Grado GS1000 and Recabled Black Dragon RS-1 Preorder

[drubrew]

Moon Audio is please to anounce the New Grado Flagship GS1000 Headphones Preorder. He were lucky enough to see and hear these this past wknd at the National HeadFi Headphone meeting.

GRADO LABS WILL BE RELEASING THEIR NEW HIGH END HEADPHONE THAT WILL BE IN THE NEW "STATEMENT SERIES" of HEADPHONES, THE MODEL GS1000.

This new headphone was shown for the very first time this past weekend at the National Head-Fi Convention in New York City. The response was spectacular! The Grado Statement GS1000 has been on the drawing board for sometime now, and John Grado even admits that it is his finest effort to date. This new headphone will incorporate new larger foam cushions that are extremely comfortable.
Larger cushions with wooden cans, yet lightweight to add to the comfort level.
The top to bottom sound is extremely balanced and the soundstage is simply unbelievable. The sound is very detailed, the bass is deep and the music is very tight and not fatiguing at all. Simply stunning.

Grado is now waiting for the official packaging to come in, so dealer delivery should happen in about 4 to 6 weeks. Pre-ordered product can be shipped in plain brown packaging, if you wish not to wait for the official packaging.

Info and impressions form the National HeadFi Headphone meeting of the headphones can be found here:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=175815

Moon Audio is also pleased to announce that our Black Dragon Balanced Headphone cable will now be available on the RS-1's and also possibly on the RS-2 and SR325i Headphones via Grado Factory instalation. Thus the Headphones are not mods but brand new and will have a warranty. I will cover cable warranty issues and Grado will cover there Headphones. Price for a RS-1 with 10' Balanced Cable will be $850.

The GS1000 Should also be a canidate for this upgrade which will run $1250 for 10' Balanced Black Dragon upfit. Waiting for feedback from Grado on this one.
For info on the Black Dragon Please Visit our Website.

We also have a bunch of new lines at Moon Audio. Creek, Shanling, Music Hall, Olive Music Servers, Single Power, Epos, Stax. Web site is being updated soon. Ask about speacials.

Thank You.
Drew Baird
Moon Audio
308 Chrismill Lane
Holly Springs, NC 27540
919-649-5018
drubrew@earthlink.net
http://www.moon-audio.com

[skyline889]

Wow, factory backed Blue and Black Dragon Grados, does it get any better? Do you have any intention of modifying our old HF-1s with your cables?

[drubrew]

Unfortunetly these are going to be an offering for new Headphones only. And since the HF-1s are sold out, I guess I wont be able to offer those. There is a lot of risk trying to mod any of the wood based enclosures. I really dont want to take on that risk. Thus the reason for having these done at the factory on new stock. If the drivers were glued to plastic rather than wood I would have no problem doing it. Wish my answer was positive.

[Naris]

Is it only a balanced Black Dragon cable for the RS series and not a standard 1/4" jack? I'm guessing probably no because Grado Labs uses their own copper cables for that?

[Luco]

How come there's no Black Dragon Cable for the HD600/650?

[drubrew]

Question #1
The whole reason for the Grado cable replacement was to fill a void or need for a Balanced Grado Headphone. In the past, PS-1's were sent to me from Grado with their reference interconnect cable attached and no terminations. We terminated them and added a pretty jackets if the customer so desired. In order to cut out a couple of steps and to do this on more than one type of Grado headphone, we will be shipping balanced cables to Grado to be fitted at the factory. All the headphones will come with full warranty, thus no loss of warranty will occur when doing after market mods. And no risk of damage to the headphone during the mod. It just makes more sense to do it this way. For those of you who have both balanced and single ended setups we will also offer adapters to convert to single ended. If one day you bag your Balanced amp for a single ended amp, we can reterminate the cable with a 1/4" jack. Which is an easy and not very expensive process.
Question #2
This one is top secret. We are waiting for Black Dragon Senn cables back from the molders this month. I am also working on Silver D V2. Woops did I just write all that

PreOrders begin today and there will be a 10% discount on the first batch. Here is the cable match up we plan to do.
SR325i Blue Dragon
RS-2 Blue Dragon or Black Dragon
RS-1 Black Dragon
GS1000 Black Dragon
I am working on Prices but it looks like the RS-1 will be $850 and the GS1000 will be $1150. These are for 10' lengths. Other lengths will be available but will be a non stocked item and will have a slight delay. I hope to add all this infor to the website soon.
Here is the first Black Dragon RS-1.

[ingmarwa]

Will it be possible to get these recables in single-ended configurations (1/8- or 1/4-connectors) from the beginning without reterminating or sending them back to you? Will the same shipping restricitions apply (not possible to send outside USA) to these recabled headphones as for the usual headpones from Grado?

[MSport911]

All I can say Drew is damn! A Grado GS-1000 with the Black Dragon Cable balanced, you can't beat that!

To any Head-Fi member thinking about going this route, and you are not sure, just order up one of Moon Audio's Black Dragon Interconnects and see for yourself! This interconnect is smooth yet detailed, and delivers a very nice soundsage!

MSport911

[doobooloo]

Now that's a way to do business. Why haven't other re-cablers talked to Grado and worked something like this out before? This is brilliant!

[Wmcmanus]

Hey Drew, nice to see you again at the meet. Please sign me up for a pair of GS1000's with a 10' balanced Black Dragon cable. Let me know what I need to do to firm up the deal.

[Luco]

So will a Balanced Black Dragon for the HD6X0 be available soon as well?

[BrianS]

Drew, can you reterminate in female XLR and how much will an XLR to 1/4" adapter be?

edit: also how much will a gs1000 be with black dragon single-ended?

[drubrew]

Yes we can do Female XLR. Yes we can do adapters. Price will depend on length. I recommend make an adapter long enough so that the XLR's lay on the floor so there is no weight bearing on the 1/4" connector when plugged into an Amp. So measure this distance and add a foot.

I'm waiting for Prototype Black Dragon HD650 cables to come back from the molders this month. Looks like there will be one available in the near future.

[doobooloo]

Regarding heat shrink... I think the original poster did have a valid argument. Calling it "ghetto" may not have been the most appropriate way of putting it but most definately there are more elegant ways of finishing cables...

I think Zu does have an edge in construction. Even their Y-split in their Senn headphone cable is done very well - before and after split cable is visually coherent, and the split itself is solid, unobtrusive, and clean with a short plastic tubing beneath the heat shrink.

But then, at Drew's business size heat shrink may be the only option available. Which is fine especially since most people seem to be happy with the aesthetics and construction of Drew's cables. But I do think even a simple extra step such as putting a short flexible plastic tubing in the split for enhanced durability and aesthetics and making the heat shrink section much shorter in general is going to enhance the aesthetics greatly and isn't that much more complicated to execute... unless Drew's cable construction tolerances are out of whack, which I believe is not the case. (I do think Moon Audio cables are quite beautiful, even with the ugly, long, wobbly heat shrink sections.)

And another "but then"... it's all about the sound, this forum dictates, no?

[drubrew]

I like emails for ordering all my stuff. That way there is no screw up on my end as to exactly what you want and what your shipping address is etc. I like having a hard copy request in front of me. 90% of what I do is custom so it is easier this way. To hard to set up a shopping cart system for my business.