Description
This is a pair of Mahogany wood cups built by Earphone DIY Labs inspired by Grado GS3000e, a $1,400 premium price product. MMCX connectors are pre-installed per requested by DIY communities to make Grado headphones support detachable cables. DIYers can easily replace broken cables or try different cables to optimize the sound character.
Note this is a DIY shell kit including wood cups, front cover and bracket as shown in above pics, drivers and headband are NOT included.
- Elegant, Grado GS3000e compatible cups cut by high-precision CNC lathe from large chunk of maple with laser printed characters.
- Grado compatible cup holders (brackets) are made of high quality stainless steel, with 2 color options: black or silver
- High quality Grado G/S/L cushions
- Compatible with all 40/44/50mm headphone drivers
Question about shipping? View shipping service. Want more custom options? Ping us on service@earphonediylabs.com.
Know about Grado Labs GS3000e
Grado Labs GS2000e got 5/5 all star rating on AV Forums:
The Grado GS2000e is a full size, open back home headphone and the larger of the two members of the Statement Series which itself is only below the Professional Series in the product hierarchy. The principles that it works to are extremely similar to other Grado models, but by the time you reach this price point, they can be honed and refined to the exact direction that the company wants to, with far fewer of the compromises that creep in at lower price points.
What’s in the package
The DIY kit is pre-assembled as displayed in the product pics, including:
- 2 X EDL GS3000e Mahogany wood cups with MMCX connectors pre-installed
- 2 X GS3000e cup holders (brackets) in black or silver pre-installed with the cups
- 2 X front covers (driver housing) supporting 40/44/50mm drivers, 3D printed with highly durable engineering plastic
- (optional) Earpad kit including 2 X G-Cushions, 2 X S-Cushions and 2 X L-Cushions
- (optional) MMCX cable with 6N OFC, silver plated, 8 cores hi-end cable, carbon fiber enhanced 3.5mm jack and Y splitter
Headphone shell and cables
The wood cups, pre-installed with the brackets and MMCX connectors.
The wood cups and front cover (3D printed, support 40~50mm drivers)
The cup holders made of stainless steel, painted in black or not printed.
Hi-end 6N OFC, 8core cable with carbon-fiber enhanced jacks and spliters
DIY suggestions
Please refer to EDL GS3000e DIY Kit for tutorials how to build with this kit.
Stephen (verified owner) –
Just finished building these and I’m impressed. Took me no longer than 30mins to get these soldered, dry fit, and assembled. I’m going to glue them after I confirm they’re working as expected.
I’m not an audio tech or anything like that so I can’t comment on the sound profile beyond saying they sound amazing to me. I had a pair of Grado SR125s back in the day and these sound better. I don’t know if I could quantify the better. I’m using the G pads, and the artificial leather headband.
I took a star away as I had to fix the MMCX connector on one of the cups. It was mounted far too close to the wood and wouldn’t allow the cable connector to connect correctly. A little bit of gentle sanding and an exacto knife later, it’s connected. Just adding an extra mm of clearance would make all the difference.
Earphone DIY Labs Service team –
Thanks Stephen, glad to hear your building went well.
For the comparison between GS3000e and SR125s, they do have measurable difference which we’ll publish the frequency responses for DIYer reference, and both are legacy “Grado sound”.
And appreciate for pointing out the issue of MMCX, the root cause could be the cable being a little bit short, which we will fix ASAP.
Colin –
I finished building my GS3000e’s a couple weeks ago and have been using them religiously – I went with the EDL “3 layer” pads and the mid-tier solid leather headband, along with the GS3000e drivers and a custom MMCX cable from Hart audio. I’d love to share images with EDL, since I think the results are phenomenal. The sound signature is very different from what I was expecting – they’re nowhere near as sparkly as I expected, but the mid-low bass is very warm and well rounded. They’re not fatiguing at all, a very “easy” listening sound that’s got lots of detail and imaging. If you had any “cheaper” e series grados, these are very different, but still have that “energy” that grados do well. And with the combo of headband and pads, you can wear them for hours and hours and hours. I’d love to share images of my results with EDL for their site, because the aesthetic is phenomenal. If I were to do it again, I’d spend the little bit more on cocobolo cups. The mahogany looks and feels lovely and the engraving of the logo is fabulously crisp, though the inner “cylinder” isn’t mahogany, but simply stained to match. But unless budget is very tight, get the cocobolo (it’s purely aesthetic though)
I had to dock one star because the cup kit I was sent was wrong. I got a “more expensive” kit that didn’t have MMCX connectors, but instead had no holes drilled and a new grado cable included. Thankfully I had some spare MMCX connectors, so I just drilled the holes and mounted them myself, no problem. But still, a mistake is a mistake, though I will find a nice use for the grado cable somewhere.
One thing I noticed is that the OEM gimbals are problematic with detachable cables – they really don’t permit enough swivel in the cup. So I removed the gimbals, hacksawed about an inch of the bottom middle off and rounded it off with a file and sandpaper. The end result has more pivot than stock and frankly, looks nicer.
I’d recommend going with the silver gimbals over black for a couple reasons – you don’t have to re-paint the black after you saw the material off, and the black’s screws that mount to the earcup don’t have a slot and aren’t through-mounted, just tapped into the wood with CA glue, so you have to mangle the screws a bit getting the gimbals off – the silver gimbals’ screws have both an allen head slot and a nylock nut, making reinstallation far easier (I had both since I just added the silver gimbals to my order for the headband) But once I cut the gimbals down a smidge (this also further improves their pivot, which is nice for the bigger stacked cushions that I HIGHLY recommend)
And gluing the drivers in isn’t hard – I used hot glue, put a very quick, VERY thin ring (the fit is going to be tight so be very sparse with the glue) around the inside lip of the cup and quickly pressed the driver in. I think something slower-drying like rubber cement would be easier to assemble, but I liked the hot glue since I can easily remove the drivers in the future if necessary by heating the cup.
Overall though, this is a 5 star project. It was easy, fun, and you get a ~$1800 pair of headphones for about a tenth of the cost. Another driver I think would absolutely sing in these is EDL’s akg 701-style. That sucker has detail and sub-bass for days. Just glue the included covers over the top once they’re in and you’re good.