[Joaquin Dinero]

A different set of funky earpads of mine have a sort of rubbery ring attached to one end of the pad, which gives it a little grip when sliding them on and off. Seems like the same idea might work on the Shipibo?

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Looks like Audio Advisor is discounting the GS-e series. Perhaps in anticipation of the GS-x series?

Audio Advisor

Given the change to multiple woods on the RS-1X and 2X I'm very curious to see if that design philosophy ends up in the GS-X series.

Also the price points of the GS series seem a little odd to me: $1000, 1400, and 1800 and aside from the cocobolo the differences are slightly nebulous. I feel like it would make more sense to reduce the wood flagships to 2 and price them at 1200/1800 or 1300 / 2000... more of a Fibonacci sequence like other headphone manufactures.

 

[jonathan c]

Given the change to multiple woods on the RS-1X and 2X I'm very curious to see if that design philosophy ends up in the GS-X series.

…and with drivers ‘tuned’ to those multi-wood housings…

 

[jonathan c]

That would be very helpful if you could share.

See post #50,136 (on page 3343) of this thread.

 

[nycdoi]

Looks like Audio Advisor is discounting the GS-e series. Perhaps in anticipation of the GS-x series?

Audio Advisor

thats not a good news... we might not see cocobolo anymore..

 

[jonathan c]

• Grado has been working with cocobolo wood for a long time. The GH-2 headphone was released in December 2016. Grado has been using cocobolo in two of their top phono cartridges - the Aeon and the Epoch. The GS3000e is Grado’s first use of cocobolo in a “full-sized” headphone. Just recently introduced is the RS-1x featuring maple, hemp, and cocobolo. Jonathan Grado is quoted in the company website: “cocobolo is quickly becoming one of our favourite new woods.”
• It would be a dramatic shift were Grado to cease using cocobolo wood for (some of) their products. One (guess) possibility is that full-size 100% cocobolo headphones make way for full-size cocobolo ‘blend’ headphones .

 

[Zachik]

It would be a dramatic shift were Grado to cease using cocobolo wood for (some of) their products. One (guess) possibility is that full-size 100% cocobolo headphones make way for full-size cocobolo ‘blend’ headphones .

Or maybe some other exciting new wood. Those who follow ZMF headphones (I am a huge fan) know that there are so many cool and exciting wood types!

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Thanks Jonathan for the referenced post. I've always loved the look of Cocobolo, followed by Padauk, highly figured maple / birds eye maple, and zebrawood. Cocobolo is the most expensive wood of that bunch. I'd imagine it's rarer or more difficult to work with.

 

[cirodts]

I'm listening to my new 325 x but it's so addicting !!! it also has some incredible bass.

 

[mulveling]

I love the look of Cocobolo too. I do wonder how much of the sound we hear in Grados is from the wood itself versus their various driver "voicing" tweaks. That said the wood choice MUST have more influence on sound in Grado than in most other brands which have decoupled driver mountings and heavily damped wood chambers (an exception being the JVC HP-DX1000).

So far, except for HP-1000, I haven't liked any of the "one material" Grados as much as the mixed cup material models (differing outer cap / inner cup). Haven't heard the hemps though - maybe those are exempt because it's not a homogenous material. I would be curious about a cocobolo outer with maple inner! The maple inner must be working some magic on PS2000e. It's just smoother, cleaner, and more detailed.

 

[qua2k]

I love the look of Cocobolo too. I do wonder how much of the sound we hear in Grados is from the wood itself versus their various driver "voicing" tweaks. That said the wood choice MUST have more influence on sound in Grado than in most other brands which have decoupled driver mountings and heavily damped wood chambers (an exception being the JVC HP-DX1000).

So far, except for HP-1000, I haven't liked any of the "one material" Grados as much as the mixed cup material models (differing outer cap / inner cup). Haven't heard the hemps though - maybe those are exempt because it's not a homogenous material. I would be curious about a cocobolo outer with maple inner! The maple inner must be working some magic on PS2000e. It's just smoother, cleaner, and more detailed.

The wood itself does indeed change the sound signature. There is a reason why certain violin's are deemed priceless because of both the wood involved and the maker. More specifically into our hobby, the Fostex TH/R-X00 are the exact same headphone across 3 varying models where the only difference is the wood cup. All three have different sound signatures. A very in depth and knowledgeable source of wood properties for headphones use is Lawton Audio, a good read: https://www.lawtonaudio.com/tonewheel.html

 

[qua2k]

I love the look of Cocobolo too. I do wonder how much of the sound we hear in Grados is from the wood itself versus their various driver "voicing" tweaks. That said the wood choice MUST have more influence on sound in Grado than in most other brands which have decoupled driver mountings and heavily damped wood chambers (an exception being the JVC HP-DX1000).

So far, except for HP-1000, I haven't liked any of the "one material" Grados as much as the mixed cup material models (differing outer cap / inner cup). Haven't heard the hemps though - maybe those are exempt because it's not a homogenous material. I would be curious about a cocobolo outer with maple inner! The maple inner must be working some magic on PS2000e. It's just smoother, cleaner, and more detailed.

Your question for driver tweaks is a good one and one Grado never lets out it seems. In the past, it was shown that the same drivers were used across a multitude of models, both metal and wood. The specific headphone 'tweaking' is a new thing.

 

[mulveling]

The wood itself does indeed change the sound signature. There is a reason why certain violin's are deemed priceless because of both the wood involved and the maker. More specifically into our hobby, the Fostex TH/R-X00 are the exact same headphone across 3 varying models where the only difference is the wood cup. All three have different sound signatures. A very in depth and knowledgeable source of wood properties for headphones use is Lawton Audio, a good read: https://www.lawtonaudio.com/tonewheel.html

Thanks for the link! Interesting. Some really beautiful cups there. Yeah that makes sense cocobolo is in type 5 lol. And maple is warmer (type 2). Definitely at least roughly maps to Grado GS3000e / PS2000e with these woods.

 

[cirodts]

the headphones have about 7 hours of burn-in and I feel they are definitely closed in sound, how many hours will the 325 need for a good burn-in?

 

[reivaj]

I wish I could get that same Hemp sound that they produce with the flat pads but in a more comfortable headphone. That would be ideal for sure. Definitely love the Grado house sound.