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How does this work out? Unless I'm mistaken, Rhydon makes the drivers himself. I thought the HP drivers were made by an external company that now no longer makes high-end drivers, Grado now making their drivers in-house.
Anyway, I've asked Rhydon about what changes he has made. Hopefully he'll give a useful reply. I'm more in the mood for a bit of bass thump at the moment, so I'm liking the V2. Not sure how much my own brain adapting and how much the drivers are affected by use, but it doesn't sound as intrusive as it did when I first put them on.
I don't think this is the case.
If you search for Rhydon's old posts, he goes into detail about Grado drivers. From memory (correct me if I'm wrong), Rhydon seemed certain that Grado drivers weren't made in-house. A variety of reasons were quoted.
Rhydon also contacted the Singapore company that manufactured the HP drivers and got a later (inferior) batch of drivers. He actually sold his spares here on HF. The company still exists but has moved on to manufacturer other audio-related bits.
This might be OT, but I did enjoy the threads on whether Grado makes their own drivers. Go search for the Rhydon posts (many spawn from pictures of some HFers visit to the Grado labs).
One thing that leads me to believe that the Grado drivers are made out of house is that Grado claims to 'ship' the SR60 drivers to a manufacturer in China for the iGrado. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem to make fiscal sense. Why go through the crazy expense of shipping in-house made drivers from the USA to China for a low-cost product?
From the Grado website:
By incorporating the same drivers used in our highly regarded SR60 headphones, we can proudly state that we are indeed "the high end choice in the low end market."
I believe the Grado iGi in-ears are also made in China, ditto the much-maligned and ugly-looking SR40 (anyone remember that!?). The Gr8 is made in Japan.
Looking back at the HP drivers and at the SR40, iGrado and iGi: Grado doesn't have issues with manufacturing abroad or at least using parts made overseas. If anyone would bother doing some digging, who knows, the iGrado manufacturer might very well manufacturer Grado's drivers
My gut feel is that Rhydon has found a manufacturer of drivers and then dopes/customises them. Who knows, they might be the same company that manufactures the Grado drivers.