[22906]

When I run a 20-200 Hz frequency sweep on my Alessandro MS1 I can hear some tizzing/rattling noise in left driver around 50 Hz and the right driver around 100 Hz. I read somewhere that this is due to a hair getting through the little holes. I have quarter-modded HD414 pads.

My question is, do I have to replace the whole driver now? Or is there some way for me to to open it up and take out whatever is causing this rattling? Thanks for your help.

 

[4saken]

I think this is what they call "grattle" (grado rattle?).

You can try to tip the grill side down and try to tap hairs out, otherwise you can probably use any of the known methods to separate the cups and manually remove the hair/other obstructions. I don't think the driver itself needs replacing (though I could be wrong).

 

[nickchen]

Yes, sounds like hair on the wrong side of the driver. That is especially likely if you have very short and strong hair. The longhaired grunge listeners among us are much luckier in that respect.

I had the same issue 1 year ago on one side. I ended up opening and disassembling everything, which was quite difficult in respect of the driver itself.

 

[22906]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickchen /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had the same issue 1 year ago on one side. I ended up opening and disassembling everything, which was quite difficult in respect of the driver itself.

How did you do it? Any help/links/suggestions on how to get the hair out would be great.

 

[4saken]

HeadWize - Project: The Collected Grado Headphone Mods by "Skippy" et al.

Use the methods on this website to open the cups. It should be pretty straightforward from there.

 

[b0dhi]

Before opening the cups, you should trying sucking the hair out from the front. Make sure to seal the rear of the headphone by placing it flat on a wood table, for example, then suck from the front. The most important thing to note is that you leave half or more of the front grille unobstructed so that air can circulate, or you will destroy the driver. This fixes the problem 99% of the time, until another hair gets in there.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Before opening the cups, you should trying sucking the hair out from the front

and post photos of this

 

[22906]

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Before opening the cups, you should trying sucking the hair out from the front. Make sure to seal the rear of the headphone by placing it flat on a wood table, for example, then suck from the front. The most important thing to note is that you leave half or more of the front grille unobstructed so that air can circulate, or you will destroy the driver. This fixes the problem 99% of the time, until another hair gets in there.

I can't see the hair at all. Also it seems like the perforations on the "shield" on the front of the driver are too small for the hair to come out.

When I follow the instructions for how to remove the transducers, it doesnt work at all. There is no "crackling" or any sign that the driver housing is loose from the glue. Opening the cups is the easy part.

nickchen, you said you had a hard time getting to the drivers, but what exactly did you do?

 

[NiceCans]

Mine opened pretty easily using the hair-dryer and the spoon handle methods together, but do take note that there appears to have been a change in glue used on more recently manufactured sets as a number of people have mentioned difficulty opening the newer units.

 

[22906]

Yea, I did that part already. After you separate the cup from the driver assembly, you still have to take the driver out from behind the plastic mesh, and this is the hard part.

 

[b0dhi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by m3_arun /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can't see the hair at all. Also it seems like the perforations on the "shield" on the front of the driver are too small for the hair to come out.

Unless you're superman or an eagle, the hair isn't going to be visible. And no, the shield is not too small for hair to come out - they get in there all the time. You aren't the first person to have this problem. Search for "grattle". Opening the cups (and then removing and re-gluing the driver after that, which is a lot harder than just removing the cups) is a last resort.

 

[nickchen]

Yes, getting the driver finally out of the plastic tube is a hard job. I levered it out by means of a small screwdriver I used to distend the tube and to loosen the glue. Was a bit scaring, I needed to become a bit violent, but finally, I succeeded.

I agree to b0dhi that hairs causing grattle are mostly not to be seen, unless you are a blackhaired guy with extraordinary thick hair. Sucking it out is by far a better solution, choose the violent way I mentioned only if you don't get the damned thing out "conventionally".

 

[gasstronamicle]

sorry to revise semi-old threads, but how violent did you become? i tried using a small flat head eye glass screw driver and the plastic was becoming waaay to stressed (started becoming white). can you give me some tips please?

 

[nickchen]

Well...that was exactly what I meant with "violent".

If you are the scared type and don't have much experience with manual working, you better consider sending them to Grado. I doubt that they would charge a fortune. I would have considered that way as well if I was situated in the US.

 

[apatN]

I would have it occasionally and I would just put my mouth on the cups and suck very gently. Problem solved.