Sunil,
I am not a headphone junky - too old, don't care maybe. The Grado
SR60 was cheap and sounded well enough for me (as it was efficient, it worked with walkman well and didn't take up a lot of room when traveling (before I got in-the-ear phones).
After a few years of ownership I began tinkering with them. I realized thru Grado cartridge ownership that Grado took a similar path with their headphones. That is, focus is on higher quality cabling, less resonant or damped diaphragms and ear cups, primarily (along with more closely matched drivers as you run up the line). The cost to produce the
SR60 may be $15, and the RS-1 more like $100. As you move up their line, you
do get a better headphone, but the basic structure is much the same....you are paying a LOT more for (largely) replicateable mechanical changes.
The consistency of sound is unmistakeable as the materials are really, much the same.
The first thing I did was scoop out a quarter sized piece from the foam earpad. This literally and figuratively removed a 'veil' from the music. Still an uncomfortable earcup (can't do much about that but move to the larger
SR80/125/225 size, but I found those model had unbalanced sound to begin with...I actually liked the
SR60 balance a bit better).
Then I used constrained layer damping on the outer earcup...with very positive results. The earcup is damped - much in the same way Grado employs wood in their more pricey models (as they do with their phono cartridges)
Finally, a headphone is a relatively simple device. Rather low level signals from a modest sized amplifier - perhaps 25mW or so. Much like their cartridges, Grado uses OFC cable for their lower level units and ultra-high purity long crystal (UHPLC) oxygen free copper wire for their better units. This UHPLC is probably either Continuous Cast Copper (1 crystal boundary per 125 meters) or LC-OFC (and earlier version of purer OFC at 1 crystal boundary per 25 feet or something like that). Neither are terribly expensive, but yield additional gains in clarity - especially when used with low level signals.
So, I finally had Brad at Revelation Audio mod my SR60's (his
first pair of headphones - I was his guinea pig
). The results are magnificent now...truly, they sound to me as good as a headphone can (I'm still no headphone fan, really).
Hey, for the same money I could've bought a stock Sennheiser 600 and been just as happy...but my headphone journey was a happy one, nonetheless.
I think you're gonna' like those reterminated 701's from Brad....hi quality silver is a 'revelation' to headphone listeners
John
