[obobskivich]

On the cleaning pads thing, it shouldn't impact the sound unless you manage to crush them flat while cleaning them. I haven't noticed any massive change with the RS-1 as the pads broke in, just that I can wear them for 6-7 hours now with no issue. Just like I could with the SR-225 after those broke in.

Just wanted to share my recent experiences in Grado land from these past few weeks.

Sweet! Also, you have the ESP/950 listed twice in your signature -

1) Finally got to hear 225i's.  They impressed me at first but the more I listened to them I felt like they were a bit tizzy (?); there was a sort of glare in the midrange that sounded weird to me.  I think the problem is that I've been listening to RS-1's/i's for so long I forget what other Grados sound like.  They had great detail retrieval and I feel for the money they are a great value. However I'd take the 325's over the 225's honestly now after hearing both.  The 325 may have a tiny bit of sibilance but it is standard Grado imo.  Also the vinyl headband feels terrible next to the stock leather one.  I preferred bowls on the 225i's over flats.

Can you, or someone, expand on "glare" for me? I've never quite figured out what people mean by it. But I'd agree that the 225 are not up to the RS par. And +5000 on the headband. Seriously. It looks inconsequential in specs and pictures, but in-hand and on-head, it's worth it.

2) I finally got to hear an RS-2i as well.  The fit and finish of this modern production pair was not quite as good as older Grados, if your dealer allows it I highly recommend seeing and hearing your pair before you buy it.  It probably doesn't help though that the RS-2i comes in the super cheap and sealed with a sticker paper pizza box rather than the slightly sturdier RS-1i cardboard box that has no seal.  The rs-2i have less bass than the rs-1 just as the fr graphs show. They also exhibited the midrange glare that I ran into with the 225i.  I couldn't decide if I preferred flats or bowls on the rs-2i's.  I quickly returned them and will now be waiting on a older buttoned rs-2 from Canada to arrive.  I'm hoping this one sounds different in a good way!

So you would say the RS-2i are a "pass"?

3) Re-acquired RS-1's.  This pair isn't what I was expecting.  Once upon a time I got a pre-i model from a local friend with thick cable, it was buttonless and it sounded superb. I'm now fairly certain it was just an i model hiding in a non-i box.  At any rate I still contend if you're in the market for RS-1's today that you need to go for an RS-1i unless you're after the mellow and smooth sounding square rod classic pairs.  It's just crazy that to my ears I identify 3 different RS-1 sounds.  This pre-i model has the thin cable and for some weird reason is terminated factory 1/8" miniplug.  If I keep these I will re-terminate to 4-pin XLR.  This buttonless non i model doesn't sound as exciting as the i model or as smooth as the old model, it sounded really boring IMO until I matched it with the right amplification...

Few thoughts:

The termination may be factory, remember that Grado will recable their headphones for customers for a very minor fee, with whatever the customer wants, or however the customer wants. So it's entirely plausible that someone requested them 1/8" terminated or otherwise had them customized.

Very neat on the sound comparisons!

4) I took a big gamble and purchased a unmolested Melos SHA-1 off of eBay.  Well, it arrived and a cap had fallen off in transit so I got it professionally repaired with a local repair operation.  Luckily the repair went without a hitch and now it's working.  I purchased current production JJ 6922's to go with it as well.  For those of you who don't know Melos amps are super old school; I think they were some of the first "headphone amps" on the market in the 90's.  No seriously.  The circuit is some tube/ss hybrid and is a disaster to work on according to the many threads that I have read; there are design flaws and poor parts choices from what I can gather that make the amp a relatively risky investment.  Once upon a time I had a gorgeous Sha-Gold that was modified, I ended up having to sell it for money.

My understanding (and feel free to take this with salt), is that Melos produced the SHA line as preamps (I know there are Melos power amps that look cosmetically similar), and they just happened to be super duper as headamps too. But this might be somewhat off.

Sonically with hd600's the amp doesn't sound as tight as a solid state amp, especially in the bass department.  I plugged in the buttonless RS-1 non i and I could instantly tell I was listening to the RS-1's as they were meant to be heard.  The midrange sparkle and fleshed out full bodied bass finally appeared.   Seems the "vintage" models aren't too shabby after all, but seem to be pickier with amplification.  I guess just like the RA-1, a less than stellar design (or measurements), doesn't necessarily mean it will sound bad with a Grado.  There's some magic at work here.

I may sell this RS-1 if I like the incoming RS-2, then again I can never make up my mind so who knows.

You're making me reconsider the RA-1 man.

Why are you already planning to sell it? lol  

Seriously. :confused_face_2:

Anyways, Grados tend to hold their value better than most other cans because of the fixed MAP more than anything, but in no way is any of this stuff an investment. It's toys.

 

[Awgd8]

Why are you already planning to sell it? lol  

I think you're making a great choice...as many of us agree, that price point is where arguably the two best Grado phones sit - the PS500s and the RS-1s. The 500s are my favorite headphone. 

A year from now the PS500 is just an average cans. I would like to recycle my stuff and fund for a better one .... .

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Obobs:
 
Nice catch on my typo in my sig!  I never even noticed, probably been like that for a while now.
 
As for this glare, I guess it's hard for me to put into words compared with how my brain perceives it.  It's not sibilance.  I've heard others refer to it as shoutiness - you could say it leads to increased listener fatigue.  In the mids they get so pronounced in the 225i and the rs-2i which was obvious to my ears and it's as if they are over exaggerated and compressed together.  The sound is literally tizzy to me.  I'd say it's there in the RS-1 but to a much lesser degree it seems and which bothers me less.
 
My guess is if someone never heard the RS-1(i) compared to the 225i or rs-2i they wouldn't even know it.

 

[obobskivich]

A year from now the PS500 is just an average cans. I would like to recycle my stuff and fund for a better one .... .

You're going about this, and thinking about it, in entirely the wrong way. Truly. This isn't "computer hardware" where you have to upgrade every six months to hang with the cool kids.

Obobs:

Nice catch on my typo in my sig!  I never even noticed, probably been like that for a while now.

Oh I would've left it - they're worth naming twice!

As for this glare, I guess it's hard for me to put into words compared with how my brain perceives it.  It's not sibilance.  I've heard others refer to it as shoutiness - you could say it leads to increased listener fatigue.  In the mids they get so pronounced in the 225i and the rs-2i which was obvious to my ears and it's as if they are over exaggerated and compressed together.  The sound is literally tizzy to me.  I'd say it's there in the RS-1 but to a much lesser degree it seems and which bothers me less.

 
My guess is if someone never heard the RS-1(i) compared to the 225i or rs-2i they wouldn't even know it.

See I look at shoutiness as that "klaxon in a box canyon" effect - too much decay. The 50 Cent headphones exhibit this on their upper treble. But I don't think any Grado fits into that effect. Tizzy would be "zingy" or "twangy" up top, like the T70. And again, I don't think any Grado fits into that (I don't think Grado headphones are "grainy and aggressive" like people continually assert though, and yes I've heard other types of headphone lol).

Over-exaggerated and compressed mids though, I could sort of understand that. And while it's admittedly been a while since I had the SR-225, I don't think they exhibited that effect. The HFI-2400 though, those might be a candidate for "glare" based on what you're describing. Thoughts? (Watch, you probably haven't heard that headphone).

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Directly A-B-ing each headphone was probably also attribute to the effect as well. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/530965/grado-fan-club/3240#post_8446513
 
Here's a mod to help reduce it.  Ironically devouringone3 (from that same page) has a familiar avatar.  I guess we have a lot of Trekkies on HF.

 

[obobskivich]

Directly A-B-ing each headphone was probably also attribute to the effect as well. 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/530965/grado-fan-club/3240#post_8446513

Here's a mod to help reduce it.  Ironically devouringone3 (from that same page) has a familiar avatar.  I guess we have a lot of Trekkies on HF.

I've read about that mod peripherally before, I also vaguely remember it starting a flamewar (but then again, what doesn't these days?). I'm certainly not about to start chopping to "fix" a problem I'm not even aware of having...

IMO, the RS-1 midrange is about as tonally correct as you can get without becoming too unforgiving or too dry. The SR-225 got close to that for less than half the price. The whole "cupped hands shoutyness" is something I have never noted or experienced with any Grado - so either *all* of my headphones have this same feature, I'm doing it wrong, or I don't know what. :confused_face:

There are some headphones I would lump into a category of having that feature, they're all closed-back though.

I'm not calling you a liar for your impressions, I'm just not aware of what people are specifically trying to point out. h34r:

 

[stacker45]

Quote:

I've read about that mod peripherally before, I also vaguely remember it starting a flamewar (but then again, what doesn't these days?). I'm certainly not about to start chopping to "fix" a problem I'm not even aware of having...

IMO, the RS-1 midrange is about as tonally correct as you can get without becoming too unforgiving or too dry. The SR-225 got close to that for less than half the price. The whole "cupped hands shoutyness" is something I have never noted or experienced with any Grado - so either *all* of my headphones have this same feature, I'm doing it wrong, or I don't know what.

There are some headphones I would lump into a category of having that feature, they're all closed-back though.

I'm not calling you a liar for your impressions, I'm just not aware of what people are specifically trying to point out.

 
I'm not surprised to see words like, ''glare'' or ''shoutyness'',to descibe the sound of Grado headphones,or any other brand for that matter,simply because we all hear differently,we all have different sound systems,and finally,we all have different tastes,so,one man's shoutyness,is another man's midrange presence.
 
My two cents.

 

[obobskivich]

I'm not surprised to see words like, ''glare'' or ''shoutyness'',to descibe the sound of Grado headphones,or any other brand for that matter,simply because we all hear differently,we all have different sound systems,and finally,we all have different tastes,so,one man's midrange presence,is another man's shoutyness.

Very likely what it is too. I can certainly understand when people dislike Grados, despite finding them very natural myself; so it should follow that there will different interpretations of what they do outside of that "hate/love" dichotomy as well.

 

[myears]

where are you all?
 

 

[myears]

Quote:

Very likely what it is too. I can certainly understand when people dislike Grados, despite finding them very natural myself; so it should follow that there will different interpretations of what they do outside of that "hate/love" dichotomy as well.

 
I have a problem that I've never had another 'good'  headphone other than Grados. I did try some others like B&W and Bose  in shops and some sonys froma friend but i'm looking forward to test another decent headphone like audio technica, akg and the likes for a long period...

 

[parbaked]

Sorry, I was listening to some music...
 

 

[bbophead]

Quote:

Sorry, I was listening to some music...
 

+1

 

[Biscuitz]

Quote:

Sorry, I was listening to some music...
 

Are those custom wood-housed Magnums on the top right!?

If so, PLEASE tell me how they sound, along with the driver version! I've been torn between buying a used RS2i and just diving into a wood Magnum V4 purchase...but I don't know the sonic differences so much, and have no way of testing out the Magnums without just buying them. And there's no return policy for custom headphones, as far as I know!

 

[Focker]

Got the call today that my GS1ks arrived, so planning to go on Friday before work to audition and, hopefully, bring them home. Will report back after work on Friday with some impressions. 

 

[talisman42]

Quote:

Got the call today that my GS1ks arrived, so planning to go on Friday before work to audition and, hopefully, bring them home. Will report back after work on Friday with some impressions.