A bold statement indeed. What is your Dac? Amp? Equalizer? I have plenty of bass with my Yggy and OTL amp (of course my hearing of what good bass is different than yours). People who make bold statements are properly evaluated by more senior members of the community, but it really isn't fair to new guys who will take your opinion as fact. Just saying.
Leo
Thats why I tried to make clear that this is my opinion
I don't think anyone new to this topic would just take my opinion as gospel -- ignoring everything else -- and move along. To the contrary, I think there needs to be some balance since most seem to talk about non-electronic genres: for someone preferring Electro House having an evaluation based upon chamber music might not be that helpful -- the requirements are quite different.
But my point was actually not to bash the RS1x, although it is a model I sure don't understand (and I don't mean that I'm ever going to). It was more about the bandwidth the different models cover, from those that do work for me to some that share some traits with these, but go in a direction that doesn't fit with my tastes.
There are of course many other models that don't work for me, the Utopia being a prime example. With Focal I don't feel that tension though, they don't have a single model that really appeals to me (the Bathys is actually the only one that I might like, but not enough to spend 700,-). Hifiman neither... both not a problem, I just don't spend time with these. So neither do I engage in the respective threads -- sure, why rain on anyone's parade? I'm not here to separate anyone from his beloved RS1x either. But maybe to tell someone who doesn't like that one, that there are other models that might fit better.
To answer your questions: I mostly used my old Hugo 1, a Beyerdynamic A2 amp and an old iPod Classic (no, not together
. I never use EQ, it would bind me to a very specific listening scenario that provides a competent implementation, making everything much more complicated. And that's something I don't want anymore, having sold off most of my prior toys. Like the V281, which might have worked really well with Grados, yet I don't want a shoebox on my desk anymore.
I don't have nor want any tube amps since I want to keep my setup simple and portable (I'm often away from home and want to take my preferred setup with me). So I just don't want to go down that rabbit hole. Recently I acquired a Fiio M17 to make my setup truly portable. Works very well for me, driving all my current headphones, i.e.Composer, GH2 and E3.
To finish this rather long essay, thank you, Leo, for a civilized answer to what must have been an affront to many here. Please rest assured that it was not meant that way, but rather to express my puzzlement over this.
)
... Back to the topic of bass in Grados ... Hemp has it in goodly amounts - not overbearing, not bloated, not 'merely there'. Hemp bass wallops if the bass recorded wallops.
say some. The better the amplification for Hemp, the more untrue this complaint becomes. Yes, Hemp can run off small, portable devices and reach high volume. If you want more sound quality from Hemp, give more amp quality to Hemp ... (true for all Grados). With this, Hemp opens up!, soundstage layers are clearer!, overtones sound natural! Hemp (the headphone) is a joy 
.
