[IzzyAxel]

I received the Sony MDR-F1 today, and after maybe 6 hours of listening, the right side got a slight buzz kind of sound whenever there's a large hit of bass.  It sounds just like when a hair would get in the cover of my Grados, and vibrate on the diaphragm.  Is this potential driver damage, or the same thing I get with the Grados every so often?  If it is driver damage, is there anything I can do to repair it?  Im not even sure how to open the F1s to check for obvious signs.
 
Oh and the buzz scales with volume.

 

[Amarphael]

The F1 drivers are protcted by a cloth mesh and paper(-like?) cover so a hair getting there is very unlikely iMO. It's probably something wi the the driver. You could remove the grills and take a look if anything is not soldered right and measure the drivers DC resistance. The grills require a slight rotaion counter-clock to unsit them for the grooves the'yre in but they're actually glued in place so you need to apply some considerable force to break the glue first. The're a threas with more info on how to do it, do a search in the DIY forum for a '86+F1' and you should find it.

 

[nikongod]

are you sure that your source isnt clipping?

 

[IzzyAxel]

Yeah, Im sure it isn't clipping, it'd be showing up on both sides if it was, wouldn't it?  It also doesn't sound like clipping, anyway.  Also it happened at most volumes out of any device, amp or no amp in between.  I also used FL Studio and Massive to do some pure sine/square wave bass tests on it and everything below middle C can cause it, getting worse as the frequency gets lower.  I bought the set NiB however, so it seems it's still under warranty, and I contacted Sony last night, and am preparing to send it out, and get an exchange/repair.
 
Other than this problem though, I have to say I really have loved every minute I got to spend with it so far.  It's a nice smooth sound when compared to the Grado RS2i I've been using, and I didn't even buy them because they were purported to have a beautiful sound sig, I bought them for listening to well recorded orchestra/jazz/classical/etc because of their K1K-esque soundstage/imaging properties.
 
PS, wouldn't it be better to use a heat gun to soften the glue instead of just breaking it?  I probably won't do any modification to them until the new set is out of warranty anyway though.