[M Rael]

I couldnt leave well enough alone with my old-style flat earpad black Grado 325's! After a lot of elbow grease was applied the two halves of the main assembly came apart, and that meant I could remove the glue from under the Grado button with ease.
But I've long been in love with the bare metal wire mesh look of the HP1 and the later model 325's even since I first saw them. So this is what the almost final product looks like:

I'm glad now that mine are the black style 325's. Together with the bare metal mesh and the raised letters around the black housing, it kind of reminds me of a fancy wheel/tire combination(?) ..whatever it is I think its a nice modern look to what was just a plain all black headphone.

p.s. the inset picture shows the button placed on, though only for comparison. I prefer the non button styling.
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[Redwoood]

Pretty cool.

But didn't you want to sell/trade your Grados?
Maybe this is the wrong time for Grado surgery then...

Just thinking

Bye

Redwoood

 

[M Rael]

I also was looking to trade my K1000's recently.. its been a busy couple of months. I dont know if discovering this website (and Headwize) had anything to do with it, *cough*, but all of a sudden I find myself bobbing and weaving in the headphone market all the time. I now have some CD3000's and some MDR-F1's that I didnt plan on having, a few months ago, and now here I am doing an open heart transplant on my Grados. Whats with you guys? Did you slip something into my drink when I wasnt looking??
In the meantime my floorstanding speakers by now have cobwebs.

 

[bootman]

Nice pics of the elusive black 325's.
Are they all metal like the current silver 325s or arethey plastic like my 225's which have the metal grill. Nice work on getting the button off. they look like MSs now. How did you do it?

 

[Braver]

wow, those look stunning!

 

[M Rael]

Quote:

Originally posted by bootman Nice pics of the elusive black 325's. Are they all metal like the current silver 325s or arethey plastic like my 225's which have the metal grill. Nice work on getting the button off. they look like MSs now. How did you do it?

Thanks. Half of the main housing is aluminum (the half that the earpads go over is plastic, and the half that holds the mesh is metal.) The buttons come off with gentle prying. After that, one of the housings came apart with sheer muscle but the other one was a real bitch to get off!!! In the end what works best is this: put a few drops of WD40 or similar into the gap between the halves and then shove a very thin feeler gauge around the gap; far enough so that the glue bond is busted. Nothing gets scratched, but the feeler gauge gets all bent up.
I'm TOTALLY happy with the new look; I was going to sell these but now they are too Ferarri to let go of!
Heres the final result:

I got the button glue off and the black paint off the mesh by soaking in lacquer thinner and using a wire brush, dip, followed by a toothbrush, dip, more brushing, etc.


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[bootman]

Sweet!

Now I'm tempted.

 

[Redwoood]

Nice work, Mark!

 

[KR...]

can you please post a side view?

So far they look sweet

 

[Matt]

...the age-old, tweak-freak question: "did it postively affect the sound quality?"

Oh my...

- Matt

 

[M Rael]

Quote:

Originally posted by KR... can you please post a side view?

I'm not sure what you were wanting to see more of, but heres one with more of the side showing (if you want to see a specific part let me know):

Also as far as sound differences go I dont see any acoustic reason why removing the Grado button (or the black paint from the mesh (!)) should change the sound for the worse-

Whatever stray sound waves might conceivably bounce off the button cannot possibly be 'tuned' to have an important effect. The idea behind an open design is precisely to eliminate captured sound waves from bouncing around. If anything, removing the button would eliminate an obstacle for the sound waves from exiting into the atmosphere. I believe this is a good thing in theory. But I dont hear a difference, and my Flux Capacitor (Back to the Future) is in the shop so I cannot supply any more data.

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[rickcr42]

those look great.When I first got my MS-1 the first thing that struck me was how cool they looked without the buttons.Mine are all black but that silver and black look is something I like.Now I gotta find some black 325s

 

[Redwoood]

Or you could just get the brushed ones and paint 'em black...

 

[bootman]

Or you can get the 225 which also have the silver grills.


Quote:

I'm not sure what you were wanting to see more of, but heres one with more of the side showing (if you want to see a specific part let me know):

I think that he wanted to see how big the chambers are without the pads. (he has asked this before)
Maybe a ruler shot?

Am I correct KR...?

 

[KR...]

Right

They look like 225's from the top. The Black 325's were things of legend, also myth at one point, but that side pics shows those big chambers, so that is the real deal. Very cool!

Now, the question will now be, were there ever a SR-300?