[stokitw]

Actually, I consider myself very lucky to take advantage on the common dislike of GS-1000 among some Grado fans. If this is just a more refined RS-1, I cannot imagine how persistent the used price will be. I really appreciate John Grado's attempt to make one of his headphones a great one for orchestral works. Even though he may lose some of the old fans by doing so. Side by side, GS-1000 does not have the RS-1's sweetness on solo or small scale works but the sound is more realistic in a concert hall setting (I don't like the word neutral while lots of people often use it as a antonym of "musical" in describing sound though.). Now I can finally sit myself in the middle part of the concert hall which typically has the best sound unlike the very front row sound which traditional Grados give me. Now the space between me and orchestra is desirable, yet the detail does not suffer. Moreover, the sound still benefits from the Grado's extreme openness like every other Grado does. That is, you won't have the artificial hall feeling like some other phones provides (for large scale works, this is not that bad. But this would either shrink the room and overly expand the room in smaller works.).

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcf /img/forum/go_quote.gif You are not the only one for sure. They are not the most popular cans here. I happen to like them very much and think $699 is a very good price for a new pair.

 

[choka]

should i jump on this?

I am fully prepared to buy d7000 when j&r has it back in stock again. I am prepared to buy a grado rs1 after that, in perhaps a year's time, but, this is a good deal for a high-end grado. However, there is not a lot of reviews of gs1000 here and most of what I read, are statements that gs1000 does not sound like a grado AT ALL. Should I buy this one and delay the d7000 purchase? Am I going to regret because it doesn't have the grado house sound at all?

 

[MomijiTMO]

I wish I had the cash

.

 

[stokitw]

One thing you want to think about is that a system built around GS-1000 may be quite different from one for D7000. If you tried D7000 and like its sound, then stick with your ears rather than hearsay (including my saying ). If you haven't tried any of your candidates, you probably think about how to built a system around the new phones.

Compare to non-Grado phones, GS-1000 is still slightly more engaging. For classical music, this trick works extremely well. It gives you the ocassionally wow (simply toward the instrument's sound) just like what happens when attending high quality live concert. However, compare to lower Grado phones, it is much less engaging due to the Jumbo pad. If you focus on rock or pops, then the amazing in your face feeling from lower Grados is not there (change pads could change it, but I don't care since my collection is largely classical.). Since this is the key difference between lower Grados and phones from other brand, it is not surprising that people would find GS-1000 sounds like others but Grados. So the answer really depends on the definition of Grado's sound. GS-1000 does not give you the front rows sound like other Grados. Now you are sitting in probably row 5 to 10, but the instrument's sound is still like Grado not others (try accoustic guitar solo and you'll know what I mean. BTW, the increase on distance improves the reproduction of piano sound a lot.).

Quote:

Originally Posted by choka /img/forum/go_quote.gif should i jump on this? I am fully prepared to buy d7000 when j&r has it back in stock again. I am prepared to buy a grado rs1 after that, in perhaps a year's time, but, this is a good deal for a high-end grado. However, there is not a lot of reviews of gs1000 here and most of what I read, are statements that gs1000 does not sound like a grado AT ALL. Should I buy this one and delay the d7000 purchase? Am I going to regret because it doesn't have the grado house sound at all?

 

[choka]

I have tried the d7000 only very briefly and I liked the sound. Grados are something I have NEVER touched.

A system I'm going to build? I am actually going to build a beta22 and gamma2 later on. I have already bought some parts for them but I've gotten pretty busy on work I won't have time to do any soldering any time soon. I would hope that I'd just have one or two amps and I can change the sound signature by plugging in different cans when I listen to different music. If that doesn't work out then I'll have to reconsider my amp and dac strategy, but I want to delay that to as late as possible.

What I listen to are mostly female vocals, ranging from electronica/trip-hop (e.g., portishead) to r&b/neo-soul (e.g., erykah badu) to pop (e.g., sara bareilles) to piano solos to jazz. I would imagine the d7000 (to replace my darth beyer) would work very well for electronica stuff, while my k702 and may be a high-end AT later would handle jazzy stuff and may be a grado would do my pop good. The grado part is purely a guess.

 

[jjinh]

It looks like they offer international shipping.. but grado doesnt let their dealers ship their stock internationally do they?

 

[Graphicism]

Oh no! ... I'm contemplating buying these and I'm supposed to be saving!

 

[alont]

I purchased my GS-1000i for this price and I haven't regretted it for a second!
I absolutely love the laid back sound, and the absolutely massive soundstage.
These babies shine the most in classical music pieces, but after some burn in, they become a real treat in other genres as well.

 

[aimlink]

It may well the be a GS1000 and not a GS1000i that's for sale for that price, isn't it?

 

[alont]

Apparently, yes.
I didn't even know some stores still have the old model in stock.

 

[Ridleyguy]

As a 1st impression, I auditioned all of the Grado line briefly at once in January, didn't like any of them except the GS-1000i, which I did find quite different from the others and preferred it to even their top model. I auditioned them with classical piano music though, so I couldn't comment at all beyond that. I ended up buying HD650s as there was a huge price differential (GS1000i price is $1,200 CAD), but for this price, I would have considered the GS-1000i much more seriously. Now I'm very tempted ...

 

[Dobber65]

That is slightly less than the price I paid for my GS1K new, and I have not regretted owning them. As everyone states, the GS1K does have a different signature than the traditional Grado sound, in that it is larger and handles orchestral works very well. It still provides a dose of the Grado traditional sound for rock, but the RS-1s still rule the Grado family for this (but man, the SR-60s remain a steal for their price).

The GS1Ks are more sensitive to their supporting system, but if you can dial in the amp and source, you will be rewarded. They remain a unique and special headphone, but may not be to everyone's liking.