[daniel521]

Quote:

Be careful with the HE-500's they require a pretty substantial amp, compared to the HE-400's which are very friendly to about anything.

will a fiio e9 + HRT MusicStreamer II be enough?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

No. Not for the HE500.

And the HE400 has a fantastic soundstage. It's not HUGE, but it's natural, and the presentation is more like two speakers strapped to your head, and not headphones. Certainly better than any closed headphone. More akin to something like the DT880 (other semi-open cans).

 

[Fearless1]

Quote:

The HE400 absolutely destroys the Pro 2900... just wanna make that painfully clear. DESTROY.

+1. I can't even stand to have them on my head since my love affair with the HE-400.

 

[obobskivich]

Here's the real deal:

All Mid-range Grados have a very similar and peculiar house sound colouration since they share similar / identical drivers. And that colouration is basically peaky treble, very smooth and flat mids except an upper treble peak (causes the "shouty" feel of Grado sound), and a slight mid-bass hump followed by a huge and quick bass roll-off. 

A few examples:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR225i.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoSR325i.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/GradoRS2.pdf

With the repeating treble pattern you see here between different Grado lines, in particular, lots of people find it way too peaky for their tastes. Others like treble-heads and those who seek ultra-EQed-up treble details find it exciting.

If you tolerate or perhaps even thrive with peaky treble, and don't mind a bass response that is punchy (midbass hump) but lacks body (zero lower / subbass), and ultimately want an extremely smooth but slightly shouty (upper mids peak) mids, the midrange Grados are perfect for you, any difference between the different Grados would just be very very minute treble signature differences.

Oh sorry, I meant the relatively medium-priced (not SR60/80 cheap, nor HP1000 expensive) headphones, not the midrange of the headphones. And yes, treble is peaky (not necessarily bright though, just peaky / not smooth) and mids are smooth. Note also the THD data which correspond nicely to upper harmonics ringing, the mids are extremely low distortion while the treble is behaving wildly. Treble can be bright but not peaky (a few Beyers, and HD800, for example) and vice versa fyi.

I agree with jerg.

I would not describe the Grados as "bright" but as "radiant" ("peaky" works too) - there's a lot of treble energy and mid-bass presence, but it isn't clashy or aggressive. Nor is it tubby or muddy. It isn't super-duper bright like the MDR-SA5000 though (which are very clean sounding otherwise), it's quite unique. But if you want very forward/aggressive mids, they are probably not going to give you that. Neither will the Ultrasones.

 

[NimbleTurtle]

Hmm I've heard one guy talking about how he always preferred his HE-400 over his D2000. Never heard them though. 
 
I can't help but feel that some of these comments about an amp/dac not being good enough for some of these cans to be a bit absurd. No disrespect, since I have no experience with many amps. It just seems like it could all just be placebo.