[171161]

I was finally able to go a headphone store and try out some Grado's in person. I listened to the 80's and 225's. I was expecting the 225 to beat the 80 in every way possible (and in many ways it did), but there was something about the bass.

Its hard for me to explain. I was listening to The Vulture by Pendulum and I just felt more like rocking out and getting into it through the 80's. The bass sounded more punchy (good bass!, not farty booming). Actually, most songs sounded more forceful through the 80's, while the 225 was more quiet in the background. What?! Am I imaginig this?

I suspect a lot of the bass difference had to do with the pads. The 80 had flatter pads that completely cover the driver. The 225 had these bowl like pads and the center was cut out exposing a white/silver screen thing. What do you guys think?

 

[blufox4900]

I never listened to either but I'm pretty sure the closer the driver is to the ears the higher the bass (hence why the flats are kinda popular). You can do a tape mod to the bowls by covering the sides with tape and that makes the bass much more noticable. Again I'm just going off of what I read here. I wanna try it out when I get some bowls for my SR60i's.

 

[wje]

That's also why some people use the "comfy" pads on their higher end (SR225i, SR325i, etc.) that come on the 60i, 80i and 125i, but perform the "quarter mod".  They basically cut a hole in the pads approximately the size of a quarter.  This allows the higher frequencies and detail to be heard, while keeping the drivers closer to the ears.

 

[Kevin Brown]

Quote:

That's also why some people use the "comfy" pads on their higher end (SR225i, SR325i, etc.) that come on the 60i, 80i and 125i, but perform the "quarter mod".  They basically cut a hole in the pads approximately the size of a quarter.  This allows the higher frequencies and detail to be heard, while keeping the drivers closer to the ears.

See my sig. 

  I use comfies on most of 'em even w/o the qtr mod.  I think every Grado with bowls is too bright (with maybe the exception being the HF2), so I use comfies on them all.  And yes, you do get better bass too IMO vs bowls.
 
 

 

[171161]

Good, good! I really did like the sound of these headphones and it's nice to know I could recover some lost bass on the 225i's by swapping to different pads.
 
What about the actual drivers in these headphones? It is my understanding that the 60i/80i has a different driver than the 225i. Is this also responsible for the loss of bass, or is it safe to assume that this effect is negligible compared to the contribution of the pads? 

 

[wje]

Quote:

Good, good! I really did like the sound of these headphones and it's nice to know I could recover some lost bass on the 225i's by swapping to different pads.
 
What about the actual drivers in these headphones? It is my understanding that the 60i/80i has a different driver than the 225i. Is this also responsible for the loss of bass, or is it safe to assume that this effect is negligible compared to the contribution of the pads? 

I'm sure there is *some* variation in the drivers between the 60/80 and the 225.  However, the level of difference is probably very, very tiny.
 

 

[Kevin Brown]

I've seen mention that the drivers are all the same, and I've seen mention of which groups of Grados use the same driver, but others use different drivers.
 
I'm not sure anyone knows.  Maybe Bilavideo or someone who takes a lot of these apart.  There is suspicion that there are different coatings applied too.
 
Bottom line is the sound quality, and while I hold that the SR80i, SR125i, and SR225i all sound very similar with the same set of pads, there are audible differences too. And those differences continue with the MS2i, HF2, RS2i, etc.