something more about grado bowls

Aug 30, 2008 at 10:31 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

miscreant

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I have 325i with bowls.

Like many people, I have had some issues with them so I experimented a bit and thats what I stumbled on-

when pushed them closer to the head then bass goes up and highs way down...
..but when moving them also about 0.5cm forward something much more interesting happens.

the easiest way to listen to the difference is using an track where vocal.. or solo instrument is in center.
when the phones are moved a bit more towards forehead and pushed close to ears then the centered instrument comes out of your head and settles about 2 cm away from eyes. And now there is the "touch the sound" impression. Quite a strong one too.

Question for pad-collectors - which one of the pad types makes that effect the strongest and whitout messing up the freq. balance too much?

How many options are there anyhow?
 
Aug 30, 2008 at 12:32 PM Post #2 of 8
Crush the bowl pads. Remove them and place them underneath some heavy books overnight. This will partially reproduce the effect that you are observing by pushing the cups against your ears.
 
Aug 30, 2008 at 3:53 PM Post #4 of 8
Bowls are the bane of our society!
smily_headphones1.gif
Long live flats! There are flats (of course) on my HP-2, and also on my RS-1....but, I'm not a rocker.
 
Sep 1, 2008 at 8:57 AM Post #6 of 8
Well, if you enjoy the sound that occurs when you squish the pads in, you may as well try flat pads.


I personally alternate between bowls and flats depending on music genre and my mood at the time. Bowls give me more separation and "air," whereas flats do have a nicer bass kick to them and are more "up in your face." You could also try to be weird and turn the bowls upside down on the headphone, which I don't like because it's uncomfortable. There is also the yellow Sennheiser HD414 (I think) pads, and of course the duck pad mod.

The way I see it, Grados aren't really that accurate in the first place when compared to some of the other HP seen around these parts. What makes a Grado special is that certain... signature, and that signature changes a lot with the pads.
 
Sep 2, 2008 at 1:03 PM Post #8 of 8
Thanks.

The crushed bowls almost work - the centered instruments are between my eyes now and when watching a movie the speech appears to come from the actors mouths. It is like focusing binoculars. Fun
smily_headphones1.gif
 

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