Grado Fan Club!

[ESL-1]

There is no end game till you lose passion in audio gear. Even if you acquire HE-1 or something, if you still passionate with audio gear then I'm more than sure you will purchase something else (power cable? conditioner audio grade? speaker? or perhaps HE-2 if that exist?)

Anyway,

Currently I'm burning in Hemp. Initial impression is great. I like the dense in vocality with hint of sweetness around it, without overpower or loosy decay of bass response. Treble remain safe for most of mainstream songs out there. Soundstage is still Grado in general, but surprise me a bit as flat pad not create congested soundstage as I expected. It's still wide enough to create space for good separation between instrument.

Oh man, the vocal on this headphone is truly superb! I think I like it better than RS1e for female voice.

The release of the Hemp followed a lot of testing of the current line up of Grado original pads and the designing the headphone to match the final choice which are the old style flats that are on the Hemp. Grado, yes, different yes. IMHO very refined performance at an extremely good price. As is the case with any of the limited edition models no one should forget that they will not be around forever as a option to purchase new. Once gone, they are gone. I know there were a lot of possible buyers for the GH2 as it was getting such good feedback and they are now essentially gone other than on the second hand market. The good thing is with any of these you would almost never lose out when you buy them. There will always be someone out there looking for what they missed. You should have no trouble selling and getting a major proportion of your money back if not all of it. I saw a GH1 listed recently at full retail price and I am pretty sure it will be sold in short order.

 

[534743]

If anyone wants to try out a tube amp: as i already mentioned recently i got me a Little Bear B4-X for 100 bucks and it goes very well with my 2 Grados. Takes the edge off the highs with warmer more flowing basses, a little more soundstage and more separation of instruments. That amp gave me more than i expected. It sounds good as it is but of course i upgraded the amp's op amps to OPA627s (40 bucks on Ebay) which made the sound changes i described above even better.

I also played around some more with pads.

G cushions: they sound good on the PS500e, not so much on the RS2e. But only good, the L-cushions always sound better, more direct, more compact, more punch. With the Gs you get a somewhat hollow more far away sound with more sound stage and extreme fine highs but less bass and mids and lacking punch.

Geekria 'Donut' pads: Not talking about the L copy they sell but the other ones that kinda look like Ls but in a donut shape. They are very soft and comfortable but as they are so soft they get squished easily and sound like S-cushions with a hole. They don't work well on my Grados, the sound gets too veiled and the basses a little too fat.

TTJV flat pads: Not overly comfortable. They tone down the highs a little and make basses stronger. They work well on my RS2es for some recordings but the Ls are nearly always better. For very thin recordings they also work well on the PS500 otherwise basses get too bloated.

 

[elvergun]

Thanks for the links. Gonna look into those links and maybe grab some to make a custom pair.

Let me know if you need any help.

 

[ajm87]

I just listened to a pair of PS500e. These have to be the best sounding grados I've heard so far. I compared them to the sr325e and the rs2e and these are fantastic. Anyone know of anyone selling a pair for a good price?

 

[elvergun]

I just listened to a pair of PS500e. These have to be the best sounding grados I've heard so far. I compared them to the sr325e and the rs2e and these are fantastic. Anyone know of anyone selling a pair for a good price?

There is one for sale in the sales forum right now...and it is going for a good price.

 

[TooFrank]

After a few attempts of stretching out the headband, the SR80e are much more comfortable. Any recommendations for alternative pads to make these even comfier?

The pads can get especially spicy especially when I'm located somewhere equatorial.

You may try the Geekria L pads. Just got them, and they are very fine with the SR80i's. Have used them mostly with the flat pads, but the Geekria are softer and not too expensive.....

 

[Damien Grief]

I just listened to a pair of PS500e. These have to be the best sounding grados I've heard so far. I compared them to the sr325e and the rs2e and these are fantastic. Anyone know of anyone selling a pair for a good price?

I love my PS500e. They're fantastic headphones. Hope you get one at a good price.

There is one for sale in the sales forum right now...and it is going for a good price.

Thanks! Will do. Trying to decide if I want to just replace the cups or do more to them.

 

[Gippy]

G cushions: they sound good on the PS500e, not so much on the RS2e. But only good, the L-cushions always sound better, more direct, more compact, more punch. With the Gs you get a somewhat hollow more far away sound with more sound stage and extreme fine highs but less bass and mids and lacking punch.

I don't think the G pads are great on any Grado without further EQ, and that includes all of the models that use them as their stock pads. The additional soundstage width and imaging can't be beat, but they just alter the sound signature too much. However if they end up working for you, it's utter paradise.

 

[bpcans]

Congratulations on the GS3000e... Enjoy!!!

The nice thing about getting up at 11:00pm on a Saturday night is that my girls are asleep, and I can really get to listen to these new Grado gs3000e headphones. I've spent many hours enjoying Diana Krall's album 'From this Moment On', but I've never felt so immersed in this album as I am this evening. With the big soundstage of these hp's, and their great instrument and vocal separation, I can almost imagine what her sound engineer was going for with this sublime recording. Since it has been over a dozen years from the last time I had to "burn in' a new pair of headphones, I had forgotten that it takes a few hours for new grado drivers to loosen up and settle in. The cool thing is that the 3000e's are super comfortable and their sound is not fatiguing at all, which should make these first 100 hours with them go by very quickly.

 

[bpcans]

I have always really admired and have been jealous of all the immaculately neat and tidy listening stations and gear setups that I see here on Head-Fi. For now it’s the dining room table with my one of a kind luxury headphone stand that I bought at Walmart. I’m thinking maybe a Henry Miller Aeron chair would be a good start to being more comfortable while listening here at home.

 

[elvergun]

I have always really admired and have been jealous of all the immaculately neat and tidy listening stations and gear setups that I see here on Head-Fi. For now it’s the dining room table with my one of a kind luxury headphone stand that I bought at Walmart. I’m thinking maybe a Henry Miller Aeron chair would be a good start to being more comfortable while listening here at home.

That is a very interesting grain. It looks beautiful. Can you post a color picture?

 

[bpcans]

That is a very interesting grain. It looks beautiful. Can you post a color picture?

Sure thing

 

[Wid]

Thinking about selling some of my Grado and other headphones to finance a set of GS 1000e's. I have the PS 500's which I will be keeping but also have a set of GH4's, RS2i and a set of SR225i.All in excellent condition. Would it be worth liquidating some to get the GS 1000's? Never heard them, what would they give me in comparison to the 500's?

 

[bpcans]

That is a very interesting grain. It looks beautiful. Can you post a color picture?

Here are some quick pics elvergun

 

[elvergun]

Here are some quick pics elvergun

Beautiful indeed. Congratulations.

I wonder how it will look after it darkens with time.