[pezhore]

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum...

As a (late) Christmas gift to myself, I finally finished modding my Grado SR80e headphones. Everything but the stock gimbals and drivers were replaced.

Parts/Materials:

• Thinner Steel band, Aluminum blocks, Leather band (All from rholupat)
  
• Zebrawood Satin finish cups (from SpinAF)
• 22AWG, 19 strand 4 twisted nickel plated cable (from Ebay)
• 3.5mm connectors from Digikey (L/R: 889-1847-ND, Stereo: 889-1849-ND)
• Red heat-shrink indicates R from L channels. Black heat shrink to help prevent the L/R split from unwinding.
• Mono 3.5mm barrel interconnects from Digikey (839-1410-ND)
• L Cushions (from Amazon)

The guys from spinaf were super helpful and drilled the holes for the barrels/helped with assembly, I had some trouble with my original 3.5mm connectors - going cheap (~$0.25 per connector) wasn't a great idea. I'm satisfied after upgrading to the digikey connectors. The four wire cable means I didn't have to worry about a Y split and if I want to, I can easily convert to a balanced cable at a later date.

I wanted a removable cable to help combat the twisting issues I had with the fixed stock Grado cable. This was my first cable build and there were definitely some lessons learned:

• Make sure all parts are on the cable (clear sleeve, outer casing, rubber stopper, and heat shrink for both all connections and the main wire) are on the cable in the proper order prior to soldering the connector.
• Solder, but don't heat-shrink/assemble until everything is tested multiple times with a multimeter. (I had an issue where the ground cable in the stereo end was a bit long and bridged the left channel)
• Get more cable than you think you'll need to allow for mistakes. I originally ordered 10', but the seller sent me ~11.5'. The final length is around 6.5'

Sound profile seems a bit more warm and open - paired with my Fiio e07k at work or my Schiit Magni/Modi at home, these cans are pretty much my go-to. They went from a good secondary pair to a daily driver (I even went so far as to pick up a case from amazon to make transit easier to/from work).

Imgur album with more pictures

 

[Drty LilBits]

Very impressive.

 

[trellus]

Goodness, that is GREAT work -- they look so much better than the stock, and definitely have to be so much more convenient with the detachable cables.

You might get even more eyes -- and appreciation -- in these threads:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...l-your-full-sized-headphone-mods-here.867426/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/grado-fan-club.530965/

 

[michaelwheeldon]

Swap the driver units out for a pair of sennheiser px100ii drivers
More or less a straight swap
You won't be disappointed
Buy the phones second hand for about $30