Grado Fan Club! - Page 262

How do I do the mod to make the cable detachable? Also which cups sound better? Magnum or wood ones? I was thinking about getting these mahogany cups from HeadPhoneLounge.com http://headphonelounge.com/products/mahogany-grado-cups/ They look very nice. But if magnum ones sound better and not too much $$ than may as well get the magnum ones. And then the headband that is also on that site. Should I do the reverse quarter mod or put bowls on? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both? I have the SR80i's by the way.

Edited by wolfetan44 - 7/27/12 at 8:23pm

 

I'm glad you're enjoying your SR80i,the price/performance is so advantageous on these things,it's not even funny.

 

This is just my two cents,but regarding the three headphones you're might consider for a future upgrade,i believe that the SR325is and the PS500 have a completely different sound signature from one another,and they will mate well with sound systems with rolled off highs,in the case of the SR325is,where the PS500 might work better withe a sound system with a  srong treble presence,the RS1i's altough brighter than the PS500,would be i think,more of a toss,of course in the end it all comes down to personal taste.

 

We seem to have similar taste in music,i just love female vocals,especially Eva Cassidy and Rebecca Pidgeon,and Eric Clapton's Unplugged is my best sounding LP

 

Stacker - in case you haven't heard it yet - Alison Krauss and Union Station - Paper Airplane.  You can get it from HD Tracks.  It just loves Grados :)

 

I know Alison Krauss,but i wasn't familiar with that song,i just checked it out on You Tube and it's very good,my favorite cd's are the ''Best audiophile voices'' collection,they're all talented signers,and the sound is very well recorded.

Hey guys, and Chris_Himself especially, I've found this NEAT impedance adapter on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/IMPEDANCE-RESISTANCE-ADAPTOR-3-5MM-TO-6-35MM-PLUG-/300453295797?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item45f46976b5

 

And I can select the number of Ohms that will be added, either 15, 30, 33, 36, 68, 91, 120, 150, 200 or 300, or 75 Ohms

 

I thought 30 would be a good number to make Grados 62 ohms. Basically both my computer, and my Grado HPA-1 amplifier are noisy, but I noticed with my 40 Ohms Grados the computer became silent, and then with 50 Ohms Fostex T50RP the HPA-1's noise floor vanished also. By judging by those numerical values, 60 Ohms should be enough right? Or Grados are really that more sensitive and it would require much more impedance?

 

Thanks for pointing me out, I'm not fighting a huge amount of hiss, but I'd really like to achieve almost or fully blank/black/silent background for the music.

I've been putting that on my JH IEM cables for a while. It should be a standard piece of equipment for you folks looking to plug into higher end amps. The impedance sheds the background noise.

 

I'd aim for the 91 or 120 ohm one if you're running a decent desktop amp. Remember that it's not just impedance, the K701's impedance isn't that high it just likes a lot of current.

 

I just want the blackest black possible, and if I need to use more gain, then so be it.

 

$20 for that impedance adapter is a good deal, provided that it's legit.

Oh hey, I didn't recognize your avatar

 

Yes it's made in China so it can be both good and cheap at the same time :/.

 

*Edit: feedbacks at unanimous, product is "very well made" and "works fine" and he has 5.0/5.0 stars in "Product as described".

 

 

Grado HPA-1 is an okay amp, but it is battery powered so I'm trying to aim right. Too much raising the volume, past 180 degrees starts increasing pink noise hiss and it's doubled at complete turn. Though 180 degrees must be unimaginably loud even with a fairly high impedance adapter.

 

You're surely right that at only 30 Ohms I might not even notice a difference as the Grados are all very sensitive.

 

Would 75 Ohms suffice (yes I want blackest black)? it's like the impedance difference between the Etymotic ER-4P and -4S; Grados would become 117 Ohms

Edited by devouringone3 - 7/28/12 at 2:35am

 

You do need an amp for Grados. I know I've been sayign you haven't for years but I use things like Cowon and Zunes. I recently acquired an iPhone 4S (haven't had a phone in years) thanks to the cable gig but uh yeah that should be fine.

 

The more you talk about it the more that Grado amp sounds worse and worse. You can get a decent Audio-Gd NFB-12 like what I'm using for not too much.. it's a great dac/amp.

No need to take offense - hadn't even seen your comparison. As far as different or better - I think the RS-1 are better; but "better" doesn't have to be quantified.

 

we know that grados are efficient cans. i think it was dsavitsk who explained earlier in this thread that the impedance of grados is remarkably flat, not unlike a resistor, which means that they can be driven differently and still sound great. i've found the benefits of amping grados to be overstated. i've tried them with and without amps, plugged them into a variety of sources and found that they sound pretty much the same. i don't think they scale as well with amping as some other phones and i regard that as a strength. buy a grado and put the money you were thinking about spending on an amp towards expanding your music collection.

I would agree with this - Grado has hit the nail on the head in both making a good sounding headphone, and a headphone that is easily plugged into anything and highly functional.

 

I didn't take offence,after re reading my post i can understand why you tought i did,but it was meant tongue in cheak,i just hope my comparison will be of some use to you.

 

Regarding the use of the word different instead of better,i don't think that my PS1000 are better than the RS1i,i just think they're different,so,i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Ah, very well.

And it did help to read that - I'm gathering that the PS-500 are indeed bassier and darker (graphs said this before I read that). I'm curious about your sound-stage comments though - how do they stack up against non-Grados?

I haven't heard PS-1000, but I would agree if you were saying GS-1000 vs RS-1. I think SR-60 or SR-80 vs RS-1 though, the RS-1 is better. IMHO once you hit the SR-225 it's all differences and marginal improvements (e.g. the RS-1 has a better soundstage, but is not "oh my god" a better headphone, I think the 225 has redeeming qualities, as KG Jag pointed out - they're more forward, the 325 are brighter, etc), but I don't think the same case can be made for the SR-60 or SR-80 even relative to the 225. And that was what I was responding to - SR-80 vs RS-1. I think it's entirely reasonable to assert that yes in fact some things are better than others, and I don't think it should mean "stepping on toes" or "hurting feelings" to do so; products are not an extension of anyone's being, and this "walking on eggshells to avoid hurt feelings" mantra doesn't help anyone at the end of the day (because if that's where we're going - "everything is the best and if you said it is, it is, so forget even asking about it" is the singularity). I did qualify, however, that I don't want to quantify "how much better" they are - because that's sticky. They cost *a lot* more, and whether or not a 7-fold price increase is worthwhile to you is where it becomes a personal preference decision - the SR-80 are "good" and the RS-1 are "better" but if $600 cash is "better still" to you, pocket the cash and rock on. On that note, Grado is one of the few manufacturers that has inexpensive offerings where this discussion is even relevant, which I think is a testament to their quality and performance.

 

Well it has noise yes, but it's far from bad sounding. I am still comparing it to my my GT40, and more and more I can hear the differences between the two. It seems more bassy, less high-sy and detailed too (the HPA-1).

 

 Just my two cents on the PS500 vs RS1i debate..

 

 I've been spending a bit of time with these two of late and I have to say that their 'difference'

 lies in that the PS500 *according to my ears* is the first really versatile Grado headphone outside

 of organic genres - it plays back all sorts of dub, reggae, pop, electronic music with real gusto where the

 RS1i put through the same paces tends to sound a little too forward and it exhibits occasional glare.

 

 There is no doubt about it in my mind, the PS500 is the more forgiving of the two, it presents a

 little further back and the bass response is more ample compared to the RS1i - not only that, the bass

 presentation is more 'subwoofer' like, it remains controlled but there is that sense of modern bass.

 The RS1i by comparison, has less overall bass but for those familiar with a good sense of Hi-Fi floor

 standers will instantly remark that the RS1i is really just trying to be a high end Hi-Fi wooden pair of bookshelves

 - a feat that it mostly achieves in my book :-)

 

 Like any such piece of Hi-Fi it will not play nice with a lot of recordings of late, hence the reasoning behind

 the creation of the PS500 makes sense - for my it is the most neutral sounding can in the line-up -

 an oxymoron for sure considering how colorful and bouncy these cans are in the first place, but John

 has made an effort here to produce a can that may appeal to people who would otherwise not choose

 an RS1i after hearing them back to back.

 

 In a nutshell?

 

 Let's take two random Head-Fiers

 

 One listens to reference quality rock, jazz and classical/soundtrack recordings - no pop, no Enimem, no 50 Cent to see here.

 

 Answer:- RS1i

 

 The other guy listens to everything under the sun - top chart, reference recordings, dub, jazz etc

 

 Answer: PS500

 

 If the recording is mint - then my ears tell me that the RS1i has the edge, free from any recording mishaps - it really shines

 over the PS500 but the PS500 will always have that flexibility and versatility that the RS1i simply cannot offer in the first place.