[sydneyaudio]

Yeah,
depends what you are after.
I have very few hours on mine, lets see what others think about them- we all hear differently.

 

[regal]

Was hoping for an HP-1 sound before I take the plunge
 
Quote:

Yeah,
depends what you are after.
I have very few hours on mine, lets see what others think about them- we all hear differently.

 

[sydneyaudio]

Have never heard the HP1 so can not comment.
But I believe that was the target Rhydon was aiming for with this mod.

 

[XXII]

My drivers have arrived. Will probably reassemble them tomorrow. Hope they work!

 

[Currawong]

Mine arrived. I noticed 3 clear holes on the back going through to the driver on each.  There is, I think, more bass and the treble is a tad less peaky, but I could be wrong.  The pinpoint image placement I get is still there and instruments still sound glorious. I've only been listening to jazz for the most part so far though.
 
Edit: Rhydon did send me a long email, and he is in it for the long haul, especially focussed on designing a product with the best quality possible, according to him.  

 

[XXII]

So I have reassembled my Magnums lites and have recabled them with Vampire PCOCC. Because of the recable and the fact that Rhydon took so long with the new drivers, I can't make any comparison with the v1 drivers except that one thing I noticed was that the v1 drivers sounded a lot better with flats but my preliminary impression is that the v2 drivers sound a lot better with Bowls.
 
Overall, I'm still very impressed with the Magnums but will need more listening time to form a more definite opinion. For the $300-400 required for the Magnum lite, these are a superb deal. It's a shame that I can't recommend anyone order one because of the inevitable delay.
 

 

[sydneyaudio]

Hey, I noticed this too - where the V1 sounded thin and bright with the bowls the V2 actually sound better with the bowls.
I have really been enjoying my music collection with these phones. The less bright treble (is it more balanced?) actually suits me.
I think at some point I will need to see how these scale with better source and amp.

 
Quote:

So I have reassembled my Magnums lites and have recabled them with Vampire PCOCC. Because of the recable and the fact that Rhydon took so long with the new drivers, I can't make any comparison with the v1 drivers except that one thing I noticed was that the v1 drivers sounded a lot better with flats but my preliminary impression is that the v2 drivers sound a lot better with Bowls.
 
Overall, I'm still very impressed with the Magnums but will need more listening time to form a more definite opinion. For the $300-400 required for the Magnum lite, these are a superb deal. It's a shame that I can't recommend anyone order one because of the inevitable delay.
 

 

[Currawong]

I third the flats/bowls comments.  The tone has moved closer to that of the HF-1, which was spot-on for me.  Probably as a result of the change in the back-ports behind the diaphragm, just the right amount of bass has been dialled in, without overdoing it, and the treble has been dialled back to the point that it still sounds nice and open and not muffled, without either being excessively peaky.  They are still utterly ruthless in detail and reproduce instruments incredibly well.  I'll update my review at some point once I've used them for a few weeks.

 

[tamahome77]

I agree the V2 improvement favours the bowls over the flats.  The magnums are now more listenable with bowls than before.  More full bodied sounding and a little less bright.  One thing I've noticed with flats is that the bass now sounds a little blouted with bass heavy music.  Oddly, I do not mind this because of the more full bodied sound this new V2 magnum driver produces over the V1.

 

[tim3320070]

Glad to hear this- I wanted more richness from the V1's.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Good to hear some reviews finally! Now if we could see some measurements on a dummy head as well?
 
The one-year wait is unimpressive though.

 

[alota]

Quote:

I agree the V2 improvement favours the bowls over the flats.  The magnums are now more listenable with bowls than before.  More full bodied sounding and a little less bright.  One thing I've noticed with flats is that the bass now sounds a little blouted with bass heavy music.  Oddly, I do not mind this because of the more full bodied sound this new V2 magnum driver produces over the V1.

Hello, could you tell me the differences between new v2 drivers and grado hp-2?
many thanks
aldo
 

 

[regal]

This sucks,  I thought were we all going to be able to afford HP-1s.  Too bad.
Quote:

I agree the V2 improvement favours the bowls over the flats.  The magnums are now more listenable with bowls than before.  More full bodied sounding and a little less bright.  One thing I've noticed with flats is that the bass now sounds a little blouted with bass heavy music.  Oddly, I do not mind this because of the more full bodied sound this new V2 magnum driver produces over the V1.

 

[Currawong]

The bass increase is likely due to the open ports on the back of the drivers.  I'm sure this is easily tweak-able so that they are usable with flats.  Rhydon seems reluctant to talk about the technical details of his design, which is a pity, as a description from him of the V1/V2 differences is badly needed, even if it is easy enough to figure out a lot of it.

 

[shawn_low]

The bass increase is likely due to the open ports on the back of the drivers.  I'm sure this is easily tweak-able so that they are usable with flats.  Rhydon seems reluctant to talk about the technical details of his design, which is a pity, as a description from him of the V1/V2 differences is badly needed, even if it is easy enough to figure out a lot of it.

Doubt Rhydon will release any info on the new drivers. He was pretty silent on V1...doesn't his website say something along the lines of 'the proof is in the pudding'.

I don't have any Grados with me bar the MS1 (old version). There are two holes on the back of the driver (each clearly labelled Grado 32). Can anyone comment on other Grado drivers? Just speculating here as Rhydon was pretty active in tracking down old HP drivers and thinks that current Grado drivers are made by a third party.

Rhydon gets his drivers made by third party...so go
figure.