Grado PS1000 Headphones

I don't get to listen to open-back headphones very often. In the office, my office-mate hates them. In bed, my wife hates them. But with the office-mate out of the office this week, the PS1000 is on the desk, and I stumbled onto this review thread (while simultaneously hearing the first flaw in these cans) and though: "Why not?"

These are Grado style. They're not my only Grados, and I love Grados. Who would buy Grados? I wouldn't ... but a very knowledgeable friend suggested a lower end pair a decade or so back, I bought them, and I really loved them (on a Ray Samuels amp, for example). But Grados are different ... no ads with half-naked women, no professional athletes paid to wear them in public, no clique of obese business travelers paying too much for them, and no hyper-inflated muddled bass focus with famous artists wearing them before selling out to Apple.

Nope, Grados are their own thing. They march to the beat of a completely different drummer. And that drummer, apparently, has incredibly good hearing.

My description of the PS1000 sound is simple: Pure. They're as pure a sound as any headphone has ever delivered to my ears. Up until today, I've never noticed a note that they couldn't carry, or a sound that they wouldn't separate for my ears to distinguish. Sure, you call them simplistic, because they are. That's what Grados do best. Straight through sound.

I also love that they have such low impedance. These are meant to be useful in the studio, without an amp to distort sound and/or smooth things out and/or warm things up.

I don't like that they're not balanced, but Moon Audio fixed that for me -- and currently has the PS1000 on sale: https://www.moon-audio.com/grado-ps1000e-headphones.html ... I have the PS1000 on a Black Dragon cable terminated with a balanced 4-pole mini-XLR. (You'll need to specifically request the balanced mod.)

I also have a custom leather padded head band for them, because the stock one is just too thin.

I use the standard pads from Grado, but there are options out there; I'd love lambskin on these, but I'm afraid to change them out, because the sound is just so good with the standard pads. (I recently replaced the original pads ... with a new set of the same.)

And the worst problem was that the rod blocks kept on slipping, but Shipibo Audio in Poland makes custom aluminum blocks for Grados, which I have had for a year now, and I am now super happy with the result. (Seriously, Grado, you couldn't come with these standard?) Here's the seller, but they don't currently have the blocks listed, so email them to ask if they still sell them: https://www.ebay.com/usr/shipibo-audio (I will add that they have very good service.)

Now, as I was reading the other reviews, the first fault I've ever noticed with these (now old) headphones came to light ... quite the coincidence. I was playing Ray Charles "Sinner's Prayer" with B.B. King on the "Genius Loves Company" album (CD FLAC from Audirvana on Mac Pro via Topping D50 to Woo Audio WA5 balanced out) and two vocal notes at 04:06 and 04:07 (-00:20 and -00:19) caused distortion that I've never heard before. What?!?! I checked several times, and it's 100% reproducible! So I A/B'd against some other great cans, and ... crap, it's in the recording. I know the sound, too, because I use condenser mics for recording, and know how easy it is to blow the peaks. How is it that I never noticed this flaw in the recording on any other headphones?

Ask Mr. Grado. His cans are perfect.

Why I spent so much time without testing any Grado ?

I don't know. I used to have 2 R10 in my collection, one TH900, one D7000, one D7100, Sony SA5000, MDR-CD3000, HD800...

I listened to the very best headphones on earth : Orpheus, Qualia 010, Abyss, Stax 009...etc. But I completely bypassed the grado brand... Maybe because in France that is not really popular... 
 
But seriously, the PS1000 has really something unique 
 
If I would say some words : they are maybe one of the best I ever  heard. They are so easy going, so easy to drive, and give you amazing results ever with a classic headphones out from a computer and flac or mp3...
 
When I received the PS1000, I decided to simply sell my two HD800 and becoming a grado cans collector.
 
Why ?
 
Because the PS1000 are a kind of HD800 with more realistic soundstage, suave highs (hd800 highs can be terrible on some dac/amp), and especially THEY ARE SO EASY TO DRIVE (Did I say it already ?) of course you still can improve the sound connecting them on Ear Yoshino, but seriously, you can take AMAZING pleasure listening to them on you smartphone. This is ridiculously easy going, and you'll listen to the joy of sound even with 320 kpbs MP3.
 
This is it, I'm done with other high impedance headphones which are so hard to drive... I'll never buy again something up to 80 ohms in my life. I'm done with that. Since the R10, i'm considering masterpiece headphones to be EASY TO DRIVE and I was wrong trying to find the holy grall with high imp headphones... Seriously, who wants to spend billions of hours to find the right amp for each headphone... ? Yeah, many on head-fi. I prefer spending my time listening to music !
 
I will not explain how it sounds in detail because it is beyond words. Like the R10, each time I put the PS1000 on someone's head, I can see this person amazed.
 
If you like music, if you love sound, and you can buy one, do not even hesitate, they are easy to drive, amazing all rounder : you''ll not regret.

I can, at last, listen to my beloved David Bowie, even on my phone, without the highs driving me crazy (like on HD800).
 
Oh, and did i say they have the best and deepest bass I ever heard in my life ? (UPDATE : now it is the N90q, it is the best for bass to me)
 
As a conclusion, I would say the same WHATHIFI words :
 
"They justify their price with a simply astonishing sound. Headphones can't get much better than this"
 
Thanks Grado.



 
 
Stuffs I use to listen my PS1000 : Chord Mojo or If i don't have it with me, any headphones out of anything (Samsung S6, my computer or what I find )

 

 

 

 

 
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