[meltdown100]

Amazon (Part Express, really) - looks like they're on sale, $5.50 gets you a pack of 10:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Pants-11mm-2-Conductor-Black/dp/B0009XVREQ
 
There's a few sizes to choose from.  This is what it will look like installed.  Works pretty good with shrink tubing and techflex, gets a pretty tight fit:
 

 
 

 

[meltdown100]

Prabha71 contacted me first for the cups as mentioned in my earlier post, he'll be getting them.  Plus with the other issue he had, that definitely makes him the kind of person I was hoping to give them to.  Just wanted to mention that they're not available anymore since I am still getting requests on them.  
 
I'll take care of the shipping Wayne, thanks for the offer to chip in.  I just mailed a decent size parcel to Singapore and it was surprisingly inexpensive, so not a problem.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

.......

 

[Questhate]

Quote:

Marvin, I ended up using the same thing - a craft knife with the pointed blade and ended up having to rush my headphones to Grado for replacement drivers.  The point of the knife went into the area a bit too far.  I've found that a regular BIC ball point pen works the best.  Yes, a $.29 cent pen, because the point isn't as sharp as the knife or the lead of a pencil.  Plus, the depth is somewhat controlled by the tip of the pen.  Basically, you only need to slightly puncture the fabric and then with the tip of the pen, work on the top of the surface to open the holes a bit winder.  Then, you're good to go.
 

The headband looks really sweet.  Nice and custom made.  My Magnums (2nd set) have been burning in since Saturday - straight around the clock to some Acoustic Alchemy.  So, you've ordered some "pants" to make the "Y" joints on your cables?   I haven't found a place that has 'em, so I've basically just made my own with shrink tube and they turn out pretty good.  I usually cover each wire with its own individual shrink tube, then cover the joint with a larger diameter shrink tube and things pull together nicely.  Sometimes, there are some "thin" areas where I've soldered all the wires together.  If this is the case, I apply a few wraps of electrical tape to make it the same thickness as the wires.  Then, when the shrink tube shrinks, it looks all nice and even,.
 
I've been happy with the Cardas quad and I have some smaller pieces of Mogami quad that I'm making some smaller cables to link my portable player to the O2 amp.  One of my Cardas cables that I have with the Iroko cups, I covered with some tweed sleeving - which classed up the cable a bit over the basic black.  On Friday, when I get some time off, I'll have to post some pictures when I can take them outside because the inside shots don't really represent how the colors really appear.
 
Keep up the good work ... and keep the motivation up in the DIY forums here.  

 

Thanks Wayne. It was actually fun to have a little project to keep me busy tonight. 
 
Yeah, I agree that using a sharp point is a dangerous proposition if you're not VERY careful. I haven't tried the Bic pen personally, but it seems like a safe bet.
 
For the Y-splits, I ordered some Viablue ones that our buddy Chris Himself recommended. Stefan has made me a few cables where he cuts up wood circles for the y-splits, but i don't have a hole saw on hand. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm putting everything together yet, but I have Mogami cable, some 3/8" and 1/8" Nylon Multifilament Techflex sleeving, the aforementioned Y-split incoming, the Neutrik 4-pin XLR that I'm going to terminate to and a bit of heat shrink. I have never put a cable together, but I hopefully I can figure everything out once the materials are all laid out in front of me. 
 

 

[Deathdeisel]

Just wanted to comment on the venting question. I used a standard knife blade, like say from a swiss army knife or victorian blade. Like the main blade on this knife
. 

 

[Austin Morrow]

So, I ordered some lambskin back in July, but never mustered up the motivation to actually make a headband out of it. However, tonight I was so excited about my V4 drivers arriving that I spent the past few hours doing so. Here's the result: Yes! Those are a couple of V4 drivers burning in. I switched the SR225 drivers in the Iroko cups over to the Sony MDR-V150 headband. It fits rather nicely, although I had to file down the pegs to fit into the holes on the Cabillas cups. I'm still waiting on some Y-splits to come in the mail, so that I can make a Mogami cable to finish things off. From my demo with the V3.5, these will likely be my endgame Grados.

Those my friend, look absolutely gorgeous. I've been wanting to do something very similar to my SR80i's (seeing as I never use them anymore due to the HD650's and Q701's) and can't decide on what to do. I've already made a decision that I'm going to get a replacement leather headband from HeadphoneLounge and recolor it brown or red. I was also thinking of making the driver housings of of dark walnut but the adjustable hinges out of CNC aluminum to mix both metal and wood. Classy yet modern at the same time.

 

[prabha71]

Quote:

Meltdown,  If I could make a recommendation - it would be for Prabha.  He's been going through a bit of a hassle with a former forum member from here who I've even recommended on occasion.  If you need me to help you chip in for shipping to get them to him, please let me know - I'll assist in any way that I can.
 
Thank you.  

 
 
Thanks for the recommendation Wayne. Meltdown is really a great guy.
 
- Prabha

 

[Deathdeisel]

Quote:

 
 
Thanks for the recommendation Wayne. Meltdown is really a great guy.
 
- Prabha

Gotta agree with this. Sent me the grills i posted up last page on my grados for literally nothing. The only bad part about it is im giving those grados away and ill miss that mesh lmao. 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

... I haven't figured out exactly how I'm putting everything together yet, but I have Mogami cable, some 3/8" and 1/8" Nylon Multifilament Techflex sleeving, the aforementioned Y-split incoming, the Neutrik 4-pin XLR that I'm going to terminate to and a bit of heat shrink. I have never put a cable together, but I hopefully I can figure everything out once the materials are all laid out in front of me. 

While cable assembly isn't 100% stress-free, it is a great project to do when you can set enough of your time aside to do the work without being rushed.  Plus, buying nice connectors - such as you've done, makes the job easier because they've engineered them to such a degree they're actually fun to work with.  Also, do you have an Ohm meter on hand in the event you need to check for continuity?  I'm usually pretty good at keeping the L, R, and Ground straight, but it never hurts to have a meter just to do a "2nd check" before hitting the wires with some solder.  Me, personally, would rather just do the work one time instead of having to redo it.
 
Best of luck.  When those Magnums get properly burned in and you get them into a set up cups, I think you'll be quite pleased with what you hear.  Granted each of our hearing is different - yet, when I hear a pair of SR-225i woodies, I still kind of toss my opinion  back in forth.  On one hand, I think that Grado did a pretty good job with the driver.  Then, I'll hear the Magnums and I'll think a bit less of the SR-225i drivers.  It's really kind of a love / hate relationship at times.
 
Now, if Grado would just sell me a pair of RS-1i drivers for $120 a pair, plus shipping, I'd be able to see how they could fall into the line up on a DIY sense.  However,  that wild dream just falls into the "it ain't gonna happen" category.  

 

 

[wje]

Quote:

Just wanted to comment on the venting question. I used a standard knife blade, like say from a swiss army knife or victorian blade. Like the main blade on this knife
. 

I'm kind of partial to using the corkscrew feature.  

 

 

[Saintkeat]

HAHAHA! Yea use the cockscrew and pull till you hear a 'pop'! That oughta make the hole nice a big!
 
On a serious note use tweezers and pull out the fabric bit by bit. you get a nice clean hole with no particles pushed into the diaphragm.

 

[Questhate]

 
Quote:

Those my friend, look absolutely gorgeous. I've been wanting to do something very similar to my SR80i's (seeing as I never use them anymore due to the HD650's and Q701's) and can't decide on what to do. I've already made a decision that I'm going to get a replacement leather headband from HeadphoneLounge and recolor it brown or red. I was also thinking of making the driver housings of of dark walnut but the adjustable hinges out of CNC aluminum to mix both metal and wood. Classy yet modern at the same time.

Thanks buddy. 
 
It sounds like you have some nice plans laid out ahead of you. I think the steampunk leather+wood+metal look would be fantastic. The headbands that jinteddy makes are superb, but if you're going to recolor it anyway, why not just order some lambskin from Ebay and do it yourself? Here are a couple of good tutorials: 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/237221/tutorial-padded-leather-headband-for-grados-with-pics
http://www.head-fi.org/t/529735/custom-embossed-leather-headband
 
The headband that I did uses elements from both of these guides. The lambskin can be bought on eBay from seller rolipel. [size=x-small] You won't get the professional-looking stitching that the Headphone Lounge bands would have, though. [/size]
 
[size=small]If you're looking into investing money into the sound of the headphones, then I'd highly recommend taking a look at the Magnum [/size]
[size=small]drivers. I greatly preferred the V3.5 Magnums that I demo'd over my K701 by a large margin.[/size]

 

[Austin Morrow]

 
Quote:

 

Thanks buddy. 
 
It sounds like you have some nice plans laid out ahead of you. I think the steampunk leather+wood+metal look would be fantastic. The headbands that jinteddy makes are superb, but if you're going to recolor it anyway, why not just order some lambskin from Ebay and do it yourself? Here are a couple of good tutorials: 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/237221/tutorial-padded-leather-headband-for-grados-with-pics
http://www.head-fi.org/t/529735/custom-embossed-leather-headband
 
The headband that I did uses elements from both of these guides. The lambskin can be bought on eBay from seller rolipel. [size=x-small] You won't get the professional-looking stitching that the Headphone Lounge bands would have, though. [/size]
 
[size=small]If you're looking into investing money into the sound of the headphones, then I'd highly recommend taking a look at the Magnum [/size]
[size=small]drivers. I greatly preferred the V3.5 Magnums that I demo'd over my K701 by a large margin.[/size]

Thanks for the links. I've been taking a look at the Magnum drivers for a while now and everyone has been pretty positive about them. I might just have to get myself in the not so distant future if my wallet allows. As for the current Grado mods I'll be performing, I think I have a plan on board. A new headband from the links you showed me (colored red with an embossed logo as well as pads along the inside kind of like the HE-300), Magnum drivers and a wood housing made out of dark walnut with an orange aluminum grill. Also, add some higher quality adjustable aluminum rods and new left and right markers (kind of like on the Joseph Grado HF-2). Lastly, I may invest in some G-Cush full size cups for my SR80i's to increase the soundstage since I absolutely loathe the soundstage that the Grado SR80i presents.
 

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

Hm. Yeah I actually got the idea of bass extension from Tyll's measurements of your sr60s. They had phenomenal bass extension (for Grados), but the mids were a bit recessed. I was wondering if the recessedness of the mods was an unwanted effect of the venting or something else.
Kojaku

I never really found the mids recessed listening to them Kojaku, but perhaps they were more recessed than I perceived. My initial involvement in the original SR60 thread began shortly after I first got my HF2's. My SR60's at that point had been pretty much rendered persona non grada and Bila was generating all kinds of excitement about the untapped sonic potential of an SR60. So I started reading and being infected by Bila's enthusiasm or mania or whatever it was, as well as his graciousness. Bila offered to send me a pair of Cocobolo cups like he was buying me a beer. Things got a little weird after that, but he did send the cups, and this is way before he went off the grid. Anyway the 60's in the crude cups fashioned by Bila with a drill press or whatever he was using definitely improved the sound. That combined with all the enthusiasm being generated in the thread by the various posters and all the awesome mods motivated me to start reading about tonewoods. Mostly as they related to guitars and why luthiers and players chose certain woods. I decided after reading all sorts of stuff off and on for a few weeks that I wanted a two piece design, Mahogany like Grado uses for the driver housings, and African Blackwood. In my estimation it's the wood or combination of the woods that produce that bass.
 
That was sort of long winded I suppose, but while my 60's were on their little hiatus with Tyll, someone PM'ed me and asked me if I would sell him some cups. So I ended up selling the cups I had on my 225, and when the 60's got back I put the 225's in the cups my 60's are in. You piqued my curiosity though. I wonder how they would measure with that hole covered and the silver cable reinstalled?
 
 
Quote:

So, I ordered some lambskin back in July, but never mustered up the motivation to actually make a headband out of it. However, tonight I was so excited about my V4 drivers arriving that I spent the past few hours doing so. Here's the result:
 

 

 
That headband looks awesome Marvin, kudos!

 

 

[livewire]

Nice!