[amigomatt]

With my newly found soldering skills, I have been trying to ressurect both my out of action Grados, an SR80 and an SR125.  The left driver was out on the SR80, the right on the SR125.  Now, I took the 80s apart and simply resoldered the detached wire - bingo, all done and they wsork perfectly now, which I'm over the moon about as they put my HD598s to shame in many ways.
 
That was last night.  Tonight I moved onto the 125s.  Now, to my surprise, they were working on both sides, but just an intermittent cutting out on the right which didn't seem related to me wiggling the wire, so was a bit strange.  Anyway, I opened the cup and found both wires attached.  Through some radical experimentation, I found that when they were not working, I could get them to work by either:
 
a) touching a metal key to the back of the driver
 
or b), blowing gently into the driver from the front.
 
I couldn't decipher what the problem might be at all, so I decided to detach the wires from the driver and resolder them.  This hasn't worked and the driver is not responding at all now.  I'm hoping that someone with more knowledge and/or experience might be able to chime in and give me some advice on the next step, beyond sending them back to Grado or calling them off as a lost cause!  I'm really aching to get them working, as for the few moments they did work, they sounded just awesome, especially with the hole-punch mod done to boost the bass!
 
Any help would be much appreciated and I'm thinking this is the best place to ask!
 
Many thanks in advance!
 
Matt

 

[DanB85]

Can't help you with your problem (although I am in electronics assembly by trade) but I have an OT question...what's the hole punch mod?

Hope you get your issue sorted out.

 

[amigomatt]

Quote:

Can't help you with your problem (although I am in electronics assembly by trade) but I have an OT question...what's the hole punch mod?

Hope you get your issue sorted out.

Thanks Dan,
 
The hole punch mod is where you use a ball-point pen to punch through the gauze type material that lies behind the driver.  When you separate the cup, hold it up to the light and you can see about 10 holes in the plastic underneath the gauze/felt.  You can punch as many as you like through to get your desired effect, but be cautious; I punched 4 at first on each side and the bass became uncontrollable!  that's how much of a difference it makes!  I covered 2 back up with insulation tape and then they were perfect!
 
All best.

 

[joseph69]

Sounds like the voice coil was not seated correctly on the 125 originally.
Sounds like by blowing into the driver you may have seated the voice coil at one point, but not fully.
Putting the key to the back of the driver may also have pulled the voice coil some what to the correct seating position.
As far as you removing/re soldering the cables, I don't know, maybe you soldered them correctly, but the voice coil moved away from the seating position even more when you where handling the drivers.

 

[amigomatt]

Quote:

Sounds like the voice coil was not seated correctly on the 125 originally.
Sounds like by blowing into the driver you may have seated the voice coil at one point, but not fully.
Putting the key to the back of the driver may also have pulled the voice coil some what to the correct seating position.
As far as you removing/re soldering the cables, I don't know, maybe you soldered them correctly, but the voice coil moved away from the seating position even more when you where handling the drivers.

Thanks for your insight, Joseph.  Would you happen to know if there's any way of confirming if this is the problem?  If so, is reseating the voice coil an option?

 

[joseph69]

Quote:

Thanks for your insight, Joseph.  Would you happen to know if there's any way of confirming if this is the problem?  If so, is reseating the voice coil an option?

I can't say  that I  have anyway to confirm this, this was just a thought
i had according to what you posted, I'm not 100% sure,
i was just giving you an idea that would maybe help you out, sorry.
There are people on this forum who  are much more knowledgeable than myself, maybe they will respond to this thread with a better understanding.
As far as re seating the voice coil yes, it is an option, you can try blowing into the driver with some more force to try and seat it, otherwise if this doesn't work, I have a broken SR80i driver that I can take apart to experiment with to see if the driver can be disassembled/reassembled without any other damage if you like. as a matter of fact I'll check it out right now and get back to you 1

 

[amigomatt]

Quote:

I can't say  that I  have anyway to confirm this, this was just a thought
i had according to what you posted, I'm not 100% sure,
i was just giving you an idea that would maybe help you out, sorry.
There are people on this forum who  are much more knowledgeable than myself, maybe they will respond to this thread with a better understanding.
As far as re seating the voice coil yes, it is an option, you can try blowing into the driver with some more force to try and seat it, otherwise if this doesn't work, I have a broken SR80i driver that I can take apart to experiment with to see if the driver can be disassembled/reassembled without any other damage if you like. as a matter of fact I'll check it out right now and get back to you 1

Joseph, what a kind offer!  That's above and beyond!  Thank you very much for your time!
 
Matt

 

[wje]

The Grado drivers are nearly impossible to take apart.  In doing so, you're likely to damage it.  Instead, if the pair of SR-125 headphones wasn't modified, you can send them into Grado.  The cost should be $35.00 (or at least that's what it used to be.)   You can tell them the drivers are cutting in an out.  You can also ask for a new cable to be installed, if needed.  At the time, the $35.00 also included their return shipping back to you.  You should not need to provide any receipt as proof of purchase, so this can apply to 2nd and 3rd owners, too.
 
The only additional expense would be to get the headphones shipped up to Brooklyn, NY to get the work performed.

 

[joseph69]

Quote:

Joseph, what a kind offer!  That's above and beyond!  Thank you very much for your time!
 
Matt

Matt, I looked at my broken driver to see if it could possibly be disassembled/reassembled without damage to the driver/driver housing, and it does look nearly impossible like wje mentioned above. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but it never hurts to take a look, and from the looks of the driver/driver housings, it doesn't look like the voice coil is easily accessible. You are probably going to have to send them to Grado for repair/replacing. Good luck!

 

[amigomatt]

Quote:

The Grado drivers are nearly impossible to take apart.  In doing so, you're likely to damage it.  Instead, if the pair of SR-125 headphones wasn't modified, you can send them into Grado.  The cost should be $35.00 (or at least that's what it used to be.)   You can tell them the drivers are cutting in an out.  You can also ask for a new cable to be installed, if needed.  At the time, the $35.00 also included their return shipping back to you.  You should not need to provide any receipt as proof of purchase, so this can apply to 2nd and 3rd owners, too.
 
The only additional expense would be to get the headphones shipped up to Brooklyn, NY to get the work performed.

 
Quote:

Matt, I looked at my broken driver to see if it could possibly be disassembled/reassembled without damage to the driver/driver housing, and it does look nearly impossible like wje mentioned above. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but it never hurts to take a look, and from the looks of the driver/driver housings, it doesn't look like the voice coil is easily accessible. You are probably going to have to send them to Grado for repair/replacing. Good luck!

Joseph, thank you very much for your investigation.  wje, I have modified them, as in punched a few holes through the driver gauze/mesh.  Thank you for the info, but being in the UK, it's seeming quite unlikely or worth the effort/cost to send them to Brooklyn, especially if they won't do the work or charge me more as I've modded them.  In the meantime, I'll try and seek out a UK Grado place, if one exists, and wait to see if anyone else here on Head-Fi can offer me any more assistance.  Thank you to both of you for your time.
 
Regards

 

[David Diepenbrock]

Thanks for all the good info here. I had a similar problem with my 125's, and was able to rule out the cable and solder as a possibility, and also found that blowing on them sometimes helped, or, strangely, just letting them sit for a while sometimes helped, although it's really hard to tell what made them work again. Since mine are unmodified I'm going to see about sending them in.