[cantastic]

hi all,
just purchases Grado 325is -- love the AKG701 and think the ATHAD700s are great for the price.  But wanted to see what the Grado buzz is all about.  Thinking that I need to get an amp, both for the AKG and for the Grado to really let them sing.  I've read about Dot, and Nuforce as being good choices.  Will mainly run out of an IPHONE and a Dell computer.  Would prefer portable for outdoor listening.  Anyone care to share their impressions?
many thanks,

 

[yd2zhang]

I run my 325i's straight out of my galaxy s, sounds great the way they are (although i'm sure an amp will improve things slightly). On the other hand, I dont think a portable amp will be enough to power the 701's, you might want to get a desktop amp for that.
 
Btw most (if not all) grados don't require an amp to perform well, atleast the ones I've heard (60's, 125's ms1's and 325's).
 
Also, Grado's don't make great outdoor phones, so you might want to ditch that idea (no isolation).

 

[jupitreas]

Grado cans dont need amps since they all have an impedance of 32 ohms. The only reason why you'd want to use an amp with a Grado is to color the sound in some way so that it sounds more pleasing for you. Since your Grados have a forward treble-based sound, a lot of people recommend using tube amplifiers to add some warmth and bass body to them. Naturally, you could also achieve similar results with a decent equalizer. If you have a portable with a nice equalizer (say a Cowon device or a Rockboxed player), you really shouldn't need an amp to use with your Grados. Nearly all solid state amps that you can buy for portable use will simply not change the sound of your cans at all, since they are perfectly fine being driven by any portable player out there. If a solid state amp DOES change the sound of your Grados, that is actually an indication that it is badly designed (fe. might have high output impedance).