Nhoord Scarlett prototype

DavidA from hf has loaned me his beautiful Nhoord Scarlett build. He received the prototypes from Nhoord to share. It will be hard to pass these along!

They are designed for G cushions or the Zonk equivalent. They deliver in spades.

Bass isn't TH-X00 level, but it does sound very natural. Great texture and snap. Mids are not forward or recessed. Cymbals aren't tizzy. They stand out a bit, but not to the point of distraction. You can definately hear a difference between the different cymbals. They don't sound like mp3 compression like some Grados do.

I would say that overall, these are a sizable step up from my un-modded HD650's. One of my favorite aspects of 650's is the comfort. These lightweight wood housings with G cups make the headphones almost disappear.

Tracks listened to so far:

The Way You Used to Do - QOTSA
Entire self titled debut album - QOTSA
On We March - The Social Network soundtrack
Lateralus (album) - Tool
Run - Foo Fighters
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Songs for the Deaf (album) - QOTSA
Various tracks from The Smashing Pumpkins, Royal Blood, Black Sabbath

Most are lossless alac ripped from cd. I just used my iPhone 6 so far, Modi MB and Magni Uber tomorrow.

 

Mind explaining what these are? Didn't find results on el goog.

 

It's a Grado upgrade...? I uh, suppose, if you like Grados, it makes sense.

 

Nhoord sells drivers. These are not available yet. You can either build a headphone around them or use them as replacements. They are really good for DIY headphones, but fit into a lot of Grados. This small South African company is producing drivers that are kicking Grados ass.

 

It's a D.I.Y. driver that you can put into anything. It has the same circumference as a Grado driver, so it works pretty well as a swap, but most people are putting them into custom cups.

 

I've got a Nhoord Red V1, his original driver good to see impressions of these here . But these are most commonly built in the Grado style, price ranges from like $350-500 depending on the build, I got my Nhoord for like $300 second hand, still good value. There's a couple of different companies out there and they each have a sound signature @Grattle do you have any other Nhoord Builds to compare it to?

 

I have the Nhoord Red V2. I will try to write up a comparison.

 

There are three Grado custom driver companies out there right now: Nhoord (South Africa), Symphones Magnum (Canada?), and Elleven Acoustica Ypsilon (UK).

Headify has dedicated following customizing their own Grado-like headphones. You can easily call Grado and order a headband assembly for about $15 bucks, but they may ask you what model you own (Sony 7506 Replacement Headband from a place like Trew Audio is more comfortable then Grado's headband though); then, purchase a cheap cable on fleabay, cheap pads on Amazon, cups, and a driver.
Apply solder together. This can all be done for roughly under $200 if the Grado on-ear experience is to your liking.

I like to think the modding scene was created after Grado botched their own design's, especially with the e series. The PS500's finish chips easily, the cable's are hardwired and unwieldy, and their love/hate sound signature has lost its mojo. The RS1 is a shadow of its former self. Either way, since the 2010 headphone generation with flagship consumer models peaking $1k, Grado has certainly shot themselves with their pricing.
Joe Grado was the Steve Job's of Grado. While the Grado mods have evolved without the need for any Grado parts, I worry about the future of the company under the grandson, Jonathon.

While i'm not sure Stratocaster has tested the newer Nhoord and Ypsilon entries, he is the neighborhood Grado mod master.
I currently own a pair of Epsilon's I may be willing to let someone measure and mark their impressions.

 

I share the same fears about the future of the company. While it's undeniable that their lower-tier offerings offer good value for the money, everything else kinda pales in comparison to their competitors. Heck, the RS1 doesn't do much for me anymore, and neither did the GS1k in the time I auditioned them (memories of PS1000 hazy, but definitely meh). Beautiful headphones, though.

Come to think of it, they probably make a tidy profit off the crazy number of SR-series cans they sell. Future perhaps not so uncertain as initially thought. Hm.

I'm really just waiting on them to bring back the HP1000. Measurements posted on CS have them pegged as great genre-agnostic cans with remarkable CSDs for cans of their vintage, perhaps even competitive with modern offerings. Definitely nicer-looking than any version of the RS1 or their Alessandro equivalent.

The Nhoords have me curious. Any chance someone could compare measurements to stock Grado drivers, so we can have an idea of what to expect before swapping diaphragms out? Might hold onto the RS1s I have chilling here at home if the Nhoords flatten the bass out and fix the treble. IIRC, someone did a raw driver measurement for the HD650 a while back, I'm thinking that'd be a way to compare drivers fairly without having to deal with arguments about cup resonances, "YOU DIDN'T SOLDER IT IN THE EXACT SAME WAY SO OF COURSE IT SOUNDS DIFFERENT", and the like.

Hoping someone could send the drivers out to the resident measurement geeks, preferably someone with a beater RS-series they don't mind cannibalising. Would donate, but I'm not rich. Given how much people on SBAF just adore high-end Grados, though, I kinda doubt anyone would care enough to bother.


Kevin


Erratum, loose driver measurements were for HD600: http://superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/hd600-raw-driver-measurements.2861/

 

While I can't measure it, I'd love to get impressions of it. I've got the GS2kE and PS2kE in bound to me for a tour, so I'm hoping to get one of each of the three Grado Style Drivers to compare directly to the Flagship Grado's

An I have a fondness for classic Grados, it would seem Joe spent some time in South Carolina during the end of his life. So seeing as his legacy headphones are tied to him, it seems right that as a South Carolinian I take the chance to appreciate his view and preference on sound, seeing as he took the time to appreciate the beauty in my state, that said, I've heard everything from for SR 60- to the RS2E, just need to hear the older stuff and the flagship line up. But only the RS2E impressed me frankly, the SR 80 wasn't to shabby, neither was the 60

I'll have to find it but some one on HF has a measurement of all the drivers, I'll edit this post with it later today

 

Err, yolk on my face; due diligence, learn how fora work, yadda yadda, found measurements. Might these be the ones you were referring to?
https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/post-your-grado-mods.119314/page-496#post-12887844

Don't mean to offend if you were hoping to be the one to post them, just thought this'd be faster.

No word on the new Scarlett from Nhoord, yeah, but these should give people a good baseline for comparison. Heck, they're raw driver measurements even, so would be great for modders and those with enough time to actually build cans from loose parts. No stock Grado drivers, though, which makes these less than ideal, but the one who'd posted the above measurements said they were working on getting stock drivers out, so....


Eh. This'll make for a fun project. Maybe make some money for tuition selling Majik Artisan-crafted headphones at school (not really, too lazy).

 

I actually yelped a bit when I saw this since I've been drooling over the HP1000s since I got into headphones. If it's at the same general price point you posted Donmodded HP1000s for sale in that old listing, though, I'mma just sulk in a corner and hope whomever gets them shares impressions and lots of photos, haha.

... OR sell off a bunch of crap I've got lying around. Tempting.

Might I ask how they compare to some of the more modern cans? My references are the RS1 (pre-i), Th-X00 EB, and Beyer DT880 (plus I've got an HD650 coming in on loan from a friend). Also curious how the Donmod (?) compares to a stock HP1000.

 

Jaco sent my Infras last week. I am still working on the cups for them. I will post pics from the build process.