[Chris_Himself]

Quote:

Grados are (relatively) primitive and easily modable.
That's why some people say that Grados aren't worth it.
 
Just out of curiosity, do they all use the same drivers?

Yes, it's principally the same driver in terms of weight, impedance, and magnet size. But just like their phono cartridges, these drivers are "binned" and the ones that are furthest away from the RS-1 become SR-60's and so on and so on. 
 
It's the same thing they do with computer CPU's and led's, the highest binned ones are sold at a premium, and the lower binned ones become lower end more affordable products.
 
So while yes if you simply imply that they all use the same driver, of course it would sound absolutely ridiculous for someone to pay for the same driver in a 700 dollar top of the line reference series headphone, but a modded headphone will only get close at the most absolute best case scenario, but the heart of the headphone I feel never really quite measures up. My SR-60's are more exciting than say a stock SR-225 because of the bass holes, recable, and headband, but an SR-225 doesn't need any of those things to sound good, the bass sounds deeper because the driver is physically capable of thump, versus porting your driver and artificially enhancing it, and you'll know, when your mids start becoming a little muddier at the expensive of all around great bass.
 
I can't speak on cables, but I recabled my own headphones with the help of other people years before I ever did it for anybody else, and I'm still one of the biggest consumers of my own stuff hehe.
 
My beater 4 year old SR-225 with 7N silver cable, leather headband, no bass holes. They sound more interesting than the RS-2's for sure, but one is an RS-2 and has wood, while one doesn't hehe. I'd mod the RS-2 if I wasn't looking to sell it, or if you didn't have to spend  75 bucks to send it back to Grado to install the cable for you using their special oven... ouchies.

 

 

[SHAHZADA123]

Can someone explain how to open the RS1i.
The left driver is imparting a slight vibrancy. Something has possibly come loose and I can hear it when the bass kicks in.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Centropolis]

I have a pair of 60i's and I am wondering what are a couple of basic mods that can improve the SQ (not cosmetic) that are relatively low on the risk scale, and easy to do?

 

[Chris_Himself]

Quote:

Can someone explain how to open the RS1i.
The left driver is imparting a slight vibrancy. Something has possibly come loose and I can hear it when the bass kicks in.
Thanks in advance.

 
You cannot open RS-1's, they need to be sent back to Grado Labs USA to be opened otherwise you're going to end up scraping off the hard glue with a scalpel, the glue holding an RS-1/RS-2 together is not of the same grade used on the plastic bodied ones...
 
Since you're located there, you need to go to your local Grado dealer to arrange transport back to the USA, perhaps due to the transit time, you might want to look into purchasing or borrowing some sort of loaner that you can sell/give back later...
 
If you can't find your local Grado dealer to fulfill this request, I'm more than happy to act as a proxy between you and Grado Labs, I've done it before for a few people, and I just enjoy helping my fellow Gradophiles. I have a reputation to uphold here so you'll be in good hands too
 
Grado Labs has a special low temperature oven they use to bake the Grados in without affecting the mylar on the drivers, or the special coating on them either, doesn't affect the varnish. They then just use a simple prying tool to lift the drivers out of the Mahogany, it's a rather primitive process, but only Grado has the temperature and specs of the glue for the time being. This is why to recable woodied G-cans, it costs like 75 bucks to mail the things back and have them install a 3rd party cable. I've been there, done that haha.
 
A lot of the information I know about it isn't just from personal experience, Peter at Double Helix Cables let me know before I had to recable my own RS-2's via this route....
 
But nothing is more annoying to me than Grados rattling, it is perhaps the only legitimate complaint I ever have about the design of their headphones, although from what I've been told even the HD800 is subject to a hair getting in there every now and then.