[Chillzone21]

I bought the Ananda's 2-3 years ago, used them daily for many hours. One of the drivers failed, upon inspection the tracks had broken there continuity, Planars are not the most resilient.

Got me thinking, need to replace drivers not buy new cans, costs are exorbitant and headphones are too prone to failure.

Bought these drivers: https://www.earphonediylabs.com/sho...grado-ps1000e-44mm-driver-units-1-pair-2-pcs/

I ordered PS1000e but they sent me GS3000e, wasn't too happy about that, but they sound pretty good, so ordered a couple more sets for spares. Again they sent me GS3000e. I would just order the GS3000e, there $10 cheaper and they probably just send you those anyway. They do not reply to emails either, bit dodgy.

They sound better than the Ananda's in my opinion for my application, using them with a Smyth Realiser A8 with %100 use for movies and TV shows (blind test, not A/B as my Ananda's broke). Are they original Grados, couldn't tell you but they do the job for $120. Better than spending $1500-$2000.

Grado drivers were distorting badly on Bass test music, but with some tweaking managed to eliminate the distortion, not for bass heads, but sublime for Jazz, Vocals, etc. Movies are pretty good, nice high definition sound with blurays, and clear as a bell dialogue.

Hifiman Headband clips broke, so I got a foam headband from bunnings for $2 (was coronvirus face mask), more comfy than the original headband.

 

[539465]

What did you do with the Ananda driver? if you don't want it let me know.

 

[Chillzone21]

What did you do with the Ananda driver? if you don't want it let me know.

Very sorry, threw it out a while ago.

 

[GREQ]

I bought the Ananda's 2-3 years ago, used them daily for many hours. One of the drivers failed, upon inspection the tracks had broken there continuity, Planars are not the most resilient.

Got me thinking, need to replace drivers not buy new cans, costs are exorbitant and headphones are too prone to failure.

Bought these drivers: https://www.earphonediylabs.com/sho...grado-ps1000e-44mm-driver-units-1-pair-2-pcs/

I ordered PS1000e but they sent me GS3000e, wasn't too happy about that, but they sound pretty good, so ordered a couple more sets for spares. Again they sent me GS3000e. I would just order the GS3000e, there $10 cheaper and they probably just send you those anyway. They do not reply to emails either, bit dodgy.

They sound better than the Ananda's in my opinion for my application, using them with a Smyth Realiser A8 with %100 use for movies and TV shows (blind test, not A/B as my Ananda's broke). Are they original Grados, couldn't tell you but they do the job for $120. Better than spending $1500-$2000.

Grado drivers were distorting badly on Bass test music, but with some tweaking managed to eliminate the distortion, not for bass heads, but sublime for Jazz, Vocals, etc. Movies are pretty good, nice high definition sound with blurays, and clear as a bell dialogue.

Hifiman Headband clips broke, so I got a foam headband from bunnings for $2 (was coronvirus face mask), more comfy than the original headband.

That website is clearly selling cheap chinese drivers at sometimes a significant markup.
Most can be found cheaper on aliexpress.
A lot of them aren't going to be good direct replacements for the models they claim to be for.

Looks like the bass is distorting because the drivers are too close to the woven mesh grills... it's might be touching it when loud bass causes greater excursion on the diaphragm.
Maybe you need to add a spacer ring between the driver and the mesh.

 

[Fegefeuer]

 

[Chillzone21]

That website is clearly selling cheap chinese drivers at sometimes a significant markup.
Most can be found cheaper on aliexpress.
A lot of them aren't going to be good direct replacements for the models they claim to be for.

Looks like the bass is distorting because the drivers are too close to the woven mesh grills... it's might be touching it when loud bass causes greater excursion on the diaphragm.
Maybe you need to add a spacer ring between the driver and the mesh.

There is enough room from the mesh grilles, the drivers don't move that much. I was able to tweak the distortion out of the drivers somehow, just went away.

I did look on AliExpress before buying through EarphoneDIYLabs, I thought the same thing, but the cheap copies on Aliexpress did not appear to be of the same quality, at least from the photos. Here are two examples, but I searched quite a few pages:

Now here are the drivers from EarphoneDIYLabs:

 

[GREQ]

Still sus... since GS3000e drivers are 50mm.
I seriously hope nobody buys these 44mm drivers, thinking they would even fit correctly in a GS3000e, or 2000e, or 1000e, or RS1e.... all of which have 50mm drivers.

 

[Chillzone21]

Still sus... since GS3000e drivers are 50mm.
I seriously hope nobody buys these 44mm drivers, thinking they would even fit correctly in a GS3000e, or 2000e, or 1000e, or RS1e.... all of which have 50mm drivers.

I agree, I read some other forum's from people who bought drivers from EarphonDIYLabs (not the Grado ones), and they tested against there RRP cans, could not tell the difference. So I took a gamble on one set of drivers to test out. Have not tried the cheap AliExpress drivers, but before I installed these drivers, I had cheap Sennheiser drivers pulled from brand new headphones (cheap ones on Gumtree) installed in the Ananda's and they were terrible, very bad sound quality compared to the new GS3000e drivers.

These GS3000e drivers are comparable to the Ananda drivers, I really doubt those AliExpress $5 drivers would compare, they would be more like the cheap Sennheiser drivers I had previously installed.

Another forum member from another thread suggested there either very well reverse engineered Grado drivers, or indeed they are originals. Either way I am not concerned, as long as I get the end result.