SR60-Mod
Mar 2, 2011 at 12:28 PM Post #1,831 of 5,004
Maybe overdamping the bass (more Dynamat on the driver/cup) and adding some felt in front of the driver for taming the highs?
 
I have no experience (yet) with these Grados, but that was what I found out when modding my HFI780 - I got too much (to my taste) of Dynamat on the driver and increased the depthness of the felt around the pads - way too much midrange :)
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 12:45 PM Post #1,832 of 5,004
Thanks, I'm not looking to tame the highs as such, just that after modding my 225's (which of course my friend has nicked off me). I have decided to take on his 80's. I found with the 225's that the bass was improved with the woodys but I wanted more detail (especially mid). I may just be too used to my rs-1's and hoping or too much? I'm sure Bill will have something up his sleeve.
 
Quote:
Maybe overdamping the bass (more Dynamat on the driver/cup) and adding some felt in front of the driver for taming the highs?
 
I have no experience (yet) with these Grados, but that was what I found out when modding my HFI780 - I got too much (to my taste) of Dynamat on the driver and increased the depthness of the felt around the pads - way too much midrange :)



 
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 1:12 PM Post #1,833 of 5,004
Sharkz, these ones are East Indian Rosewood.  I also have some African Blackwood I may drill into cups.
 
I found that "bowl blanks" are what you might be looking for - usually 6x6 inches, and around 1 inch thick.  I have bought those locally, and it alleviates the need to buy 4+ feet of wood.
 
The place local to me has TONS of options, but many are only in board length.  Cocobolo is one that they don't stock in short lengths, the shortest I could find in appropriate thickness was 42 inches, and that would have been roughly 40 bucks.
 
I think the Jaben alumods are specifically designed to be used for creating MS1000 from Alessandro MS1's.  They use that front spacer or distancer.  Some folks who have played around with both Grado and Alessandro with those distancers suggest that the Grado's do not benefit like the Alessandro's from that added distance, so you may find that you want to trim them as you plan.
 
What was the shipping cost, I pinged them, but have not heard back.  $40?  Transit time?  2-3 weeks?
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 2:09 PM Post #1,834 of 5,004

 
Quote:
 

The rings?  Are you talking about the gimbals?  They don't have much to do with the sound.  In an interview, Grado suggested that their minimal contact helped, but as others have pointed out, they're basically there to provide four-direction movement (up, down, left and right).  The choice between wood and aluminum is either purely cosmetic or structural to the extent that aluminum can provide a sturdier frame.  The real benefit is in being able to make them larger, where necessary, to provide better access with larger shells.
 
I misspoke when I made reference to the spider.  On a loudspeaker, the spider typically houses the voice coil (which looks loosely like a spider's web).  That's not what I meant (I'm up too late again).  The analogy I wanted to draw was between the back of the driver and the "basket" on a conventional loudspeaker.  The basket holds the spider and cone in place.  It's best if this rigid frame remains rigid.  When it starts vibrating, it adds its own lack of balance to the mix, producing its own distortions.  While the magnet plate is a more obvious source of problems, this basket sneaks in a few of its own.  When I added damping material where I could do so without covering up the vents, the presentation seemed sharper and more in focus.  The bass has a solidity to it, which is wonderful, but there's also more room for mids and treble.  I'm getting the best of both worlds: better bass and better treble.  Given the price of the trace amount of Dynamat it takes to dot the driver back with damping material, I'd say it's one of the cost-effective tweaks I could have stumbled over (without breaking my neck).
 



AH I see I see..could you provide a picture pointing out the "basket"?
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 3:54 PM Post #1,835 of 5,004
Well I finally found a source for my wood. Place in Trenton NJ on the way to Philadelphia stocks all the woods I could ever want (Bubinga, Zebrawood, Paduak, Bloodwood, Purpleheart, Cocobolo, etc) and wil sell to me in 1 foot for a reasonable price. The only bad part is that I won't be heading to Philly for at least the next month. I guess I will have to be patient and perfect my process on the rest of my Mahogany for now.
 
I can't wait to get some nice exotics to play with....
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 4:53 PM Post #1,836 of 5,004
I'm telling you guys, to tame the high end, smooth out the sound and generally blow your previous efforts away you need todo the chamber thing I've done twice......a thin piece of foam under the screen inside the wood shells let them breath but tightens up the bass and smooths the high end fatigue...twice I've done it and both times the chnage was dramtic...has anyone tried it yet?????
 Guys, gals...I'm not cryin wolf here....try it!!! I may just have to drive around to everybodies houses and make you listen to mine.... the chamber in the latest shells Bill made me because he added the lip so I didn;t have to  liberate the driver or unsolder the cable created a chamber that when a thin piece of foam is placed under the screen alows for some sound to escape smoothing out the high end and also holds some waves in making the bass more defined and closer to closed headphones while retainging the open high end that Grado's are known for all the while taking the edge off the high end that alot of folks I'm reading are still experiencing......Hello!!! anybody hear me!!!!!   Test, One! One! Two!!!
...LOL>......
<<<< <<<<<<                                                                                                                                                                             
 see those arrows right over there_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________^^^^^^^^^^ yep these arrows up here, they point to a mesh screen and under that screen is a thin piece of foam, like 1/16 or 1/32 thin and round so it covers the opening but not the wood side of the shells.......... it make a resonant dampened chamber and it works....somebody try it and tell me I'm a jerk and then I'll stop bothering you guys, I'll buy the foam for anyone who wants to try it, we just need a source, I got mine from some SONY headphones, it was SONY's version of a grill cloth on their headphones and I took it off a pair like Bill does with the white linen on the Grado's and just inadvertantly put it in the 125's awhile back I used in the hospital, well I took the foam out and put it in the shells Bill sent me under the screen Bill installed and it made all the difference in the world....I'm not ever posting again until someone trys it.....LOL....by the way, I'm a facilitator in a new circle at audiocircle.com called "The Musicians Circle", come by and chat and thats where I'll be until someone trys the foam and comes by to tell me about how brilliant or crazy I am....Peace!!!!!!
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 7:13 PM Post #1,837 of 5,004
 
How would I go about getting more mid range from some 80's ? Is this a possibility?

Thanks, I'm not looking to tame the highs as such, just that after modding my 225's (which of course my friend has nicked off me). I have decided to take on his 80's. I found with the 225's that the bass was improved with the woodys but I wanted more detail (especially mid). I may just be too used to my rs-1's and hoping or too much? I'm sure Bill will have something up his sleeve.


Grado's choice, in using mahogany, is probably rooted in mahogany's ability to punch up the high and low ends.  It's not as rich, in the bass department, as cocobolo, Indian rosewood or Brazilian rosewood.  It's just a beautiful wood that's relatively easy to cut and unlikely to overwhelm the listener.  When you move up among the tonewoods, the bass is so much more productive but the balance of mahogany is lost.  Just as the aluminum cans needed flats to obtain any warmth at all, shells made from these premium tonewoods produce so much bass that you will end up in need of larger pads.  But that's a good thing.  The quality of your bass ultimately determines the quality of your soundstage.  Anemic bass requires a very tight ear/driver distance and a lot of effort to hold in the bass through a very tightly-fit pad architecture.  When the bass is more than enough, you have the luxury of pulling back.  The presentation is less compressed.  You get a wonderfully dimensional presentation.  By escaping the flats, you escape "the flats."
 
But most of the time this isn't possible, especially because the larger cushions aren't just increasing ear/driver distance.  They're increasing the length of porous sidewalls that bleed bass.  It takes a lot of pent up bass to go the distance with these, which is why most Grados don't take very well to the jumbos.  Ironically, another way to get there is to add length to the rear chamber.  Before creating longer drivers, I assumed they would provide me deeper and more impressive bass.  To my surprise, they lowered the basement of the bass but reduced midbass, which increased the sense of soundstage.
 
 
AH I see I see..could you provide a picture pointing out the "basket"?



This is what it looks like on a loudspeaker.  
 

 
This is what it looks like on a Grado.  Look past the Mylar film, the voice coil and the magnet.  That whole structure (with the holes in it) that is designed to provide a back to the headphone is the basket.
 

 
In this ancient pic from the early days of Bilavideo modding, the plastic that sits behind all of the adhesive foam (which I no longer use to damp the driver back) is the plastic basket with holes in it. 
 

 
My point, in attaching so much damping material to the basket (outside of the holes that vent the drivers) was to minimize vibrations created along the full back of the driver.  We already knew that damping the magnet plate worked wonders, in terms of ending the buzzing artifacts that sometimes show up after venting the driver.  I wanted to see if additional damping, along the rest of the driver back, would do any good.
 
I'm happy to say that it has transformed my headphones, giving them the tightest bass.
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 7:36 PM Post #1,838 of 5,004
Great illustrative and descriptive explanation, Bll. Thanks :)
 
Mar 2, 2011 at 9:09 PM Post #1,839 of 5,004
 
Quote:
The wood shell movement is quite awesome. It's too bad that ebony is so bright sounding (well, coming from a guitar standpoint...it balances mahogany pretty well), because that would look killer.

 
Quote:
Sharkz, these ones are East Indian Rosewood.  I also have some African Blackwood I may drill into cups.

 
I've been thinking the same thing sinistas. That some ebony cups would look quite awesome, or perhaps some cups made out of African Blackwood. The Blackwood has me intrigued the most; and the idea in my head right now is to go with the Blackwood and have them lathed rather than drill sawed. I am thinking about a solid wood design that would house a partially liberated driver. There is a community wood shop where I live that does special projects for people. If it's not cost prohibitive I may even do them myself.
 
I'm not wedded to the African Blackwood idea yet though. Do any of you guys have any thoughts on the different tonewoods that could be used and why. Another wood I was looking at recently was Indian Apple (Tineo).
 
 
Mar 3, 2011 at 12:36 AM Post #1,841 of 5,004
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever had a problem where their driver won't work unless they press really hard on the back of the magnet plate? I liberated my drivers, and I'm having that problem now. It's quite annoying because everything seems to look perfect! Only thing I can think of is that the voice coil is, for some reason, too far away from the magnet now. If I push hard on the magnet plate the voice coil moves closer to the magnet, and I can hear sound once again. I don't know how the coil could have been pushed too far away though, because it looks perfectly lined up. Any ideas for possible fixes? I'm thinking maybe if I put a strong magnet on the back plate the extra magnetic field will be strong enough to pull the voice coil back to the proper position?
 
Mar 3, 2011 at 12:52 AM Post #1,842 of 5,004
Dont do anything until bill responds i think he may have a fix for something like that but i cant remember if it was the same issue you are having or not.
 

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