UPS came by today...
Mar 23, 2002 at 4:28 PM Post #31 of 65
JMT=HP-1's Rick=EMP.......hmmmmm,

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Mar 23, 2002 at 6:41 PM Post #34 of 65
Hirsch. Where do you live again?
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You now own two things I'm dying to hear -- the Grado and the microZOTL.

The one thing that truly peevs me about this hobby is that it's damned near impossible to audition stuff without buying or knowing someone who is buying. I appreciate Headroom's effort to address that issue, at least relative to HeadFi.
 
Mar 23, 2002 at 7:36 PM Post #35 of 65
Quote:

Nice job on the amp. If you ever want a side job building amp boxes, you could make a killing on this crowd. In the pics, your HP-1 appear to have circumaural pads? Is that correct or is it just my perspective that's off?


Thanx. Finishing isn't so hard. The tough part is placing and drilling all the holes. You should see my drill press/mill..

My cans have the original pads (flat - donut - whatever they're called this week) the ones with a hole in the center. I put a pair of bowl pads off my 325's on them and it stripped the musicality right out of em!

Now, what's the story with the cable? You bought your HP-1's and then sent them back to Grado for this upgrade? Anyone know what this cost? How 'bout paperwork? Anyone have any they could scan or copy for me?

Bueller?

ok,
erix
 
Mar 23, 2002 at 9:46 PM Post #36 of 65
Nice acquisition. My HP1s came with the Reference Cable. They were the last of the production run. Joe Grado talked me into them. Since the RS1 was about to go into production, he said it was my last chance to get a pair.
 
Mar 23, 2002 at 9:48 PM Post #37 of 65
If someone has a set of the flat pads they could part with, please PM or e-mail me.

I'm going to leave the cable alone, until I hear the Cardas Sennheiser cable with the HD-600's. If the Cardas cable is good, it would be simplicity itself to remove the Grado cable, and hook in the Cardas. Simplest is to bypass the polarity switch, and turn the HP-1 into an HP-2, but wiring the switch is easy if I've got the wire. Even if I don't, hooking into the polarity switch would only leave a short run of Grado cable hooking the switch to the driver.
Best would be to get a bare-ended Cardas cable, without Sennheiser connectors, and some extra wire for the polarity switch. It all depends on how good the Cardas cable really is...we should know soon enough. Heck, if I get the Cardas cable, I could use it with the Senns and hardwire the Clou into the Grado's...
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These heaphones are fantastic as is. However, the thought of the Cardas cable with them has me really intrigued...

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly
Hirsch. Where do you live again?
smily_headphones1.gif

You now own two things I'm dying to hear -- the Grado and the microZOTL.


Kelly,
I'm in the DC area. You also want to hear the SHA-1 with Amperex PQ tubes. Trust me
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Mar 24, 2002 at 7:24 AM Post #38 of 65
Kelly, judging from your recent comments on the Stax vs 2002 comparison, I suggest you try to get some HP-1000s to hear as a matter of urgency. These are the most uncoloured, natural, neutral headphones I've heard, along with being the fastest, most dynamic headphones I've encountered. Their neutrality does not make them sound analytical - on the contrary, their ability to reproduce tonal colour and subtle timbral and textual details gives music a greater sense of tonal beauty than I have ever heard before from any headphone. My experience with the HP-1000 was the exact opposite of my experience with the 2002: with the latter, from the first note I could hear something that sounded, for me, wrong; but from the first note, the HP-1000 amazed with both accuracy and beauty.

Having lived with the HP-1000s for a few weeks now, I will soon be posting some further thoughts, along with a comparison with the Sennheiser 600s and an explanation of why these are now my reference headphones.

Ross
 
Mar 24, 2002 at 2:23 PM Post #39 of 65
Ross

To tell ya the truth, when you sold them a few hours after you bought them screaming "colored!" I remember blowing a raspberry and saying something along the lines of "what the **** ever" Of course, I didn't know you and didn't know anything about you at the time. So for that, you've earned a few points of respect in my book and I'm obliged to listen next time. So, the next time is now and you're saying the HP-1000 is everything I love about the W2002 without the flaws?

There are a couple of problems with the HP-1000. One is that anytime they go on sale somewhere, about twenty headfiers and headwizers jump on (as we say in the South) like stink on ****. So if I bought them, it'd be at an inflated price meaning that if I sold them later, the odds of taking a loss are greater. In lieu of having someone nearby who owns a pair and is kind enough to allow an audition, that's probably the only option.

And then I'd be eating into my "lets get some Stax" fund. Have you heard the Stax systems? Do you like the Grado HP-1000 more than the Stax? If so, that'd be a comparrison I'd be dying to read details of.

And then if I did finally get them, there's the issue of me finding Grado incredibly uncomfortable.

And um, can anyone tell me what the difference between the HP-1, 2 and 3 are? Release dates, MSRPs, production runs, materials, sonic differences, etc.? Is there a fan page somewhere?

Thanks for reading my W2002 update, Ross. It's really nice to know someone did and I'm sorry for doubting you the first time around.
 
Mar 24, 2002 at 3:51 PM Post #40 of 65
Quote:

you like the Grado HP-1000 more than the Stax?


You haven't seen my review of the Grado HP-2 vs. Stax Lambda Pro, have you?
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To add to that, I can also say that the HP-2 is the closest thing to electrostatic detail I've heard in a dynamic headphone.

I remember being able to tell because the Stax has this interesting ability to see "layers" in the recording. Even though the soundstage is in your head, you can hear a lot of depth. The HP-2 has that same ability to reproduce ambience and depth.

However, to tell you the truth, the HP-2's tonal balance didn't suit me. In retrospect I can say that it was simultaneously too warm and too revealing, like the worst of both worlds. You might like that, though, I don't know. Or perhaps I just didn't listen to it long enough to get to like it. Also possible.
 
Mar 24, 2002 at 4:00 PM Post #41 of 65
Quote:

Originally posted by kelly
And um, can anyone tell me what the difference between the HP-1, 2 and 3 are? Release dates, MSRPs, production runs, materials, sonic differences, etc.? Is there a fan page somewhere?


HP-1 has a polarity switch (MSRP $595)
HP-2 identical to HP-1 without polarity switch (MSRP $495)
HP-3 identical to above but with looser tolerances in driver matching (MSRP $395)

The HP-1 and HP-2 may sound better than the HP-3 due to closer attention paid to the drivers.

The main sonic difference is the headphone cable used. Grado developed a reference cable that appeared in later models, and reportedly improves the sound. The reference cable can appear in any model, so the only way to know is to check beforehand. I have no idea how much of a difference this cable makes.
 
Mar 24, 2002 at 4:29 PM Post #45 of 65
Please keep in mind that shivohum used Stax gear from around 1989 comparision. Stax has improved their products significantly since then. If he feels the old Stax gear he owns is good, the new Stax series should be awesome in comparision, I guess
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TEAM STAX
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