[EarAche#9]

Hey fellow GS1000 owner-

While the GS1Ks offer superior comfort and soundstaging capabilities, they do "suffer" from steep rises at 100 hz and around 7 khz. This does help with low volume listening, but can bring out too much bass and sibilants/"digititus" when listening at normal or greater levels.

Here's their frequency response graph...
Grado GS-1000 @ HeadRoom - Right Between Your Ears

My solution was to buy a Behringer Ultracurve Pro DEQ 2496...
BEHRINGER: DEQ2496
The going rate seems to be around $250-300 new.

You can EQ out those rises in frequency response to taste with the Parametric EQ function in the DEQ. Verrrry easy to do- especially with the graph above used as a guide. And once done you've got your comfort and soundstaging that the 1Ks are famous for, along with a more neutral sound.

My setup
lossless files from digital out on Macbook Pro -> DEQ 2496 -> Monarchy de-jittering device DIP 24/96 -> Birdland Audio Odeon-lite DAC -> Headroom Total Bithead -> GS1000

I could definitely use a better HP amp, but with the phones EQd and sounding real nice I'm not as tempted as I should be. I also use the DEQ 2496 to provide room correction for my bedroom stereo.

Best of luck getting your phones sounding good. They really are something special when they're dialed in.

Ache

 

[EarAche#9]

PS If the media player you're using on your computer has an EQ function you can try that as well. The sound quality won't be as good as a stand-alone EQer, but you could at least get a feel for what EQ can do for your phones.

 

[XXII]

Why don't you take your D5000 home and do a comparison. Maybe the GS-1000s are just not right for you?

If you're worried about your FLACs, does the same thing happen when you play CDs?

 

[mmuse]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda /img/forum/go_quote.gif second the different dac suggestion. lavry is a stinker when it comes to music, it's about as interesting as a plain white piece of copy paper.

?? don't you want your DAC to do exactly that (converting 1s and 0s to analog wave as closely as possible)? And have your phone amp to put some color to the wave? Tube rolling is prefect for that.

 

[boomy3555]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XXII /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why don't you take your D5000 home and do a comparison. Maybe the GS-1000s are just not right for you? If you're worried about your FLACs, does the same thing happen when you play CDs?

X2

Hundreds of people here at Head.Fi say that the Grados, properly driven can bring tears to your eyes, how can that many people be wrong? Simple there are as many differences in the feel of Headphones from one person to the next as there are kinds of genre's that people like or dislike. I like my Denon 5000's ( Stock ) better than the Grados 1k's. there is no right or wrong about it. Just do what makes you feel better.

 

[majkel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomy3555 /img/forum/go_quote.gif X2 Hundreds of people here at Head.Fi say that the Grados, properly driven can bring tears to your eyes, how can that many people be wrong?

Statistics mean nothing. 90% of population doesn't distinguish 128kb/s mp3 from lossless. And it's not caused by hearing only. The equipment they use, say it's a boombox, does not allow them to hear the difference in many cases.

The truth about people unhappy with hi-end headphones is that they hear something bad and they don't accept the fact it comes from their sources and amps. But it does. Is it possible that a setup dedicated for the HD595's will give mediocre results on the GS1000's? Yes. Is it possible to hear bad sound on the HD595's from a setup for the GS1000's? No, IMHO.

 

[boomy3555]

Majkel,
Please don't disect my posts. If you wish to quote, please quote the entire post and enbolden what you wish to highlight

Thanks

 

[majkel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boomy3555 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Majkel, Please don't disect my posts. If you wish to quote, please quote the entire post and enbolden what you wish to highlight Thanks

This is not a space saving solution. If you feel I changed the overall sense of your post or you don't agree with my statements, please respond accordingly. Quotation method is up to you. As you can see, this is an open forum, people might do with your posts whatever they want, even quote them in their sigs.

 

[boomy3555]

Well that was very "Caveat Emptor".

 

[imperfectus]

These responses have been very helpful, and I've got to say given me some ideas that allow me to keep my setup.

Thanks so much for all the replies, you guys rock.

 

[imperfectus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfmatt /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1) Make sure you don't use your PC to control the volume. Set both your master OS volume and music app volume to 100% and use the volume knob of your amp to adjust to the desired volume. Simplistic and short: lowering the volume on a computer is done by removing information (=detail) from the audio stream. 2) X2 decent burn in. Play your FLAC collection on a loop for 100 hours or so at decent to loud volume (but not too loud of course). I'd love to have your DAC and unless it's defective it can't be the cause of your problem. It may be too analytical for some but one sure thing is that it won't hold any detail back. Anyway if you've done the steps above and you still feel that way about the sound, it could be that something along the chain is defective. Compare with your D5000 both at home and at work (or even better bring your macbook at home) so you hear for yourself where the problem lies.

If I use the lavry into the Woo Audio 6 -- should the lavry be cranked all the way up as well?

 

[Currawong]

I agree with the earliest posts that it's a system synergy problem. I had a similar issue with an Apogee Duet as a source for K701s: The set-up just wasn't musical.

I liked the Lavry with my Denons on the end. The Denons are my crazy-fun-sounding cans that bring a lot of body to the music, which is great for some things. They seem to be quite tolerant of their source and amp, which probably helped their popularity. I now have HD-600s in place of K701s when I want to enjoy jazz and classical without the craziness though, which are less tolerant, but not as much as I'm getting the impression GS-1000s are.

The most ideal option is to go to a meet or find other local head-fi'ers and have your own mini-meet. That way you can try other gear and get an idea what you like.

 

[sfmatt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imperfectus /img/forum/go_quote.gif If I use the lavry into the Woo Audio 6 -- should the lavry be cranked all the way up as well?

Rule is : gain early, attenuate late
I don't know how volume attenuation is performed in your dac but in doubt you're better off leaving the volume control to your amp. Doesn't have to be cranked up BTW, 80% is enough to avoid digital loss.
You can test it for yourself, if you lower the volume enough in your audio application and your DAC and try to compensate with the amp you will notice the loss of detail.

More info here:
Importance of Volume control location in the signal chain - DIY Mobile Audio
Why Use a Better DAC? | Audio DesignLine