Coming up on 1 week with my GH4 that I bought after
demoing the x-series models at the Grado booth at Toronto AudioFest.
After my beater SR225i went out of commission, it's nice to finally have another model I can just take around and enjoy without messing with any extra stuff. This can plug in directly to a phone or old portable CD player with a 3.5mm jack and still sound great to me, something that can't be said with my GS3000e or Hemp. I'm not sure how long Grado Canada will stock the old 44mm drivers for service/repair purposes, so these will be babied more. I'll need to find a good travel case for them that doesn't compress the headband much, as I like it very wide.
Comfort is great. With a very wide headband, the GH4 (180g) is significantly more comfortable than my GS3000e (330g) even with the L pads. The GS3000e weight is OK for me but I would say it's at my upper tolerance limit, which is why the GS3000x (400g) was out of the question.
As an experiment, I put the G pads on the GH4 and attempted to EQ it to match the sound of my GS3000e. This was something I tried earlier with the Hemp. I got closer this time, but the GH4 just couldn't quite replicate the GS3000e. The GS3000e just sounded fuller and wider. It was clear that the larger cup size, wood type (cocobolo vs. Norway pine), and drivers on the GS3000e were doing something that the GH4 wasn't. It's like how you can't EQ Apple Airpods to sound like a Stax. In addition, the overall volume was less with the G pads, which meant I had to feed it more power. And the GH4's drivers struggled with this, as I could hear some distortion in the midbass. The GS3000e, on the other hand, was able to dig deep and deliver the midbass with no noticeable distortion. Perhaps this is why Grado changed their drivers on the GS/PS models (except PS500e) to 50mm, so that they could deliver more bass without distorting. With the L pads and the same amount of power, the GH4 is way too loud, so this wouldn't happen at stock.
Overall, the GH4 is an absolute keeper, though I feel a bit of sadness as the GH4 may be the last model I buy new if Grado continues to push their x-series sound signature moving forward. I'm not the only person who feels this way, as rasmushorn
preferred the SR225e over the SR225x and felt the same way as me on some things, such as the detail and clarity difference.