[CrimsonDawn]

Hi! This is my first post in this forum and I would like to show you my Mangum Driver based headphone...

http://s8.postimg.org/4wxgfqcc5/DSC_0151.jpg
http://s14.postimg.org/wpvvwhb4h/DSC_0157.jpg

This is the first "test", the red/black cable from a cup to the other will be replaced (and hiddend in the headband), as you can see I'm using 414 pads (but I'm going to replace them with Lcush) and the headband is from a cheap headphone.

The cups are Al custom made with cnc tool with the possibility to add (or remove) the "liberators", the cable is a Canare quadstar, and the jack are Rean gold-plated.

I'm writing because I'm quite satisfied with the sound but I would like to have some suggestion on how to "change" the sound. Especially I found one that I would like to change/impove:
the kick drum/lower bass register is a litte too "slow". I mean sometimes the kick is not like "BUM" but it's like "BUUUum"... I would like to "dry" a little bit the overall sound and reduce the bass (or bass reflection?!). I was thinking to use MORE damping material. Is it right? or in this case i should REMOVE damping material? Also my liberator are WITHOUT any damping. should I insert some...? My fear was that I will lose or "reduce" the high frequency...

Thank you in advantage for your help,
Regards

Crim
 
 
EDIT: i don't know why I can't upload images. I'm sorry...

 

[fleasbaby]

  I received my purchased Cabillas Grado cups and Magnum 3.5 drivers yesterday.  The cups are iroko wood, but with a different stain applied.  The appearance is much better as it takes it from a basic brown to a much better color.  I remember refinishing a pair of my iroko cups some time back to a finish like this, too.  I should pull my pics and compare.  Plus, the Sony 7506 band arrived yesterday and the Senn. 414 pads, too.  So, now  you're thinking "what's holding him back from finishing these up?"  Well, it's the cable.  I am building the cable for it at this time.  Now, the question remains ... how will these sound compared to my Grado RS1i?  Hmmm ... In the past when I'd do Magnum builds, I only had the lower end Grados (SR-325) and below to compare a Magnum to.  Also, for the record, I did have a chance to listen to a pair of Allesandro MS-Pro headphones for several days once.  I remember at the time, I didn't feel as wowed by them and felt my Magnum at the time was a pretty good performer.  But, now, the RS1i that I have really provides great sound - and it seems much better than the MS-Pro that I had heard.  I'm wondering if the MS-Pro with the slightly bumped mids and toned down treble might have been what I didn't like as much.  However, the RS1i to me, has a much better upper frequency range when compared to some of the other lower Grados as the highs are smoother and tamed a bit, too.
 
I remember saying on more than one occasion, though, that if a person heard a pair of lower-end Grados but didn't like the piercing highs, then they should listen to a Magnum.  I guess time will tell and I'll be able to confirm if I'll still be able to repeat that statement, or if I'll need to revise it in any way.
 
Pictures of cups / drivers:
 
 
 
 
 
Picture of dark brown Anaconda stamped cow hide for potential headband modification: (Actually, when Grado first released the RS1, it had a brown head band and then they changed to black.  I believe the same is true for the SR-325 also.  The SR-325 "Goldies" that I had (not the "i" or the "is") had the brown band, too.)
 
 
 
 
Also, I've done leather headbands, while in place on the headphone such as the HifiMan I used to own.  Taking your time, spacing your stitching and using a lock stitch with a special needle (leather sewing needle fasted to a popsicle stick with super glue) is what is used for the sewing along with some heavier upholstery thread.
 
 

 
To this day, I regret selling my Magnum V5 build with Mahogany Cabillas cups and Headphone Lounge cable...maybe I should stop whining, sell off my current inventory and re-build them...*sigh*

 

[7keys]

  Thank you for the link.....Will this be safe to use on aluminum cups and wooden chambers? I wonder if this is too risky for someone like myself who has no experience working on headphones....Heh, I picture at least, the plastic forks that connect the cups to the headband melting.

 
I Thought it might be risky the first couple of time I did it but now think it' very safe if you don't point your hairdryer at the driver it's self.
You take the headband off before you do this. You just warm up the glue to the point you can pull the cups apart. It's just hot glue.
 
 

 

[7keys]

   
 
I remember saying on more than one occasion, though, that if a person heard a pair of lower-end Grados but didn't like the piercing highs, then they should listen to a Magnum.  I guess time will tell and I'll be able to confirm if I'll still be able to repeat that statement, or if I'll need to revise it in any way.
 
 

 
I'd like to hear your opinion on this also.
 
 
Everything looks great.......................................Did you make the leather headband. 

 

[wje]

  Thank you for the link.....Will this be safe to use on aluminum cups and wooden chambers? I wonder if this is too risky for someone like myself who has no experience working on headphones....Heh, I picture at least, the plastic forks that connect the cups to the headband melting.

 
Actually, you should take the gimbals off the cups before proceeding with opening the cups up.  It will make the process much easier.  They just slip off if you slightly pull both of the edges where the plastic pins go into the cups.

 

[wje]

   
I'd like to hear your opinion on this also.
 
 
Everything looks great.......................................Did you make the leather headband. 

 
On the Hifiman picture?  I've actually done 2 or 3 Hifiman leather headbands for the previous Hifiman headphones I've owned.  So there are a few members out there who have purchased my headphones when I sold them - and the leather headband was left on them.  Plus, since I sew it in place, the headband doesn't need to be taken apart and my materials can be removed if someone wants to revert back to the original band.  Just regular / real cow hide was used, of a thinner variety.  I had about 17 s.f. of it at one time. 

 

[7keys]

  Hi! This is my first post in this forum and I would like to show you my Mangum Driver based headphone...

http://s8.postimg.org/4wxgfqcc5/DSC_0151.jpg
http://s14.postimg.org/wpvvwhb4h/DSC_0157.jpg

This is the first "test", the red/black cable from a cup to the other will be replaced (and hiddend in the headband), as you can see I'm using 414 pads (but I'm going to replace them with Lcush) and the headband is from a cheap headphone.

The cups are Al custom made with cnc tool with the possibility to add (or remove) the "liberators", the cable is a Canare quadstar, and the jack are Rean gold-plated.

I'm writing because I'm quite satisfied with the sound but I would like to have some suggestion on how to "change" the sound. Especially I found one that I would like to change/impove:
the kick drum/lower bass register is a litte too "slow". I mean sometimes the kick is not like "BUM" but it's like "BUUUum"... I would like to "dry" a little bit the overall sound and reduce the bass (or bass reflection?!). I was thinking to use MORE damping material. Is it right? or in this case i should REMOVE damping material? Also my liberator are WITHOUT any damping. should I insert some...? My fear was that I will lose or "reduce" the high frequency...

Thank you in advantage for your help,
Regards

Crim
 
 
EDIT: i don't know why I can't upload images. I'm sorry...

 
These look great!

 

[thelostMIDrange]

@crimson dawn. My experience is that those inner surfaces affect the upper end mostly, whereas the length of that cup can really affect the low end, and in a manner quite like you are describing. Maybe you could ask whomever made that cup for you, to reduce the length, and see if those kick drums are not improved. I don't believe altering your inner surface treatment will affect your bass in any way, and as you guessed, may negatively affect your upper end, which you seem to be enjoying......regarding the cup length: 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" long cups, just as grado used to do/does.........

 

[CrimsonDawn]

  @crimson dawn. My experience is that those inner surfaces affect the upper end mostly, whereas the length of that cup can really affect the low end, and in a manner quite like you are describing. Maybe you could ask whomever made that cup for you, to reduce the length, and see if those kick drums are not improved. I don't believe altering your inner surface treatment will affect your bass in any way, and as you guessed, may negatively affect your upper end, which you seem to be enjoying......regarding the cup length: 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" long cups, just as grado used to do/does.........

Thanks for your help... Right now the lenght from the BACK of the driver to the end of the cup is 30mm, so around 1 1/5 "... I can for sure make it shorter but I've to make... another set.
Also: during those days of listening i found that if i move apart the headphones from my ears just a little bit ( 1mm or so) so that they will be less pressed on my head/ears the sound improves a lot, I can almost resolve that problem. Could be that with a longer liberator (right now is around 12mm with 3x1,5mm holes) i will reduce bass/kick amount?
Or it is just because the pad is not pushed against the ear and i'm "loosing" air from the side...?

 

[wje]

Dang Nabbit!  This evening, I was working on extracting the Magnum 3.5 drivers from the iroko cups.  The drivers were glued into the cups - not pressed in by using a thin layer of tape, or thin foam.  But, serious glue.  Aside from chipping at the cups or the driver to move ahead, I realized I could fit a small allen wrench though the grill holes.  I then turned the cup over so the grill was facing down an applied pressure so the allen wrench would press on the back of the driver to push the driver out from the cup.  The result?  Well, it worked ... sort of.  On the extraction of the first driver, the solder tab tore off and I had to have a few sniff-sniff moments before licking my wounds and moving on.  The driver can't be sacrificed as I looked long and hard to try to reach the lead to see if I could connect a new wire.  Nope.  Burnt toast.  Now, $135.00 poorer, I have ordered a new pair of Magnums from Turbulent Labs.  It looks like it will be a few weeks before I get the drivers delivered.  It looks like they ship international and not from within the U.S.  
 
Thus, it seems like it will be a few weeks before I can finish these off and make a comparison against my RS1i Grados.

 

[fleasbaby]

 

[kvtaco17]

Sorry for your loss...

 

[7keys]

  Dang Nabbit!  This evening, I was working on extracting the Magnum 3.5 drivers from the iroko cups.  The drivers were glued into the cups - not pressed in by using a thin layer of tape, or thin foam.  But, serious glue.  Aside from chipping at the cups or the driver to move ahead, I realized I could fit a small allen wrench though the grill holes.  I then turned the cup over so the grill was facing down an applied pressure so the allen wrench would press on the back of the driver to push the driver out from the cup.  The result?  Well, it worked ... sort of.  On the extraction of the first driver, the solder tab tore off and I had to have a few sniff-sniff moments before licking my wounds and moving on.  The driver can't be sacrificed as I looked long and hard to try to reach the lead to see if I could connect a new wire.  Nope.  Burnt toast.  Now, $135.00 poorer, I have ordered a new pair of Magnums from Turbulent Labs.  It looks like it will be a few weeks before I get the drivers delivered.  It looks like they ship international and not from within the U.S.  
 
Thus, it seems like it will be a few weeks before I can finish these off and make a comparison against my RS1i Grados.

This is sad to hear Wje..
 
This is one reason I try to make a tight fit for the driver, so I don't need glue.

 

[wje]

  This is sad to hear Wje..
 
This is one reason I try to make a tight fit for the driver, so I don't need glue.

 
 
Thank you.  Yes, that is a great method to strive for.  Actually, the cups I was using - Cabillas cups, were some quite good cups.  They were originally mine a few years ago and it looked like they made their way around to about 3 or 4 Head-Fiers though sales and re-sales of the cups and/or headphones.  Apprently, the 2nd to last owner had used a strong adhesive to hold the cup in.  I was able to track this info by following the chain, and it appears at that time, a pair of mini-XLR plugs were installed and I suspect that's where the adhesive was applied.  The purpose for opening the cups was to allow me to get the cables and XLR plugs desoldered.
 
I did get my shipping notice / tracking information from Turbulent Labs, so things are moving.
 
Does anyone have a spare Magnum v.3.5 driver?  Or, does someone need a replacement of that version as I obviously have a donor driver at this point in time.
 
Edit: One of the reviews for these latest drivers on Turbulent Labs was from a person who had compared the Grado RS1i against the new drivers.  Apparently, this person liked the Magnum sound better than the RS1i.  So, I wonder if this new driver is the RS1i killer?  Building a nice pair of Magnums for $300 vs. $695 for the RS1i?  I'll have to see about that.

 

[younglee200]

That's really odd because I ordered the turb x drivers yesterday as well and said that it shipped em today. On their website it says that they ship from usa or Malaysia.