[I95North]

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The stock grills are made of steel so, that shouldn't be a problem. Magnetic field strength is inversely proportional to the square of distance between the magnet and the object, so the grills are WELL too far away from the magnet assembly to have any real risk of getting pulled in.
 
How much does a small roll of the repair kit stuff cost? I'm assuming they are only sold in rolls and not in single sheets.

Look around the net for it its called "Screen Window Repair Kits". I know your more concerned with protection but i'd use the aluminum then instead of fiberglass or the steel.

 

[I95North]

Oh Yeah i would not use any of the steel or the aluminum on the inside of the driver if your thinking to remove the stock mesh and put in a screen in place of the stock mesh...
 
 
Just imagine if the steel or the aluminum screen shreds or flaked and a piece gets lodged inside the driver while its playing. Ouchhh!!

 

[jerg]

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Oh Yeah i would not use any of the steel or the aluminum on the inside of the driver if your thinking to remove the stock mesh and put in a screen in place of the stock mesh...
 
 
Just imagine if the steel or the aluminum screen shreds or flaked and a piece gets lodged inside the driver while its playing. Ouchhh!!

That's why I stress that the mesh used for re-grilling needs to be welded together, this way nothing flakes off.

 

[KneelJung]

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Is that the splatter pan mentioned on page 2?
 
I think McMaster Carr might have something right up our alley and in good quality too. I'll go through their catalog this evening.

When we were modding our Grado's, lot's of materials were used for screens. Letter trays were one item, pen & pencil cups made of the same material, strainers, splatter pans like Jerg linked to. I tried some screen repair myself, but it wasn't rigid enough for the way it installed in the Grado cup. May work perfectly in this application though, since the he400's have something to tension the material with. Anyway, I have no doubt changing the screen effects the sound. The change was quite discernible on the Grado's, so I'm sure it has a similar effect with the Hifiman's.

 

[plin]

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Today I made a new pair of grills using another type of mesh I cut out, this time from a steel mesh scrap bin.
 
Here they are (beside them are the stock grills, and the grills I made yesterday out of splatter pan steel mesh)
 

 
 
 
 
I also found the absolute BEST way to objectively evaluate the effects of any grills vs completely open-back:
 
Play a high bitrate pink noise, while hovering the grill in question on and off, but take note to minimize your hand movement because those also induce resonance.
 
Two things can be evaluated from this test method: 1) change in soundstage / "closed-ness", and 2) ringing / resonance induced by grill/fabric material.
 
Turns out my thinner antisplatter pan mesh made yesterday allows the soundstage to be maintained more, but induces the most ringing. My new grill made today kills the soundstage a bit more, but has the least ringing, the stock grills cause the soundstage to shrink the most out of the three types of grills on hand, and causes moderate ringing.
 
Seems like just the fabric along causes a very minor shrinkage of soundstage, but it's kind of unavoidable if we want dust protection. All that matters then is the type of mesh used, how much more it drags down the soundstage, as well as what level of ringing it induces.
 

 
Well done for your continuous efforts! The way you describe for evaluating the effects of the grill is very interesting. One other way for easily spotting mechanical resonances only, is by connecting your headphone as a mic (just put its jack to a sound card’s mic input). While recording its output, excite mechanically its structure by hitting it with a metallic object at various points. That’s how I managed to cross-check the origin of the resonance I occasionally heard with my HE-500 . It was from the metallic mesh/grill. There is a much milder resonance (as far as I remember) around 50Hz that I have not pinpointed it.

 

[plin]

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Is the difference in sound signature really better than the stock HE-500 - or is it the well known "my DIY mod sounds so good" that is playing here? Honest question from a curious HE-500 owner.

 
It is very easy to evaluate by yourself. Temporarily remove the stock grill/mesh plate and see if you like the new sound. I, personally, much preferred my HE-500 without the grills.

 

[I95North]

It is very easy to evaluate by yourself. Temporarily remove the stock grill/mesh plate and see if you like the new sound. I, personally, much preferred my HE-500 without the grills.

Um you don't find that the HE-500 once the grills are removed alil brash in the higher end??

For me I do but maybe it depends all on implementation of gear used to drive them also.. Even though it makes the sound stage better with giving imaging closer to 5.1 surround that most headphones stuggle to reproduce..

. I do find too me the grill removal makes the high end kinda piercing with ss amps or chip amps but tube hybrid Combo is another story...lol

 

[plin]

Quote:

Um you don't find that the HE-500 once the grills are removed alil brash in the higher end??
For me I do but maybe it depends all on implementation of gear used to drive them also.. Even though it makes the sound stage better with giving imaging closer to 5.1 surround that most headphones stuggle to reproduce..
. I do find too me the grill removal makes the high end kinda piercing with ss amps or chip amps but tube hybrid Combo is another story...lol

 
Of course I do find that the HE-500 without the grills have more high frequency energy (about 2-3 db). I equalize that for most songs. Removing the grill in HE-500 is, for my ears, overall beneficent. Apart from the much better soundstage that you already mentioned, the annoying, for me at least, ringing in 300Hz is gone, bass is snappier, mid and highs are cleaner, and attack is faster.
Removing the grill makes my HE-500 even better!
More here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/616081/he-500-damping-mods

 

[jerg]

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Of course I do find that the HE-500 without the grills have more high frequency energy (about 2-3 db). I equalize that for most songs. Removing the grill in HE-500 is, for my ears, overall beneficent. Apart from the much better soundstage that you already mentioned, the annoying, for me at least, ringing in 300Hz is gone, bass is snappier, mid and highs are cleaner, and attack is faster.
Removing the grill makes my HE-500 even better!
More here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/616081/he-500-damping-mods

 
It's also why it works wonders with HE-400s perhaps, there is indeed a subtle boost in the overall treble level. In conjunction with the velour pads (which fill up the mids and treble by a couple of dBs) the resulting sound is extremely balanced, not even a hint of darkness that so many reviewers attribute HE-400s with.

 

[fortitude]

a quick google of speaker grill mesh comes up with a pretty large assortment of suppliers, such as this: http://www.speakerworks.com/speaker_grills_s/34.htm this one in particular looks to have the most open space and provide good protection http://www.speakerworks.com/5_1_4_black_steel_speaker_grills_p/sg514.htm

 

[jerg]

Quote:

a quick google of speaker grill mesh comes up with a pretty large assortment of suppliers, such as this: http://www.speakerworks.com/speaker_grills_s/34.htm this one in particular looks to have the most open space and provide good protection http://www.speakerworks.com/5_1_4_black_steel_speaker_grills_p/sg514.htm

Issue with these remade rimmed grills is that if they are off in size by even a couple of millimetres, they won't fit and you'll end up having to do some high-tech trimming. Otherwise the one you linked seems pretty similar in terms of metalpen space ratio to my rev. 2 grill mesh.

 

[fortitude]

Yeah, I was planning on plotting out a template and making a jig and using a router to cut this. I'm expecting my new HE-400's today and plan on doing this mod after they're broken in.

 

[I95North]

Hey Jerg I see u removed it seems to be the inside linning of your pads hah? That's cool so how do you like the sound now with that mod on a rev3 driver?

It's a shame you did not try that awhile ago along with the thiner grill mod and rev2 drivers.Im sure you would have loved the results 100%..
Rev2 with those mods n you would not have had to play with taming the high end like on rev3.

 

[jerg]

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Hey Jerg I see u removed it seems to be the inside linning of your pads hah? That's cool so how do you like the sound now with that mod on a rev3 driver?
It's a shame you did not try that awhile ago along with the thiner grill mod and rev2 drivers.Im sure you would have loved the results 100%..
Rev2 with those mods n you would not have had to play with taming the high end like on rev3.

 
I actually had the older (and new) HE400s with zero grilling at all for a few hours at a time doing critical listening. It was only because I had to travel with them a bit sometimes that warranted some fabric lining with the grills I made. Nowadays the HE400s stay at home so the fabric is not that necessary any more but the mesh stays on still just for a little bit of an insurance.
 
Actually I ended up removing the foam mod as I found that the it did not tame all of the treble and instead accentuated a few problematic peaks, and ironically the treble is smoother (though brighter) without the foam.

 

[RushNerd]

Sorry, I know this is answered somewhere but: Where can I find fabric suitable for this mod? Also I wouldn't mind knowing where Jerg got that stainless steel mesh at, looks classy! the mesh they use is very dense though, I hope stainless mesh like that wouldn't be too soft/give too much.
 
Anyway i'm eager to try this mod so i'll take whatever help I can get. When I first tried these headphones and found they were so sensitive to acoustic obstruction, I knew the grills could be an issue.