I just had the delightful privilege of purchasing a pair of Grado RS1e headphones from that Mecca of headphone sales, HeadRoom, in Bozeman, MT. My newly-wed wife Ruthie, of ruthieandjohn fame, and I made a pilgrimage to HeadRoom on our honeymoon trip from Seattle to Ann Arbor and spent the night in Bozeman, MT, home to both HeadRoom and Tyll Hertsens.
HeadRoom is the only store that I have encountered that relies upon sale of headphones and associated paraphernalia, rather than more general audio, for its business. I saw the broadest inventory in their showroom at 12 E. Main St that I have ever seen, spanning Grado, Sennheiser, Audeze, and others.
HeadRoom had a rarity for me... the newest version of the Grado RS1e with its drivers nearly flush to the wood and the headband cover in brown rather than black. Every other audio store I have visited only had the black headband version with protruding drivers, which was found by many listeners to be a step down from the RS1i that preceded it. I could never be sure of getting the most recent version without actually seeing them, so on line purchases were risky as well.
I was assisted by Mike and Jamey, and we had delightful discussions about headphones and HeadRoom. Here is the purchase, captured by wife and fellow headphone aficianado Ruthie:
Store listening to the headphone sounded great, with excellent treble detail and soundstage, and only a touch of the bass "tubbiness" that I noted on the GS1000e. For that headphone, and I suspect for this, bass will improve with burn in, as they share the same 50 mm driver.
This headphone, after appropriate burn in, will get compared to my other 26 Grados, as noted here.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/808325/huge-comparison-of-almost-all-grado-headphones-post-your-own-comparisons-here-thanks-giogio#post_12583926
At first listen, without benefit of either burn in or comparison to other Grados, these RS1es indeed seem to be as Fortune magazine named them in a review, " The only headphones you will ever need."