[stacker45]

  John, i thought you already owned the (buttoned) RS2?
Anyway, congratulations.

 

  John owns everything

 

I only got the RS2 with buttons a few weeks ago. I had been LOOKING for a long time.

The two Grados I have yet to get are the RS1e with brown headband and no protruding drivers, and the GS1000i if my GS1000e does not improve enough through burn-in. To me the GS1000i is better than the GH1, so I keep comparing my GS1000e to my GH1 to see if it has surpassed it yet.

 
Frank, be John....I mean John, be frank, your master plan is to push aside Skywalker, and Vader, and become the Death Star's commanding officer, right?
 
Now, suppose your master plan works John Vader, you'll need a second in command, it'll be interesting to see who, a smart, witty, and knowledgeable person such as yourself, will choose.                                                  
 
By the way John, you look good, have you lost weight?

 

[stacker45]

  thanks @stacker45 , i knew you are a marantz guy, and a roommate i had for quite a while had a marantz, so there is a sentimental attachment there
when i was a kid, a friend got a technics , and i lusted after his, never got one, and i've read they are pretty good, and often overlooked 
then of course there's sansui, pioneer(only a couple of models are under my size limitations)
and the one i really hadn't considered until i started researching, is sherwood. i missed out on a pristine s-7200, right around $150
oh, and a yamaha or two, so you see, i'm looking at quite a few !

 
I used to own a Pioneer SX-880, and I curently own a Yamaha CA-610II, and to me, the Marantz sound is smoother, it has more meat on the bone, ''tubey'' if you will.
 
Regardless wich brand you'll choose, I'm looking forward to read your impressions, and hopefully see some pics.

 

[ruthieandjohn]

   
 
 
Frank, be John....I mean John, be frank, your master plan is to push aside Skywalker, and Vader, and become the Death Star's commanding officer, right?
 
Now, suppose your master plan works John Vader, you'll need a second in command, it'll be interesting to see who, a smart, witty, and knowledgeable person such as yourself, will choose.                                                  
 
By the way John, you look good, have you lost weight?

"...and on the last day, I awoke, and I found myself surrounded by a sea of Grado headphones, as far as the eye could see.  And I stretched forth my hand and donned the nearest pair.  Its music was the sweetest I had ever heard, and I was loathe to remove them.  Anon, remove them I did, to replace them with another pair.  Their music was even sweeter than the first pair.  I listened until contentment moved me to try another pair, and yea verily, it was even sweeter.  Then a voice came to me, and it saith, "Verily, John, you are a saint among Grado fans.  To your lot it shall be to amass the largest collection of Grados ever held privately.  You shall only stop when you have one of each model, either old or new.  But you must serve at the altar of Headphonedom in return, analyzing, comparing, expostulating, ejaculating, pontificating, and elucidating upon All Things Grado, whether or not asked.  And that shall be thy fate."

 

[stacker45]

  "...and on the last day, I awoke, and I found myself surrounded by a sea of Grado headphones, as far as the eye could see.  And I stretched forth my hand and donned the nearest pair.  Its music was the sweetest I had ever heard, and I was loathe to remove them.  Anon, remove them I did, to replace them with another pair.  Their music was even sweeter than the first pair.  I listened until contentment moved me to try another pair, and yea verily, it was even sweeter.  Then a voice came to me, and it saith, "Verily, John, you are a saint among Grado fans.  To your lot it shall be to amass the collection of Grados ever held privately.  You shall only stop when you have one of each model, either old or new.  But you must serve at the altar of Headphonedom in return, analyzing, comparing, espostulating, ejaculating, pontificating, and elucidating upon All Things Grado, whether or not asked.  And that shall be thy fate."

 
Wow!, have I ever told you how much I love your way with words, and of course, your witty sense of humour.

 
I won't even try to top this gem of a post. I'll just say that, if this was a chess match, I'd be checkmate.

 

[Dillan]

  "...and on the last day, I awoke, and I found myself surrounded by a sea of Grado headphones, as far as the eye could see.  And I stretched forth my hand and donned the nearest pair.  Its music was the sweetest I had ever heard, and I was loathe to remove them.  Anon, remove them I did, to replace them with another pair.  Their music was even sweeter than the first pair.  I listened until contentment moved me to try another pair, and yea verily, it was even sweeter.  Then a voice came to me, and it saith, "Verily, John, you are a saint among Grado fans.  To your lot it shall be to amass the collection of Grados ever held privately.  You shall only stop when you have one of each model, either old or new.  But you must serve at the altar of Headphonedom in return, analyzing, comparing, exspostulating, ejaculating, pontificating, and elucidating upon All Things Grado, whether or not asked.  And that shall be thy fate."

 
 
Let us all bow our head. Amen.

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

  ".but you must serve at the altar of Headphonedom in return, analyzing, comparing, exspostulating, ejaculating, pontificating, and elucidating upon All Things Grado, whether or not asked.  And that shall be thy fate."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

[ruthieandjohn]

Comparison of Grado RS2, RS2i, and RS2e
 
(gratefully taking my position at the Altar of Headphonedom)
 
I again used the method detailed here, which rank orders three headphones (1st at 3 points, 2nd at 2 points, 3rd at 1 point) for each of 10 acoustic properties that I find of interest.  This method only applies rank ordering, not the degree to which one headphone performs better than another, so it can exaggerate differences more than an absolute or continuous relative score would do.
 
Here are the headphones (all MINE - the three RS2s... RS2 original with buttons, RS2i, and RS2e):
 

From top:  Grado RS2, RS2i, and RS2e headphones.
 
Here is my comparison:
 

 
The RS2 gets better as it progresses through its versions.  The RS2 original performs at the bottom of the list (but Very Well), with the RS2i performing better and the RS2e performing the best.  The RS2e gives the best bass of the three, as well as providing top treble detail as evidenced by drum "twang," string bass finger pluck, and subtle variations in a shaker instrument.  It also provides the best transparency of the three.
 
In general, differences were very small and required many iterations of comparative listening to discern.  

 

[ruthieandjohn]

At request of @JoeDoe, I compared the (original, buttoned) RS1 to the (original, buttoned) RS2.  This is a two-way comparison rather than the 3-way that I most often do, but I wanted to make a quick comparison of the two for him.  The RS1 was outfit with the flat pads (with a hole in the middle),  because that is how they were originally designed.  Likewise, the RS2 had the L bowls, because that is how they originally came.
 

I find that the RS2 has an overall score that is higher than that of the RS1.  This is consistent with earlier comparison of the RS1i to the RS2i, found in the link in my signature line, that found the RS2i scoring higher than the RS1i.

 

[XLR8]

Thank you thank you Master John

 

[rovopio]

John do you mind if I ask you why you don't put Female and Male Vocals score on your table? Is it because it's too subjective?

 

[WilliamLeonhart]

OMG. I knew the RS2 line was great. Didn't know they were THAT great!

 

[rovopio]

  OMG. I knew the RS2 line was great. Didn't know they were THAT great!

 
Haha, yeah. I mean, you listen to a lot of metal was it? Maybe there is a place for 325 for your music, for my music though, I do love my rs2e the time I had it. I might going to get them again one day.

 

[ruthieandjohn]

  John do you mind if I ask you why you don't put Female and Male Vocals score on your table? Is it because it's too subjective?

When I first came up with my 10 criteria two years ago, I didn't even THINK of vocals, as I always enjoy them and have never thought about trying to determine whether a headphone did them well or poorly.  Then after I had done several comparisons using the criteria, someone asked, as you did, about vocals, and I realized that if I started using vocals, I would have to (well, not have to, but almost have to) go back and re-rate vocals on the past ratings I had done.
 
Then I realized that while most of my tests are actually binary or tertiary minitests on separate notes on the several-second passage that I use (i.e., do you hear this particular thing... the little twang that starts the third plucked bass note, or is this small chord added to full organ and symphony either 1 imperceptible, 2 recognizable, in that I hear it if I already knew it was there, or 3. noticeable, i.e., if I heard this for the first time, I would immediately know that a third chord was added to the blast), I could not envision such tests for vocal, as "vocal" contains so many more features and complexities than my little tests.
 
All that said, a while ago @imackler asked me to compare some Grados for their ability to reproduce the sound of a violin.  I did so, as shown here, finding the top three Grados for me for ensemble (not solo) violin were, in decending order, 
 

1. RS2e
2. RS2i
3. GH1

 
(there were several others I ranked lower).
 
So in short, 1) I forgot; 2) it is too subjective  3) I'm too lazy to go back and redo!

 

[ruthieandjohn]

Originally Posted by ruthieandjohn 
 
".but you must serve at the altar of Headphonedom in return, analyzing, comparing, exspostulating, ejaculating, pontificating, and elucidating upon All Things Grado, whether or not asked.  And that shall be thy fate."
 
Originally Posted by lehoang15tuoi /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

@lehoang15tuoi , be assured that I do provide a towel, complete with Grado logo, to visitors to wipe my Grados clean before they try them!!  

 
 
 
This extra service is in response to my personal Customer Service Motto:  "I'm not happy until you're not happy!"

 

[Dillan]

Thanks for the comparisons!
 
I want an RS2e now.