I am procrastinating now to avoid some work I need to get done so I thought I might write down some thoughts/comparisons for this thread as it seems a bit bare.
As I have been working at the computer most of the weekend I have spent a good amount of time listening to what amounts to a small Grado collection out of my new Ultra Micro stack I won at CanJam.
I have the Ultra Micro DAC running straight out of the Mac via Optical and I assume it is upsampling all of my iTunes Lossless files as there seems to be no way of turning it off. The crossfeed on the amp was engaged.
My Grado collection consists of a couple pairs of HP-2s, a vintage SR-60, my first headphone ever from about 1995, and now the HF-2s. My listening consists primarily of Jazz, Folk, Classic Rock and a bit of Classical.
I have switched back and forth between flats and bowls for the HF-2s and I believe I will stick with bowls as I am not one to get excited about copious amounts of bass and with flats the HF-2s can get a bit bassy. The bass is typically well controlled but not nearly as tight as that presented by the HP-2s with flats.
When comparing the HF-2 and HP-2s the difference are fairly obvious. While the HF-2 is certainly not as tilted up as I remember my old RS-1s being they are certainly much brighter than the HP-2s. Actually pick up quite a bit of extra detail with the HF-2s that is missed with the HP-2. The song "Days is Almost Gone" from the new Derek Trucks Band album has quite a bit of distortion in the recording that is very obvious with the HF-2s and much less so with the HP-2s. I suppose the HF-2 is still firmly planted in the John Grado side of the family but is much closer to the old Jo stuff than anything else I have heard from modern Grado.
As far as genres go I actually like Jazz through the HF-2s quite a bit, especially the closely miked audiophile stuff. While the HP-2 captures the venue and instruments better, I have to give the micro detail retrieval to the HF-2s. Neither would be a bad choice for Jazz but if I wanted to be wowed I would actually go for the HF-2s as they do many of the audiophile things very well when listening to small ensembles. For a more realistic presentation I would choose the HP-2s as they just seem to get the music right and get out of the way.
Stuff like Alison Krauss, etc. is once again very good on the HF-2s. Guitars are wonderful as are female voices. Once again the HP-2s give the instruments and vocalists a bit more body and realism but the micro details might actually be a bit less.
When switching to rock I cued up a group called Cross Canadian Ragweed and some SRV Little Wing. As I have never been to a meet where I did not hear Little Wing once I will start with this. Preference between these two will come down to whether you are a leading edge person or a tone person. The HF-2 hits the leading edges of the notes with far greater authority than the HP-2 but the tone of the guitar and the decay is handled much better by the HP-2s. The kick drum that comes in is also much more realistic from the HP-2s but more dramatic with the HF-2s.
The ragweed cover of Neil Young's Needle... is one where the guitarist seems to be angry at the strings in the opening notes and this sounds natural with the HF-2s but is not as sharp with the HP-2s. This is a live recording and it actually does well in providing spacial cues of the bar this was recorded in. The HF-2s actually have better soundstage than I remember any other Grado having when restricted to small venues/ensembles. The HF-2s did very well at portraying the hole in the wall at which this album was recorded.
For classical I used a Royal Scottish recording of Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War. I like my classical a bit angry/dynamic. The HP-2s handled rather complicated passages at loud volumes a bit better than the HF-2s. It also showed better delineation of bass notes from some of the tympani. The hall reverberation also seemed a bit more realistic with the HP-2s but better on the HF-2s than I would have imagined based on my previous use of modern Grados. The RS-1s always seemed to be off when listening to large ensembles in large halls to me.
The HP-2s while dramatically heavier, are more comfortable to me as the weight is distributed across the stuff head band while the HF-2s seems to put a lot of the weight right on my ears. Flats are much more comfortable on the HF-2s but I think they are inferior to bowls in my pair. Not bad but after a few hours I could certainly feel it with the HF-2s.
I started out comparing these with the SR-60s but it became immediately obvious that while holding sentimental value, these 60s have no business even being compared to either of the other headphones. Night and day difference.
