"Todd's flats" vs. "original" flats

[HiWire]

The flats have the sound that I was looking for; the bowls just couldn't take me there. They do add a sort of soundstage, but the weak bass and painful bouncing highs were short-changing my listening pleasure. My amp and source seem to have a nice synergy with the Grados, so I think I'm going to be a happy listener for a long time.

Kudos to John Grado for designing a neat pad... I found the bowl pads quite comfortable around my small ears, and their dual-foam density is a clever trick. I'm sure John voices his Grado Labs cans for the bowls to make up for their "deficiencies" in other cans e.g. Joe Grados. No doubt the treble resonance, soundstage, and bass throw are tuned more properly in his cans, and become non-issues.