Followed this as my first ever soldering/electronic mods project, worked great. Thanks for the clear video! I did just get a Meze cable to replace the Grado one, as the grado one was the pain point in the first place. Blue was Negative/ground. And I found putting the hot glue in the outer cup produced a cleaner result than on the inner cup rim. All the best everyone!
Thank you so much! For a USA resident non-electronics DIYer, this worked out great! Bought the mini connectors from Newark like you and didn't need to trim them, there was just enough thread available to mount them. A hair dryer worked perfectly for me, about 3-4 minutes to soften up the glue. My only problem was trying to figure out which pins were positive and negative (how do you know?), but I slowed down your video and froze some frames and was 90% sure I got it, which I did! Haha! . I'm in love with my Grado's again! Cheers!
To figure out the connections, you would use a multimeter on continuity mode and probe between the original 3,5 mm connector and the solder connections inside the cans. so for instance you would have continuity between the white wire in the left can and the tip of the connector, the red wire in the right can and the ring, and finally both blue wires should have continuity to the sleeve
@@fredrikfredrikfredrik Yeah, I'm a novice with just a cheap soldering iron, so that's beyond my skill level and toolset, though it makes sense and seems easy enough. I lucked out this time! Thanks!
@@fredrikfredrikfredrik as mentioned elsewhere, at least some versions of the OEM grado cable are terminated red=tip, white=sleeve, which is counter to the red=ring=right convention, so best to check with a DMM using your method!
This video just freed me from the excess length and constant twisting of the Grado stock cable. It was stressful, and I'm a little worried I was to conservative with the glue, but it was really easy to do. Thank you!
Hopefully those got glued again... nice job I love the end result. Especially when the Grado's cable are installed slightly twisted..this allows correction and it's a great mod !!!
Given the price they are sold outside the US, I had abit of shock when I took apart my grado 125 some years ago. No dampening or whatsoever, evening the solder joints were questionable at least on mine. Hope they have up their game since. Great job on the mods as always.
Lol - in my experience grado believe in "the bigger the blob, the better the job" for soldering but it works. On the higher models they do add a bit of damping material to the rear of the magnet. That said, I still think they are pretty good value for money, particularly the lower models especially as they are built by hand
They did better job on high end models but they still use cheap plastic parts and that horrible foam pads. I own Grado GH1. They sound incredible but I had to replace all plastic parts and foam pads. Now I have real high-end experience.
For the price they are in the us you really can't beat the price in my opinion although I hear that there is a pair of Philips for a similar price that some people prefer, haven't tried the Philips myself though, but I love the grado sound
Unfortunately, Grado has not upped their game here. My 325x had channel cutouts that I sent in for warranty twice to fix within an 8 month span. Sent it in to Custom Cans for their detachable cable mod before the 1 year warranty expired, problem solved. Great sound but its terrible that detachable isn't standard.
I bought a pair of grado's just about a year ago. The cable getting all twisted when I used them and when I hung them on my headphone hanger just ended up fucking the cable up cause it just gets so easily twisted . I can imagine the outer mesh on the cable is to fix the very bad problem they have of their cables so easily getting twisted and broken.
used the heated bed of my 3d printer at 90C as you said and it popped right open. great tip. something i noticed during the disassembly was that red was wired to left and white to right. i checked this multiple time and it was like that on both ends. Did they do this on purpose or something? anyway, I printed some small inserts and added MMCX connectors instead. they are almost flush with the cup! :D
Yeah they are built by hand so some are wired differently than others.. I suppose it depends which technician builds them ;) it may be worth doing a check to see if left and right are switched, just in case
@@CustomCans just came to share this and then saw your post. given that you've probably seen a good sampling of these, are they just all over the map in terms of red/white/ring/tip convention? I do recall that an older style cable I had (w/o the braided outermost jacket) was flipped as @alabaz noted: Tip = Left+ = Red Ring = Right+ = White Sleeve = L-/R-/GND = 2*blue which is the typical color convention for TRS balanced mono wiring. perhaps they outsourced manufacturing of the cable with the molded plug and some just came that way❓ in any case, i'm re-terminating a pair of x-series with a 4pin mini xlr rather than a phone jack, so happy to share what i find. thanks for the great vid!
I was given some sr-80x appears to be the same version you have with the funny sratchy cable, the cable going into the left pad is busted and crackling to hell & back so gonna be following this tutorial at some point when i get sick of twisting the cable back
Great Job and As we all know a needed Mod on Grados but personally doing this mod I would have changed the whole cable as Grados new Cable is Horrendous.
We do have a send in service but due to the ammount of work involved is may not be worth it on some models, especially if you don't mind the original cable jfunk.org/wpc/product/grado-modifications/
Yes we have both flavours and use them for different things - the glue lined shrink gives a really good solid connection but tends to be a bit inflexible
Can you put a balanced 2.5mm connector on these headphones? Would love to have my little Fiio BTR5 dangle from just below the Y section of cable. Thanks for video.
Yes you would just need t chop the end off and solder on the 2.5mm jack. We did a similar video with a 4.4mm connector ua-cam.com/video/VlSgDahPM00/v-deo.html
@@CustomCansWould going with new, heavier gauge wire affect the sound or power transfer at all? I'm thinking while I'm doing this, why not make them more durable. Thicker wires and 550 paracord jacket for the cable jacketing. Thanks for your thoughts and for the video! My SR225's need fixing.
Yes - you could run them balanced once you do the detachable cable mod. You can fit a balanced jack to the standard cable as it has 4 internal wires but I would recommend replacing it with something a bit better while you are at it
Hello Sir am new to this modding stuff and my cans are the SR325e. The default cable on my cans are faulty and I will like to know if I could just purchase a replacement cable after installing the detachable jacks and please recommend me a cable to get
It depends on which connectors you fit but if you do a 2.5mm socket like we do that this one will fit jfunk.org/wpc/product-category/home/cables/original-sennheiser-cable/hd700-cables/
Thanks as always for a great video! One question. You are using an M&R 946BP separator. Have you used it to change the display of phones? I want to buy one like yours. To work with headphones, you can probably buy a model without a vacuum pump? I will be grateful for your help. All the best from Germany. Rotmann's Cables.
I don't think that is the reason. It you check out high end headphones from sennheiser, focal, Abyss and others, they manage to make them sound good and have a detachable cable. I think it is more down to tradition - Grado have been making headphones the same way for decades and re-designing the enclosure would be expensive and time consuming. Take a look at the Beyerdynamic range - they all used to have fixed cables. Then we started offering detachable cable mods on them 4 or 5 years ago. Once we had shown it was a popular feature to add, beyerdynamic added it as a feature on all their new models . The Original Gen1 T1 had a fixed cable and the Gen2 and Gen3 now have detachable ones but they had to re-design the enclosure to make it possible
@@CustomCans Unfortunately, Grado have actually stated themselves that "No, we will not be making the wire detachable, our wires are crucial to the Grado sound" after so many people have complained about it. I personally think the argument that wires change sound is ridiculous
My Grado's cable is acting up, at the moment I've duct taped it into an awkward bending that makes it work, but I'll attempt this one of these days. At best my Grado's are back in business and better than ever! At worst... new headphone time, yay.
We were making them for a customer - using the original cable kept the cost down and gave a good upgrade path for the future but... Yes, if they were mine I would have changed to a different cable ;)
@@CustomCans Oh I see. Where do you live? I have a SR225 with 1.2 m custom cable but not detachable. I'm looking for someone to mod with for me. I'm willing to have yellow or dark green leather band, mahogany wood cups similar to Alessandro and detachable cable mod.
Here you go uk.farnell.com/lumberg/klb-1/socket-2-5mm-jack-chassis/dp/1217014?mckv=s2fUW4pWL_dc|pcrid|460327518667|plid||kword||match||slid||product|1217014|pgrid|107884853996|ptaid|aud-132169620789:pla-332957992203|&gross_price=true&CMP=KNC-GUK-SHOPPING-SMEC-Whoops-Remarketing-Test775
Isnt it "donkey" not "pig" lmao. great video none the less! thank you. Im inspired to do a set now. I always wondered why with the quality of Grado they didnt do this from the factory
While my SR80x's utterly SING to me and I find myself just drawn back to them over and over again, I do find that the cord is the one disappointment. It feels really harsh, stiff and scratchy, and since the cups can't detach from the cord, the infinite spin they have (which I love) means the cable going down to the splitter is always twisted up. So I'm definitely going to be doing this to mine. are 3.5mm jacks do-able in the grado housing? I'd love to just use other pairs of nice, balanced 3.5 cables I have.
I have them too and my cable died pretty fast (everyday use in train and winter) near the jack the copper just fell apart, I have shortened the cable, upgraded to balanced 2,5mm jack but then the short cable from the earcup to the Y splitter got damaged so I need to change the whole cable, will do this jack input mod and order some cables. Love these headphones but the original cable is disappointment.
This is supposed to be a DIY guide ;) it is probably not cost effective to pay us to do it on the lower models jfunk.org/wpc/product/grado-modifications/
If I were going to do this I think I would modify them further by running a cable from one cup to the other along the headband. Only one detachable cable needed, so I think it would take the same or less time as this mod.
I don't know... It would definitely be possible to make a cable just as robust that was more flexible and less microphonic. It may have been down to cost but personally I think they could have designed it better
@@axelfoley1768 Yes, a bit like one of those telephones you made as a child with two cups joined by a piece of string. When the cable rubs against your clothes it transmits that sound to the earcup. Adding an extra rough cover to the cable can make that worse, especially when you use them wile moving around. But, as you said... it does give it an extra layer of protection. We use a similar cover on our DJ cables. As they are normally used in high noise environments the noise made by the cable is not so noticeable.
I have 80x's. That hard cable drives me nuts. Its really stiff....one of the cables is twisted, and seems to want to twist the earpad, the other isnt twisted and is fine. Since the cable is hard, it doesnt sit flat, and since its so hard, its obtrusive.
It has been a while since I made this video but I am pretty certain it was these uk.farnell.com/lumberg/klb-1/socket-2-5mm-jack-chassis/dp/1217014?st=2.5mm%20jack
Where did you get the 2.5mm (or 3.5mm?) Cable inserts to put in the cups? I would love to do this on my sr80e, I have tons of bonus dual 2.5mm cables for hifimans that I would love to use. Also that hot plate is awesome, I've been looking for that too, but I have a heat gun if I can't find that.
Wonderful video. I do have a question: I have a 325x and want to get a more comfortable cable onto it. Do you know if the detachable mod you're doing will work with a SR 325x? Are the internals mostly the same? Thanks!
I did the most horrible thing to a $40 pair of SR-80e's- I didn't have female jacks, but I had some cheapo adapters that go from 3.5mm male mono to female stereo. They wedge in between the cups so I made a HUGE glob of solder to hold the male end in, with the females sticking out a fair bit. And actually? It looks very Grado lol. But I'm going to hell for it 😂 I plugged an old HE-400se cable in and it works just fine Edit: I meant to say I plugged a hifiman cable in lol
I got an older pair of grados from ebay that have a 6.3 mm termination that I’m thinking of modding, do you think they would wire in the same way as the pair you have in this video? I’m not sure if the different termination would make a difference when it comes to attaching the jack.
Grados have anywhere from 4 to 12 wires in the cables so it depends on which model they are - If yo hunt through our videos, we have done a lot of other models
@@CustomCans Yes, I recall in one of your videos there were multiple positive/negative wires so you just twisted the ends together to make the soldering easier, that's probably what I'll end up doing as well. Will the socket you used in this video work for a cable with a mic? I already have a cable that has 2.5mm connections into the earcups, but it has a mic so the connections are TRS rather than TS like you have in the video. I think I'm just more generally unsure of how the positive and negative connections of the socket correlate with the different wires in the cable.
The cable or connector on mine broke, send it in got replaced with one of the cables on that Y part twisted so itś never straight and months again the cable broke again. I feel vindicated that the cabling is actually bad apparently and itś not just me. And yes you can hear it move when you listen to music. The sound is nice but all the other stuff, like how the weight of the earcups and the heavy cable is only held by two glued on rubber caps.
Ooh slick job! I wonder if this could be done to the HyperX Cloud 2? Detachable cable with complete rewiring for the drivers and a sexy CustomCans braided cable? I would think maybe, since HyperX ripped off Beyerdynamic's dt770 design.
I can find many cables wich are fully mounted with jacks to get into the cups, but where to get the femelle 3,5 socket to place into the cups ? If you have a link I would appreciate.
All very well but I feel it defeated the whole purpose of the exercise because you end up with the same stock cable, which at best is pretty annoying. Had I done this exercise myself (and I may do) I would have only used one socket and somehow run a cable from one earpiece to the other to allow a single (standard) three or four wire cable to be plugged into a single socket. This way, any other quality cable could be used and of any length you choose. However, this video is a good start
These were sent in to us to have it done and that was what the customer wanted, normally we would replace the cable as well but some of our cables normally cost more than the SR80 so it probably did not make sense on these but now they have sockets, they could use a different cable from someone else
I love Grado's sound etc but I hate their outdated design ideas. I know that is a part of their brand but seriously... I wish that they modernize it and use better quality materials.
This is why I'm kinda reluctant to buy Grados, right now at least. I think detachable cables should be mandatory for all "audiophile" headphones. Idc what excuse they got like "detachable cables change the sound!" Surely it doesn't warrant non-detachable cables. I hope they'll turn around eventually. (inb4 "Grados aren't audiophile cuz they're not 20 thousand dollar handmade-in-Switzerland planars")
Grado are the anti Beats in every way imaginable. Especially construction. I mean both are cheap but Beats are made in China Foxconn mass manufacturing cheap. Grados are made in a garage with hot glue cheap. Literally.
Nice work for sure, but this will degrade the sound quality unless you upgrade to better wires. Direct wiring onto the driver will always produce better sound compared to additional connection. I am not skilled as you are but I have done many cable retermination and upgrade myself as well. Thanks for your video though.
Followed this as my first ever soldering/electronic mods project, worked great. Thanks for the clear video!
I did just get a Meze cable to replace the Grado one, as the grado one was the pain point in the first place.
Blue was Negative/ground. And I found putting the hot glue in the outer cup produced a cleaner result than on the inner cup rim.
All the best everyone!
Thank you so much! For a USA resident non-electronics DIYer, this worked out great! Bought the mini connectors from Newark like you and didn't need to trim them, there was just enough thread available to mount them. A hair dryer worked perfectly for me, about 3-4 minutes to soften up the glue. My only problem was trying to figure out which pins were positive and negative (how do you know?), but I slowed down your video and froze some frames and was 90% sure I got it, which I did! Haha! . I'm in love with my Grado's again! Cheers!
Really glad it helped ;)
To figure out the connections, you would use a multimeter on continuity mode and probe between the original 3,5 mm connector and the solder connections inside the cans. so for instance you would have continuity between the white wire in the left can and the tip of the connector, the red wire in the right can and the ring, and finally both blue wires should have continuity to the sleeve
@@fredrikfredrikfredrik Yeah, I'm a novice with just a cheap soldering iron, so that's beyond my skill level and toolset, though it makes sense and seems easy enough. I lucked out this time! Thanks!
@@davegranvold55 Happy to hear it! Wish you all the best on any future electronics projects 😊
@@fredrikfredrikfredrik as mentioned elsewhere, at least some versions of the OEM grado cable are terminated red=tip, white=sleeve, which is counter to the red=ring=right convention, so best to check with a DMM using your method!
This video just freed me from the excess length and constant twisting of the Grado stock cable. It was stressful, and I'm a little worried I was to conservative with the glue, but it was really easy to do. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful - you should be fine as they are quite a tight fit. But.. if they fall apart, you know you need more glue ;)
Hopefully those got glued again... nice job I love the end result. Especially when the Grado's cable are installed slightly twisted..this allows correction and it's a great mod !!!
Yes they would have been glued back together before they went out ;)
Given the price they are sold outside the US, I had abit of shock when I took apart my grado 125 some years ago. No dampening or whatsoever, evening the solder joints were questionable at least on mine. Hope they have up their game since. Great job on the mods as always.
Lol - in my experience grado believe in "the bigger the blob, the better the job" for soldering but it works. On the higher models they do add a bit of damping material to the rear of the magnet. That said, I still think they are pretty good value for money, particularly the lower models especially as they are built by hand
They did better job on high end models but they still use cheap plastic parts and that horrible foam pads. I own Grado GH1. They sound incredible but I had to replace all plastic parts and foam pads. Now I have real high-end experience.
For the price they are in the us you really can't beat the price in my opinion although I hear that there is a pair of Philips for a similar price that some people prefer, haven't tried the Philips myself though, but I love the grado sound
@@Master-Baiter MY grados cable started cutting out on the right channel so I have to use my old philips headphones. It's not the same
Unfortunately, Grado has not upped their game here. My 325x had channel cutouts that I sent in for warranty twice to fix within an 8 month span. Sent it in to Custom Cans for their detachable cable mod before the 1 year warranty expired, problem solved. Great sound but its terrible that detachable isn't standard.
Beautiful job! great workmanship
New to this, can you add the cable and jack parts which were used?
can you melt the glue inside just by using a heat blower?
Yes, as long as you are careful
I bought a pair of grado's just about a year ago. The cable getting all twisted when I used them and when I hung them on my headphone hanger just ended up fucking the cable up cause it just gets so easily twisted . I can imagine the outer mesh on the cable is to fix the very bad problem they have of their cables so easily getting twisted and broken.
used the heated bed of my 3d printer at 90C as you said and it popped right open. great tip.
something i noticed during the disassembly was that red was wired to left and white to right. i checked this multiple time and it was like that on both ends. Did they do this on purpose or something? anyway, I printed some small inserts and added MMCX connectors instead. they are almost flush with the cup! :D
Yeah they are built by hand so some are wired differently than others.. I suppose it depends which technician builds them ;) it may be worth doing a check to see if left and right are switched, just in case
@@CustomCans just came to share this and then saw your post. given that you've probably seen a good sampling of these, are they just all over the map in terms of red/white/ring/tip convention?
I do recall that an older style cable I had (w/o the braided outermost jacket) was flipped as @alabaz noted:
Tip = Left+ = Red
Ring = Right+ = White
Sleeve = L-/R-/GND = 2*blue
which is the typical color convention for TRS balanced mono wiring. perhaps they outsourced manufacturing of the cable with the molded plug and some just came that way❓
in any case, i'm re-terminating a pair of x-series with a 4pin mini xlr rather than a phone jack, so happy to share what i find.
thanks for the great vid!
I was given some sr-80x appears to be the same version you have with the funny sratchy cable, the cable going into the left pad is busted and crackling to hell & back so gonna be following this tutorial at some point when i get sick of twisting the cable back
Great Job and As we all know a needed Mod on Grados but personally doing this mod I would have changed the whole cable as Grados new Cable is Horrendous.
Yeh... it was for a customer, if it was mine I would definitely have changed the cable but the detachable cable mod lets you use any HD700 style cable
Swann Morton all the way! Makes an Xacto seem like a butter knife. Default tool for us old skool graphic designers :)
Yes.. everyone on the team uses them... In the UK the blades are a lot cheaper as well
unironically i do love the cable on the grado.
though if y'all still do it i might have to send in for a mod because cables can always be nicer
We do have a send in service but due to the ammount of work involved is may not be worth it on some models, especially if you don't mind the original cable
jfunk.org/wpc/product/grado-modifications/
if you get marine heat srink it has adhesive already in it
Yes we have both flavours and use them for different things - the glue lined shrink gives a really good solid connection but tends to be a bit inflexible
Unbelievable skills. I wish I have the patience and skills.
Thanks ;) This one is pretty straightforward compared to a lot of the things we work on
Hello, I have a Grado Professional that needs fixing/modification. Cable modification to be exact. I am looking at your website.
Can you put a balanced 2.5mm connector on these headphones?
Would love to have my little Fiio BTR5 dangle from just below the Y section of cable.
Thanks for video.
Yes you would just need t chop the end off and solder on the 2.5mm jack. We did a similar video with a 4.4mm connector
ua-cam.com/video/VlSgDahPM00/v-deo.html
Thanks so much for the reply!@@CustomCans
Nice work dude. Is there L and R markings on the shrink wrap on the 2.5mm ends?
We normally use a piece of coloured shrink to tell them apart but we may get some L and R ones printed in the future
Are these grados worth the money compared to other makes ?
The SR60 and SR80 give good bang for your puck
Whats wrong with the existing undetachable cable! I am happy with the undetachable.
It is a personal thing, If you are happy with the existing cable, there is no need to change it. Just enjoy the music ;)
@@CustomCansWould going with new, heavier gauge wire affect the sound or power transfer at all? I'm thinking while I'm doing this, why not make them more durable. Thicker wires and 550 paracord jacket for the cable jacketing.
Thanks for your thoughts and for the video! My SR225's need fixing.
Going for a thicker gauge certainly can't hurt, it will have a lower impedance
Very good job. Thanks
Thank you too!
Great tutorial! was thinking of doing this with my 325x .... Would I be able to use a balanced cable after the mod or is that a no-go?
Yes - you could run them balanced once you do the detachable cable mod. You can fit a balanced jack to the standard cable as it has 4 internal wires but I would recommend replacing it with something a bit better while you are at it
Hello Sir am new to this modding stuff and my cans are the SR325e. The default cable on my cans are faulty and I will like to know if I could just purchase a replacement cable after installing the detachable jacks and please recommend me a cable to get
It depends on which connectors you fit but if you do a 2.5mm socket like we do that this one will fit
jfunk.org/wpc/product-category/home/cables/original-sennheiser-cable/hd700-cables/
Thanks as always for a great video! One question. You are using an M&R 946BP separator. Have you used it to change the display of phones? I want to buy one like yours. To work with headphones, you can probably buy a model without a vacuum pump? I will be grateful for your help. All the best from Germany. Rotmann's Cables.
Yes that is the same kind of thing that we use here
My like is the first! Thank you for the video!
I thought the stock cable is intensionally made to be not replaceable because it changes the headphone’s voicing.
I don't think that is the reason. It you check out high end headphones from sennheiser, focal, Abyss and others, they manage to make them sound good and have a detachable cable. I think it is more down to tradition - Grado have been making headphones the same way for decades and re-designing the enclosure would be expensive and time consuming.
Take a look at the Beyerdynamic range - they all used to have fixed cables. Then we started offering detachable cable mods on them 4 or 5 years ago. Once we had shown it was a popular feature to add, beyerdynamic added it as a feature on all their new models . The Original Gen1 T1 had a fixed cable and the Gen2 and Gen3 now have detachable ones but they had to re-design the enclosure to make it possible
@@CustomCans Unfortunately, Grado have actually stated themselves that "No, we will not be making the wire detachable, our wires are crucial to the Grado sound" after so many people have complained about it.
I personally think the argument that wires change sound is ridiculous
I did basically the same thing with some Bose HPs a while back. But I have the SR80x's now, and yep, the cable just crapped out. Ugh.
Well... at least they are not too hard to repair
My Grado's cable is acting up, at the moment I've duct taped it into an awkward bending that makes it work, but I'll attempt this one of these days. At best my Grado's are back in business and better than ever! At worst... new headphone time, yay.
Go for it - certainly on these plastic bodied ones, they are pretty easy to get into
@@CustomCans I already have the jack sockets, I'm excited about this!
Dude why did you use the stock cable again? For me, using shorter and (proper) cable would be the aim of this project.
We were making them for a customer - using the original cable kept the cost down and gave a good upgrade path for the future but... Yes, if they were mine I would have changed to a different cable ;)
@@CustomCans Oh I see. Where do you live? I have a SR225 with 1.2 m custom cable but not detachable. I'm looking for someone to mod with for me. I'm willing to have yellow or dark green leather band, mahogany wood cups similar to Alessandro and detachable cable mod.
You guys should do headband and cup upgrades for Grados… so the build is comparable to the sound.
Yes - we may start making some soon
Hello do you have a link for the 2,5 mm sockets please ?
Here you go
uk.farnell.com/lumberg/klb-1/socket-2-5mm-jack-chassis/dp/1217014?mckv=s2fUW4pWL_dc|pcrid|460327518667|plid||kword||match||slid||product|1217014|pgrid|107884853996|ptaid|aud-132169620789:pla-332957992203|&gross_price=true&CMP=KNC-GUK-SHOPPING-SMEC-Whoops-Remarketing-Test775
@@CustomCans Thank you very muchv.
Isnt it "donkey" not "pig" lmao. great video none the less! thank you. Im inspired to do a set now. I always wondered why with the quality of Grado they didnt do this from the factory
I absolutely hate the braided cable. Thanks for the video.
Yes, that is a terrible cable
While my SR80x's utterly SING to me and I find myself just drawn back to them over and over again, I do find that the cord is the one disappointment. It feels really harsh, stiff and scratchy, and since the cups can't detach from the cord, the infinite spin they have (which I love) means the cable going down to the splitter is always twisted up.
So I'm definitely going to be doing this to mine. are 3.5mm jacks do-able in the grado housing? I'd love to just use other pairs of nice, balanced 3.5 cables I have.
I have them too and my cable died pretty fast (everyday use in train and winter) near the jack the copper just fell apart, I have shortened the cable, upgraded to balanced 2,5mm jack but then the short cable from the earcup to the Y splitter got damaged so I need to change the whole cable, will do this jack input mod and order some cables. Love these headphones but the original cable is disappointment.
How much do you charge for this mod? I might buy a pair and send them in to be modded
This is supposed to be a DIY guide ;) it is probably not cost effective to pay us to do it on the lower models
jfunk.org/wpc/product/grado-modifications/
If I were going to do this I think I would modify them further by running a cable from one cup to the other along the headband. Only one detachable cable needed, so I think it would take the same or less time as this mod.
Yes - U have seen a few people do that, you would need a new main cable but it would probably be better than the one that comes with them as standard
I Think you would need something to disable the infinite roation you can do, so the wire doesnt get scrunched up :D
I'm assuming it doesn't matter if it is a TS or TRS socket?
No, either is fine
Maybe a stupid question but, is it 90 degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius? Great video, thanks!
Celsius.. It is around 195 freedom units
It's the best cable ever. Very robust & secure. Not a design fail at all
I don't know... It would definitely be possible to make a cable just as robust that was more flexible and less microphonic. It may have been down to cost but personally I think they could have designed it better
@@CustomCans I like it's rugged & hefty look & feel. In what way is it microphonic, can you hear the cord rubbing against itself while playing music?
@@axelfoley1768 Yes, a bit like one of those telephones you made as a child with two cups joined by a piece of string. When the cable rubs against your clothes it transmits that sound to the earcup. Adding an extra rough cover to the cable can make that worse, especially when you use them wile moving around.
But, as you said... it does give it an extra layer of protection.
We use a similar cover on our DJ cables. As they are normally used in high noise environments the noise made by the cable is not so noticeable.
I have 80x's. That hard cable drives me nuts. Its really stiff....one of the cables is twisted, and seems to want to twist the earpad, the other isnt twisted and is fine. Since the cable is hard, it doesnt sit flat, and since its so hard, its obtrusive.
Yeh - the stock cable is a bit of a nightmare
what kind of socket did you use?
It has been a while since I made this video but I am pretty certain it was these
uk.farnell.com/lumberg/klb-1/socket-2-5mm-jack-chassis/dp/1217014?st=2.5mm%20jack
Where did you get the 2.5mm (or 3.5mm?) Cable inserts to put in the cups? I would love to do this on my sr80e, I have tons of bonus dual 2.5mm cables for hifimans that I would love to use. Also that hot plate is awesome, I've been looking for that too, but I have a heat gun if I can't find that.
I have stuck a link in the description
Wonderful video. I do have a question: I have a 325x and want to get a more comfortable cable onto it. Do you know if the detachable mod you're doing will work with a SR 325x? Are the internals mostly the same? Thanks!
Yes, the theory is much the same but you need to heat the earcups for longer until the metal is heated all the way through
I did the most horrible thing to a $40 pair of SR-80e's-
I didn't have female jacks, but I had some cheapo adapters that go from 3.5mm male mono to female stereo.
They wedge in between the cups so I made a HUGE glob of solder to hold the male end in, with the females sticking out a fair bit. And actually? It looks very Grado lol.
But I'm going to hell for it 😂
I plugged an old HE-400se cable in and it works just fine
Edit: I meant to say I plugged a hifiman cable in lol
Lol - everyone knows... The bigger the blob the better the job
Like my great grandfather always used to say, can't say no to a $40 grado!
I got an older pair of grados from ebay that have a 6.3 mm termination that I’m thinking of modding, do you think they would wire in the same way as the pair you have in this video? I’m not sure if the different termination would make a difference when it comes to attaching the jack.
Grados have anywhere from 4 to 12 wires in the cables so it depends on which model they are - If yo hunt through our videos, we have done a lot of other models
@@CustomCans
Yes, I recall in one of your videos there were multiple positive/negative wires so you just twisted the ends together to make the soldering easier, that's probably what I'll end up doing as well. Will the socket you used in this video work for a cable with a mic? I already have a cable that has 2.5mm connections into the earcups, but it has a mic so the connections are TRS rather than TS like you have in the video. I think I'm just more generally unsure of how the positive and negative connections of the socket correlate with the different wires in the cable.
@@quandary23 Yes - the mic cable will work the same. The wires from the mic go down to the main jack
After getting back into using my SR80x again here lately, I just might have to do this because the stock cable is garbage.
Yup... the worst cable I have come across ;)
The cable or connector on mine broke, send it in got replaced with one of the cables on that Y part twisted so itś never straight and months again the cable broke again. I feel vindicated that the cabling is actually bad apparently and itś not just me. And yes you can hear it move when you listen to music. The sound is nice but all the other stuff, like how the weight of the earcups and the heavy cable is only held by two glued on rubber caps.
does this change the sound at all?
No as long as you don't use sockets that are too large it should not change the sound
Ooh slick job! I wonder if this could be done to the HyperX Cloud 2? Detachable cable with complete rewiring for the drivers and a sexy CustomCans braided cable? I would think maybe, since HyperX ripped off Beyerdynamic's dt770 design.
We probably won't do the cloud 2 but we will add a mic to the DT770 and DT990 soon
@@CustomCans I already placed my order for a pair of DT770 from y'all 😭. I guess I'll have to order a pair of DT990's in the future!
Jamie Oliver out of the kitchen doing headphone mods! 👍🏼
I can find many cables wich are fully mounted with jacks to get into the cups, but where to get the femelle 3,5 socket to place into the cups ? If you have a link I would appreciate.
We use 2.5mm sockets ... uk.rs-online.com/web/p/jack-plugs-sockets/5051384
@@CustomCans Thanks a lot, I could modify my SR125X, it works great !
That looks good😎
Damn, this vid so helpful I had to sub. Now I wanna get into the custom can game myself
All very well but I feel it defeated the whole purpose of the exercise because you end up with the same stock cable, which at best is pretty annoying. Had I done this exercise myself (and I may do) I would have only used one socket and somehow run a cable from one earpiece to the other to allow a single (standard) three or four wire cable to be plugged into a single socket. This way, any other quality cable could be used and of any length you choose. However, this video is a good start
These were sent in to us to have it done and that was what the customer wanted, normally we would replace the cable as well but some of our cables normally cost more than the SR80 so it probably did not make sense on these but now they have sockets, they could use a different cable from someone else
I'm a blind person, what person can I hire to do this for me?
Yes, we offer a send in service. The link is below
jfunk.org/wpc/product/grado-modifications/
I will have to send goh a grado or automatically after buying the service you guys will send me one ?
I love Grado's sound etc but I hate their outdated design ideas. I know that is a part of their brand but seriously... I wish that they modernize it and use better quality materials.
It looks like they may be trying to update a few things but ... yes they could do better
This is why I'm kinda reluctant to buy Grados, right now at least. I think detachable cables should be mandatory for all "audiophile" headphones. Idc what excuse they got like "detachable cables change the sound!" Surely it doesn't warrant non-detachable cables. I hope they'll turn around eventually.
(inb4 "Grados aren't audiophile cuz they're not 20 thousand dollar handmade-in-Switzerland planars")
Grado are the anti Beats in every way imaginable. Especially construction. I mean both are cheap but Beats are made in China Foxconn mass manufacturing cheap. Grados are made in a garage with hot glue cheap. Literally.
Nice work for sure, but this will degrade the sound quality unless you upgrade to better wires. Direct wiring onto the driver will always produce better sound compared to additional connection. I am not skilled as you are but I have done many cable retermination and upgrade myself as well. Thanks for your video though.
at what point does the line between "higher quality cables" and "diminishing returns" meet? I'm not going to spend $200+ on a mere cable
In the olden days we used to suggest spending 10% of the cost of the equipment on cables
Can confirm nearly 2 years later, Grado uses this shitty cable on their more expensive models too. It's atrocious.
Well.... I know a super cool company in the UK who can swap out thos nasty cables :)
🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
Lol
Stop!! There is no noise from the cable. You should start your own headphone company.
One day I will probably design my own headphones ;) it is an expensive thing to do though