Yes, it cheap when you look outside and inside of the box. But consider this, the were only few manufacturers make headphones and design specific headphone amps for them back in the days. It might be a little bit pricey when you are raising the argument on the components Grado uses, but think about this, there are bunch of people who were or are trying to replicate RA1's sound using exactly the same components, and what did they get? They got nothing alike RA1 and even worse than RA1.

im pretty sure designs useing a single op amp exsisted well before grado came along. and the some chumoy amps do sound better.

This amp reflects poorly on Grado.

Ouch

I thought this amp was "end-game" worthy

@ DarKen23.... You'll find that Grado's business model is basically sell cheap crap for lots of money because there is a large percentage of people who equate high-price with high-quality.  The entire line of SR headphones are basically the same cheap plastic with slight variations and different driver dampening, but the scaling of prices is horrendous. Only at the highest price-points do you get treated to wood and/or metal, as if wood and metal are rare and precious materials. 

Nearly every single Grado headphone uses the exact same driver. Yes. This includes their $1k+ models.
 
Need I say more?

Close your eyes to the contents of the black (or here, mahogany) box, and concentrate on its sound. Does it significantly improve the sound of the RS1? If so, it's a steal at its price. If not, what amp does a better job.. please let us know. Thanks!