jlaseter
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2011
- Posts
- 101
- Likes
- 186
Those GH2 are gorgeous!
I'm in no rush for a PS2000e, especially at a higher price point than the PS1Ke. I just made a crazy purchase, and gotta give myself and the wife some time to build up a nice lil' nest-egg (head-egg?) for anything pricier.
I know I don't post very often, so probably most of you guys don't know me, but I've been lurking around Head-Fi for around 6 years now. All that time, I've been steadily climbing the Grado ladder, with a little diversion here or there along the way.
It all started when my brother introduced me to the SR-60i, and I was floored by the performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. These headphones put me in the middle or the orchestra. I had to have a pair, and soon I had some SR-80i's to call my own. Soon, I was asking myself the question -- how can there be Grado's (or anything, for that matter) better than the SR-80i when they sounded so dang good already??
I tried to answer that question with my first upgrade, a pair of SR-325is, at a time when $300 seemed like a crazy amount to spend on headphones. How did they sound? Well...I couldn't tell any difference. That's pretty disheartening, let me tell ya! Near-frantically, I started listening to music in earnest at that time; where before I'd be content to sit back and enjoy a good chord progression or vocal harmony on whatever cans or earbuds I had at hand, I'd now find myself listening for more detail, soundstage, bass presence, and even performing torture-tests with low-bitrate mp3s. I often found myself going to bed with these aluminum cylinders on my ears.
After a week or so, it finally clicked -- my new headphones DID sound similar to the previous pair, but more detail was there, along with a bit more noticeable bass extension and instrument separation. I was also noticing compression artifacts in 96kbps mp3's that had never been quite apparent to me before. On the right recordings, though, the brightness -- the SPARKLE -- of those headphones was to die for. I miss 'em, but they're in good hands with the brother that introduced me to Grado.
Fast forward a few months to me having a severe money management problem -- I found myself with several credit cards, but the prospect of paying rent at my apartment was getting tricky. Having a roommate, you can't really slouch on that, right? So, I talked myself into a credit-funded purchase of an RS2i, which at the time was holding its value pretty well. I could then either turn them around for rent money, or keep them around for the next month I thought I was going to come up short.
Well, fortune smiled on me! After subsisting on crackers for a couple weeks, I didn't need to let go of my piggy bank...er, my RS2i's. A couple of months later, I was back in the black, and I couldn't resist tearing into the package (carefully) and trying them out. That's been about 6 years ago now, and they've been my daily drivers nearly all that time. Lightweight, refined, and well-suited to just about anything I threw at them. All of the ways I tried to branch out (Audio Technica, AKG, Sony, Sennheiser) just didn't have the rewarding sound of Grado headphones.
Fast fast forward (for those that had fancy VCRs) a few years, and I've gotten a job in my field, I'm paying down debt, getting married to the lady of my dreams, and can even sock away a little extra cash per check. Nearly every day I was soaking up any impressions of Grado headphones I could find, looking for that perfect acquisition -- and "end-game headphone". Where I live, it's a 5.5 hour drive to anywhere that even carries the Prestige Series, which is an awful shame. Every road trip and flight out of town, I was always on the lookout for stores that carried the RS1, GS1000, or PS1000.
Finally, just a month before my wedding, I had a bachelor party in Vegas. Did I...reenact The Hangover? engage in debauchery? gamble all my money away? NOPE! Went to the Grado dealer! Got to sit for over an hour and sample the RS1i, GS1000i, and PS1000 (also got to compare to the HD800). The PS1000 didn't impress. Not at first, at least. There was a big soundstage compared to what I was used to, but I really couldn't hear any way a particular frequency stood out. Then I slipped on the RS1i and it totally hit me -- every bit of the PS1000 range just sounded RIGHT. I switched back. Treble -- bright, yes, but detailed enough to prevent any harshness. Mids -- maybe a bit recessed in a certain range, but then again I was comparing to the RS1i -- the PS1k didn't sound like the vocalist was shy or anything, so again, no complaints. Bass extension was great, but I wasn't seeing enough emphasis to make them anywhere near "basshead" headphones per se. What about those graphs I'd seen? The jokes about mountain ranges?
It just struck me that every note from every instrument sounded the way that I'd expect that instrument to sound. All I wanted more of, and I mean ALL I could ever ask for, would be even better localization of instruments, which was already pretty fantastic with these.
After so long looking and listening, 3 weeks ago, I pulled the trigger on the PS1000e. Hoooo boy!
I'm in no rush for a PS2000e, especially at a higher price point than the PS1Ke. I just made a crazy purchase, and gotta give myself and the wife some time to build up a nice lil' nest-egg (head-egg?) for anything pricier.
I know I don't post very often, so probably most of you guys don't know me, but I've been lurking around Head-Fi for around 6 years now. All that time, I've been steadily climbing the Grado ladder, with a little diversion here or there along the way.
It all started when my brother introduced me to the SR-60i, and I was floored by the performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. These headphones put me in the middle or the orchestra. I had to have a pair, and soon I had some SR-80i's to call my own. Soon, I was asking myself the question -- how can there be Grado's (or anything, for that matter) better than the SR-80i when they sounded so dang good already??
I tried to answer that question with my first upgrade, a pair of SR-325is, at a time when $300 seemed like a crazy amount to spend on headphones. How did they sound? Well...I couldn't tell any difference. That's pretty disheartening, let me tell ya! Near-frantically, I started listening to music in earnest at that time; where before I'd be content to sit back and enjoy a good chord progression or vocal harmony on whatever cans or earbuds I had at hand, I'd now find myself listening for more detail, soundstage, bass presence, and even performing torture-tests with low-bitrate mp3s. I often found myself going to bed with these aluminum cylinders on my ears.
After a week or so, it finally clicked -- my new headphones DID sound similar to the previous pair, but more detail was there, along with a bit more noticeable bass extension and instrument separation. I was also noticing compression artifacts in 96kbps mp3's that had never been quite apparent to me before. On the right recordings, though, the brightness -- the SPARKLE -- of those headphones was to die for. I miss 'em, but they're in good hands with the brother that introduced me to Grado.
Fast forward a few months to me having a severe money management problem -- I found myself with several credit cards, but the prospect of paying rent at my apartment was getting tricky. Having a roommate, you can't really slouch on that, right? So, I talked myself into a credit-funded purchase of an RS2i, which at the time was holding its value pretty well. I could then either turn them around for rent money, or keep them around for the next month I thought I was going to come up short.
Well, fortune smiled on me! After subsisting on crackers for a couple weeks, I didn't need to let go of my piggy bank...er, my RS2i's. A couple of months later, I was back in the black, and I couldn't resist tearing into the package (carefully) and trying them out. That's been about 6 years ago now, and they've been my daily drivers nearly all that time. Lightweight, refined, and well-suited to just about anything I threw at them. All of the ways I tried to branch out (Audio Technica, AKG, Sony, Sennheiser) just didn't have the rewarding sound of Grado headphones.
Fast fast forward (for those that had fancy VCRs) a few years, and I've gotten a job in my field, I'm paying down debt, getting married to the lady of my dreams, and can even sock away a little extra cash per check. Nearly every day I was soaking up any impressions of Grado headphones I could find, looking for that perfect acquisition -- and "end-game headphone". Where I live, it's a 5.5 hour drive to anywhere that even carries the Prestige Series, which is an awful shame. Every road trip and flight out of town, I was always on the lookout for stores that carried the RS1, GS1000, or PS1000.
Finally, just a month before my wedding, I had a bachelor party in Vegas. Did I...reenact The Hangover? engage in debauchery? gamble all my money away? NOPE! Went to the Grado dealer! Got to sit for over an hour and sample the RS1i, GS1000i, and PS1000 (also got to compare to the HD800). The PS1000 didn't impress. Not at first, at least. There was a big soundstage compared to what I was used to, but I really couldn't hear any way a particular frequency stood out. Then I slipped on the RS1i and it totally hit me -- every bit of the PS1000 range just sounded RIGHT. I switched back. Treble -- bright, yes, but detailed enough to prevent any harshness. Mids -- maybe a bit recessed in a certain range, but then again I was comparing to the RS1i -- the PS1k didn't sound like the vocalist was shy or anything, so again, no complaints. Bass extension was great, but I wasn't seeing enough emphasis to make them anywhere near "basshead" headphones per se. What about those graphs I'd seen? The jokes about mountain ranges?
It just struck me that every note from every instrument sounded the way that I'd expect that instrument to sound. All I wanted more of, and I mean ALL I could ever ask for, would be even better localization of instruments, which was already pretty fantastic with these.
After so long looking and listening, 3 weeks ago, I pulled the trigger on the PS1000e. Hoooo boy!
