[speCD]

I'm Grado head and listen to well recorded classical music all the time. In fact, if I know ahead of time that I will be listening to classical music, the only phones I will grab are my GS1000e. Just beautiful with some good classical music....and acoustic jazz!!

These 50mm drivers hide their true color for a long time. At first I thought the rs1e sound pretty dull and uninteresting. After ~500 hours of intermittent listening, they sound lively, smooth, and emotional. I don't know how smooth can be used alongside with lively, but somehow the rs1e did so.

 

[Pirastro]

I'm Grado head and listen to well recorded classical music all the time. In fact, if I know ahead of time that I will be listening to classical music, the only phones I will grab are my GS1000e. Just beautiful with some good classical music....and acoustic jazz!!

Well, this is of course, the problem with stereotypes! One should never paint with such a broad brush because of the many exceptions. I had a feeling the GS1000s were good with this genre.

 

[jonathan c]

These 50mm drivers hide their true color for a long time. At first I thought the rs1e sound pretty dull and uninteresting. After ~500 hours of intermittent listening, they sound lively, smooth, and emotional. I don't know how smooth can be used alongside with lively, but somehow the rs1e did so.

My thought is that “smooth can be used alongside with lively” when transient response is timely and has no overhang…no spurious resonance…

 

[speCD]

My thought is that “smooth can be used alongside with lively” when transient response is timely and has no overhang…no spurious resonance…

I don't quite know the science behind it, but this surely is an insightful explanation!
So timing is about liveliness and no spurious resonance contributes to the smoothness?

 

[iFi audio]

My thought is that “smooth can be used alongside with lively” when transient response is timely and has no overhang…no spurious resonance…

I associate smoothness with lack of that nasty nervousness that introduces fatigue sooner or later.

 

[SilverEars]

I associate smoothness with lack of that nasty nervousness that introduces fatigue sooner or later.

Yeah, we associate with something. The problem is, we may not use the term the same. Smoothness is used in various context in different ways. So analogoies can be applies in various ways.

Descriptions in audio is generally wide open and not concrete.

 

[redlegs75]

I have not had my Grado SR 80x cans long. About 10 days and have been listening to many rock albums and just finished listening to the Quadrophenia album by The Who. I must say that for 80 minutes of this album I was in bliss. The bass of John Entwistle, the drums of Keith Moon, the guitar of Pete Townsend and of course the great vocals of Roger Daltry leaped out of the headphones in detail! The opening ocean wave to open the album were awesome! I have heard this album many times over the years but not like this! Great detail and clarity. I have so much music I want to listen to that it is hard to get anything done around the house. Thanks Grado for providing such great headphones with that Grado sound! I am loving it! Do you find that your home speakers get less playing time when owning Grados? I know for me I am becoming more a fan of headphones for the intimacy.

 

[SilverEars]

I'm enjoying the heck out of Grado 325i with aftermarket pads that brings the bass up. The transients are great for electronic. I don't know if it's due to the light weight of the sound, but it's fast.

 

[Gippy]

These 50mm drivers hide their true color for a long time. At first I thought the rs1e sound pretty dull and uninteresting. After ~500 hours of intermittent listening, they sound lively, smooth, and emotional. I don't know how smooth can be used alongside with lively, but somehow the rs1e did so.

Interesting take. For quite a while, the initial 50mm e-series drivers weren't well-regarded, as people considered the RS1e/GS1000e/PS1000e inferior to the i-series counterparts. It's been a while since I've heard any of those headphones, but I did end up selling my GS2000e. The GS3000e/PS2000e use a newer 50mm driver that I felt was an improvement.

 

[iFi audio]

Descriptions in audio is generally wide open and not concrete.

Although I agree, many also agree that Audeze LCD-2's profile is thick. warm and intimate, and HD 800's sound very open, lean and frosty

I also feel that more times than not we understand one another pretty well

 

[speCD]

Interesting take. For quite a while, the initial 50mm e-series drivers weren't well-regarded, as people considered the RS1e/GS1000e/PS1000e inferior to the i-series counterparts. It's been a while since I've heard any of those headphones, but I did end up selling my GS2000e. The GS3000e/PS2000e use a newer 50mm driver that I felt was an improvement.

Yeah I was aware of these impressions, but still bought the rs1e instead of the rs2e. Logically I just don't understand why a company would do this to their higher-end models.

It turned out the 50mm driver ones are still more capable headphones. It's just the tuning, which was changed too abruptly over the previous headphones. But with time, I started to realize these are still as Grado as before. Now I can feel the realistic presentation, openess, and effortlessness which I always look for in a Grado. There's an extra layer of refinement in the sound and I can't go back to the previous models anymore (including rs2e).

I've always been interested in the GS2000e. I believe they tune the drivers differently for different models. Do you mean the drivers in these are completely different from other 50mm?

 

[SilverEars]

Interesting take. For quite a while, the initial 50mm e-series drivers weren't well-regarded, as people considered the RS1e/GS1000e/PS1000e inferior to the i-series counterparts. It's been a while since I've heard any of those headphones, but I did end up selling my GS2000e. The GS3000e/PS2000e use a newer 50mm driver that I felt was an improvement.

By i series, you mean the prestige series back then they had the label i after? Like 325i ?

If so, I agree. I tried multitude of Grados including GS series and couple from the GS series I tried sounded odd compared to prestige series. This made no sense. Are they more expensive due to the wood, not sound?

 

[speCD]

By i series, you mean the prestige series back then they had the label i after? Like 325i ?

If so, I agree. I tried multitude of Grados including GS series and couple from the GS series I tried sounded odd compared to prestige series. This made no sense. Are they more expensive due to the wood, not sound?

I think the problem (to the company) with the prestige series (also the rs2e) is that they are not able to make the sound "big." They are perfectly fine if you listen at lower volume or you used to listening to earphones. Their highlighted upper mids and highs provide a pin-point imaging and a vivid soundstage. However, the soundstage is rather small. You can paint a great stage in-head and enjoy that, but the sound is not like what you hear in real life.

With the 50mm drivers, the sound can be "big" and more like what we hear in our daily life. But you need higher volume to feel that.

This is also a complete change of the user's listening habit. If one still has the mindset of listening to "in-head" headphones, the person won't be able to find the same enjoyment in these cans. However, give the phones some time, they may burn in and you may burn in as well haha.

 

[adeadcrab]

Dusted off my Grado GS100i's today (Bought in 2010!) after recently modding them.. basically everything has been replaced except for the drivers and earcups.. started off with the non-detachable cable being intermittent. After that was the headband, earpads, gimbals, rodblocks... sounds fantastic today through my OTL amp.. long live Grado!

 

[Gippy]

By i series, you mean the prestige series back then they had the label i after? Like 325i ?

The i-series was the 2nd generation of Grado drivers from 2007-13. The i-series model was the SR325is because the gold SR325i was an earlier tweak. The PS1000 is a confusing name and counts as part of the i-series, as the PS1000i name does not exist. The high-end models of the e-series changed the driver diameter from 44mm to 50mm.

I've always been interested in the GS2000e. I believe they tune the drivers differently for different models. Do you mean the drivers in these are completely different from other 50mm?

The GS2000e is peculiar in that it's easily the most treble-focused of the GS line. All of the GS models have a 6khz peak, but the GS2000e's peak is so extreme (up to +10dB greater than the other models) that any music with cymbals made me wince with discomfort. I know there are some happy GS2000e owners but they must be listening at a very low volume, or have certain music that pairs up well with it... or they may have significant hearing loss because 4khz-6khz is where your hearing starts to decline first. The 6khz peak can be tamed by switching pads but then the upper bass is congested. Not sure how Grado tweaked the GS2000e driver, but I couldn't get any good lower-bass extension out of it even with EQ. Joshua Valour's infamous SR80e vs GS2000e video had him declaring the SR80e as superior, regardless of price, and I could understand how he came to that conclusion.