parbaked said:

  You'll find it hard to compare magnums as the drivers are only one piece of the equation the others being the materials and size/shape venting of the cups...so YMWV

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melvins said:

  any folks here have both a pair of magnums and a pair of Grados? If so, which versions? Which do you prefer, and why? Just curious. Want to hear people's opinions on the matter  

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focker said:

  Hey guys...thought I'd share a fun story with you. 
 
Even though Grados aren't my top headphone anymore, my first love was the Grado SR80 and I will have at least one or two Grados in my collection for as long as they are making headphones. Anyway, I've mentioned on here before that one of my favorite things to do with my friends is to rescue them from poor fidelity. Iv'e sent out three pairs of SR60s and a few pairs of JVC nanotube headphones/buds. Well, one of my lady friends started with a pair of the JVCs a while back, and I sort of noticed that she was showing signs of maybe being ready for her first audiophile headphone. When I start getting those signals, it's the SR60s that I'll send their way, and that's exactly what I did. 
 
She said she wasn't sure if she would really appreciate the differences, which is okay because I always have one rule that I make them adhere to when I send out headphones: I make them agree that if they find they don't like or don't use the phones, that they will 1) pass them along to someone they think WILL use them, and 2) make that person agree to the same rule. It's worked out great so far. 
 
Anyway, the 60s arrived yesterday and I sent her a link to the Nils Lofgren concert that is on youtube...it's a fantastic acoustic recording that I often listen to. I had been teaching her about how better quality headphones will begin to expose the difference between poor recordings and material that was recorded really well. So I gave her a test and asked her to report back as to which she thought the Nils Lofgren concert was. She texts back and says, "wow, this isn't just a good recording, it's a GREAT recording!"  She went on about how amazed she was to be able to hear not only all the instruments so clearly, but even when someone in the audience coughed or when the drummer's sticks hit the rim of the drum. 
 
She's my movie buddy, as well, and she said she really wanted to try them for movies, but she wasn't sure how to get them to reach the headphone jack in her receiver. So, I had Amazon send her the Grado extension cable and voila! Tonight she watched "The Way Back" on Grado headphones for the first time. I'm pretty sure she's hooked and we've got another mbr of our Grado loving community on board

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focker said:

  Hey guys...thought I'd share a fun story with you. 
 
Even though Grados aren't my top headphone anymore, my first love was the Grado SR80 and I will have at least one or two Grados in my collection for as long as they are making headphones. Anyway, I've mentioned on here before that one of my favorite things to do with my friends is to rescue them from poor fidelity. Iv'e sent out three pairs of SR60s and a few pairs of JVC nanotube headphones/buds. Well, one of my lady friends started with a pair of the JVCs a while back, and I sort of noticed that she was showing signs of maybe being ready for her first audiophile headphone. When I start getting those signals, it's the SR60s that I'll send their way, and that's exactly what I did. 
 
She said she wasn't sure if she would really appreciate the differences, which is okay because I always have one rule that I make them adhere to when I send out headphones: I make them agree that if they find they don't like or don't use the phones, that they will 1) pass them along to someone they think WILL use them, and 2) make that person agree to the same rule. It's worked out great so far. 
 
Anyway, the 60s arrived yesterday and I sent her a link to the Nils Lofgren concert that is on youtube...it's a fantastic acoustic recording that I often listen to. I had been teaching her about how better quality headphones will begin to expose the difference between poor recordings and material that was recorded really well. So I gave her a test and asked her to report back as to which she thought the Nils Lofgren concert was. She texts back and says, "wow, this isn't just a good recording, it's a GREAT recording!"  She went on about how amazed she was to be able to hear not only all the instruments so clearly, but even when someone in the audience coughed or when the drummer's sticks hit the rim of the drum. 
 
She's my movie buddy, as well, and she said she really wanted to try them for movies, but she wasn't sure how to get them to reach the headphone jack in her receiver. So, I had Amazon send her the Grado extension cable and voila! Tonight she watched "The Way Back" on Grado headphones for the first time. I'm pretty sure she's hooked and we've got another mbr of our Grado loving community on board

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parbaked said:

  1. It's a real pain to reverse
2. You have to crack the cans open to do it, risking cracked plastic.
3. While it increases bass it does so at the cost of the overall balance.
I just think it is better to EQ or roll pads because you can't A/B test the venting mods...you are kinda stuck with it...YMMV.

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focker said:

  Hey guys...thought I'd share a fun story with you. 
 
Even though Grados aren't my top headphone anymore, my first love was the Grado SR80 and I will have at least one or two Grados in my collection for as long as they are making headphones. Anyway, I've mentioned on here before that one of my favorite things to do with my friends is to rescue them from poor fidelity. Iv'e sent out three pairs of SR60s and a few pairs of JVC nanotube headphones/buds. Well, one of my lady friends started with a pair of the JVCs a while back, and I sort of noticed that she was showing signs of maybe being ready for her first audiophile headphone. When I start getting those signals, it's the SR60s that I'll send their way, and that's exactly what I did. 
 
She said she wasn't sure if she would really appreciate the differences, which is okay because I always have one rule that I make them adhere to when I send out headphones: I make them agree that if they find they don't like or don't use the phones, that they will 1) pass them along to someone they think WILL use them, and 2) make that person agree to the same rule. It's worked out great so far. 
 
Anyway, the 60s arrived yesterday and I sent her a link to the Nils Lofgren concert that is on youtube...it's a fantastic acoustic recording that I often listen to. I had been teaching her about how better quality headphones will begin to expose the difference between poor recordings and material that was recorded really well. So I gave her a test and asked her to report back as to which she thought the Nils Lofgren concert was. She texts back and says, "wow, this isn't just a good recording, it's a GREAT recording!"  She went on about how amazed she was to be able to hear not only all the instruments so clearly, but even when someone in the audience coughed or when the drummer's sticks hit the rim of the drum. 
 
She's my movie buddy, as well, and she said she really wanted to try them for movies, but she wasn't sure how to get them to reach the headphone jack in her receiver. So, I had Amazon send her the Grado extension cable and voila! Tonight she watched "The Way Back" on Grado headphones for the first time. I'm pretty sure she's hooked and we've got another mbr of our Grado loving community on board

Click to expand...

joedoe said:

And by cups, he means pads.

Yeah the G Cush are great on the 325s. They open up the soundstage a bit and take a touch of the edge off the treble.

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fleasbaby said:

   
I have a pair of Magnum X in some Cabillas GS1000 knock-offs, with G-Cush pads, and a pair of SR80 pinks in African Blackwood cups with L-Cush.
 
I like the Magnums for long listening sessions at work, and when I am leaning more towards intricate, well-produced music (leftfield electronic stuff like Flying Lotus, Caribou, the Beta Band, Four Tet, a lot of Jazz as well...both the earlier bebop stuff and some of the later spiritual stuff like Alice Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, etc, etc...).
 
I like the pinks for folk, rock, the blues (Mance Lipscombe, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan etc, etc...)
 
Not sure if my opinion counts though, as all of the Grados I have had were in the SR series, and all wound up woodied...

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walczyk said:

  I've owned Alessandro MS-1s for 9 years now, and it's time for me to upgrade. I love the grado sound but I wear glasses and it really really starts to get uncomfortable after an hour. I can buy these 'gamer' glasses, by gunnar, which are low profile or I can get another kind of headphone. The problem is when the headphones press my ear lobe against my glasses, it really starts to ache after awhile. Thing is, I don't know if any other headphones will be better in that regard. The HE-500's look comfortable, and the Grado GS-1000's look much more comfortable than the RS1i's which are the standard Grado style but the RS1i's sound like they'd have the sound for me, however the GS-1000's seem to sound better and have bigger pads. Does anyone have any suggestions for a glasses wearer such as myself?

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