[project86]

"They say that politics and sausage are two things you don't want to see made.  If so, my woodies must run a close third. "
 
Great post Bill, made me chuckle! 

 

[Bilavideo]

 

Well maybe, but I think it's worth going over to see if there is a difference in method. Subjectivity has a limit to that, especially when both parties like Grados, suggesting similar tastes.
 
Given the considerable difference in price, I doubt any mod will give an SR60 the quality of an MSPro. But you certainly make an SR60 or MS1 a LOT better than stock using these mods.

I agree.  To rack it all up to subjectivity is to dismiss any real differences.  As for comparisons to the MSPro, I'm not in a position to comment.  I've never owned an MSPro.

 

[Beagle]

It's like altering some of the ingredients to a chicken stew recipe. It changes the taste but it's still a chicken stew.

 

[Bilavideo]

Well, I'm inclined to compare it all to buying a certain "flavor" of ice cream with buying vanilla and putting those flavors in myself.  I'm sure there are some great brands of "cherry ice cream," but none that compare to buying vanilla and putting in fresh cherries of my own.  If you're willing to pop the hood, it's amazing what you can do on your own - and on the cheap.

 

[BobSaysHi]

Hey Bilavideo, where did you buy you silver wire? I've been looking for the same thing for my dt880's.

 

[Bilavideo]

Homegrown Audio.  I placed my order on the 18th and had wire on the 20th.  They're that good.

 

[BobSaysHi]

Wow, no wonder people say cables are for finishing touches. for 55 dollars I'll save for new IEMs. 

 With the cost of a 1/4 plug you can easily pay more on your cable then your headphones.
 
Glad you enjoy them though.

 
Also, 100th post ftw.

 

[BobSaysHi]

Guess I need 101 for the 100+...

 

[BobSaysHi]

Hmm, I guess not

 

[JoetheArachnid]

'scribin'.
This is really interesting, a true testament to the possible pimpage one can accomplish if you throw a lot of time and not all that much money at something.

 

[Bilavideo]

 

Wow, no wonder people say cables are for finishing touches. for 55 dollars I'll save for new IEMs. 

 With the cost of a 1/4 plug you can easily pay more on your cable then your headphones.
 
Glad you enjoy them though.

 
Also, 100th post ftw.

 
Congrats on your 100th post.  With respect to the $56 cost of silver wire ($47 + $9 for shipping), the question is not, "How much does this wire cost in relation to the cost of a $79 SR60?"  The question is, "Will the cost that this wire represents give me that much more value?"  My answer is, "No, the $56 spent on silver wire will not give you $56 in value.  It will give you $500 in value."  Now, before you cough up your Top Ramen, or whatever it is you're munching on between study sessions, keep in mind that people are paying a cool grand - and beyond that - to hear little coughs and breaths and off-mic comments and some guy opening up a bag of nachos in the fourth row.  For me, the switch to silver was not a subtle thing.  It was not audio hype and a bag of phantasms.  I would have been more than happy to have heard nothing special and laughed in the faces of all those smug cable groupies and their $500 magic jumper cables.  But when I put in silver wire - which was nothing more than a four-wire braid straight from a distributor - I was blown away.  Little complexities in texture popped out, as did mistakes, breaths, rhythm accompaniments previously buried by everything else, etc.  There's only a 7% difference in conductivity between silver and copper, so I'm not suggesting that copper sucks and silver is Jacob's Ladder with a gold-plated connector attached.  But there's obviously something in that 7% that wasn't there before - and for $56 it's going into my gear.
 
I own a PS1000.  Till a few weeks ago, I concurrently owned an HD800.  Till a month or so I ago, I concurrently owned a T1.  With the exception of the T1, all were purchased new.  Throw in the three M^3s and the B22 my son and I are building.  What does $56 really mean to me?  Would I even blink over $56?  Obviously not - and I'm hardly Diamond Jim when it comes to audio.  When you consider the cost of a pair of jumbo pads, plus shipping, $56 for a silver cable is a pittance.  Believe me when I say this, "I will never go back to copper.  Ever.  Period."
 
I'm not mortgaging my house to buy a fancy cable, but silver is here to stay.
 

 

[Bilavideo]

AFTER A LITTLE SANDING
 

 
With the weekend came the chance to finally do a little sanding.  
 

 
These are not the acme of great woodwork but they're a far cry from that glue mess I started with a few days ago.
 

 
I want to get a decent belt sander.  After I've gotten these to a smoother finish, I intend to stain them and hit them with a glossy lacquer, at least for the outside.

 

[Sophonax]

Outstanding work Bilavideo!  I was considering parting with my SR60i until I came across this thread -- I might have to try some of these mods, particularly opening the vent holes and recabling with silver.
 
Just a quick note:  make sure to sand off all the wood glue from the outside of your woodies before you stain them.  If you don't, when you go to stain them, you'll see all the places where the wood glue didn't fully come off -- the wood will stain, but the glue will remain more or less the same color.
 
Anyway, keep up the good work and experimentation, and I look forward to seeing how they turn out!

 

[BobSaysHi]

Quote:

 
 
 "No, the $56 spent on silver wire will not give you $56 in value.  It will give you $500 in value."  Now, before you cough up your Top Ramen, or whatever it is you're munching on between study sessions, keep in mind that people are paying a cool grand - and beyond that - to hear little coughs and breaths and off-mic comments and some guy opening up a bag of nachos in the fourth row.  For me, the switch to silver was not a subtle thing.  It was not audio hype and a bag of phantasms.  I would have been more than happy to have heard nothing special and laughed in the faces of all those smug cable groupies and their $500 magic jumper cables.  But when I put in silver wire - which was nothing more than a four-wire braid straight from a distributor - I was blown away.
 

That... is not good news for my wallet. I guess to a working adult interested in audio quality ~70 dollars (I have to buy connectors and silver solder) is justifiable. But it is hard to hear that after spending 400 dollars on new gear (aka 2 summers of mowing lawns in 105 degree heat) and knowing that potential is still there. Oh well, I guess I have to pawn my xbox.
 
Oh and those woodies look like something I could make, and if I didn't just sell my sr80, I probably would be making some too. 

 

[earthpeople]

Thanks for this thread, Bilavideo. I recently got a pair of SR80s and I'm considering doing some of these mods you've posted. I really want to try making some wooden cups for them, and I was thinking it might not be too difficult if I used a drill press and a solid block of wood. It'll be a while (probably around Thanksgiving or Winter break, unfortunately) before I have access to the equipment, but I'll follow up if I get some nice results.