Hi - enjoying this exchange. I've owned the GS1000, 2000e, and now the 3000e; I just sold the PS2000e pair. First, the 3000 is the most satisfying speaker of any kind I've heard. Using Schiit Gungnir Multibit and Mjolnir2 with both current production Gold Lion tubes, stock Schiit tubes, Schiit LISST solid state "fake tubes", and some good NOS. It is "rich", as Grado says, but rich as in harmonically fleshed-out, not "warm" in the euphonic sense. They are spookily transparent, with a degree of palpable instrumental texture I find intoxicating. It significantly develops on the considerable strengths of the GS2000e, and, back to back with the fantastically balanced and revealing PS2000e, the GS3000e was clearly a better transducer of the the qualities of a musical event, applying the word Rich Grado used, "organic" - not meaningfully less detailed, as they are bizarrely revealing, but definitely more a music-lovers headphone as compared with cans for anlytical listening. The latter isn't quite fair, as the PS2000e doesn't in the least bit lack musicality; it just sounds as though built for precision of information, while the GS3000e is meant to convey a musical experience. That's the best I can do.
If anything, there is more of a sense of presence (not the "presence" frequency range, but the awareness of Being There) to the GS3000e over the PS2000e. Matter of taste, I suppose, but that unfettered, textural, immersive quality of the 3000 is far more satisfying for me than what the metal-clad one offers. I'm literally losing sleep and at risk of losing family time, for "one more song" moments. The GS2000e are clearly the excellent little brother of the 3000e, lacking nothing in absolute terms, but the price difference and the novelty of the 3000e wood and driver tuning account largely for the expected differences. Regarding balanced signal on any of the top end Grados: with the right electronics, it is not subtle - not even close. I did balanced for the first time with the PS2000e, then the GS3000e, and on both the top-end cans, with the Schiit electronics, the spatial qualities of the music, not to mention the dynamic envelope and handling of massed and contrasting timbres, were dramatically more focused and convincing with the 4-pin XLR.