wje
Unmodified = Not worth listening to.
Some more eye candy for the thread. A beautiful pair of cherry cups turned by the infamous 7Keys. The finish has a really a nice, warm (visual) tone to it. No audio impressions on these yet, as I'm still in the middle of the sound impressions on 4 wood types of cups that are being reviewed.
1) A shot showing a single cup with the black mesh installed, as well as the driver too.
2) A lil' dab of Dynamat on the back of the magnet. The size of the dab in this picture is the approximate amount that Grado places on the back of the RS1i drivers when those headphones are built.
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3) A view of how precise the drivers fit into the cups without any tape, adhesive, etc. Approximately 3/32" was removed using my Dremel with the small drum sanding bit so the drives would be able to be set carefully into the cups and rest. Also, a very small shaving was removed with the drum sander on the outer rim of the Grado drivers, too. Since these drivers were liberated from a pair of Grado headphones, there is a slight protrusion of plastic from the adhesive that was used to melt the drivers and secure them into the plastic rings when new. On a Magnum driver, this small protrusion of plastic around the outer edge of the driver would not be present since those drivers would not have had to be liberated from the Grado rings for use. As a preference, I'd always prefer to be able to spend a few minutes with the Dremel on carefully removing a tiny layer of material on the wooden cups so that the drivers can fit like a glove. The alternative would be the turner making the opening slightly larger so that the assembler wouldn't have to perform this step as not everyone has the tools to do so. But, in my case, it meant for a very nice fit which allowed me to use my thumbs to press the drivers carefully into the wooden cups.
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4) One last view of the cherry cups with a different light variation to show the finish, the grain, etc. My pictures were taking without a flash along with setting my camera up in ISO 400 speed, as well as a small amount of incandescent light from a desk lamp. The color in the pictures is really quite close to the actual color of the cups since a flash wasn't used to add too much light into the picture and changing the color of the material.
1) A shot showing a single cup with the black mesh installed, as well as the driver too.
2) A lil' dab of Dynamat on the back of the magnet. The size of the dab in this picture is the approximate amount that Grado places on the back of the RS1i drivers when those headphones are built.
.
3) A view of how precise the drivers fit into the cups without any tape, adhesive, etc. Approximately 3/32" was removed using my Dremel with the small drum sanding bit so the drives would be able to be set carefully into the cups and rest. Also, a very small shaving was removed with the drum sander on the outer rim of the Grado drivers, too. Since these drivers were liberated from a pair of Grado headphones, there is a slight protrusion of plastic from the adhesive that was used to melt the drivers and secure them into the plastic rings when new. On a Magnum driver, this small protrusion of plastic around the outer edge of the driver would not be present since those drivers would not have had to be liberated from the Grado rings for use. As a preference, I'd always prefer to be able to spend a few minutes with the Dremel on carefully removing a tiny layer of material on the wooden cups so that the drivers can fit like a glove. The alternative would be the turner making the opening slightly larger so that the assembler wouldn't have to perform this step as not everyone has the tools to do so. But, in my case, it meant for a very nice fit which allowed me to use my thumbs to press the drivers carefully into the wooden cups.
.
4) One last view of the cherry cups with a different light variation to show the finish, the grain, etc. My pictures were taking without a flash along with setting my camera up in ISO 400 speed, as well as a small amount of incandescent light from a desk lamp. The color in the pictures is really quite close to the actual color of the cups since a flash wasn't used to add too much light into the picture and changing the color of the material.