The WA8 is one of my go to amps. Synergy with the GS1000X is why I bought the Grados. Nice extended low end. The mids are near perfect. Treble is crisp but not fatiguing. The typical holographic tube soundstage is spot on with the Grados. I highly recommend the WA8.
Thank you for sharing your recommendation - I had a bad feeling the WA8 and the tubes might have right synergy with PS series! It’s just that the WA8 is just out of reach at retail prices…and the WA11 was within. Guess it time to work on those patience!
Does anyone in the Bay Area (CA) have a WA8 that might be willing to meet up for a couple of beers?!
Indeed. Very pleasurable group of people to conversate, and joke around with.
Just like a couple of buddies with cigars and whiskey, the comradery is unbeatable.
People usually fight over a few things: price, cable, FR curve and amp, and none of them applies to Grado.
You can buy Grado at any price point from $50 to $2k, they sound pretty good out of almost anything (although high current amps recommended) and the cables are fixed so no swapping. No Grado buyer cares about FR because the company tells you their cans are not neutral. The only thing left to discuss are how awesome they sound and what pads to use
Great choice! I very much recomend Prezemyslav and his Nyczaj pads they are very comfy and boost the bass which many grados lack! Well currently i don't have a stack but don't need a DAC/AMP for grados as they are very easy to drive something like the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter can do quite well (it is only 10$) but you 100% could run grados with a DAC/AMP setup and it will make them sound better but it's not going to be a huge difference.
The SR325x will sound better than the SR325, if you already have the SR325x then you don't need to buy the SR325. They look exactly the same.(There are very early SR325's that were black not silver) There were SR325i with chrome, gold finnish.
Thanks @jonathan c! My entry to the world of the Dead. 23 minute Dark Star? Of course! Turn on your love light? 15 minutes for sure! Feedback! Gotta have Feedback! Almost 8 minutes. This album represents the typical 2nd set just fine. Haven't listened to this in decades. Tonight's The Nite!
Correct--the original 325 was black anodized aluminum with shallow cylindrical short beveled cups. Later the 325 came in brushed aluminum with a deeper cylindrical cup with short beveled edges (most beautiful too me). Then the gold anodized aluminum 325i was a 50th Anniversary Edition with cylindrical long beveled edges which are found through to the 325x. The 325is was the chrome--which was very short lived. After the chrome they were brushed aluminum--then silver powder coated which currently continues through to the (x) series.
So, I’m still a little on the fence on the chrome SR325is cans I bought. Like I’ve said they clearly have the red e drivers and the e cable with 3.5mm termination, but they stopped making chrome around July of 2011 with the e series coming out years later.
Never thought to check, but I now did and they do not have a serial number anywhere and according to the SR325i thread there should be one under the pads.
There are two things that people say about Grados.
1. They all sound the same.
2. They sound the same regardless of what kind of DAC/amp you use.
Well, I cannot address 1. because I have only heard my one set of Grado SR325x cans which I’ve owned for a month. However I can say that 2. is totally incorrect.
The DAC/amps I've used them with are my portable iFi Audio iDSD Gryphon (cost well over twice the price of the Grados) and my Meridian Prime headphone amp which has a separate power supply (total cost nearly six times that of the SR325x).
They sound very different indeed depending on which DAC/amp I’m using and, in truth, they are massively better with the Meridian Prime, but there is still something about the iFi Audio Gryphon that is better.
I think they partner very well with the Gryphon. The biggest problem with the Gryphon is its thick woody bass, but the SR325x cans don’t seem to exacerbate that like my Beyerdynamic T1 cans. Treble with the Gryphon is excellent and overall everything sounds very coherent.
With the Meridian Prime, now we are in a totally different territory. To use a horrid Hi Fi cliché the difference is indeed “night and day”. With the Prime you have wonderful separation between the instruments, there is much more articulacy and dynamic range. There is one negative about the Prime which is that occasionally high notes will shout a bit, so in that regard the Gryphon is better, however using the Prime is so much better on every other level that with the choice you will always go for the Prime.
So, from what I can hear the SR325x will sound very different with different DAC/amps and can perform at a very surprisingly high level with more expensive DAC/amps.
As I mentioned previously--maybe they were in need of drivers and Grado did not have any (is) drivers--so they replaced them with (e) drivers which came with the 1/8" termination.
What makes you so "concerned" about the serial# anyway? The serial# is inscribed around the edge of the driver housing. Are you 100% sure you looked well enough? And maybe Grado doesn't provide a serial# for replacement drivers being they're not a finished product? You've received feedback on why the (e) drivers might have been installed (two times) and now it's the serial# that is "concerning" you. If you're "on the fence" with your headphones and feel something isn't right--then why not return them instead of not enjoying them?
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The album (CD)?
[Warner Brothers: released November, 1969.]
