[pearljam5000]

what are the best headphones for rock/metal/punk?
Are Gardo RS-1, RS-2, GS-1000,325i,good for these types of music?
btw-great forum!

 

[bl4cksh33p]

c'mon, please just search or look around a bit. Yes grado's are good for rock, but it wouldn't take 5 minutes of looking around to find that out.

 

[GlendaleViper]

Welcome to Head-Fi - and sorry about your wallet... and the last post.

Based on the phones you mentioned, it seems pretty clear to me that you likely already looked into Grados and the short answer is a resounding YES, they are amazing with rock music.

My main musical tastes lie in Classic Rock, Metal and Punk and I have the SR60 and SR225. To be fair, there are many other brands that will do rock justice as well, but Grados are known for their "in your face" presentation which tends to divide people between a love and hate relationship. You'd be hard pressed to find someone around here that thinks a given Grado model is "just ok".

Words to live by: TRY before you buy (wherever possible).

Cheers!

 

[spinali]

Quote:

Words to live by: TRY before you buy (wherever possible).

x2

And read, read, read before making a purchase.

 

[SimpJee]

The best? I haven't heard a lot of the others you listed, but I can tell you the AKG K-1000 does those three genres great justice. Especially metal, love metal on the K1ks

 

[HFat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pearljam5000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif what are the best headphones for rock/metal/punk? Are Gardo RS-1, RS-2, GS-1000,325i,good for these types of music? btw-great forum!

They have a unique sound that goes well with much of these genres... it gives energy to the music and makes some intruments used in these genres sound more real IMO.
However, I don't think their brightness goes well with the noisier stuff, especially if it already has plenty of energy without the Grados. For that I prefer something like the HD25-1 which doesn't sound totally unlike a Grado but doesn't have the offensive treble.
For some of the jazzier rock and some of the darker metal, I also prefer more neutral headphones with sounstage such as DT880s. Live recordings in general sounds more real to me on such headphones as opposed to Grados.

Disclaimer: I don't have much experience with Grados and I've never heard the more expensive ones.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Your question is too generic. What's your price range? What's the application (portable with no amp, do you need isolation, going to use it at home with amp, etc.)? As suggested in the first reply, there are tons of threads and lots of information on this topic already on the boards. If you search, you will get an answer to your question more quickly than waiting for replies to this thread.

My .02 of a dollar: I don't care for the Grado house sound and find it fatiguing for rock music, never mind the comfort factor of their headphones. My old standbys for rock are the Sony MDR-V6, closed, portable, rugged, easy to drive, and with a good sound for rock/punk. I've bought (and sold) many many headphones trying to find one that would beat them; many did certain things better, but none had the all-around sound and functionality that the V6 has for me.

 

[Mr.Shadow]

As a former Grado fan, I would say the W5000 works for me much better than any Grado I tried (except HP-X and PS-1 which i haven't auditioned)
The heavy coloration of the Grado just made me want something else, it's not something I can live with for a long period of time (listening and overall).

The W5k have great PRAT, superb pinpoint imaging and great response/fast attack when needed.
They are very very detailed(micro and macro) but not harsh/sharp or bright.
The layer/instrument separation is by far the best I have heard, a really good one, it comes really handy/useful in rock/metal recordings.

The midrange is a bit forward with slight coloration, probably the slightest i have heard so far.

They do have a few issues and disadvantages: small sound, small quantity of bass/mid-bass, extremely sensitive to the source, doesn't have much gainfrom an amp like other cans, for me it's a pity as I have invested a lot of money in the amplification, though it's changeable.

I consider them to be really really good as an allarounder, they perform very well with any kind of music, mostly rock I would say.

 

[Revelatio]

Why not the Alessandro MS Pro. More neutral than the RS1 too. Does Rock and metal better than good.

 

[nothing101]

personally i dont like the idea of woody headphones. it means that you are paying a lot of money that is almost wasted on the sound. looks arent as important as sound and if i was to sacrifice one thing for a good headphone it would be how it looks.

just think, would you prefer a (much) better and more expensive driver to wood on your headphone? in terms of price for performance i think that the 225 is the last grado that is compeditive with the other brands.

sure i know that the rs1 is a great headphone with a top notch sound but its not the best bang for buck in the headphone world to say the least. headroom agrees with this and this is why they rated it someting like 3 out of 5 in terms of value.

im not trying to have a go at grado but what i am saying is that when you buy a woody grado you also have to pay for that classy look AS WELL as the sound. you could probably get a hd650 and a k701 for the same price as a rs1 and the gs1000 is even more expensive.

i just dont think its worth it myself. IMO

also if money isnt an object then maybe you would like to pay a premium for the grado sound signature in higher refinement AND looks