[jay2406]

In all honesty the GW100 is probably smoother than all of them because of the DSP applied when it is wireless. However you could try PS500e or RS1e with S pads.

Yeah the the gw100 is easily the smoothest I have heard from Grado.

In all honesty the GW100 is probably smoother than all of them because of the DSP applied when it is wireless. However you could try PS500e or RS1e with S pads.

Yeah the GW100 is very smooth. I was looking for a Grado with a little more mid push and more clarity/treble just not to RS2e levels.

 

[jay2406]

It's gonna depend on your amp pairing.

Johan paired the Hemp with Liquid Spark and reports it's a very smooth, excellent pairing.

That’s good news. I’ve got the Feliks Euforia but I was thinking of selling it as I actually prefer the sound from my Empyreans through my Mac mini 2018. If it sounds good via the Grado it would give me a reason to keep it.

 

[johanchandy]

My pad-rolling report on the Hemp:

Sennheiser 414 ‘Yellow’ pads (with Quarter mod)
The Sennheiser pads are a clear comfort upgrade over the Stock F-Cush pads and are also closest to them in terms of overall signature. While they also have an exposed driver thanks to the ‘Quarter mod’, the thicker pads move the driver further away from the ear, and as a result, offer a slightly drier tone with less immediacy. The 414 pads also cause upper mids to dip slightly, along with a lowering in mid-bass impact.


S-Cush ‘flat pads’
The stock pads on the entry-level ‘Prestige’ Series Grado model give a noticeable improvement in smoothness on The Hemp Headphone, at the expense of treble clarity and overall energy. While they’re far more tolerable in terms of comfort, they do reduce the fun-factor of The Hemp Headphone.


L-Cush ‘bowl pads’
The addition of the OEM Grado ‘bowl’ pads makes for an interesting change. The Hemp Headphone becomes more incisive, with a snappier treble response and a leaner, more spacious overall feel. While this does tame their signature warmth, it might be worth keeping a pair of these pads on-hand to complement the stock pads and change things up from time to time.

G-Cush
These sound awful on The Hemp Headphone. They leave a veritable canyon in the mid-range, voices become nasally and distant, and treble is etched and sharp. Avoid.

Beautiful-audio leather/merino hybrid pads
These terrific-looking aftermarket pads from Beautiful Audio fall somewhere between the stock F-Cush pads and the L-Cush in terms of signature, and also happen to be the most comfortable pick of the bunch. They add a lower treble boost, plus add a bit of additional width and air The Hemp Headphones sound stage. Their overall mid-bass impact is reduced, but it does become tightened-up in the process. While these look great and sound pretty decent too on The Hemp Headphone, they are an expensive aftermarket proposition and do tend to remove much that makes them unique-sounding in the process.

You have been my inspiration to want to wrap my hemp headband with hemp cord! I have some rolls on the way!

 

[ParaLoganGrado]

I'm glad that more people are excited about the GW100 -- this was my first foray into Grado (and open backs). After some initial shock at 1)how open the sound is with an amazing sense of direction and imaging, and 2)a very "in your face, punchy" midrange -- I decided I needed to try out a higher end model. I'll admit, I do EQ out a tiny bit of the mid-bass hump (250-500Hz) so I can get some more treble details, but "warm" and smooth are definitely a great way to describe them. I actually prefer running them off the 3.5 jack and find this allows them to shine even more. And *GASP* this means it has a DETACHABLE CABLE! Haha.

 

[Shane D]

That’s good news. I’ve got the Feliks Euforia but I was thinking of selling it as I actually prefer the sound from my Empyreans through my Mac mini 2018. If it sounds good via the Grado it would give me a reason to keep it.

Does the Euphoria have a low impedance option? I searched for a low impedance tube amp for my Grado's and it has been really nice. Bob 55 has a very nice Woo amp with high and low impedance options.

 

[ksorota]

As i like this puppy so much I decided to treat her nice and installed some mods:

1. shipibo aluminium rods & gimbals;
2. turbulent labs leather headband.

for comparison sake... here is the coffee turbulent labs strap. Trying to decide on black or silver shipibo frame still!

The strap has quite a bit more padding although not sure it’s actually necessary. Looks great and feels premium!

 

[eeagle]

Btw Myrkur's album Folkesange is giving me goosebumps listening with the Hemp spark combo, her voice sounds so real and the violins and cellos are rendered so beautifully.

Thanks for this recommendation; it's available in UltraHD on Amazon's MusicHD service. and of course YouTube
Myrkur's album Folkesange

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

In mid-July I bought the GS3000e & it’s been my “go to” headphone pretty much ever since. It’s that good. A couple of weeks ago while listening to music a thought came to me : a lot of the time people generally don’t hesitate when it comes time to complain or criticize & I include myself here. But, complementing, thanking, rejoicing in someone’s accomplishments, success, etc. doesn’t always come to mind as quickly. So, I decided to send a quick/ brief email to Grado Audio to let them know how much I enjoy the G3Ke. Part of me felt silly doing this & rationalized this thought/ feeling with “well, you paid for the product after all”, why would they care either way. Instead I listened to my gut & felt that, no matter who or how much money they may have (I’m sure Grado Audio isn’t poor), people appreciate being recognized when they accomplish something. I’m not including my email, which was initially addressed to the Grado Audio staff. They were quite happy/ appreciative & they replied they were forwarding the email to John Grado. I’m posting both replies (copy & paste) from the staff followed by John Grado’s :




Hi Robert,

Thank you taking the time to let us know how much you’re enjoying the GS3000e. We’re very proud of what we accomplished with this model and it’s nice to hear that it brings musical happiness to listeners.

It’s been 67 years since Grado first started doing business and I’m the old man around here now but my 2 sons are here and we’re looking forward to many more years of offering products for musical pleasure.

We live by word of mouth advertising so please let yours friends now about us. Thanks.

Be safe and stay healthy.

Kind regards,

John Grado

Awesome . I love my GS3000e's too

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Thanks so much for the response. Would you say that Grados sound like electrostatics or maybe Audiotechnicas or the older Beyers? Specifically I am interested in the PS series.

Nothing like the Stax 009's nor the Beyer T5P's at least my GS3000e's don't !

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

I had the HD600 for about 4 years ago. Was fully unimpressed and sold it a few months after buying it. Boring, boring, b-o-r-i-n-g is the best way I could describe it. I haven't heard the SR60 but the Hemp is far, far, far better than the HD600 was for music listening purposes.

I love Sennheiser's HD800s/HD820 series though for their incredible soundstage (and the HD700 for the same reason in a more compact form), it would take a mighty headphone to unseat them.

So at least for me with the currently in-production models I am with Grado < $1500 and Sennheiser > $1500. I haven't heard a GS3000 yet, though, but I have no real opportunity to do so currently; but I don't think it would win anyway because soundstage is king for me, though you never know.

I owned the HD800 and HD800S and still own the GS3000e. The GS3000e has excellent soundstage that is realistic. The HD800 and HD800S have unrealistic / artificial soundstage and terrible highs and treble and poor bass. The GS3000e has great treble and great bass. I had the HD800 for about a year quite a few years back and used it about 10 times. The HD800S I bought a pair early this year, listened to it a couple of times and then sold them. The GS3000e's took over (from my Beyer T5P's) as my go too every day headphone. Since I have had the GS3000e's for the last few months I have used them every day and more times than any other headphone I have owned. And this is coming from a person who would normally and prefer to listen to speaker systems !.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

What is the smoothest sounding Grado out of GH2, Hemp and ps500e for rock and metal?

I have had the RS2e and gs2000e previously but the treble was just to much for me. I currently have the GW100 and Empyrean.

my GS3000e's are very good with rock. Plenty of clear lifelike treble but not harsh or sibilant.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Even though the HD6xx is an old design, it still is one of the most natural sounding in terms of midrange timbre. I've never heard the GS2Ke but have owned the GS3ke and agree that the mids really suffer in comparison. The Hemp on the other hand, brings the mids nicely forward with very natural tone quality.

I have never found the GS3000e's to have poor mids. In fact it's one of their high points (clear and very detailed and upfront) along with vocals especially with female singers

 

[ruinedx]

I owned the HD800 and HD800S and still own the GS3000e. The GS3000e has excellent soundstage that is realistic. The HD800 and HD800S have unrealistic / artificial soundstage and terrible highs and treble and poor bass. The GS3000e has great treble and great bass. I had the HD800 for about a year quite a few years back and used it about 10 times. The HD800S I bought a pair early this year, listened to it a couple of times and then sold them. The GS3000e's took over (from my Beyer T5P's) as my go too every day headphone. Since I have had the GS3000e's for the last few months I have used them every day and more times than any other headphone I have owned. And this is coming from a person who would normally and prefer to listen to speaker systems !.

That is very good info to have!

I have bought the below in past 5yr - bolded is what I still own:
GSP500
GSP600
HD25
HD600
HD700
HD800
HD820
Hemp
Momentum 2.0 Wired Over Ear

I will say that the HD800 DOES have a huge soundstage that is sometimes too huge, but it is really amazing to have at other times.

I wouldn't be surprised if the GS3000e soundstage was somewhat like the HD820's from your description. The HD820 is not as big as the HD800 but still gets pretty big at times; there is more variation to its bigness than HD800 which is pretty large at all times. It also has a ton more bass than the HD800.

The treble/bass matching I cracked the gear code with the HD8xx. Musical Fidelity MX-DAC dac + Liquid Platinum amp is perfect synergy w/ HD8xx. This is kind of why I was leaning towards HD800S - I already have the HD820 which has a moderately large but not crazy large soundstage. But it would be nice to have crazy large as an alternative. That being said, the HD820 will remain my primary headphone due to noise pollution in my environment (loud family members!); so the question is do I get a variation of it for the late night headphone in the same family but different (HD800S) or something totally different (GS3000e)? I am not sure! But with my current gear none of my headphones come close to touching the listening pleasure I get with HD820.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

That is very good info to have!

I have bought the below in past 5yr - bolded is what I still own:
GSP500
GSP600
HD25
HD600
HD700
HD800
HD820
Hemp
Momentum 2.0 Wired Over Ear

I will say that the HD800 DOES have a huge soundstage that is sometimes too huge, but it is really amazing to have at other times.

I wouldn't be surprised if the GS3000e soundstage was somewhat like the HD820's from your description. The HD820 is not as big as the HD800 but still gets pretty big at times; there is more variation to its bigness than HD800 which is pretty large at all times. It also has a ton more bass than the HD800.

The treble/bass matching I cracked the gear code with the HD8xx. Musical Fidelity MX-DAC dac + Liquid Platinum amp is perfect synergy w/ HD8xx. This is kind of why I was leaning towards HD800S - I already have the HD820 which has a moderately large but not crazy large soundstage. But it would be nice to have crazy large as an alternative. That being said, the HD820 will remain my primary headphone due to noise pollution in my environment (loud family members!); so the question is do I get a variation of it for the late night headphone in the same family but different (HD800S) or something totally different (GS3000e)? I am not sure! But with my current gear none of my headphones come close to touching the listening pleasure I get with HD820.

The GS3000e soundstage I find is much more real than the HD800. Overall the GS3000e is what i would call a very honest headphone i.e. it just lets you listen to what the music producers produced in the mixing studio. So if you have poor mastered and poor quality recordings you will know about it with the GS3000e's as also if you have poor quality gear.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

The GS3000e soundstage I find is much more real than the HD800. Overall the GS3000e is what i would call a very honest headphone i.e. it just lets you listen to what the music producers produced in the mixing studio. So if you have poor mastered and poor quality recordings you will know about it with the GS3000e's as also if you have poor quality gear.

Of course the GS3000e is a fully open headphone so noise will leak out like a sieve and you will also hear whats in your room or outside if the windows are open during quiet music passages.