[Bonobo Loco]

Hi guys, I haven't posted here in a few years. I'm hoping for a bit of advice on a purchase for my brother. He's turning 30 soon and I want to surprise him with something nice. He's in the Air Force living in Germany so I have to pick something and ship it to him, hoping it'll be a good fit. I think the look & sound of the Grado phones is something he would really enjoy. He's into making music but his listening equipment is pretty crappy. He mostly likes rock and acoustic stuff so I think that many Grados would do the trick for him.

I'm trying to decide between the GH1 and the RS1e. I don't want to spend much more than $700 or so. I've also looked at the Audeze EL8, which is priced the same as the RS1 ($700) and the Sennheiser HD700 which can now be found for around $450. I have been using the Sennheiser HD650s for the last few years and consider them a good all around headphone but I think my brother would like the more energetic & engaging sound of the Grados. The only thing that gives me second thoughts is the price. With the RS1 competing directly with Audeze's new phone @ $700 it's difficult to choose between them. The planars are also very good for a different reason.

Anyway any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[XLR8]

Go with GH-1.
Stay away from rs1e for now.
Good luck and happy new year

 

[ruthieandjohn]

Go with GH-1.
Stay away from rs1e for now.
Good luck and happy new year

I agree. Go with the GH-1, and spend another $50 for the over ear G-Cush pads.

 

[Bonobo Loco]

Done, and TY for the advice. It seems like a pretty damn good B-day present. If he doesn't like it he's a prick

 

[joseph69]

  Done, and TY for the advice. It seems like a pretty damn good B-day present. If he doesn't like it he's a prick

Definitely the GH-1 with (G) cushions like you were advised…just don't listen to them or you will find yourself buying one for you as well! 

 

 

[nspindel]

Definitely the GH-1 with (G) cushions like you were advised…just don't listen to them or you will find yourself buying one for you as well!   

Again, not afraid to be the contrarian here. I'd think his brother would be quite thrilled getting a box with just some plain old GH-1's, Grado did intend for these to listen to these with L pads after all. I don't think there is a need to go pushing G cushions on everyone who's interested in these headphones. Put me in the camp who read this thread before I bought my GH-1/G. I don't regret buying the headphones for a second, but I love them just the way Grado intended them to sound. I can think of better things to do with the money I spent on the G cushions though.

 

[joseph69]

My sincere apologies to everyone on this thread who are all great members.

 

[stacker45]

  My sincere apologies to everyone on this thread who are all great members.

 
What exactly are you apologising for, Joseph?
 
By the way, I realise that I'm strongly medicated, but I could've sworn that I had posted here yesterday.

 
If the posts were pulled by the mods, I think it would be nice of you guys to let us know that you indeed pulled some posts, and why you've decided to pull them. I don't have a very good memory, I can remember, that there were some disagreements, but I don't recall any insults, or name calling.
 
Oh! and Jospeh, if you prefer, answer me back, by PM.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

[joseph69]

   
What exactly are you apologising for, Joseph?
 
By the way, I realise that I'm strongly medicated, but I could've sworn that I had posted here yesterday.

 
If the posts were pulled by the mods, I think it would be nice of you guys to let us know that you indeed pulled some posts, and why you've decided to pull them. I don't have a very good memory, I can remember, that there were some disagreements, but I don't recall any insults, or name calling.
 
Oh! and Jospeh, if you prefer, answer me back, by PM.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

My apologies are for the members here who discuss the GH-1.
Yes, the mods deleted the post. I received a PM letting me know this morning. Funny, but they didn't delete this post (HERE) which is the post I was targeted about two times? 

 

[Currawong]

I nuked a fight and PMed the two members who were fighting after it was reported. Can I suggest moving on to further discussion about the headphones instead, such as how they sound compared to other models? If that's too difficult, can I then suggest taking a break from posting in it and go and listen to some music? 

 

[nspindel]

That's fine by me, that's what I came here to do in the first place.
 
Quote:

  Not ashamed to be the contrarian here, but coming from a pair of 325is, I'm pretty used to the L-cushion.  They've never really bothered me.  Personally, I prefer the sound of my GH-1's with the stock L's over the G's.  The increased headspace is nice for some recordings, but by and large I think the G's take away too much bass.  I always loved the 325's for their mids, but there was just a bit of brightness to them that eventually gave me a bit of ear pain, so long listening periods got difficult.  But I still loved the mids enough to get a lot of enjoyment out of them.  But I always did find them quite lacking for bass.  Moving to the GH-1's has been bliss for me, the mid-range might be a tad more mellow than the 325's but there's zero shrillness hurting my ears.  And there's bass!  Glorious, glorious Brooklyn maple bass!!!  (I'm from Brooklyn, so I'm loving these...).  To me, substituting the G's in for the L's just pulls too much of that beautiful bass away.  To each his own.  Happy new year!!!

 

[ruthieandjohn]

GS1000i vs. GS1000e vs. GH-1 with  G cush
 
I own both the GS1000e (since March 2015, about 160 hours of use) and the GH-1, which comes with the L bowls but for which I found the G Cush over ear pads make them better (perhaps 30 hours)
 
I borrowed a pair of GS1000i from my local Grado dealer for the weekend.  A demo unit in the store for at least 2 years, it has more hours on than my GS1000e.
 
While I have a formal set of 10 listening tests that I use to compare sets of three headphones at a time (see 4D plot of 13 Grados link in my signature for details), I just did some quick listening for now.
 
I find:
 
GS1000i > GH-1/G >> GS1000e.
 
However, I also find that my GS1000e are continuing to improve with use. Indeed, two early reviewers commented on how much the GS1000e changed with burn in.
 
The GS1000i has a tiny bit more subbass than the GH-1, which in turn has more subbass than the GS1000e.
 
The GS1000i has a huge soundstage, making both the GH-1 and GS1000e sound intimate by comparison.
 
The GS1000i has more transparency (i.e. more freedom from muffling like a felt cloth would do) than the GH-1 and the GH-1 has more transparency than the GS1000e.
 
The GS1000i slightly subdues male vocals, more so than the GH-1.
 
I continue to put hours on my GS1000e.  It SHOULD end up sounding better than the GS1000i, as it has a 50 mm driver (GS1000i is 44 mm), a 12-conductor cable (8 for the GS1000i), and as do all -e series, a bit more bass and a bit less treble than the -i series.  The cylinders that hold the GS1000e drivers protrude about 1/8, or 3 mm, above the edge of the wood cup, toward the ear.  This might mean that the GS1000e driver is closer to the ear than the GS1000i.

 

[stacker45]

  I nuked a fight and PMed the two members who were fighting after it was reported. Can I suggest moving on to further discussion about the headphones instead, such as how they sound compared to other models? If that's too difficult, can I then suggest taking a break from posting in it and go and listen to some music? 

 
My post was deleated, and I've never recieved a PM, so considering that post 456 started the disagreement, I'm surprised that you didn't deleate it.
 
Joseph is one of the Classiest members that I know, here on Head-Fi.
 
If I would've been singled out the way he was, I'm not sure if I would've reacted as calmly as he did.
 
Thank you for the precisions, and the advice.
 
Now, I'm going to take your advice, and go listen to some music.

 

 

[nonverbal]

I'm curious that if anyone use your GH-1 with Chord Mojo?
I'm planning to get one to use with my iphone 6s and playback with my laptop.
 

 

[nspindel]

I've been spending a good amount of time with these lately, and I am really enjoying them.  I've been swapping cushions back and forth, and I'm pleased to say that I will not be putting my G cushions up for sale.  I'm at about 80/20 L cushion vs. G cushion, and it's entirely dependent on the type of recording being listened to.  I'm trying to find a "rule" that could describe when I want to put the G cushion on, but it's hard to pin down.
 
I recently did an equipment roll, sold just about every piece of gear and every accessory I owned (other than my sacd player and squeezebox) in order to purchase the new limited edition VPI 299D amp (loudspeaker and headphones) and the VPI Prime with an Ortofon 2M Black.  I already have the amp, and I should have the Prime next week.  Still using my Traveler for now.  The 299D, believe it or not, is probably the best sounding headphone amp for Grado cans that I've owned, and I've owned the HeadRoom Triple Stack and the Eddie Current Balancing Act.  I sold my LCD-3's because I liked the Grados better.  Selling the LCD's is what got me thinking about buying a Prime.
 
Reason I'm rambling about gear is because the 299D has the ability to switch on the fly (via a button on the remote control) between ultra-linear vs. triode mode.  In ultra-linear mode, loudspeaker output is 38wpc (these are tube watts remember....), whereas it puts out 20wpc in triode mode.  Triode mode is a much sweeter sound, which you'd use for vocals, classical, jazz, etc.  If you are listening to anything with a punchy drum kind of sound - rock, blues, etc. it's good to switch into the higher power mode, gives the amp a good amount of extra oomph.
 
What I've come up with so far is that I've never found anything that I would be listening to in ultra linear mode where I enjoy the G cushions.  Simple equation for me is ultra linear equals L cush.  Every time.  It's in triode mode where the G cush gets interesting.
 
For rock, I find the increased head stage to be a distraction, and bass slam suffers greatly when using the G cush.  I listened twice to Side 8 of the Grateful Dead at Veneta, OR 8/27/72 show released by Rhino.  Both times in ultra linear mode on the amp, once with the G's and once with the L's.  With the G cushion it felt as if I was sitting high up in the back of an indoor show, even though this show was outdoors.  All of that headstage felt like I was hearing sound from all directions as if I was much farther from the music.  With the L's, it was like sitting in the front row.  The bass had so much more impact.  Jerry's guitar had so much more twang.  Everything about it was up front and personal.
 
But then I was listening to the 45RPM reissue of Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage.  Piano, bass, drums, trumpet, and sax.  Gorgeous album.  Perfect for triode mode listening.  With the L's, the double bass was just too in my face.  It wasn't natural at all.  Almost felt as if I was on my hands and knees with my head right in front of the bass on the floor.  It was really the first time I heard anything through the L cushion that I really didn't like the sound of.  So I swapped the G's in, and they were magic.  As soon as I heard that album I realized the G cushions needed to stay.  But again, only for certain recordings.  And for my listening habits, I would probably say I would used them 20% of the time.  With this Herbie Hancock record, the overly bloated bass of the L cushion was completely smoothed out, and the increased headstage was actually a joy, likely because it gave a bit of sparkle and imagery to a recording that is of the pan left, pan right, middle variety common in early stereo recordings.
 
So I will go so far as to retract my statement saying that I could find better things to do with the money I spent on the G's.  Given the price tag of the headphones, the extra $50 to have the G's as an available option as needed is worthwhile.  But I definitely do not think GH-1/G is a be-all, end-all combination.  For most of my listening, I still the the L is the sound I'm looking for.