[Lisa]

Last week when I first gave my RS-1s a serious listen, (I've had them for months but due to circumstances couldn't listen to them much.) I though I heard the right side louder.

Tried different sources, recordings, amps and other headphones to compare but the the right side remained louder. And yes of course first thing I did was put them on the other way around to rule out my ears. But the right driver was defenitely louder. Mono music was about 2 cm (a little less then an inch) to the right of the middle of my head.

I called Grado and I can send them there and have them fixed for $100. That's a fair price but with shipping to the US it's still a big amount for me.

So today before I wrap them up for shipping I decided to have another listen just to make sure if it's really neccesary. And now it seems much less apparant. When listening to music it seemed like half of the time it sounded normal and the other half it's like my left ear hears a bit less. Like it's mildly blocked by a cold.

I downloaded some test tones to make sure it's not the recording. One of 50Hz, a 100HZ and a 1000Hz. Now I think it's about 1 cm off to the right. But it could be that my mind is playing tricks with me. At the moment I can't even be sure of my other headphones anymore. I'm starting to hear all sorts of imbalances.

I don't know what to think anymore. I think I should try the last test with the test tones a bit later when my ear and head are fresh again.

In the mean time. Does anyone have an idea how to test this better? And could it be that there's something wrong with the left driver or a connection to it that makes it sound OK half of the time but when the connection is bad the driver will have a lower volume?

Any thoughts?

 

[Rob N]

Did you make sure they were positioned correctly on your head?

Even small changes of position can make big differences.

 

[chillysalsa]

Check them electically:

Use a multimeter to measure the resistance of each driver. Just touch probes across the contacts from the bottom of the connector (ground) to the ring and then the tip and see what the difference is. They should both be ~32 ohms, error should be less than 1 ohm between them.

 

[Steve999]

Typical Grado quality problem. Trust your ears. You haven't had this problem with any other headphones in the past, have you? The transducers are never going to match exactly for any pair of headphones, but Grado claims to try to match them, and yet seems to screw it up far more often than anyone else. Inexcusable for a headphone of that price, or even for a $70 headphone. Great sound, poor production methods and quality control. Buy a pair of Sony V6s, or even Senn HD201s, and the amplitudes of the left and right transducers will be well-balanced. I couldn't live with it. I'd get 'em fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisa Last week when I first gave my RS-1s a serious listen, (I've had them for months but due to circumstances couldn't listen to them much.) I though I heard the right side louder. Tried different sources, recordings, amps and other headphones to compare but the the right side remained louder. And yes of course first thing I did was put them on the other way around to rule out my ears. But the right driver was defenitely louder. Mono music was about 2 cm (a little less then an inch) to the right of the middle of my head.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chillysalsa Check them electically: Use a multimeter to measure the resistance of each driver. Just touch probes across the contacts from the bottom of the connector (ground) to the ring and then the tip and see what the difference is. They should both be ~32 ohms, error should be less than 1 ohm between them.

I'm afraid I have to little knowledge to do that. I mean, I don't know where to find the connector, ring and tip but I have the feeling that I need to open the earcup for that.
I wish I had experiance with it but I rather not open up a headphone cup for the first time when we're talking about $700 headphone.
But if I understood you wrong please explain.

Rob N, yes I did take notice that they were positioned right. Even removed the pads (Was using senn pads and the difference in holes might be it.) and my earrings and put the drivers at exact the same place but by the time I had done all that I got so tired in my head that I didn't know what I was hearing anymore.

So I guess all I can do is listen when I feel fresh again and trust my ears. Hopefully I was wrong the first time but i'm afraid I noticed this for a reason...

 

[Jeff Wong]

Lisa - You should be able to measure from the plug end:

http://www.chantalcurrid.com/Remote/Images/PStereo.jpg

 

[Blitzula]

Are you listening at low volume levels? I found that all my Grados had a particularly pronounced channel imbalance at low volumes, and nothing fixed it-tried custom amps with lowered gain, matched volume knobs, different sources, etc. Not that noticeable on my Ipod, but much more apparent with higher gain sources.

Don't want you to spend money on something that may just be a fact. Hopefully you can listen to another pair of RS-1s somehow and see if you notice the same thing. I definitely wouldn't count on Grado being able to fix that.

 

[Lisa]

Jeff Wong,
Thanks. How would I do that? I have a simple multimeter, Don't know if it's able to do this... but I'd like to try.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitzula Are you listening at low volume levels? I found that all my Grados had a particularly pronounced channel imbalance at low volumes, and nothing fixed it-tried custom amps with lowered gain, matched volume knobs, different sources, etc. Not that noticeable on my Ipod, but much more apparent with higher gain sources. Don't want you to spend money on something that may just be a fact. Hopefully you can listen to another pair of RS-1s somehow and see if you notice the same thing. I definitely wouldn't count on Grado being able to fix that.

Yes I do listen at low volume levels.

My MS-1 seem to lean just a bit to the left but by far not as much. I can't even be sure because my left ear hears a bit better.
When I compared last week I tried the HD25s, MS-1s and RS-1s and the latter was the only one that sounded too far off, like your left ear is blocked from a cold.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chillysalsa Check them electically: Use a multimeter to measure the resistance of each driver. Just touch probes across the contacts from the bottom of the connector (ground) to the ring and then the tip and see what the difference is. They should both be ~32 ohms, error should be less than 1 ohm between them.

From the tip to sleeve it messures 32.1
from ring to sleeve I can't seem to get a messurement. It seems to change a lot. Just when I think it messures 32.6, it start changing again and then it messures 33.0.
Maybe I should wait longer and keep my hands still for longer but I want to know first if it can't harm my headphones, because they make a sound when I messure.

 

[Jeff Wong]

Lisa - You would turn on the meter, and set it to measure resistance (the Omega ohm symbol.) You should have 2 probes (usually 1 red, 1 black.) Place the black probe on the part of the plug marked "sleeve" in the JPG, and then then touch the red probe onto the "ring". Give it a little time to settle and get a stable reading (on my HF-1, the "ring" measures 34.3 ohms.) Then repeat touching the red probe to the "tip" while keeping the black probe on the "sleeve." The measurement is ideally the same as the ring measurement you took or reasonably close (my "tip" measured 34.8 ohms.)

 

[Jeff Wong]

Ah, I see you got it sorted already. Nevermind.

 

[acs236]

Many amps have balance problems at low volumes because of the pots they use. Since Grado's are low resistance and fairly sensitive, you don't have to turn the amp up much to get the desired volume. As a result, sometimes you get imbalances are low volumes. Have you tried -- just as a test -- turning up the volume to see if the imbalance goes away?

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by acs236 Many amps have balance problems at low volumes because of the pots they use. Since Grado's are low resistance and fairly sensitive, you don't have to turn the amp up much to get the desired volume. As a result, sometimes you get imbalances are low volumes. Have you tried -- just as a test -- turning up the volume to see if the imbalance goes away?

Yes I did, but I would have had the same problem with the ms-1s. And i also tried different amps. So that kind of rules it out.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Wong Lisa - You would turn on the meter, and set it to measure resistance (the Omega ohm symbol.) You should have 2 probes (usually 1 red, 1 black.) Place the black probe on the part of the plug marked "sleeve" in the JPG, and then then touch the red probe onto the "ring". Give it a little time to settle and get a stable reading (on my HF-1, the "ring" measures 34.3 ohms.) Then repeat touching the red probe to the "tip" while keeping the black probe on the "sleeve." The measurement is ideally the same as the ring measurement you took or reasonably close (my "tip" measured 34.8 ohms.)

Ok thanks.
Think I did it wrong before. I got solid measurements now, 32.2 and 32.4.
So does this mean that the headphones are OK, does this rule them out completely? It must be something else?