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.
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.