[JamesMcProgger]

Agreed, on the wood or aluminium change in sound. for me the mod its more about the look and the fact that I made it myself.

 

[wje]

Quote:

Agreed, on the wood or aluminium change in sound. for me the mod its more about the look and the fact that I made it myself.

Additionally, one has to decide if they might like having the extra weight of the aluminum headphones on their head.  I noticed my SR-325i to be a bit heaver than my woody SR-225.   After extended listening periods, I like the lighter wooden cups for comfort a bit more.
 
 

 

[Kojaku]

I really doubt that there isn't an effect...wood is so much better as an acoustic material. How is it possible that it's only cosmetic...somebody should run tests xD

Kojaku

 

[Kojaku]

Additionally, one has to decide if they might like having the extra weight of the aluminum headphones on their head.  I noticed my SR-325i to be a bit heaver than my woody SR-225.   After extended listening periods, I like the lighter wooden cups for comfort a bit more.
 
 

Who did your cups, wje? Cabillas?

Kojaku

 

[schwallman]

Sure there is a difference in sound, the driver is going to be the best upgrade you can do for the headphones. Again this is only my opinion.
 
Quote:

Well, at stock, his RS2's kill my 225's. They have all the detail with much more warmth. I'm just thinking that wood cups are much better at handling resonant sound. I mean, they don't make pianos out of plastic...

Kojaku

 

 

[JamesMcProgger]

Quote:

Additionally, one has to decide if they might like having the extra weight of the aluminum headphones on their head.  I noticed my SR-325i to be a bit heaver than my woody SR-225.   After extended listening periods, I like the lighter wooden cups for comfort a bit more.
 
 

 
 
tell me about it, I might need to use a neck support collar, the jaben aluminium cups are heavy. 

 
 

 

[schwallman]

Ive been having problems with my neck lately. I assumed it was my pillow. My neck feels like it needs to pop. I cant get it to though. I did recenlty get a set of custom T50s. They do have some weight to them. Might be the problem.
 
Quote:

 
 
tell me about it, I might need to use a neck support collar, the jaben aluminium cups are heavy. 

 
 

 

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

Well, at stock, his RS2's kill my 225's. They have all the detail with much more warmth. I'm just thinking that wood cups are much better at handling resonant sound. I mean, they don't make pianos out of plastic...

Kojaku

 
^^^^^^^This.
 
I dont have superman ears and I dont consider myself an audiophile, but IMO this thread isnt 330 pages and counting just because people want to make their headphones look pretty. I'm guessing the guy that went Frankenstein on his HF2's wasnt doing it to understand the asthetics. I think resonant qualities of wood definitely impact the way the headphone sounds.and John Grado must think so too, from a Stereophile article talking about the RS1.
 
"The idea of using wood just came to me one night," explained John Grado. "We went through quite a few species of wood before finding this mahogany—which type, we'll just keep our secret for the moment. When you're building speakers, you're supposed to want a dense, really hard wood—well, that's not mahogany. But it works really well—I don't always spend a lot of time figuring out why something works; sometimes I'm just satisfied that it does. Maybe the mahogany has a lower resonant frequency, or maybe its resonance just doesn't emphasize something in my driver—I'm not saying it would work in all cases, but it seems to work well with our driver."  
 
Different woods have different velocities of sound or internal dampening qualities depending on their density or how hard or soft they are. Hopefully some of the wood workers can chime in on this There is a lot more going on than just asthetics IMO.

 

[schwallman]

That was me with the hf2s. The reason I took them apart was because they were in bad shape cosmetically. I destroyed the wood cups taking them apart. The replacement set of wood chambers was a different species of wood( i still don't even know what it is). From what I remember how the mahogany  wood sounded, I cant really tell if the new wood sounds any different. Maybe it does though. They were gone to long to remember. I do know they sound good the way they are now. Long story short, I'm not sure if different types of wood make any difference in the sound. If it does, my ears cant tell the difference. Now from plastic to wood, sure you would tell a difference.
 
Quote:

 
^^^^^^^This.
 
I dint have superman ears and I dont consider myself an audiophile, but IMO this thread isnt 330 pages and counting just because people want to make their headphones look pretty. I'm guessing the guy that went Frankenstein on his HF2's wasnt doing it to understand the asthetics. I think resonant qualities of wood definitely impact the way the headphone sounds.and John Grado must think so too, from a Stereophile article talking about the RS1.
 
"The idea of using wood just came to me one night," explained John Grado. "We went through quite a few species of wood before finding this mahogany—which type, we'll just keep our secret for the moment. When you're building speakers, you're supposed to want a dense, really hard wood—well, that's not mahogany. But it works really well—I don't always spend a lot of time figuring out why something works; sometimes I'm just satisfied that it does. Maybe the mahogany has a lower resonant frequency, or maybe its resonance just doesn't emphasize something in my driver—I'm not saying it would work in all cases, but it seems to work well with our driver."  
 
Different woods have different velocities of sound or internal dampening qualities depending on their density or how hard or soft they are. Hopefully some of the wood workers can chime in on this There is a lot more going on than just asthetics IMO.

 

 

[markkr]

I remember seeing the post where you had pictures of the disassembly... did you ever post "finished" pics of your HF2's? 
 
Quote:

That was me with the hf2s. The reason I took them apart was because they were in bad shape cosmetically. I destroyed the wood cups taking them apart. The replacement set of wood chambers was a different species of wood( i still don't even know what it is). From what I remember how the mahogany  wood sounded, I cant really tell if the new wood sounds any different. Maybe it does though. They were gone to long to remember. I do know they sound good the way they are now. Long story short, I'm not sure if different types of wood make any difference in the sound. If it does, my ears cant tell the difference. Now from plastic to wood, sure you would tell a difference.
 


 

 

 

[Kojaku]

Btw, has anyone here made a custom leather headband yet?I'm looking at leather to use for it and it comes us 1/2 sq. ft. increments. do I need more than that? Is .5 sq.ft. Not even wide enough to cut the headband out of?

Kojaku

 

[wje]

Quote:

Who did your cups, wje? Cabillas?

Kojaku

Cabillas did my Sapele cups.  BigRock did my burls.
 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

Btw, has anyone here made a custom leather headband yet?I'm looking at leather to use for it and it comes us 1/2 sq. ft. increments. do I need more than that? Is .5 sq.ft. Not even wide enough to cut the headband out of?

Kojaku

Finding the leather is 1/2 the battle.  Getting an adequate machine to sew leather is the 2nd half of the battle.
 
 

 

[schwallman]

Quote:

I remember seeing the post where you had pictures of the disassembly... did you ever post "finished" pics of your HF2's? 
 


 

On page 3 I posted some pics of the replacement cups.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/544771/grado-hf2-make-over/30
 
 

 

[CABILLAS]

I cant say that my ears be better than anybody, but i can say that the materials modify the sound, this can be more or less for you, but it is. I test with the changes inmediately comparing materials with two similar models.
Caoba wood is very easy to work, but expensive. Them the carpenter and me choose sapeli because it is cheaper an have a similar weith and texture. Iroko is very lighter, and good wood too.
I cheeked that the big change in sound is produced by the weight the "cebra" wood have different textures and velocity, i think this is not important, but it cant be the perfect choice, you see anytime an instrument made of that?. More material or weight produce stability but less bass, them 325 and gs1000 are the most detailed sound cups.
Certenly the big diference are in drivers, but them we can modulate the sound with materials and cables. When i designed my cups i calculete the weight for be similar than RS1 for this, and the carpenter made them "al hilo", the three grow direction, as the original cups.
Finaly i want to know if rs2 have the same drivers than 325 and 225, you know somebody who test it with a 225-325 wooden?. I never heard rs2 but i think that are´nt valorated so much for his
 
price.
The plastic stand is the same than lower models, and even the wood looks worst, cos have more nerve. Even being the same wood the carpenters have different qualitys pieces of wood. The high age of the three made best propieties.

Finally the aluminium is too heavy and bright in sound in my opinion, and it si very unconfortable in a brand committed per se. not to mention the charm to wear a piece of a real natural tree.
 
Greetings from Spain and enjoy your music.