Just got my RS2is and they're really great. Thanks for all the info guys! Could anyone tell me a little bit about amps? Are they worth it for grados? Is there a thread or something that has combined basic info about amps and differences between popular portable amp/dac's? I'm interested on how they will change the sound when using my headphones with my macbook.
The quick'n'dirty (and potentially uncool) response: they won't really change the sound that much. You won't make them not Grados. Now of course you can make big, dramatic changes to the up-stream equipment (and often spend A LOT of money doing so), and see somewhat minor (but certainly measurable and audible) changes downstream, but I just don't see the value there.
If you don't like the way the RS-2 sound, get different headphones. If you like how they sound, enjoy them for what they are, and leave it at that (sort of tangentially: I see this trend so often where someone gets a pair of nice headphones and then wants to "accessorize" it - like people do with iPhones or whatever else, it seems a bit...nutty to me; if you're going to eventually tweak them, at least spend a few hundred hours getting to know them first, so you both know what you really want to tweak, and you have a reference for when you do start making changes (as was mentioned earlier in the mod discussion)). And this isn't meant to be combative - I've just seen a lot of noobies who buy XYZ headphone and will spend 2, 3, 10 times it's price buying cables, amplifiers, etc trying to "fix" that headphone, and at the end of the day that headphone is simply just not a good match for them. This is more meant to try and save you a lot of hair pulling out and cash-sinking.
Anyways, the community favorites for Grado cans are Melos amplifiers (which are not made anymore, but you can sometimes find them used), Grado's RA-1 (it comes in three versions, the base RA-1 (which is battery driven), the RA-1 AC (which is, as you probably guessed, AC powered) and the RA-1 HG (which is the "High Gain" version and you probably want nothing to do with this guy)), and the Maple Tree Ear+ HD. Basically all of these cost more than the headphones you have (except the battery RA-1). Grados are very easily driven and very stable loads at that, they play nice with all sorts of equipment (I've tried Grados on equipment ranging from mega-cheap to mega-buck, and I just don't see the reason to buy the mega-buck equipment for Grados).This doesn't mean nicer gear does absolutely nothing, but when you're talking a $300-$1000 pair of headphones that sound say, 98% "certified awesome" on equipment that costs less than, or as much as, they do, and say, 99% "certified awesome" on equipment that costs more than a new BMW...I don't know, I can't justify that. I'm sure someone can, but I'd rather put that money into something else (like another pair of cans!). Now if you have a lot of other "stuff" that benefits from the extra gear (e.g. you have an entire home theater and the headphones are just yet another gadget in there), then yeah it can start to make sense. This isn't ALL headphones either - Grados are in that rare trifecta of "comfy, good sounding, and versatile" imho. There are some cans that "care" more, but very few that seem to "care" less.
Now sure, logic should still apply here - you don't want bum pots or channel imbalance or clipping or whatever else. So if any of that is a problem with your current gear, then yes, upgrade.
In terms of portable kit (none of the above mentioned units, except the non-AC version of the RA-1, are even possible to be portable, and I would really not suggest taking an RA-1 on the road (the casing will get banged up pretty fast I would expect, and it's not exactly compact (by 1990s standards it was))), there's some nice battery driven units from FiiO, JDS Labs, and so on that you can look into - basically they'll let you make the headphones get louder than they already do with your PC or mobile phone, but if that isn't a problem (I doubt it is), I'd probably save the $50-$100 there too. They also mean more stuff to lug around, which may or may not be something you want to entertain. I'm not at all a fan of portable amps for home use - if you're going to buy an amp, buy an amp.
Also, welcome to the club!