[dag655321]

I was able to listen to nearly every pair or Grados at the Boston meet last weekend, and here is what I thought.

325i: Very detailed, solid bass, but a little too tinny. Not to sound corny, but they sounded too "metallic" for my tastes. I am told they work very well with more laid back music, but they are a little too bright for rock.

RS-1: Very rich and warm. A wonderfull overall tonal balance, and not as hasrh as the 325i. Unfortunately the bowl pads bring out the best sound, but the worst comfort. If you have the cash and like Grado sound, they are awesome.

RS-2: Believe it or not, they were my favorite of the bunch. They also had a wonderful tone, but were not quite as deep as the RS-1s. Probably because of the slightly smaller driver cup. They really warmed up with a pair of reverse modded HD-414 pads. If a good used pair comes up, you better grab them before I find out.

SR-60 (mine): Well let's put it this way...I just order a amp that cost nearly 10 times the price of the SR-60 to drive them. I was astounded at how good they could sound with an awesome amp. Every headphone has imperfections, but the imperfections and tonal balance (or lack thereof) of the SR-60 matches my ears and my music better than anything less than the RS-2.

 

[jpr703]

Check out the RS-1s if you can afford them. They're worth every penny. If they're not in your budget, I'd recommend the 225 as the next stop.

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dag655321 I RS-1: Very rich and warm. A wonderfull overall tonal balance, and not as hasrh as the 325i. Unfortunately the bowl pads bring out the best sound, but the worst comfort.

I think that's pretty much the only thing prohibiting me from leaping head-and-feet into Grado fanboyism. My SR60's and MINT, straight out of my iRiver, sound incredible.

Now, i won't pretend i've much experience with high-end headphones. I demo'ed a pair of HD600's for about an hour out of a Denon cdp at a hifi store, but that's about it. The soundstage and liquid smoothness were indeed impressive, and i could easily see how, once one grew accustomed to this presentation, they could fall in love with it. Someone who didn't listen to alot of livelier music anyway.

But my ears are now, for good or ill, Grado-equalised. I've discovered i can live without a good deal of soundstage, so long as i have that forward, musical quality and tonal balance across the spectrum. I have found, though, the one truly lamentable flaw of the SR60 to be its lack of detail. This isn't so apparent out of my iRiver, but even switching over to my Audigy (still a cruddy source, yet more detailed) the masking effect of the SR60 begins to reveal itself. With those observations in mind i'm buying an SA5000 paired with a warm cdp, copper IC's and a tube-amp, which will provide excellent detail, speed, and hopefully balance out the "leanness" of the SA5K with the inherent warmth of the source side.

Why didn't i just opt for RS-1's with an RA-1? One reason, really, and one alone - comfort. As much as i love the SR60's, even with the bent headband, and comfies, and a month of growing accustomed to them, they still begin to irritate after the first few hours. This IMO is the major flaw of the Grado line, the fact that they at once bless you and curse you with lively, magical music, and ever-growing discomfort preventing you from enjoying said music. The C-pads seem to be one option to overcome this, but from what i've read they tend to throw a bit of a veil over the Grado sound, making them more "Senn-like", for want of a better term, which is defeating the purpose IMO.

Jeez, this post went waaaaaay OT.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dag655321 I was able to listen to nearly every pair or Grados at the Boston meet last weekend, and here is what I thought. 325i: Very detailed, solid bass, but a little too tinny. Not to sound corny, but they sounded too "metallic" for my tastes. I am told they work very well with more laid back music, but they are a little too bright for rock.

what pads did you use on the 325i's? I'm thinking of grabbing those or the regular 325's and I would definitely be putting flats on them to tame the highs.

 

[l_simon_l]

I recently upgraded from the MS1 to the RS1. First I had thought about buying the MS2, but decided the upgraditis would hit me sooner or later, so I might just as well get the RS-1 right away. Although I really need a better source to get the most of these cans (I only have access to my dad's 10 year old sony CD-player for the summer), I feel these are excellent cans and a nice upgrade.
I use modded sennhesier pads and the sound is great. Deep low bass and a warm intimate sound, I just get sucked into the music with these

I would reccomend a used RS-1 (I payed 450usd), but on the other hand I've never heard the SR-325, SR-225 or the MS2.

 

[J-Pak]

Is there any reason I would look at Grado's own RA-1 versus the G-Lite? What I like about the G-Lite is that it has 2 headphone jacks, and I'm sure in the future I'd be getting something to complement whatever I get now

 

[overlunge]

Hi J-Pak,

I used to own the RS-1/RA-1 (batteries) model, although they seemed to have great synergy between them and some other current Grado models, when I used RA-1 with HD650, it didn't work very well, it made the HD650 a bit more 'relaxed' than usual...

So Gilmore Lite might be a better 'universal solution', so to speak.

Overlunge

 

[J-Pak]

Bump, keeping my eyes open in the FS/FT forums, this upgrade can happen very soon. Like to hear more about RS2 vs RS1

 

[Cypher]

i will be getting the 325i when the time comes..

 

[Zanth]

Headroom is very biased towards the HD650's, so their rating of value will be skewed in that direction. We all have our opinions. Given the high price tag, in comparison to the lower one of the HD650's, if they feel the 650's are better, then of course the RS-1's would receive the lower value rating. Of course, if one loves the RS-1 sound, then the retail value is still worth it.

If you are interested in the RS-2's, I would completley hold out for a used pair of RS-1's. Seriously don't even bother with anything else. The RS-1's are the top of the heap and they sound great. True they can do well enough without an amp, but with one of course, things are much much much MUCH better. The RA-1 is undeniably a great amp with them, the Gilmore Lite is a great match as well. Some, like Hirsch, actually prefer the RA-1 with Senns than the Grados, so YMMV.

The Lite may very well be more versatile overall in the end.