[BushGuy]

In my book: changing cables = subtle differences. I never do it with an otherwise stock phone. You often see cases here where peeps praise their new cabling to the skies - then, two months later those recabled 'phones are on the F.S. pages.

re mod. to Vixen - you will learn that Grado driver to ear distance is quite critical. The only way to achieve it in a circumaural housing is to create a mounting "platform" to be fitted to such a shell.......which also yields great comfort. Also, a caveat - never put anything between the gauze that is glued to Grado driver and your ear. If you decide to use a foam - the Grado SQ will suffer.
I should mention that comparing the Vixen to stock HF-2 - while you don't hear it that way at first, when putting HF-2 on your head afterwards - they DO have a metalic sound to them. So, doing a partical mod. of that nature would probably be helpful. A lot of peeps praised their woodied HF-1 back in the day.......and that was only plastic to wood.

Decided to illustrate what I've been talking about. Below is Vixen/HF-2 in Waterfall Bubinga

and, the other pair is Vixen/HF-2 in Swirly Bubinga/Ebony

 

[Duncan_McCloud]

Well these HF-2 are mine... never heard other grados btw.
You can ask Larry from Headphile. Maybe i hav elistened to this before and after the wood mod.

 

[cheemo]

The Vixen mod looks interesting with the unique wood cups.

 

[K3cT]

I hope this whole process is reversible because I frankly think the original looks better.

 

[gknix]

Wow, interesting ones...So one vixen and the other is just a woodied Hf-2 both by larry.

Anyone know..and I assume that removing the HF2 cups is just like removing any other cups by doing the hairdryer technique? I think I'm going to try it out

 

[gknix]

Hi everyone....so the process is finally over and they are finally woodied!
Pictures below were taken during some of the processes over the course of woodying the headphones (Grado-HF2). Sound impressions would be posted later, but from initial impressions, it seems like they the extra length of the chamber increased the 'airiness" of the sound ...and I also noticed an escalated soundstage. But further elaborations would be followed after more listening tests.

For now, picture time!
-->i didn't take the picture of my HF-2 before taking off the cups, but the band and one cup is removed here. I used the hairdryer technique to remove the cups. Heating was actually quite simple, just simply blow on the sides of the cups and the wood ...what makes it even simpler was the fact that the aluminum conducted heat which caused the glue all around to melt really quickly for a quick twist and turn and remove!

--->You can see the first driver which had its cup and gauze stripped. The gauze was actually stuck to the wood housing, not the cup itself. Also, as you can see, the entire chamber is WOOD!, just like the HF-1.

-->Unopened cup vs Woody Cup. The Woody cup gains a huge increase in length of its chamber. It is significantly taller in height than the metal cups here.

-->Final Product Pictures!

-->Another final product picture.

-->And another...

P.S These stunning cups are made by nickchen.

 

[cheemo]

Right on gknix! Any sound comparison between pre and post mod?

 

[nickchen]

The first nickphiled woody, as I see it. Very remarkable result, Geoff

Wasn't aware that it was for a HF2 while building it, otherwise I would have engraved something silly...

 

[120717]

Sound comparo please?

 

[schwallman]

did anyone ever figure out what drivers the hf2s actually use?

 

[grawk]

They use hf2 drivers

 

[schwallman]

i guess that could be true

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif They use hf2 drivers

 

[gknix]

I always thought they were the same drivers from another model..like the HF-1s. I've been quite busy this week, but sound impressions would be coming soon

 

[apatN]

^ On what drivers are the HF-1 based then?

 

[grawk]

HF1s are based on HF1 drivers.

It's fairly obvious grado bases all the headphones on the same "base" driver, but does different things with them involving coatings and dampening. So as such, they're different drivers.