[JerseyD]

My point exactly. Headband spring-pressure and friction between the earpads and ears should be adequate in that regard, but what do I know.

You’re joe vain. You probably think this song is about you.
Sorry. Have a had a couple glasses of wine this evening

 

[ampersandyandy]

So I was watching the execrable 'King of Staten Island', a slow motion (more slow than motion) train wreck of a movie apparently lightly based on Pete Davidson's young adult life and, worse, starring him as his fictionalized self. Why I was still paying any attention at all by the scene mid-movie when his mother and her boyfriend were talking about what a loser he was as he seemed to be asleep in the backseat I do not know, especially as he was obviously going to be wide awake hearing it, but when they cut to his rubbery doughy face I noticed, say, is he wearing a pair of Grados? I rewound slightly and indeed he was, and rewound again to take some screenshots, such are the sacrifices I make for this group. Not sure what the model is, they definitely use pads without holes, thus the S, W, or I. If the people who made this thing had taken 1% of the care with the rest of the movie that they did having a kid on Staten Island wearing Grados... well, okay, it surely still would have sucked but at least with some attention to detail. Avoid it like the plague. Or maybe more than that, because the plague might kill you but at least you won't have to have watched this before you go.

 

[ampersandyandy]

But the king is still the GS3000x!

I absolutely put the PS1000 LE (which Grado correctly said was the closest thing to what a PS2000X would be like) above it, for anything, without exception. I also think the PS2000E is superior, but I wouldn't argue the point, it and the GS3000X each have their strengths.

 

[sling5s]

I absolutely put the PS1000 LE (which Grado correctly said was the closest thing to what a PS2000X would be like) above it, for anything, without exception. I also think the PS2000E is superior, but I wouldn't argue the point, it and the GS3000X each have their strengths.

And where would you place the HP100se?

 

[Redd House]

So I was watching the execrable 'King of Staten Island', a slow motion (more slow than motion) train wreck of a movie apparently lightly based on Pete Davidson's young adult life and, worse, starring him as his fictionalized self. Why I was still paying any attention at all by the scene mid-movie when his mother and her boyfriend were talking about what a loser he was as he seemed to be asleep in the backseat I do not know, especially as he was obviously going to be wide awake hearing it, but when they cut to his rubbery doughy face I noticed, say, is he wearing a pair of Grados? I rewound slightly and indeed he was, and rewound again to take some screenshots, such are the sacrifices I make for this group. Not sure what the model is, they definitely use pads without holes, thus the S, W, or I. If the people who made this thing had taken 1% of the care with the rest of the movie that they did having a kid on Staten Island wearing Grados... well, okay, it surely still would have sucked but at least with some attention to detail. Avoid it like the plague. Or maybe more than that, because the plague might kill you but at least you won't have to have watched this before you go.

SR60 or 80, not x.

 

[piglet]

So I was watching the execrable 'King of Staten Island', a slow motion (more slow than motion) train wreck of a movie apparently lightly based on Pete Davidson's young adult life and, worse, starring him as his fictionalized self. Why I was still paying any attention at all by the scene mid-movie when his mother and her boyfriend were talking about what a loser he was as he seemed to be asleep in the backseat I do not know, especially as he was obviously going to be wide awake hearing it, but when they cut to his rubbery doughy face I noticed, say, is he wearing a pair of Grados? I rewound slightly and indeed he was, and rewound again to take some screenshots, such are the sacrifices I make for this group. Not sure what the model is, they definitely use pads without holes, thus the S, W, or I. If the people who made this thing had taken 1% of the care with the rest of the movie that they did having a kid on Staten Island wearing Grados... well, okay, it surely still would have sucked but at least with some attention to detail. Avoid it like the plague. Or maybe more than that, because the plague might kill you but at least you won't have to have watched this before you go.

I bet those Grados will have been the property of someone on the production team.

That's the first port of call for things like that. The director will have asked in the office if anyone had some headphones.

I'm wondering if they are appropriate because they aren't the first cans you'd choose for a trip in a car. However that doesn't really matter I guess.

 

[ruthieandjohn]

It is interesting that they have polarity switches, but I wonder what the intention was?

In about 1990, when Joseph Grado was designing his HMP-1 Holographic Scalera Scanner (perfectly-matched pair of microphones for recording), he needed some detailed, neutral headphones to diagnose the HMP-1 performance, so he developed the Joseph Grado Signature Products HP-1000 headphone (three versions- HP-1, HP-2, and HP-3). His headphones came with instructions for building a resistive divider to properly drive them from speaker terminals. (There was not such a thing as a headphone amp back then, until he started the design of the HPA-1 headphone amp to address this hole).

For the HP-1, the earliest of these versions, he put in the polarity switch on each earpiece to aid the audio engineer, who in using these headphones as a diagnostic probe anywhere along a recording chain, might need to reverse polarity to match the random point in the chain being probed.

He later decided the polarity switches caused more trouble than they solved, and for his hands-on upgrade of the HP-1 that the offered, he would remove the polarity switch (as well as add the Ultra WideBand cable and dab some special “goop” to change driver tuning.). I resisted the temptation to have him upgrade mine, as I did NOT want to lose that original polarity switch. A current day counterpart exists…I have an RS1e that has an intermittent jack — I haven’t sent it to Grado for repair because they tell me I would lose the flexible rubber cable it has, because it would be replaced by their current stiff, kinky cloth-encased cable.

 

[piglet]

In about 1990, when Joseph Grado was designing his HMP-1 Holographic Scalera Scanner (perfectly-matched pair of microphones for recording), he needed some detailed, neutral headphones to diagnose the HMP-1 performance, so he developed the Joseph Grado Signature Products HP-1000 headphone (three versions- HP-1, HP-2, and HP-3). His headphones came with instructions for building a resistive divider to properly drive them from speaker terminals. (There was not such a thing as a headphone amp back then, until he started the design of the HPA-1 headphone amp to address this hole).

For the HP-1, the earliest of these versions, he put in the polarity switch on each earpiece to aid the audio engineer, who in using these headphones as a diagnostic probe anywhere along a recording chain, might need to reverse polarity to match the random point in the chain being probed.

He later decided the polarity switches caused more trouble than they solved, and for his hands-on upgrade of the HP-1 that the offered, he would remove the polarity switch (as well as add the Ultra WideBand cable and dab some special “goop” to change driver tuning.). I resisted the temptation to have him upgrade mine, as I did NOT want to lose that original polarity switch. A current day counterpart exists…I have an RS1e that has an intermittent jack — I haven’t sent it to Grado for repair because they tell me I would lose the flexible rubber cable it has, because it would be replaced by their current stiff, kinky cloth-encased cable.

Well thank you for that very interesting and comprehensive explanation.

I'll mention as an aside that I think dedicated headphone amplifiers did exist in 1990 but they were rare, indeed rather niche, and quite possibly not in the USA.

I bought my first "audiophile" headphones in September 1991. These were the Sennheiser HD 540 Ref Gold. Those were game changing cans actually. In the 80s I'd owned a couple of Sony Walkmans, which I'd loved. I realised that I wanted to be able to listen to music at home in very high quality at night without disturbing any neighbours so that led me to get the HD 540 cans. Anyway there were, I remember, two dedicated headphone amplifiers that I could buy, but they were from tiny companies in the UK, I guess built in a shed kind of thing. I bought one and it worked great for a lot of years.

I didn't realise at the time that those HD 540 cans were right at the start of something massive, which has been this flourishing world of headphones that we now inhabit. It turns out a lot of people want to listen to music at night without disturbing their neighbours!

I wonder if Grado Labs location in NYC might be part of the reason why they got into headphone manufacture. Soon after I bought my HD 540 cans I moved to London (from Ireland) and there I was always living in tiny flats (apartments in US) and so the cans were invaluable in not disturbing neighbours. I have also lived in NYC and, of course, there are many people living in tiny apartments there just like London, all wanting to listen to music and keep it to themselves. So I'm sure when Joseph Grado was out with friends maybe they said, you know, some decent headphones would be such a great thing.

As an aside I'll mention Stax who predate the Sennheiser HD 540 headphones, however they were expensive and of course needed their energisers.

 

[ampersandyandy]

I bet those Grados will have been the property of someone on the production team.

That's the first port of call for things like that. The director will have asked in the office if anyone had some headphones.

I'm wondering if they are appropriate because they aren't the first cans you'd choose for a trip in a car. However that doesn't really matter I guess.

He just plays some punk kid with no money, who is unlikely to own more than one set of headphones, but if they were not acquired for the movie by a knowledgeable prop person and I were to guess, they would be Davidson's own, not only is the guy from Staten Island himself, there is a certain those-who-know culture around Grados in New York, and it surely worked its way into the worlds of the cool-overgrown-kid places he went to do his drugs when not being the dullest person on SNL.

 

[ampersandyandy]

And where would you place the HP100se?

It is too early to put it on the list in a meaningful way, but do I think it has rock-solid GOAT potential? I do. Definitely the out-of-the-box GOAT, the best sound I've ever heard straight out of the box with no break-in, and we will see where it goes from here. It might not dethrone the GS3000X for those who so enthusiastically put it at the top of their lists, but I don't even put it in my top five -- I like it a lot for chamber and piano music, but that's about it, and anyway, it's definitely a different flavor, but the HP100 SE looks like it will be much more versatile, with more than sufficient refinement. Will it have the majesty of the PS1000 LE? That, we shall see. Of course I am one of those fortunate enough to not need that, already owning a pair of those, but they aren't available anymore anyway, so it's kind of moot here. Do not take my abundance of caution as anything less than maximum enthusiasm. These are some seriously kick-ass cans, and once you get to this level differences become a little bit academic at least.

 

[sling5s]

It is too early to put it on the list in a meaningful way, but do I think it has rock-solid GOAT potential? I do. Definitely the out-of-the-box GOAT, the best sound I've ever heard straight out of the box with no break-in, and we will see where it goes from here. It might not dethrone the GS3000X for those who so enthusiastically put it at the top of their lists, but I don't even put it in my top five -- I like it a lot for chamber and piano music, but that's about it, and anyway, it's definitely a different flavor, but the HP100 SE looks like it will be much more versatile, with more than sufficient refinement. Will it have the majesty of the PS1000 LE? That, we shall see. Of course I am one of those fortunate enough to not need that, already owning a pair of those, but they aren't available anymore anyway, so it's kind of moot here. Do not take my abundance of caution as anything less than maximum enthusiasm. These are some seriously kick-ass cans, and once you get to this level differences become a little bit academic at least.

Well said.

 

[piglet]

there is a certain those-who-know culture around Grados in New York

They are quite hipster I think. Are hipsters still a thing?

I always thought that the fact they are built in Brooklyn is quite fun because Brooklyn is the hipster HQ of the USA.

When Joseph Grado started the company was he thinking that far ahead?

 

[jonmbarlow]

I can't decide between rs2x or hemp.......any advice?

 

[HWB3]

RS2x's. They are a more refined Hemp. More open too. I have both.

 

[FAlSe1]

Back home for Thanksgiving, finally get to listen to 225s on the darkvoice again! I really need a better tube amp, this one has the buzzing problem that seems to only go away when the volume knob is maxed out (which strangely doesn't increase the volume). I'm thinking of just getting a TA-26s and calling it a day, maybe I'll do that when I move into an apartment.

These cans just really need tubes for some reason. They can be pretty damn fatiguing on solid state for some reason, but tubes seem to make them 2000% better, hell I don't even know if audio can get better than this (hopefully an OTL amp that DOESN'T buzz can prove me wrong). Anyways, anyone remember The Strokes? I finally decided to start listening to them, I didn't know that they still made music, but I guess they really aren't that old. Loving the new music on the 225s!