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Grado SR325 replace driver

nobeone

Total Member
After a good time unplayed I plugged in my Grado SR325 headphones and ... no sound on the right. After a lot of heating up with a hairdryer and careful prying I got into the right side and ... continuity from the plug to the wiring on the driver is fine however the driver is open circuit. Damn, I thought it would just be a wire off.

I have contacted Grado and await their response, depending on the price, I might opt for a pair of altermative replacement drivers and DIY, anybody tried any of the 3rd party drivers out there? I can see elsewhere there are a lot of Grado DIY "upgrade" information on the web, but I was hoping for something from this parish that might be a bit more trustworthy than that ...
 
Generally Grado will replace drivers for you, but adding in the cost of shipping it might be prohibitive. Also try emailing headphile, he has SR325 drivers (they're almost $200/pair though).

From a review of the Turbulent X drivers:

This is wear it gets funny. I love the Grado sound of the SR225e. The only things I would have liked would be a slight bump in the low end and to tame the sibilance which could be harsh on occasion. These Turbulents have little in common with the Grados. The bass extends much deeper and hits with a speedy punch that’s very welcome. The highs are smoothed out and have yet to screech in the slightest. But those raised mids are not as raised. While the Grados shine with classic rock with jazz (for my tastes), the Turbulents sound great with a larger array of musical. Lights - Little Machines is particularly fantastic as is plenty of electronic music I’ve tried.

While still having a good soundstage I would say that it’s not as large as the Grados
 
Yikes! US$200 for a pair of drivers??? I paid nothing like that for the headphones new, I got them cheap at a show but still, I was hoping for something less than £100 for sure! I have found the following possibles but no idea what they are like:

http://www.nhoord.com/products/ €70 shipped
https://www.symphones.com/shop/symphones-v8 US$90

And I'm happy to add your suggestion to the list

https://turbulentlabs.com/shop/turbulent-x-driver/ US$100

There are also folks buying up e.g. Sennheiser PX-100 II headphones and using the drivers..
 
On information and belief, the Symphones v8 are very similar to the Turbulent X. I've heard rumors of more bass with the Nhoord.
 
I contacted Grado support, was shunted about a bit, spoke to a company that have picked up the contract to do the repairs. They quoted £60 including shipping for the repair ... but I have no faith they know what they are doing, when I asked which drivers would I get as the SR325 is long gone from the product range, and sought assurances it would be a pair of drivers and not just one, I just got the stock answer they would fix them for £60. Hmm. Well I opted for what I hope is more fun approach: I have ordered Nhoord Red drivers from South Africa delivered for 70 euros, and at the same time, for entertainment, some RS style wooden cups from Shipibo Audio in Poland.
 
I contacted Grado support, was shunted about a bit, spoke to a company that have picked up the contract to do the repairs. They quoted £60 including shipping for the repair ... but I have no faith they know what they are doing, when I asked which drivers would I get as the SR325 is long gone from the product range, and sought assurances it would be a pair of drivers and not just one, I just got the stock answer they would fix them for £60. Hmm. Well I opted for what I hope is more fun approach: I have ordered Nhoord Red drivers from South Africa delivered for 70 euros, and at the same time, for entertainment, some RS style wooden cups from Shipibo Audio in Poland.
Sounds like a better decision to me. Good luck!
 
Chap that runs Nhoord was very nice to deal with, wrote me a nice holiday message on the box https://www.dropbox.com/s/mtuvlhi2e2khdym/Nhoord boxed.jpg?dl=0

Took a few weeks to come over the Christmas holidays, and as always I forgot about import taxes, didn't pay up front and got stung the admin fee on top of a few quid tax, my fault.

Inside Nhoord packed the Red drivers and four driver covers, I suppose he realised my dirty ears might mess up his lovely drivers https://www.dropbox.com/s/5233vt5hmvvlijn/Nhoord unboxed.jpg?dl=0

Once I unwrapped the drivers from the heavy rubbery foam packing they are works of art and look very nicely made https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8wvcytqg3gu4el/Nhoord unwrapped.jpg?dl=0

The hard bit was getting my SR325 open to release the headphone cable, they go ape with the hot glue gun.

The Shipbo Audio wooden cups are another thing of wonder, and since they are in Poland no import tax for me to forget either, well until Brexit maybe, ssssh https://www.dropbox.com/s/bvqpndh00yrjn94/Shipibo Audio.jpg?dl=0

I simply poked the headphone wires into the wooden cups, soldered them to the drivers, attached a tie wrap to the cable as a cheapskate cable restraint (no worse than Grado do!), then push fitted the drivers into the cups (I will play with a little blue tack later!).

I re-used the Grado headband, and replaced the foams with some cheapo XRHYY foams from AliExpress at an order of magnitude less than the price of the Grado originals - they are not the same graded density of foam but the Grados decay too quickly for the price ... these foams seem decent enough and cheap to replace https://www.dropbox.com/s/591fh6n9kgcn3on/XRHYY L and G cush.jpg?dl=0

I dropped the Nhoord driver covers into the replacement foams and pulled the foams over the wooden cups and hey presto, better than new. After a quick play I think I prefer the G cush style, but at that price, I have both and can play some more. A bit of fun, hardly really DIY, never the less a better looking and sounding pair of headphones from the embers of my SR325s.
 
Those Shipbo cups look like Paduk to me, are they?

OK, I waited, I'll take the bait: :)

How do you identify the wood from a rubbish picture like that?
Why were you interested?
I spoke to Shipibo Audio about the various woods they use, picked one that was close-ish to Grado's use of, I believe, mahogany ...
 
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Sounds fun, Nobeone. Any piccies?

I have a pair of Sr325e which I enjoy a lot. I am planning to build a woody pair when I get around to ordering the bits. Haven't decided whether the Nhoords, V8 Magnums or the Elleven Acoustics Ypsilon drivers will work best for me. Looking to tame the excitement Grado inject in the upper midrange, squeeze out lots of detail and emulate the Grado Reference style.

Przem at Shipibo seems very helpful and may have some nice metal gimbal and rod blocks available in a few weeks. I have a very old pair of Sr80s which I can break for parts otherwise, but the metal ones look much better than the cheap plastic Grado bits. A nice leather headband should be easy to find too. It's great that there seems to be a thriving diy community around these headphones. Seems you can build a great Grado style set, with probably better performance for a fair bit less than Grado pricing which, unlike their products, have moved very much with the times.
 
Yes both Nhoord and Shipibo very helpful, I have to agree a nice collection of folk making grado replacement and alternative parts. I am sure a nice new headband would look better, but I was already spending more than I intended just getting them working again! As you say, could buy the bits for complete headphones cheaper and probably better than buying grados new, very easy to assemble, and a fun little job, plus personalised headphones, what is not to like?

I am rubbish at photos, and really just wanted to show what you get if you buy Nhoord and Shipibo for info for others, but seeing as you asked one last rubbish photo https://www.dropbox.com/s/8l0nsmfgjhro9zr/Rebuilt.jpg?dl=0
 
Great, thanks. I find headphones tricky to photograph, too, but I am a useless camera jockey. They look excellent wit the big g cush pads.
 


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