Review: Grado Statement 1000 - Page 2

My mistake, I had copied the RS-1 by accident thinking it was the GS-1k. It;s fixed now.

What would I do without the anal retentives?

Thanks for the kind words folks. I separated it out like this because I wanted to focus on the GS-1k on is own first, detailing what I thought about it with little comparisons with the other Grados, since it deserves to be showcased as it is. Then part two, I rip them apart Well, no not really, but I throw them up against my staples and see how they do!

I am not really going to spend time on something I find ridiculously absurd. Do they sound awesome at low levels? Oh yes. Do they sound awesome at medium levels? Oh yes. At loud levels? I cranked them up, yes, for brief periods, something I do on occassion, particularly when evaluating a headphone, and they sound great at loud levels too.

I will say this, at low levels they sound pretty distant, at medium levels they start presenting the sound in quite a familiar "Grado" way (I'll deal with this in Part II) and at loud levels they sound, well loud. I don't listen loudly on my on accord ever, at least not compared to what many around here consider loud

I won't say the RA-1 is the most neutral, just that it has been said to be quite neutral and transparent, which I agree with. There really isn't much in there to colour the sound as we all know I would say that the older Headamps were the most neutral I've heard (V1, V2) then the GS-1 was a bit warmer, a bit lusher, but the RA-1 is certainly not ridiculously coloured when compared with other ss amps let alone hybrids and/or tubes.

I have not tried the new Yorke album on my main rig yet, just on my iPod but I will give it a go tonight.

This is quite interesting and perhaps I should have spent more time with these phones attached to my iPod vs. my other sources. I won't deny I've spent a good amount of time and money eliminating undue sibilance from my sources. If the recording has it, then my system will relay that sibilance, with if the recording doesn't have it, my system won't introduce any either. The elimination of sibilance was one of the driving forces behind my numerous Shanling upgrades and the Koestu is known to be a detailed and accurate cartridge, not necessariy neutral, but not rolled off either. It is also very able to control sibilance despite it being a low MC cartridge. The fact that I use an Ear 834p does help, though to make the amp quicker I use Telefunkens, though I am usually opposed to their sound.

If people are experiencing sibilance with GS-1000's (to be fair, I have not been spending a lot of time online lately, so I have not been following the various GS-1000 threads) then one might want to look at their source and/or the recordings used.

Briefly, I would say that there are enough differences to warrant someone with the funds to own both. The PS-1's have a midrange that is so lush, velvety smooth, like I've never heard from any other headphone. This one single trait would always keep me wanting to retain a pair. The highs of the PS-1's are also the most forgiving of any Grado I've heard. They are not rolled off, but they are also never strident and never really forward in comparison to the other Grados. The highs simply maintain some of the velvet smoothness of the mids. I began my PS-1 journey with flats but moved to the bowls as my main pad mainly because I wanted more control in the bass line and better, more detailed highs. The PS-1's really rock for electronic music and hard hitting rock n' roll, which the GS-1000's do well too, just not in your face thumping as the PS-1's, so if that is your thing, then maybe keeping a PS-1 would be the way to go. As for strings, I've never felt the Grado line to be deficient here and have actually always enjoyed the tone of the strings, perhaps not as fast as R10's (a main reason for me wanting R10's, I have a good deal of chamber music and would love to own R10's for these works) but the GS-1000's remedie much of this, certainly as detailed as the R10's but not as fast I would imagine, though I would need them side by side to verify. GS-1's are by far the best Grado for large ensemble works.