Amp for Grado PS1000 - Page 3

dmac03, 

Yes, get the Woo, you will absolutely love it, I think the WA22 is an excellent choice: Silver or Black?

Once you get things set up and some hours on the PS1000's/WA22 and the good tunes start flowing, you will be so immersed in the music that all things technical will be far from your mind. 

But yes, you can really fine tune the WA22 with some tube changes and I assure you from experience that if you do ever decide to upgrade, a pre-owned Woo Audio will sell in a flash and you will get the vast majority of your money back. 

Congratulations on your purchase!

I believe the PS1000 does not need an amp at all, just like the GS1000 IMO does not. They are incredibly efficient headphones and don't require a super powerful amp at all.

If you must get an amp sometime, get the WA6SE. It's transformer coupled and sounds great with them... though this is clearly out of your budget. But man Grado's and tube were made for each other!

I feel the tubes make the coloured sound of the Grado's even more emphasized in those certain frequencies.

I was blown out by what I heard from a MAD Ear+ compared to another SS amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmac03 
Does anyone have any last words of warning before I pull the trigger?

It's always a good idea to listen for your self before buying.  Relying on other people's opinions is dangerous.  How do you know if they like the same thing as you?  The good news here is that these amps have good resale values.  (So don't bang them!) 

To my ears, the Woo 5 is one of the best headphone amps made.  It is not very euphonic. It blows away the Woo22.  definitely listen to it down the road.  Another amp you should hear with the Grados is the Cary SLI 80 integrated.  It can be had for $2K used.  It is less dynamic than the Woo, but is more "toobey" and has richer tonal colors.  You may really like that better than the Woo, so make sure you get to hear it down the road.

The nice thing about the WA22 is that since there are no parts upgrades offered the only units Jack ships are stock models; thus it would be eligible for Woo Audio's 20 day return policy.

This way one can really give the amp a good listen in their own home, with their own associated equipment, which I agree is always a good idea but unfortunately not always possible.

I agree that the Cary amps are definitely more euphonic than any of the Woo amps; however by simply changing the 6SN7 tubes in either WA5 or WA22 one can really tailor the sound to one's own preference.

For instance, I can make the WA5 sound very warm and lush with older RCA's but with vintage Tung-Sols it can be almost as fast and snappy as reference solid state amps but still retaining the tube magic.

And of course the signal source will always play a major role in the end result. 

I've been thinking of picking up a pair of PS1000's myself.  This may be a stupid question but how would the RA-1 work with these headphones?  I remember reading that it didn't pair well with the GS1000's but I loved it with my RS-1's when I had them.  Anyone's insight with this would be greatly appreciated!

Any amp or no amp would work ... but would it bring the best out of PS1000 - that is the question ... amp is like the engine of the car ... you need the right engine to drive the headphones optimally and gracefully ...

Grado lab think that RA-1 is the best match for any of their headphones ... but I tend to disagree as PS1000 is a totally different animal compared to the rest of the herd ... it is a detail monster and had tremendous bass and excellent midrange with HUGE soundstage ... so you need amp amp that will give delicate highs while preserving the mids and controlling the bass. SET is out of picture - I have trafomatic head one - it was a poor match for bass (though highs and mids were to die for ...

I think it needs a high powered hybrid amp or just high powered amp ...

Agreed about the power. I have yet to receive mine or the amp, but Jack did give me one very strong piece of advice when purchasing his woo amp (I did order black) for the ps1000's. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of the 7236 power tubes. The output wattage of the wa22 goes from 810 to 2000 mw when switching from stock to the 7236's.

Even though the ps1000 can sound decent out of an ipod, i'm expecting a marked improvement once amped.

For GS-1000 and RA-1, it works pretty well if you hook up with CD player or external DAC as source.

The issue of RA-1 is that it lack of the extra power to drive music from portable sources or computer sources.

If the volume comes out of the source is loud enough, RA-1 is quite suitable for GS-1000. (especially for analytical sources)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by deej 

I've been thinking of picking up a pair of PS1000's myself.  This may be a stupid question but how would the RA-1 work with these headphones?  I remember reading that it didn't pair well with the GS1000's but I loved it with my RS-1's when I had them.  Anyone's insight with this would be greatly appreciated!

Yesteday in the evening one my friend came to visit me and he presented me him Grado headphones and Casea Lyra amp optimalized (setup) for Grado headphones. It si well known how I so like Grado headphones so I interested how it sounds. In second aspect I know that Grado headphones are well known that they not need amps so I interested how much it differs. The friend presented me SR 325i and RS-1 model.

After at about 10 tracks I was supressed how it sounds. I used Casea Lyra mk2 with DAC connected with my desktop PC. I found more transparency, dynamics and details in tracks. But the MOST IMPORTANT aspect is the soul in sound which is amazingly, wonderfully opened. Grado headphones are built with soul for music listening and if you apply good devices the spirit is more opened for you.

I think, when you are interested on very good amp (with DAC) optimalized for Grado headphones, Casea amp is very very good choise for you. The great advantage is performance to price ratio and this device is very serious quality. The producer can prepare special setup for customers for each producer, so yesteday’s tested setup for Grado headphones very surpised me. I think, this is very very good tip for you, if you want solid state SE amp.

http://www.casea.eu/produkty.php?p=Casea%20Lyra%20Digital%20mk2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zombie_X 

I believe the PS1000 does not need an amp at all, just like the GS1000 IMO does not. They are incredibly efficient headphones and don't require a super powerful amp at all.

 

If you must get an amp sometime, get the WA6SE. It's transformer coupled and sounds great with them... though this is clearly out of your budget. But man Grado's and tube were made for each other!

I can't help but agree. Some of these amp recommendations appear over-the-top to me for a Grado, including the flagship PS1000. A Mad Ear+HD or Woo WA6 should be able to drive these phones perfectly well.

By the way, has anyone heard the PS1000 paired with the DNA Sonnett?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSpenkelink 

 

By the way, has anyone heard the PS1000 paired with the DNA Sonnett?

 

I'd be curious about that too ...

Can you power them right out of ipod - yes ... that is not the point ... we are not talking about electrical load ... but what amp really mates with - creating a magical synergy. These are far from neutral phones (of course they are fun ...) ...

Cheers

I use a B52 with Bendix 6900 tubes for the 4 driver tubes.