The Grado HF-2 Review/Comparison Thread - Page 20

LOL! And they even hold rallies where they compete to show whose car can BOOM the loudest! Music?

Congrats
to HeadFanatic for the nice review
to Headphoneddict for the talented son

to proud son and father

maybe hf (ahhhh hf=headfanatic, 2=second headphone)
will like Pascal Comelade's Haikus for Pianos
It is played with a mini/toy piano and a big one.


to earbud generation
I think there is a parallel movement in homecinema equipment.
Micro (earbuds) + macro (homecinema)

We'll definitely have to look for that music.

My 14 yr old daughter is a disappointment, as she just bought her first Skull Candy headphones because she liked the way they look. At least she is still using the Head-Direct RE2 for when she needs earbuds...

wow.. what an irony! I cannot imagine your daughter using Skull Candy when she could use so much better gears that you own! Oh well, maybe you could do a full-length review on your daughter's skull candy

Maybe she would take a pink painted Grado (RS1), too?

My son, 23, doesn't listen to headphones (except earbuds) but has taken a pair of modified Celestion nuts (I was playing around with for a small office system) and enhanced them with some more speakers of the same kind to a 7.1 homecinema system. My daughter has taken another pair of speakers from me for her stereo. Well, not all is lost.

Aww a mini HPA. Sweeeet!

I meant leaning towards headphones as opposed to full-blown speaker setups.

You should put your foot down! Ground her until she uses some quality headphones

Back in the day when I had my old Rio Nitrus (about six years ago) I used to roll with the bundled Sennheiser MX500s cranked to max volume with 96kbps MP3s. So yeah, I see where they're coming from.

Seeing how prolific form-over-function headphones are nowadays (from companies I don't even need to bother mentioning), and how most of my legions of college peers are "into" these intrinsically soulless headphones, I have serious doubts audiophilia will infect the masses any time in the near future. I only see one or two kids rocking SR60s they brought from AC Gears or HD 280 Pros from J&R or B&H. The masses quite frankly don't seem to give a damn.

Head-Fi may forever be the lone bulwark for our kind..

I, sitting amidst the boisterous clamor of the middle school bus that fateful year, chewing through my eardrums with criminal levels of volume, would never have imagined claiming ownership to my very own HF-2 with a respectable (IMO) mid-fi setup these years later.

No need to be 14... My 32 girlfriend mainly purchase on look and feel criterias instead of good specifications
"Why did you buy that !! it's just crap"
"well, it looks nice...."

Ok i give up !

So when she goes to the racetrack - she picks the horse ridden by the best-looking Jockey...........

I'm really enjoying the HF-2. It's hard to think of any further ways of describing them because I'd have to resort to describing the music I'm listening to. It's like there's nothing getting in the way of my enjoyment of it. No obvious peaks or troughs or accentuation of certain areas. And I'm hearing less and less of the little "problems" I noted earlier on. Yeah, I think it's like a nice little taste of the old HP-1 flavour.

Thanks for the impressions Headfanatic and Beagle- they're few and far between in this thread.

(I moved this inquiry from another HF-2 thread because I thought it belonged in this comparison thread)

I have a couple pairs of extra GS1000 pads on hand so I did a comparison between the HF-2 (using these pads) and the GS1000.

HF-2 w/GS1000 pads: GS1000 bloated mid/upper bass is smoothed out but (predictably) the upper treble is too pronounced, leaving the midrange quite a distance away. Not bad at very low listening levels but above that, the treble stands out to constantly annoy. And of course the GS1000 warmth is absent.

Returning to the GS1000, the bass is more present (too present IMO) and the upper treble toned back down (in comparison). So somewhere in between these is the PS1000!

So IMO, forget about the GS1000 pads on the HF-2. I put the stock bowls back on and the magic returned.

Say, has anyone noticed the wooden "lip" area around the drivers (where you see the drivers glued in) has a much wider diameter than on other Grado's? It's like twice as long from the outer edge of the driver to the edge of the wooden surround. This makes it difficult to get the bowls on and off (and putting the GS1000 pads on was a real task!).

GS1Ki vs HF-2 vs HF-2 w/GS1Ki bowls

I repeated this same test this morning with similar results. However, the difference between my un-broken-in HF-2 with the bowls vs the GS1000 salad bowls wasn't as pronounced as I imagined it would be. One caveat is that I typically listen at relatively low volume levels. I think that partially explains why I seem to be one of the few people still enamored with the GS1Ki signature.

One thing that seemed consistent across the musical spectrum was that the HF-2 sounded a bit more closed AND a bit more engaging than the GS. I realize that sounds a like a contradiction! The GS1Ki has always seemed to me just a touch "light". Despite excellent bass the entire presentation doesn't always feel like it has two feet on the floor. Depending on your sonic preferences this might sound more neutral to you vs the HF-2 (I know, I just used the word "neutral" in the same sentence with GS1Ki). In contrast, the HF-2 (with either set of bowls) seemed a touch heftier, especially through the midrange. Vocals have a bit more chest but at the same time seem a touch more congested.

As Beagle suggested, the salad bowls aren't for you if you listen at what I'd consider more "normal" levels. At the levels I listen with, I might pick up a pair of salad bowls. I did my comparisons before I read Beagle's comments but I totally agree about the treble with the salad bowls. I'll reiterate my observation though - at lower levels the differences between the regular vs salad bowls on the HF-2 were not as large as I expected.

I also don't feel that an HF-2 with salad bowls is "better" or is a replacement for the GS1Ki. They presented very different pictures. Since at least 60% of my music collection is classical/orchestral I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of my GS1Ki. Low volume listening in that genre with the GS is a very special experience for me.

This was done with 840C => WA6SE maxxed w/Sophia.