i-am-iron-man
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Posts
- 96
- Likes
- 45
Hi all,
I don't think I've ever killed a brand new driver before so I thought: ask the community for thoughts on what's happened to the driver. This is/was a brand-new 50mm Grado driver that I tested for continuity when it arrived and then fitted into a set of 'test' cups - so these were tip-top until I moved them into their 'forever home'.
The fault would appear to be severe 'grattle'. This is very evident even with the driver hooked up to a cable but not in a headphone - the driver itself makes a bad buzzing noise when it's running and, as you'd expect, much more so on lower frequencies. My finger of suspicion: the wire inside the driver looks very close to the diaphragm, and I can't think of anything else that'd make that could cause so much interference with it. I've had a good look under a light and can't see visible damage to the diaphragm, or anything else untoward.
Things to consider:
- I've got somewhat careless over time when handling drivers and I've had no end of contact with mylar. This was no exception, I definitely bonked one of the drivers and casually popped the wrinkle back out with some tape - I didn't think twice about it but I assume this is what must have borked the driver. I'm fairly sure I did hit the middle though!
- I also opened two of the holes on the back. I was quite careful as I'm not a fan of doing this, but again, not my first rodeo and I didn't get near the diaphragm. I was thinking it might be possible for some lint to have got into the driver but I can't see it causing the driver to behave this badly.
I've already ordered a replacement pair [sigh] so I'm not averse to experimenting with the incumbent driver to see if I can restore its happiness.
I don't think I've ever killed a brand new driver before so I thought: ask the community for thoughts on what's happened to the driver. This is/was a brand-new 50mm Grado driver that I tested for continuity when it arrived and then fitted into a set of 'test' cups - so these were tip-top until I moved them into their 'forever home'.
The fault would appear to be severe 'grattle'. This is very evident even with the driver hooked up to a cable but not in a headphone - the driver itself makes a bad buzzing noise when it's running and, as you'd expect, much more so on lower frequencies. My finger of suspicion: the wire inside the driver looks very close to the diaphragm, and I can't think of anything else that'd make that could cause so much interference with it. I've had a good look under a light and can't see visible damage to the diaphragm, or anything else untoward.
Things to consider:
- I've got somewhat careless over time when handling drivers and I've had no end of contact with mylar. This was no exception, I definitely bonked one of the drivers and casually popped the wrinkle back out with some tape - I didn't think twice about it but I assume this is what must have borked the driver. I'm fairly sure I did hit the middle though!
- I also opened two of the holes on the back. I was quite careful as I'm not a fan of doing this, but again, not my first rodeo and I didn't get near the diaphragm. I was thinking it might be possible for some lint to have got into the driver but I can't see it causing the driver to behave this badly.
I've already ordered a replacement pair [sigh] so I'm not averse to experimenting with the incumbent driver to see if I can restore its happiness.
