering doing a build with the Symphones V9, and I'm very curious to know how they compare to other drivers commonly used in custom Grados, and I'm guessing not many people have heard more than just one or two of the four drivers you mentioned.

Alternative drivers that I've heard/owned: Ypsilon S1, S2, R1 and G1, Magnum V7 and V8, Nhoord Red and Red V2 and Turbulent X
What I still have: Ypsilon S1 and R1, Nhoord Red V2 along with Grado RS2e, SR225e and SR60.

The G1 is good but it really needs OEM Grado G-pads and a cup designed similar to the GS series iirc since its what it was designed for.
The R1 is similar to the RS2e with a bit more bass extension and better sound stage/imaging to me but it has a slightly recessed mid/upper mid so its not a good all a rounder for me.
Another thing I noticed with the R1 and G1 is that they tend to scale a bit more compared to the other drivers since they do sound better on my desktop system than straight from the headphone jack of my phone or computer systems.

Nhoord Red V2 is the best all around driver for my tastes in music and usage, never bright or harsh with decent low end with G-pads, easy to drive and sounds pretty good on all of my gear.

Ypsilon S1 and S2 are very similar so I kept the S1 since it was in the nicer wood cup.

Magnum V8 (borrowed from a friend) was very close to S1/S2 so I didn't see a reason to build a set

Magnum V7, don't remember much but I think its one that sounded best with OEM L-pads iirc.

Turbulent X (built for a friend), again too similar to the V8.

 

[mwildebeast]

Its hard for me to compare the 3 drivers with all other things equal because I have used a different wire for each build.
I have also modified my G1 as I found the stock G1 to have too much bass which bled into the mids - I closed some of the holes on the back of the driver (opposite to how some have vented their stock grados to get more bass).
I find the Nhoord Red V2 and Symphones V8/V9 to have a similar sound signature - a lush sound with warmth.
I find the G1 to have a bit better clarity and detail.
Soundstage is not vastly different between the 3.
The 3 sound more like each other than they are different - they are siblings I guess. I would be happy with either of them. Pricewise I think it is G1>Symphones>Nhoord.
This is just based on my listening and others may differ. I dont consider myself to have golden ears.
My setup is FLAC - playing through VOX on a MAC - Wooaudio Wa7 fireflies - rholupat wood cups - using G cush cushions for all 3.
Hope this is of some help.

Thank you for your thoughts on the different drivers! From what you said, it sounds like I would like either the Nhoord Red V2 or Symphones V9. Considering that the Nhoord Red V2 is about half the price of the Symphones V9, would you consider it worth it to fork over the extra dough for the V9? Discovering the V9 is what first inspired me to do my first custom Grado build, but if the Red V2 is about 90% of the quality for half the cost, it seems more cost effective to go that route.

 

[mwildebeast]

Alternative drivers that I've heard/owned: Ypsilon S1, S2, R1 and G1, Magnum V7 and V8, Nhoord Red and Red V2 and Turbulent X
What I still have: Ypsilon S1 and R1, Nhoord Red V2 along with Grado RS2e, SR225e and SR60.

The G1 is good but it really needs OEM Grado G-pads and a cup designed similar to the GS series iirc since its what it was designed for.
The R1 is similar to the RS2e with a bit more bass extension and better sound stage/imaging to me but it has a slightly recessed mid/upper mid so its not a good all a rounder for me.
Another thing I noticed with the R1 and G1 is that they tend to scale a bit more compared to the other drivers since they do sound better on my desktop system than straight from the headphone jack of my phone or computer systems.

Nhoord Red V2 is the best all around driver for my tastes in music and usage, never bright or harsh with decent low end with G-pads, easy to drive and sounds pretty good on all of my gear.

Ypsilon S1 and S2 are very similar so I kept the S1 since it was in the nicer wood cup.

Magnum V8 (borrowed from a friend) was very close to S1/S2 so I didn't see a reason to build a set

Magnum V7, don't remember much but I think its one that sounded best with OEM L-pads iirc.

Turbulent X (built for a friend), again too similar to the V8.

Thanks so much for these comparisons! I tried asking a similar question about Grado/DIY headphone drivers on the r/headphones subreddit, but I didn't really get much of a response. Considering that I'm looking to build my first custom Grado-style headphones, it kind of sounds like I should go for the Nhoord Red V2. Its priced pretty reasonably compared to some of the other options out there, and I like the idea of using a more all-rounder driver for my first build. Do you have any intentions of purchasing or trying the Symphones V9? Obviously, its appearances are quite different than the ones that came before, so maybe its a significant upgrade from the versions that came before. Although it sounds like the overall sound signature is similar to previous versions, so maybe it still won't present enough of a difference to justify keeping it compared to the Epsilon S1/S2. By the way, how do the Red V2 and Epsilon S1/S2 compare? I noticed you didn't comment much about the S1/S2 sound signature. I'm kinda debating between the Red V2 or Symphones V9 for my build, and if the S1 sounds like the V8, then maybe a comparison between the S1 and Red V2 will give me a better idea of the direction I should go. Thanks again for the helpful firsthand knowledge!

 

[Konstantin690]

Any of you guys ever heard any of the Eleven Acousticas drivers as they intended?
A couple months ago I purchased a complete set of R1 drivers with RS1 Clone cups and Cable for a friends build, they did the assembly (free of charge) and sent them ready to be installed in the headband, they sound so much better than my build (which sounds brilliant btw) using the exact same R1 drivers with cups and cable from different vendors .
Drivers are just a component of the headphones assembly, there are equally important things to consider if you're after great sounding Grado-ish headphones.
Just my 2 cents.