I modded my Grado... And now it sounds terrible!

[Malefoda]

Hi,
I'm the happy owner of an Alessandro MS1(000), sounded great, even if having tremendous odds and no more real amp to drive it sadly, and it did sing until the cable commited suicide.
And here I am, bought the cheapest cable on zBay as finding suitable wire and Y splitter is a challenge. Grado's blue wires for ground, then white and red. Solder the chinise thing. Copper is copper right?
And now I can't bear the sound. Muddy, voices are like cheap cardboard speakers.
So I'm asking for first hand experiences,
Can one fry the drivers when soldering?
Can the cable impact the sound that much? I admint my rusty blackened OEM wires are 0.2ohm when that shiny chinese cable is 0.7, maybe even add capacitance...
Crap! I want my Grado back!

Matthieu

 

[Quasimodosbelfry]

What do you mean, the cable "committed suicide"?

 

[NA Blur]

Sounds like a bad solder job, lack of ground wire connection, or even a huge impedence change.

Time to make sure you have everything soldered correctly especially the ground wire.

 

[Malefoda]

Guys,
the factory cable was shortened by the familly's rabbit, now it just cut at the Y. It will be way too short and the upper cables are now hard as steel. Nothing to save.
And the solder is nicely done on my part, don't know how it's done on jack and Y...
I don't know what to do, maybe find a decent cable? Where one find that?

It's that kind of thing, mind that the wires are way smaller than they look on the pics...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5mm-Jack...pair-Replacement-Cord-Wire-120CM/272902028155

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Can one fry the drivers when soldering?

Yes, and very easily. Grados are sensitive to heat from a soldering iron for any longer than a second or two. Call Grado in NY and arrange to send them in for repair, the people there are pleasant to chat with and the cost is reasonable. If there is a cable you want them to install they may help you out.

Otherwise you can look into aftermarket drivers, but just be quick with the soldering when replacing.

 

[Malefoda]

Oh my, I think I've gone too far. BTW, nice to see Grado's team is that nice!
Sadly shipping to US from France will cost me much more than an used one. That's a bad news but needed to hear it. I've murdered it! Time for saving and in few years maybe a MS2...
As a cable freak, do you know a "ready to solder" cable to buy somewhere?
Thanks!

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Right, shipping would be $20-25 each way via airmail, plus the repair would kill the deal. As mentioned you could try Symphones V8 or Turbulent X drivers, they run $90-100 respectively and will be a nice upgrade. If you PM me I can give you some cable details. Homebrew grados are a fun little project for the DIY inclined.

 

[michaelwheeldon]

HI there
Just temporarily cable the headphones with the old original cable to check if it is the drivers.
Doesn't matter what it looks like .
I've found in the past that grado drivers are very particular about the cable they are attached to often ending with the original cable being put back on .
If you find the drivers are damaged then I would suggest buying new from nhoord audio.
Check the dimensions first, think the whole unit is 46mm and 9mm depth

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Hi Michael,

Any idea how the Nhoord compares to Symphones V8, Turbulent X, or Elleven Ypsilon S2?

 

[michaelwheeldon]

Not tried the magnums but I have had the ypsilon s2 and r1
S2 were slightly more bass centric but the r1 was my favourite,
Beautiful midrange, very grado like but more refined if you know what I mean.
Nhoords v2 trumps them both by managing to achieve both bottom end and dreamy midrange.
Detail is great , not the usual grado shrillness.
If you enjoy the grado sound I would probably go for the ypsilon r1 but if you require a floorstanding speaker type sound rather than a bookshelf one then nhoords are your drivers.
Recently put a set in a pair of darthbeyers I modded with magnificent results,
Without doubt my go to headphones at the moment.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Awesome response. I'm a speaker guy so they sound like a go to. Do you happen to have any photos of the implementation in the darths? (sorry for a slight derailment, perhaps we can make a second thread).

 

[michaelwheeldon]

Think if you search frankenbeyers, the thread maybe somewhere.
That build really was a pain in the ass due to having no reference from other modders as to what works and what doesn't.
Case of drilling , damping and praying.

 

[Malefoda]

Thanks for the tip,
savings started

 

[kraaft]

Do you mind if I use this thread?

My beloved very old SR80 had issues with the sound disappearing only to return seconds later. Turns out the cable was slightly faulty. I fixed one channel by cutting away the problem, and joining the two ends with solder. On the other channel the problem was where the cable enters the speaker. I cut the wires before the problem area and soldered directly into the driver.

I only heated for a few seconds.. but there is no sound in that channel now. I removed the wires and measured the resistance in the driver, it is "infinite" aka "open circuit". Someone told me that a burned/melted driver would have 0 ohm.

Is there a way to save the driver and get it back working? How can I do it?

Alternatively, where can I find good but cheap replacement drivers? I will probably burn a few before I get the hang of the soldering.

A local shop can get originals for me, but they don't recommend it since a pair of original drivers would cost as much as a brand new set of SR80e... crazy.

Thanks

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Most likely the diaphragm wire melted away. Diaphragm wires are incredibly tiny and go from the solder pads to the driver. Usually they are wired to a different part of the pad so the heat from the iron doesn't damage them. You'd likely have to very carefully remove the solder pad and look for it with a magnifying glass, but it's a very difficult process and unlikely to result in success.

You may want to try finding a damaged pair of SR80s on the forums for donor parts. Given you're in Sweden the shipping back and forth to Grado wouldn't make sense I don't think.