I'm away from this place for five minutes and people start talking "placebo." Fair enough, but if it's a placebo for me, it must be a placebo for Grado, who vents four of those ten holes on its best headphones - and none of them on the cheap plastics.
In the meantime, I got a new drill, a bigger one after killing my old drill trying to tear up harder wood. After nearly taking my foot off (I really need a drill press), I got to finally try out something that isn't merely an imitation of something Grado already sells. It's a thicker, wider shell.
This little experiment is derived from a single sheet of oak plywood. It represents the idea of thicker, wider chambers, rather than longer ones. It also represents the idea of liberating the driver from its plastic prison.
I've not had the time to pretty this up. Like me, what you see is what you get - but it's not what you see that matters. I used a fairly banged-up driver I'd previously liberated from a pair of SR80s, a driver I've been waiting to install in something worthwhile. The finished headphone will have a metal mesh to protect the driver, but plastic is just out of the question.
I'd always wanted to provide the driver with a wider baffle, something capable of adapting to the baffle effect. I was going to go with a wider aperture in back, to allow a freer, less congested air chamber. I'd read somewhere that the tube design was disfavored among loudspeakers. But sometimes, things just take their course. Instead of achieving the wider, thinner baffle, I ended up with this.
What's the big benefit of a thicker chamber? It isn't a larger chamber so much as a stabler, more solid body. There's less of a hollow feel to it. It's less like a drum than a block. Can you hear a difference? Assuming we're not talking about another "placebo," yes. In fact, my yes is such a yes that I quickly outgrew the comfies I'd started with. Why? Because the bass was overwhelming. It was so substantial that I felt justified replacing them with the jumbos none of the plastic Grados could ever handle. The result was surprisingly decent. Big thump met big sparkle and the two had lovely children, kids you wouldn't have to bag in public, even while dangling them from a balcony.
The big block and comfies made a nice combo, but I much preferred the open sound of the jumbos. Ironically, I thought it actually improved the bass, something I hadn't expected when drinking this particular Kool-Aid. With the jumbos, the bass isn't laying claim to everything. It's there when you need it, but gives way to all that wondrous sparkle.
With this wider shell, the forks would either go on the back (as seen here) or be dispensed with in favor of a gimbal drilled directly into the wood. I'm more inclined toward the latter as it would be less likely to stretch out the headband.
These could easily be drilled to make the cable attach through the bottom. I'm inclined to install jacks for detachable cables. I'm also inclined to cut an appropriately-sized metal mesh to give the back a slightly classier feel to it.
Notwithstanding the blue-eyed devil staring back at us, the dimensions of this wider woody seem appropriate. Unlike some of the longer designs, there's no immediate comparison with Frankenstein's bolts (which, were actually tubes for giving the big goon a bloody fill-up).
So, how's the sound? Too pronounced for any talk of placebos. I would need a matching channel but from what I'm hearing, the most immediate comparison is to the GS1000. Whether this mod will create that same distance - with recessed mids - is to be seen (and heard). This is just my first attempt to try a different approach. If it's not quite what I was aiming at to begin with, I must say I like what I see thus far - amateurish workmanship notwithstanding. My next try should be cleaner, and once I've given this pair their audition, I'd like to move on to the original idea I had.
