ParaLoganGrado
100+ Head-Fier
I was one of the last legs of the TTVJ HF3 loaner tours, meaning it was broken in (and didn't look, sound, or [yecch] smell broken or damaged.) First few days after being used to the mellow, liquidy GH2 were a very tough transition. HF3 seems to have barely any material being played below 60-70Hz -- what's there is super clean and (at least the harmonics of the primary) were audible, giving it good texture. But MAN -- combine that with the even lighter-than-normal Grado bass-level was a tough adjustment. Eventually my ears adjusted and helped fill in the gaps (mainly a total lack of sub-bass, as well as a pretty good lack of lower-mids) -- around the male vocal register give or take. What that means though, is that I was able to unconsciously pull those details out that might have been over emphasis ed on my GH2s or maybe that I just liked the tuning more.The only Grado I want to hear right now is the Hemp. The Grado HF3 was fantastic. I'm told the Hemp is as good or better. I regret returning the HF3 for sure.
I'll say that they work magic with female vocals and some strings -- violin and viola being the ones that stood out to me. Oh, and fret noise on an acoustic recording was fun to listen for! However, if you loved the HF3 as much as you say, I'm thinking the Hemp is probably gonna take a lot of adjustment considering it's got EXTRA amounts of the things I thought were missing from the HF3.
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