Grado pads & rolling/mods/tweaks

[Za'afiel]

Post (or repost) your pad mods, tweaks, or rolling impressions.

FYI, the stock pads:


S-Cush : Comfies - stock pads on SR60/i, SR80i


L-Cush : Bowls - stock pads on SR80/i, SR125/i, SR225/i, SR325/i/s, RS2/i, RS1/i


G-Cush : Jumbos/bagels - stock pads on GS1000/i, PS1000


Flats : stock pads on pre-John Grado headphones and first-generation RS1


The low down:

The comfies are the most comfortable among all the pads because of the equally distributed pressure around the ears. The drivers are quite close in proximity to the ears, which means that they will give you a warm, forward, but less detailed sound. If rolling into bowls isn's possible, most people do the "quarter mod" which is essentially cutting a hole in the middle of the pad that can be as small as a 5-peso coin to as large as the transducer opening itself. This lets out more detail.

The bowls are the tried and true pads for most of the John Grado line-up all the way to the RS1i. Comfort is subjective especially for long listening sessions, as the pressure areas on the ears are on the outside ring. The added distance of the drivers to the ears and most importantly the absence of obstruction is what seals the deal here--unhindered midrange, sparkly high frequencies, and tight bass. To those who have grown up with the house sound, this is the end-all of Grado pads.

Jumbo pads are the minority, because they only work well with the models they are released with, which are the Statement Series (GS) and Professional Series (PS). On the regular SR series, these pads add something alien to Grado--soundstage--but rob it of bass impact and unnecessarily add more sibilance.

The flat pads, only available from TTVJ, turn the familiar "in your face" descriptive term into "IN YOUR FACE"; not only are you on the stage with the artist, you are actually rubbing faces with him/her. Bass impact multiplies but I have not listened long enough yet to confirm if it becomes muddy. The close proximity to the ears would predictably mean a slight loss of detail.

[Azathoth]

My impressions on the pads in general:

Comfies - Strangely enough, I find these less comfortable than bowls, they sort of place more pressure on my helix and antihelix. As for the sound, bass goes up a notch but some midrange and treble microdetail is left out.

Bowls - I prefer these in a reverse configuration. Taut bass, most visceral midrange, but can get fatiguing on Grados known for merciless aggression (e.g. SR325is)

Jumbos - Using these on any can aside from the GS1000 and PS1000 doesn't yield good results IMO. The sound does get a lot wider, but at the expense of sucking out the mids and having a weird overall effect.

Flats - These will instantly turn up the bass impact and slam on your Grados, however you will lose what little soundstage they originally had.

There's also the popular Senn HD414 pads (usually reverse quarter-modded).



These sound similar to reversed bowls, I find the differences minute yet subtle.

[Mikado]

my two favorites are the comfies and the reverse bowls, unmodded.

[Za'afiel]

Ah yes, the reverse quarter-modded Senn pads. If you can get over how they're colored, they are the sweet spot between the comfies and the bowls.

[Azathoth]

I think the yellow makes a nice contrast against the black. 

Some people have went to the additional trouble of coloring them black with dye.

[shoktongxxx]

S-cush quarter modded with + CD-R King leather pad.

[Mochan]

Here are my impressions on the stock pads:

Comfies - my baseline, as I started with an SR60i using comfies. More comfy than bowls for me, sound has muted treble, mids more or less untouched and muffled bass.
Bowls - much brighter sound than the comfies. Treble seems to be emphasized, too much for my taste. My ears tend to hit the hard plastic inside panel over the driver, much to my dismay.
Bagels - unfortunately I can't remember how they sound!
Flats - by far my favorite pad. Does everything the Comfies does, and then adds stronger, more impactful and better defined bass. I cannot even fathom why the Comfies were invented when these are pretty much better in every single way.


Additional pad mods:

BBB Mk1 – TTVJ Flats with CDR King Medium Leathers (my weapon of choice)
Aldo’s Bowl Kings – Bowl Pads with CDR King Medium Leathers (Collie's baby)
BBB Mk2 – CDR King Small Leathers inserted inverted into CDR King Medium Leathers (Aldrin's baby)
BBB Mk0 – Comfies quarter-modded with CDR King Mediums (Mondi's favorite)


The BBB Mk1 is the smoothest and bassiest pad of them all. Very comfy as well due to the CDR Leather. Soundstage is enhanced. The perfect pad for my tastes.
Bowl Kings - simlar in quality to the BBB Mk1 but with slightly less bass impact and extension, and slightly better treble. My second favorite pad.
BBB Mk2 - kind of an awry experiment, really difficult to attach and falls off easily. The sound seems to escape so the bass and mids are not quite there.
BBB Mk0 - similar to the Bowl Kings but with less defined bass but about as much, if not slightly more, mid bass. Treble and mids are about the same as on the flats.
BBB Perfect - uses only the CDR Pads clipped onto the Grado's using plastic or paper retention clips. This is now my preferred pad. More bass and soundstage, but without excessive muddying of the mids from the bass. the mids remain relatively clear, although bass boominess is reduced.

[Azathoth]

Oh, there's also the donunus mod of course. 

For all the people here that have heard or seen Grados in the past, you probably know that there are different kinds of pads John Grado uses on his headphones. Flats, Bowls, and comfy pads for the standard sized Grados (SR60-RS1). Actually Joseph Grado, the original owner of Grado labs used to only use flats for all his headphones which is why until now, the Joseph Grado hp1000 series(hp1,hp2,hp3) owners still use flats for their headphones.

Anyway, ever since Ive been back into Grados around 2004 from having them on and off for ten years, it was really the first time I paid attention to how each pad affected performance on them. I have been satisfied by sr80s before that came stock with flat pads in 1994 and sr60s which came with comfies already in the late 90s but never really thought about why I felt the 80s were so much better than the sr60s to me at the time.

Then headfi came into my life in 2004... sorry about my wallet. Since reading the endless posts about different pads having different sound characteristics Ive always been wondering how each pad would make the sr60s sound and whether the sr60s with preferred pads could sound better to me than even the higher grados using the wrong pads. Well, sure enough that was the case. I found that I prefer even the less refined sr60s using flats to 325s using bowls just because the bowls add an unnatural effect to the upper mids that I really detest. Flats have their flaws too. Flats make the grados fart cannons with their bloated bass that makes the headphones also sound dark as an effect of having more bass. The stock comfies are okay in that they give a decent balance from lows to highs but lack the slightly bigger soundstage and detail of the bowls... Hmmm Now I was wondering how I could get a good middle ground. I tried quarter modded comfies(added a hole in the comfies) to get more treble... ehh it didnt quite work. It added clarity but also gave a less damped and more raucous sound. So I flipped the comfies with a hole in the center backwards... This type making the hole larger so that it could be done... I ended up with a better soundstage wow... I guess this mod makes the comfies equivalent to the yellow senn pad mod for the grados but in the end still found that the grados had a plasticky tone that was enhanced with those pads. Ok so now I was thinking what is this reversed bowls they were talking about... I flipped over the bowls to get the flat side to touch the ears and the concave part fixed to the frame. Now were talking... back to a more balanced sound like the comfies but with more detail than comfies and no more annoying upper mids that the standard fitted bowls sound. Ok I was satisfied for a few days then got the itch for other cans. THE END

Nope hehehe Joke only. Not the end yet. After some time has passed and having better cans around, going back to sr60s with whatever pad configuration I knew was not a satisfying experience and would make me always return the cans in the closet within five minutes of listening. I just couldnt stand the colorations typical of grados anymore. Then I was thinking well, I need to hear Kens rs1 during the EB in Manila to see if I am really done with Grados or not. Then came the day the meet came... RS1 on my head... less than 20 seconds I take it off because I hear the sound of the bowls that I instantly recognize. So before even getting used to the signature and appreciating the rs1s for the headphone that they are, I instantly gave up because I knew the sound of the bowls would always bother me in the end. So now I'm really thinking... Either my ears just dont match with grado/bowl combination or Grado just hasnt really put much thought into always redesigning his pads. I am not a headphone designer and might not qualify to say that grado needs to do more research about the pads but I know coloration when I hear it. It doesnt matter what grado it is, put bowl pads you get bowl sound, period.

So last night, I was just reminiscing about the EB in Manila and was thinking hey what was that sock pad I saw on a grado woody?! It was the MSpro. I didnt even think to try it at the time but keep seeing it on the EB pics. So I made myself some sock pads like those and fit them on my sr60. oohh wow bass! tight and lots of it! maybe too much hehehe and the details are too smoothed out. Maybe different material socks will matter but maybe also it is just the density of a whole length of rolled socks that keep the bass in there. Ok then I moved on and thought oh yeah... Density of pads=more bass/dynamics with the grados from remembering that the flats(more dense material) were more bassy than modded comfies(softer material) even though they had the same hole in the middle. Then I also remember people in headfi saying taped bowls add more bass. I'm guessing the tape makes it leak less bass out making the pads act like its denser. I said to myself theres one more pad configuration I havent tried (except for beyer C-pads). What about bowls inside out? instead of flipped over??? I did just that. So now the inside part of the pads are what shows out and not the back which was the reversed bowls I used to call. I wasnt really sure what they meant by reversed bowls in headfi but was thinking it was that backwards bowl with the square side pointing out.

Anyway, now with the inside of the bowls out instead of backward bowls(sort of like comparing a tshirt with the inside seams showing out vs just using it backward where the print goes to your back instead of the front) The sound is magnifico!!!! hehehe a little hyperbole there but now my sr60s are actually quite the performer. I havent listened to music this long from them for a long time. They have the bowls detail without the upper mids/lower treble nuisance. They have the flats punch without the overly bloated bass and the balance is better than the comfies with a little better soundstage to boot WOW, I'm impressed!!!
I really feel that listening to them this way is a step towards the right direction. I only wonder what this pad configuration will do to the higher end grados!!! 

here is my sr60 with the bowls inside out...

[shoktongxxx]

OT: Thanks.. does the cdr king pad mod work well with the ms2i? or is it better off with just the bowl pads?

much better with CD-R King pad for me, depende sa mood ko eh minsan gusto ko bowls lang, minsan mod with CD-King pads, but not I'm using the comfies na quarter modded lang eh.yan maganda sa GRADO/ALESSANDRO pads lang palitan mo may bago ka ng HP.

[jvm13]

much better with CD-R King pad for me, depende sa mood ko eh minsan gusto ko bowls lang, minsan mod with CD-King pads, but not I'm using the comfies na quarter modded lang eh.yan maganda sa GRADO/ALESSANDRO pads lang palitan mo may bago ka ng HP.

Hehe.. onga eh.. pads make a huge difference..  ano pala combo ng cdr king pad mod nyo? comfies or bowls?

[shoktongxxx]

S-Cush quarter modded + CD-R King leather pads bro.

[jvm13]

^ah thanks.. di ba pwede yung bowl pads instead of comfies? yun kasi stock ng ms2i right..

[shoktongxxx]

^ah thanks.. di ba pwede yung bowl pads instead of comfies? yun kasi stock ng ms2i right..

pwede, but I prefer the sound of quarter modded comfies than the bowls eh.

[Collie]

^ah thanks.. di ba pwede yung bowl pads instead of comfies? yun kasi stock ng ms2i right..

Pwedeng pwede. Ganun gamit ko, isquish mo lang sa loob ng CDR-King pad.

[jvm13]

pwede, but I prefer the sound of quarter modded comfies than the bowls eh.

I see.. baka me extra comfies kayo? hehe..

BTT: saka extra headphone stand like those..  just kiddin.. 

Pwedeng pwede. Ganun gamit ko, isquish mo lang sa loob ng CDR-King pad.

Ahh... Thanks!