I found another review here from "Jazzloft" website. While he doesn't compare to other IEM's it is a nice write-up!
For my tastes, $300 for the GR8 is easily worth it. I have no regrets, & feel blessed to have these earbuds. If I ever break or lose my GR8s, I will buy another set of them (can't live without this superior sound quality). For anyone who could appreciate the sonics & be careful to keep them nice, I would recommend the GR8 as a bargain @ $300. For earbuds, the GR8 gets closer to the GS-1000i capabilities than anything else I’ve auditioned (even IEMs costing over 4X more than the GR8 costs). The longer you listen through Grado ear-fi products, the more you appreciate them. The sonic discoveries you make seem to be 'time-released'. So your initial impression of them will be your 'worst-case' scenario. Your listening experiences just get better & better, as you learn what to listen for. The ‘Grado’ signature sound is natural, incandescent, & unstressed. There is nothing harsh or disjointed about the sound. Music rendered through the GR8 sounds complex & honest. There is a sense of ease that is just intoxicating. You hear warmth that does not come at the expense of clarity. It’s musically authentic warmth, which is really there in the musical signal as plausibly proportioned overtone information. Its content is phase-coherent & transparent (ie, not smeared coloration from the drivers). The 2 best indicators of the sonic warmth’s authenticity are a.) the speed, & b.) the spatial cuing. Musical transients are very easily rendered with life-like realism—The attacks are lightening fast & unstrained, with no discernable compression or overshoot…The decays are undamped & fully unprocessed sounding. The source itemization is impressively holographic for earbuds. GR8 gets right not only the sound-staging of the instruments in terms of placement and timing, but also the proper/convincing relationship of direct & ambient sound content present during the recording. Listening experiences are phenomenally immersive & dimensional. The GR8 dynamic range is unassailable—It remains fully-developed all the way down to the tiniest listening volumes, meaning that the music’s liveliness remains intact for safe listening levels. You can enjoy the un-fatiguing GR8 long-term, without compromise. Truly AMAZING products, which are difficult to over-state. I guess it's like Porsche & Ferrari owners...They don't have any questions. There is something about owning products like those which just can not be explained to people who don't already know the feeling. Once you get it, there is no sales pitch necessary. Everybody else can just go buy something else, you don't care. You have what turns you on, & that's all you need to know. RiP
