[JamesMcProgger]

Quote:

I believe the GS1000 cup is a single outer shell, with a wooden inner as well. So assuming they are, it would be the matching U cuts that make a hole when slipped together. It's just a significantly bigger hunk of wood to begin with. The 3B band is made by somebody Big Bill knows.


Edit: And the damping looks like Dynamat, minus the foil stuff.

the U cuts you described would be perfect, i dont trust my skills enough as for rip off the cable and try to solder it back to the drivers, 
and interesting about the dynamat, thanks.

 

[eclein]

Quote:

the U cuts you described would be perfect, i dont trust my skills enough as for rip off the cable and try to solder it back to the drivers, 
and interesting about the dynamat, thanks.

James- The shells I get from Bill (have some Cocobolo) are precut so you do not have to unsolder the cable. The way I do it is the driver stays in the plastic tray like 1/8 size shell and the wood shells slip over top surrounding the plastic on both sides of the driver tray so you can just pull the shells apart, do whatever mods you want to the internal part and then slip the shell over the driver tray/shell and finish it off with a screen mesh of your choice.
 
 
An aside for anyone wishing to do these mods and don't have the parts, I have put up for sale in the forum a "Grado Mod Kit"-check it out if interested, its includes a pair of stock SR60's, a pair of Cocobolo shells from Bill and some Dynamat...its here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/549832/grado-mod-kit-grado-sr60-cocobolo-shells#post_7412337

 
 

 

[wje]

As another poster indicated, it just appears to be Dynamat or the Stinger dampening material with the foil removed.  When doing so, it makes the black "putty" very pliable.  Actually, one would think the stuff would get all over your hands, but it really doesn't.  Also, pay close attention to the picture provided where you'll see those two small holes that are drilled through the magnet and go all the way through to front of the driver material.  You never want to cover up those 2 holes with the Dynamat.  It appears Grado uses that design of driver for many of their models, as I've seen the 2 holes on the SR60, SR225 and SR325i models.  I'm not sure if this has changed with the upper models (e.g. RS, though).
 
Quote:

what is that damping the driver?

 

[wje]

For those with the "bowl" pads on their Grados, I've posted before about giving them a good cleaning every now and then to get the dirt washed out of the foam.  I usually just use a small amount of dish soap and scrub mine up in the kitchen sink.  I then let them sit for about 30 minutes in the soapy water.  Then, I rinse them well, squeeze out as much water as possible and then pad dry them with some paper towels and let them sit on the counter a few more hours to fully dry.  However, in my recent Google travels in trying to pull up some information on Grado via other Internet sites, I read where an individual also utilized some liquid fabric softener as the foam was getting a bit hard and uncomfortable.  Today, I performed that process after washing my set of bowls.  I then ran some water in the sink, added the fabric softener and then my bowl pads.  I let them soak for about 30 minutes before rinsing them and drying them out.  
 
They result?  I do find the foam to be a bit softer on my ears, so that part of the claim does have some truth to it.  Additionally, they have that "springtime fresh" scent to them right now.  If you figure the scent might bother you, then go without the fabric softener - or, find one without scent added to it.  Hopefully, the care in applying the cleaning process to my bowl pads will extend the life a bit, too.  Only time will tell.

 

[JamesMcProgger]

 
Quote:

James- The shells I get from Bill (have some Cocobolo) are precut so you do not have to unsolder the cable. The way I do it is the driver stays in the plastic tray like 1/8 size shell and the wood shells slip over top surrounding the plastic on both sides of the driver tray so you can just pull the shells apart, do whatever mods you want to the internal part and then slip the shell over the driver tray/shell and finish it off with a screen mesh of your choice.
 
 
An aside for anyone wishing to do these mods and don't have the parts, I have put up for sale in the forum a "Grado Mod Kit"-check it out if interested, its includes a pair of stock SR60's, a pair of Cocobolo shells from Bill and some Dynamat...its here:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/549832/grado-mod-kit-grado-sr60-cocobolo-shells#post_7412337

 
 

great news eclein!
I have seen so many like the ones in your kit that i though all were like that.
do you have picts of the wooden cups you described?
 


Quote:

As another poster indicated, it just appears to be Dynamat or the Stinger dampening material with the foil removed.  When doing so, it makes the black "putty" very pliable.  Actually, one would think the stuff would get all over your hands, but it really doesn't.  Also, pay close attention to the picture provided where you'll see those two small holes that are drilled through the magnet and go all the way through to front of the driver material.  You never want to cover up those 2 holes with the Dynamat.  It appears Grado uses that design of driver for many of their models, as I've seen the 2 holes on the SR60, SR225 and SR325i models.  I'm not sure if this has changed with the upper models (e.g. RS, though).
 

 
I had never used dynamat in my life so I had no idea it was putty-like, and yes ive read about those holes before, they suppose to serve cooling purpose. will be careful not to cover them. and my sr80 and alessandro ms1 have those holes too.

 

[chrislangley4253]

apparently modifying grado's just kills all time spent shaving... It's worth it.. Lol. My pic isn't that high quality, but it's been a good week now...
 

 

[eclein]

James, the shells (see the groove around the inside, that fits over the Black plastic driver tray)

 
..the notch fits over the cable and is stopped from cutting into the cable by the depth of the groove-the driver trays only go in so far. Here is what Dynamat looks like...



 
..the cardboard backing peels off and the putty stuff goes onto the back of the driver with the foil side up so they end up like this:

 

[Bigrock2150]

Quote:

 
man i want that design on some cups. stunning beautiful.
 
general question time!
 
whats the standard in grado mod cups, 1. the whole for the cable in the middle of the cup, so the cable has to be deattached to fit the driver in, or 2. some sort of 2 part cups with and U shaped cut for the cables to slide in? like the original sr60i/80i housing? and 3. the back of the cups like that GS1000 up here, is it a 3rd piece or only a bigger cup in one piece or two?
 

 
With Techheromods cups we generally like to drill a hole in the side of the cup to allow the cable to slide through, it's cleaner and more attractive. This means that most will have to send their headphones to us (which we recommend to eliminate any mistakes) to be modded. However if the customer does wish to mod them themselves they'll need a soldering iron, hot glue gun and a hair dryer. 
 
We used to make the cups with a arched hole so that the customer didn't need to unsolder anything but we found that the look wasn't satisfactory. We still can make them so that the customer can do it with out a soldering iron upon request. 
 
And yes, Our cups are one solid piece of wood, rather than two pieces put together.
 
 

 

[Saintkeat]

Thanks james. If you don't have to file very much I'm sure you'll find the mods straight forward and simple. I was using a diamond file for metal (jacks), plastic (housing), and wood (cups), and the file cost me a dollar from the dollar store. Since I didn't have specific files for each material, it became less effective and I wound up using more force. My next set of cups would be cut with specific sized holes so hopefully no filing necessary.
 
Sigh debt growing bigger, woodying up my grado has now been doubly pricey. meh.
 
Anyways James I think your question about damping has been answered. Although I didn't realise some of you actually left the foil on lol. Reminds me of those home made astronaut costumes.

 

[sml1226]

Thanks james. If you don't have to file very much I'm sure you'll find the mods straight forward and simple. I was using a diamond file for metal (jacks), plastic (housing), and wood (cups), and the file cost me a dollar from the dollar store. Since I didn't have specific files for each material, it became less effective and I wound up using more force. My next set of cups would be cut with specific sized holes so hopefully no filing necessary.
 
Sigh debt growing bigger, woodying up my grado has now been doubly pricey. meh.
 
Anyways James I think your question about damping has been answered. Although I didn't realise some of you actually left the foil on lol. Reminds me of those home made astronaut costumes.

You're supposed to leave it on
If you weren't supposed to, wouldn't they just back both sides with cardboard/paper and be done with it rather than making one side aluminum?

 

[wje]

Quote:

Quote:

Thanks james. If you don't have to file very much I'm sure you'll find the mods straight forward and simple. I was using a diamond file for metal (jacks), plastic (housing), and wood (cups), and the file cost me a dollar from the dollar store. Since I didn't have specific files for each material, it became less effective and I wound up using more force. My next set of cups would be cut with specific sized holes so hopefully no filing necessary.
 
Sigh debt growing bigger, woodying up my grado has now been doubly pricey. meh.
 
Anyways James I think your question about damping has been answered. Although I didn't realise some of you actually left the foil on lol. Reminds me of those home made astronaut costumes.

You're supposed to leave it on

If you weren't supposed to, wouldn't they just back both sides with cardboard/paper and be done with it rather than making one side aluminum?

Correct - on typical automotive installations, you'd just leave the foil on.  However, with the headphone mods, I think it's quite likely to have any effect either way.  I just found it easier to apply it and mold it around those 2 vent holes with the foil side removed, too.  Plus, with the foil removed, you don't see that shiny reflection on the insides of your Grados when looking through the screen.  It just stays all dark and eerie in there.  

 

 

[sml1226]

Correct - on typical automotive installations, you'd just leave the foil on.  However, with the headphone mods, I think it's quite likely to have any effect either way.  I just found it easier to apply it and mold it around those 2 vent holes with the foil side removed, too.  Plus, with the foil removed, you don't see that shiny reflection on the insides of your Grados when looking through the screen.  It just stays all dark and eerie in there.  

 

Yeah, the benefit is there that way, But I can't see it being all that easy to get all of it off the foil. If it is I may just do it, but I don't mind the foil look so if it's too much work, I'll leave it there.

 

[JamesMcProgger]

 
Quote:

James, the shells (see the groove around the inside, that fits over the Black plastic driver tray)

 
..the notch fits over the cable and is stopped from cutting into the cable by the depth of the groove-the driver trays only go in so far. 

thanks, this is what i wanted to see. very practical
 

 

[chrislangley4253]

I'd really love some cold hard proof that those vents for the voice coil through the driver magnet serve a purpose..
 
I know that on loudspeakers they vent heat, but isn't that totally irrelevant on a driver this small? I know that it is the nature of things to mock driver design after speakers..  I'd just really like to know once and for all if they serve a purpose beyond aesthetics.
 
Any proof for or against them serving a purpose would be great. I know everyone's got an opinon, but you know what they say about opinion's
 
Lots of people cover them up with dynamat and see no ill results.. Other people act as though covering up the holes would cause a massacre of sorts. Who is right?

 

[Saintkeat]

^I'll get back to you once I get my cups. I vented 4 holes symmetrically on both sides, so I would be able to comment on the quantity of bass and whether it has changed. I can't however comment on the sound as it could be attributed to any number of things seeing i've done a fair few things. Another thing I can comment on is the sibilance.

Back to dynamat. I would think that leaving the foil in would change the sound as the sound bounces off the chamber and what is supposed to be absorbed by the dynamat would instead be reflected off the foil as it's not absorbant like dynamat. Pure theory.