CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Headphone Measurements => Topic started by: Marvey on December 06, 2011, 05:00:13 AM
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A unique take on the Grado: http://www.symphones.ca/magnum.htm (http://www.symphones.ca/magnum.htm) Think of them as an even more refined RS-1. Measurably similar to RS1, retains Grado qualities, but much cleaner. This is the real deal and definitely not BS.
Again, this is the v2.5
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Much better matched than Grado RS-1 and much smoother treble. At the same price too. LOL! I can't remember exactly, but I think the measurements were performed with flat pads. Click here (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,44.msg194.html#msg194) to compare to RS-1.
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Hmm now I am interested in these. Do they still have that same liveliness as the RS-1? Are they more comparable to a PS-1 perhaps?
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Yup - just as lively, but silky silky smooth in the treble.
A few people have purchased the drivers from him and cups from someone else. It's my understanding there is quite a wait for the metal cups that he makes.
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Marv, I have a V4 Magnum if you want to measure? Supposedly it's the "final" version.
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Maybe I'll bring up the measurement rig to the Bay Area meet.
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That sounds good. I'm looking forward to seeing this contraption. I'm envisioning a big steel chamber, with a small circular window in it (like a WWII submarine). A sole mannequin head rests upon a stool in the center. A lone spotlight casts a small shadow as the headphones are lowered onto the measurement noggin with a small crane from the ceiling, like the arcade claw from Toy Story (or was it Toy Story 2?).
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Will these eventually be available as a normal purchase. It seems a bit silly to buy a 325i, and then have it fully modified. I guess it would be hard to sell the 325i's drivers too.
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Will these eventually be available as a normal purchase. It seems a bit silly to buy a 325i, and then have it fully modified. I guess it would be hard to sell the 325i's drivers too.
Nope. As far as I know, there's no option to buy a "fully completed" Magnum from Symphones. However, there are a ton of options to put one together for cheap.
Funny to say, but the hardest part to obtain is the cheap Grado headband/rod blocks/gimbals assembly (which I believe is the main reason you can't get them from Symphones). You'd have to pull one off another Grado, or there are some replacement Sony headbands that can fit the cups perfectly. The MDR-V150 or MDR-V6 ones are known to work (~$15 - $20 for the headband).
Rhydon sells the drivers for 120/pair or drivers+aluminum sleeves for 240/pair.
You can buy drivers and then commission someone like Marty or Ohrenholz to build some wooden cups (~150 ish). If you go this route, you'd need a headband (from a Grado or Sony replacement ones), and a cable.
Or you can buy any model Grado, and stick in the drivers+aluminum sleeves. A few people have compared plastic outer cups from the SR60-SR225 Grados, with aluminum outer cups from SR325/MS2, and those don't make much impact on the sound -- so really any Grado can be upgraded.
If you like the Grado coloration (like I do), then these are definitely worth it.
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Thank you for your informative reply. If I understand correctly, I could order just the magnum drivers, and place them in a SR-60i?
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No problem.
Sticking the Magnum driver into an SR60i is a bit harder, but not impossible.
The biggest obstacle is liberating the Grado driver from the plastic sleeve without breaking the plastic. I've seen someone use a clamp and wooden block to do it, so it can be done. The other thing to consider is the Magnum drivers seem ever so slightly smaller than the Grado drivers. So, you'd have to use something like electrical tape to fill in that gap (between the driver and plastic sleeve). But if you can swing it, at $200 that's be fantastic.
The semi-full-Magnum I was thinking of is to buy the driver+sleeves, and then it's just a matter of placing them inside the outer cups -- but that would end up costing about $320. From what I understand, the drivers were tuned with the aluminum sleeve in mind -- and would result in less resonance.
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Martin Custom cups... cheap, fast delivery, exceeds customer expectations.
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Yeah, another +1 for Marty. His work is fantastic. The first time I heard Magnums were from a borrowed pair seated in cocobolo cups turned by him (this pair actually: http://www.martincustomaudio.com/2011/09/cocobolo-mini-xlr-jacks-magnum-v3-grado.html) -- and the craftsmanship was superb.
From what I understand, he's not taking orders for a while because of he has a kid on the way. It'd probably take a few months if you ordered right now. Ohrenholz is fairly new, but so far the feedback has been good with Sylvan there.
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+2 for Marty. Best Grado wooden cups I've seen. He made a custom cup for me and refused to cut corners despite my asking him to do so (looks didn't matter for this, it was just for experiments). Came out absolutely gorgeous. ....and it's sitting in my closet...
So if Rhydon is making his own driver why doesn't he just make his own complete headphones? The driver has to be the most difficult part to manufacture. And if he's making Grado style phones, the rest is just metal tubes.
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victor -- if you'd like to demo the Magnums, I could loan you a pair. I've just come up on a second pair of drivers, so I'm going to use that for a loaner pair for people to demo on their home setup. Shoot me a PM and we can work something out.
Whitney -- that is a shame to let something like that rot in your closet! I'd imagine that eventually Rhydon would figure out how to manufacture an entire headphone. He started out modifying the Grado drivers and now is just manufacturing his own. It seems he's building up capacity slowly (this is all just pure speculation). I imagine the biggest obstacles for anyone purchasing the Magnums is the DIY (to build around the driver), or the slow turnaround times by sending in your own Grados. Most people just want to hit "add to cart" and be done with it all.