UPDATE 12/12 - 4:35 P.M.
After further tweaks of the "open holes" mod, I decided to get rid of the filters altogether. This Grado is now as open as possible, without removing the front plastic grill - in whole or part. This, of course, means that the headphones are more vulnerable to dust and moisture. On the other hand, dealing with both is a bit easier, too. If a hair lands on the diaphragm, blowing off the hair is as easy as blowing a bubble. I can also Saran Wrap the phones for use in wet environments but this extension of the mod rises and falls with the sound.
This could all be the placebo effect, so I won't attempt to describe how much better these cans now sound. What I will say is that I don't hear any loss from it. In fact, these cans are about as transparent as I've ever heard them (no pun intended). Depending on the track, the response ranges from disappointingly transparent (revealing the defects in my music) to breathtaking. On Act Naturally from the Beatles' Help, the instrumentation and recording is joltingly live. The recording, itself, is very clean (and I imported it in Apple Lossless), marred only by the early method of recording whole instruments into separate channels (so I got guitars exclusively in my left ear). On Fleetwood Mac's Never Going Back Again, the clarity of the recording - even EQ'd to bass boost - is stunning.
The Clash's London Calling is less sparkling, in bass boost, but rocks my ears with no punches pulled. The Foo Fighters' The Pretender joins my Weezer albums as too compressed and too grungy to deliver quite the same level of clarity. They're not muddy, just sonically "busy." Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker sounds bouncy, mean and clean. It could use a little more spaciousness (We're still in front row) but it now pounds like a jealous husband on a neighbor's door at three a.m. If this mod won't produce sounds that aren't there, it still offers a revelation of what is. Alanis Morissette's Uninvited rumbled with that ominous bass presence reserved for the soundtrack of the Final Judgment, so much so that I had to EQ the bass to safer levels. It also revealed the defects still present in the SR-60's plastic enclosure much the same way distorted car-stereo bass reveals the crappy enclosures housing expensive subwoofers. The title track to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band still sounds like a live recording, with concert-hall acoustics, but its bass punch has never been more engaging. You can really enjoy the syncopation between the drum work and alternating tracks of guitar work (lead riffs and rhythm work). Chris Brown's Kiss Kiss features the best of both worlds: a club-thumping bass beat and ultra-clean vocals. Whatever else one might think of Chris Brown (like where best to hide his body after a gratifying beat-down), Kiss Kiss is one of those tracks showing the best of both worlds: great clarity and great, visceral, bass.
I'll post pics.
