[VinMAC]

Hi
Somebody could compare grado gs1000i vs gs3000e?
Cheers

I got a GS3000e from my local Grado dealer the week before last for testing at home. I was very curious after the reports here on head-fi how it would perform against my beloved GS1000i. It is a demo unit from the German Grado distributor and has already been running for 100 hours, as the dealer told me. I tested it with my McIntosh chain: MCD500 with MHA150. The Macs sound very clean and transparent with a slight touch of warmth in the keynote and with a deep and powerful bass. For crosschecking I also used my McIntosh vintage tube chain. The chosen music was Alternative Country and Blues also the new album from Sting - my songs.

The result of the comparison test somehow surprised me:

The GS3000e was, as already described here several times, of course in the midrange about two quality levels better than the GS1000i. The mids were more present, more voluminous and better contoured. However, in some recordings I noticed a peak in the upper midrange, which was a bit annoying especially with voices and guitars. The 3000 is also clearly superior to the 1000 in terms of three-dimensionality and is much more involving into the music than the 1k.

What really surprised me was that I liked the GS1000i much better than the GS3000e at both ends of the frequency range. Drum cymbals are much more audible and the bass has more volume and punch, which is of course due to the increase in upper bass on the 1000. But I had more fun with this bass. Overall I found the 1k more transparent but also thinner in sound. A crosscheck with the tube combination gave the same result, even though the bass roll-off of the 3k was not as big as with the MHA150.

Since it is known that unplayed Grados typically have a thin and set-back bass, I decided to burn in the GS3000e again with a good burn in CD. After 80 hours of playing in I could not detect any change in the sound of the GS3000e. I know that the impressions I've described here differ from what has been written so far about GS3000e and GS1000i. But I have only described my personal perception.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Hi
I am going to buy a totl grado.
I am consider grado ps1000e and grado gs3000e.
I read reviews in internet and i think that grado gs3000e is more musical than ps1000e.
I play soundtracks, rock, soft rock, accoustic, something of metal and something of pop, mainly.
Bands like rem, dire straits, scorpions are one of my favourites.
Which of them have more soundstsge, details, midbass impact, imaging and subbass?
Do this headphones superior subbass to hd800s?
I dont searching a big oomph because to listen electronic music i use my th900 but i dont like a headphone that's sound mudded in subbass.
I like a subbass level similar to gh2 or better.
Thanks!

GS3000e all the way !

 

[ParaLoganGrado]

If the Asgard 2 ever struggles with my Grados, I always have a backup (or 3...)

 

[Benno1988]

GS3000e all the way !

Of all the high end Grados, what has the most balance?

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

Of all the high end Grados, what has the most balance?

I have only heard the original PS1000 and GS3000e. Between these two, the GS3000e is by far the most balanced (across the sound frequencies) and is much lighter and non fatiguing to wear as the PS1000 is quite heavy on for my head felt quite insecure and would want to tip off my head lol !.
The cocobolo wood is nice on the GS3000e, but the chrome on the PS1000 series looks awesome.

 

[Gippy]

Of all the high end Grados, what has the most balance?

In production? The GS3000e because its 6k spike that the G pads "bless" isn't as extreme as the other models. As for the 6k spike, either you accept that's the tuning Grado wants, or you EQ it down like I did. (This is why putting the G pads on the lower-end models generally doesn't work because the 6k spike there will be unbearable.) If you want the most neutral Grado, measurements point to the GH4. The RS2e is a touch brighter than the GH4, and the Hemp is darker. There's a RS2e vs. GH4 article.

 

[Zomb13k113r]

Hello guys. Noob here...

I bought a set of RS2E about 8 years back. Since then I have used the absolute bejesus out of them. I am autistic, so it's pretty common of me to get up in the morning, put them on and leave them on for 12 hours. As such they are pretty worn out. The head band is disgusting also. About a week ago the right side driver started cutting out. I figured maybe it was a bad cable or solder so I took out the driver and cut back the cable past the bit where it bends all of the time and resoldered it. That seemed to work briefly. For the next day or so it was intermittently cutting out, and when it was playing it was farting.

Then last night it completely died.

Right now (as with many I would surmise) I am a bit skint. I have stripped the headphones down to their components and was hoping to rebuild them as cheaply as I can.

And that gross head band. That isn't a shadow...

Now for my question. Can I buy a set of 60 RE and use the drivers out of those? do they fit?. I am pretty sure the head band assembly would (and the cables obviously).

At some point I will buy custom drivers, but right now like I said I am having financial problems and £70 or so is about my limit.

Thank you, and happy new year !

 

[Bernard23]

Hello guys. Noob here...

I bought a set of RS2E about 8 years back. Since then I have used the absolute bejesus out of them. I am autistic, so it's pretty common of me to get up in the morning, put them on and leave them on for 12 hours. As such they are pretty worn out. The head band is disgusting also. About a week ago the right side driver started cutting out. I figured maybe it was a bad cable or solder so I took out the driver and cut back the cable past the bit where it bends all of the time and resoldered it. That seemed to work briefly. For the next day or so it was intermittently cutting out, and when it was playing it was farting.

Then last night it completely died.

Right now (as with many I would surmise) I am a bit skint. I have stripped the headphones down to their components and was hoping to rebuild them as cheaply as I can.

And that gross head band. That isn't a shadow...

Now for my question. Can I buy a set of 60 RE and use the drivers out of those? do they fit?. I am pretty sure the head band assembly would (and the cables obviously).

At some point I will buy custom drivers, but right now like I said I am having financial problems and £70 or so is about my limit.

Thank you, and happy new year !

Might be worth contacting Grado UK. They quoted a fixed charge of £60 to repair my SR80, which have a knackered driver. That cost doesn't include new headbands, gimbals etc though.

 

[Zomb13k113r]

Might be worth contacting Grado UK. They quoted a fixed charge of £60 to repair my SR80, which have a knackered driver. That cost doesn't include new headbands, gimbals etc though.

I found a thread in the US where they charge $100 for drivers and a new cable. That's fitted. I can get really good after market drivers for about $80. At some point I will rebuild them hopefully improved, but right now I am looking for a cheap solution. I've read that the 60 and 80 drivers are 44mm, but they look different (like, the bodies of the cans look much shallower).

Not only do I not have enough cash to do the full proper rebuild though Covid is just making it close to impossible. If I ordered anything from the U.S now it would be months.

BTW as for contacting Grado? I did that when I got them. They refused to even speak to me because I didn't buy the headphones from them, quoting "They are probably fake". I bought them from a guy who got them in NY on a trip and never used them, but I may as well be a leper. I only wanted to know which cups I could fit on them that would not leave me in terrible pain after 30 mins.

 

[Zomb13k113r]

The penny drops. The drivers are all the same size. What threw me was the construction of the 60s. They use a two piece cup rather than a single piece. So the drivers themselves are in carriers that make up half of the cup.

I went in search of some 60s, but they are £80 and not Prime. The 80 are on sale for £88 (down from £100) with Prime delivery. I need to repaint the black meshes, as they have become scratched from putting them on my work desk. However, I can use the headphones as is until the mahogany cups are ready, then just do the conversion once.

That gets me new cups, new cables, new head band and pretty much everything else. The only thing I will be chucking out are the plastic carriers.

 

[Bernard23]

I didn't buy my 80s from Grado either, but that wasn't even a question. I contacted Grado UK (armour home is the distributor think) and like I said a fixed GBP price for replacing the driver.

 

[Kike6685]

In production? The GS3000e because its 6k spike that the G pads "bless" isn't as extreme as the other models. As for the 6k spike, either you accept that's the tuning Grado wants, or you EQ it down like I did. (This is why putting the G pads on the lower-end models generally doesn't work because the 6k spike there will be unbearable.) If you want the most neutral Grado, measurements point to the GH4. The RS2e is a touch brighter than the GH4, and the Hemp is darker. There's a RS2e vs. GH4 article.

Could you compare grado gs3000e vs sennheiser hd800s?
Cheers

 

[Zomb13k113r]

I didn't buy my 80s from Grado either, but that wasn't even a question. I contacted Grado UK (armour home is the distributor think) and like I said a fixed GBP price for replacing the driver.

Apparently with the RS they need to be replaced in pairs as they are matched. TBH? I mean yeah I love how they sound. The sound stage is quite simply the best I have ever heard with a set of headphones. However, right now I just want them working, and £88 for a full kit is perfect. I can definitely say that the wooden body on them makes them sound better too. Especially with violins and jazz instruments (big Billie Holiday fan here !). For everything else I have a set of BD T5P. However, it's obviously not my month for headphones because the faux leather on the pads is crumbling (makes such a mess) and they are about £60 for replacement BD. I will tackle those once the Grado are back up and running. Going to use a thinner after market cable too as that is one thing that drives me nuts with them.

 

[Bernard23]

Apparently with the RS they need to be replaced in pairs as they are matched. TBH? I mean yeah I love how they sound. The sound stage is quite simply the best I have ever heard with a set of headphones. However, right now I just want them working, and £88 for a full kit is perfect. I can definitely say that the wooden body on them makes them sound better too. Especially with violins and jazz instruments (big Billie Holiday fan here !). For everything else I have a set of BD T5P. However, it's obviously not my month for headphones because the faux leather on the pads is crumbling (makes such a mess) and they are about £60 for replacement BD. I will tackle those once the Grado are back up and running. Going to use a thinner after market cable too as that is one thing that drives me nuts with them.

The 80e drivers are quoted as matched to 0.1dB, so you could infer that if replacing one driver for the prestige series works, then it also applies to the other ranges. I can only presume that the normal variation of all of the drivers made for each range falls within the spec limits, so they're not pair matched.

 

[Zomb13k113r]

The 80e drivers are quoted as matched to 0.1dB, so you could infer that if replacing one driver for the prestige series works, then it also applies to the other ranges. I can only presume that the normal variation of all of the drivers made for each range falls within the spec limits, so they're not pair matched.

Possibly yes. TBH? I did not fall in love with the RS2E because of their amazing bass performance, or suitability to all kinds of music. I fell in love with them for their stage, their quirks, their ability to show you why your music collection should be FLAC or WAV and their accuracy. I can't see that changing drastically between the 80 and the RS2E. From what I have read? the explanation sounds about the same to me on pretty much all Grado.

It is also really nice these days to buy something truly hand made.