A great thanks to zabzaf for his organization and to our host for his facility.
In looking at our Detroit skyline and then at some of the other local meets, I find that other meets show a pair of headphones (usually the HD 800) rising ominously, phoenix-like, over the skyline of the city.
So here is ours...
I had a great time. I really appreciated the fact that there were just the right number of people and headphones to really be able to talk to folks and try the headphones you wanted to. In my case that was the LCD-2, which I enjoyed two samples of.
I was amazed to find a Grado RS-1 with the wooden buttons. I compared them to my newer buttonless RS-1i to find they were more bassy while being almost as fully transparent... it makes me look forward to the buttoned RS-1s that I have coming to me as a result of a trade of my HiFiMAN HE-500.
I much enjoyed sharing my story of the six Grado headphones that I had brought. From least expensive to most expensive:
SR60: ($79 list price new) - the most amazing of the Grados for what you can get for the money. Frequency response shows them as the most bass-rich of the Prestige Series.
SR80: ($99) - not yet in my collection... the only missing member of the Prestige Series.
SR125: ($150) - while I hear them as clearer and preferable to the SR60, everyone else who made a choice gave the SR60 the edge.
SR225:($200) - this, as well as the RS1, are considered the best example of the "Grado House Sound," i.e., ultra transparent, wonderful treble and fast impulse response, light bass. These are excellent for rock guitar, female vocals, and piano; not so great for hip hop and complicated symphonic music. Mine had after-market leather "J-Money" headband;
SR325: ($300) - If the SR225 is the exemplar of Grado sound, this is the caricature of Grado sound, as it exaggerates the transparency, treble, and speed, and can cause listener fatigue. But they are perhaps the most fun to hear!
PS500: ($600) - I see the PS500 as Grado's most "polite" headphone (at least of those that I have), seeking to tune down the brightness, increase the bass, and better cover some of the types of music that the other Grados neglect.
RS1i: ($700) - The most "refined" of the collection, keeping the brightness and house sound of the SR225 (and considered by some as an exemplar, like the SR225, of the "Grado House Sound"), but doing this while somewhat rounding the sharp edges of the others and having better bass response. Was at one time the top-fo-the-line headphone of Grado.
I also had heard that the Sennheiser HDVD800 DAC/amplifier, while generally agreed to be excellent for the Sennheiser HD 800 headphone, was not too capable of driving lower impedance Grados. Grados have 32 ohm impedance; the Sennheiser HD 800 has an impedance of around 300 ohms, though at some frequencies, it is as high as 600 ohms. The HDVD 800 has an output impedance, chosen by Sennheiser tests with listeners, as 43 ohms.
However, an objective listener declared that the HDVD 800 was indeed a better amp for the Grado RS1i than the Sony PHA-1 portable DAC/amp, with much lower impedance. So now I can use my HDVD800 on my Grados in confidence!
