Grado Rs1e – review of TTVJ’s “touring” model:
Reckon most cowpokes here know the retro Grado look. The mahogany wood cups (cylinders, really) on the Rs1e are mighty pretty - but why aren't they sanded properly?. Visually, they’re fine, but run your fingers around the wood and there are rough spots. What’s up with that? The headphones are pretty light and comfortable on the ear; their “clamp” is soft. The foam pads feel fine on the ear, but not as luxurious as ‘phones with materials such as velour or leather. Cable is thick and sturdy (that can be a plus or a minus depending on your use), 4 feet in length, and comes with an equally heavy duty 15 foot extension cable.
Listening: I compared this $700 headphone with the new HiFiMan 400i ($500) and the classic Sennheiser HD600 ($400).
This Rs1e does shine a light on voices. It’s easy to follow nuances and subtleties of vocal performances. But on the first several tracks I played, bass seemed rather lightweight - I started playing more bass rich music to evaluate. Michael Murray playing Bach’s eternal Toccata and Fugue in D Minor sounded good, but lacked some power. Switching to the competitors, the HD600 and HE400i played far deeper and fuller in the bass, more the way I know this recording should be. The 600 in particular gave more air and bass and decay, and no less detail. Compared to the Grado, the 600 and 400i were more similar to hearing this over my full-range speaker system.
On Interpol’s “Public Pervert (Carlos D Remix), the Grado's give a nice regular bass - BUT the track is a dance remix, produced by their BASSIST, and 600 and 400i each show how the bass should be nicely, intentionally more prominent.
Listening to the Texas Tornados, “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, the Grado's gave an adequate bass account. Above that, they do an excellent job with Freddy Fender’s voice.
In “This Protector” by the White Stripes, the piano does not have enough body through Mr. Woodie Grado. The HD600 gave the size back to the instrument. It was no concert grand, but even this rinky-tink piano has some body and force, and the Grado missed it.
In the track “Bronson”, by Calla, the Grado's showed good speed and were fine at bringing out the second guitar picking in the background. Good jump factor and dynamics. But they really faded in the stretch. The 600 and the 400i (henceforth the “1Ki”) killed them with bass atmosphere in the latter part of this song.
In “Pay the Price, by Deltron 3030, the Grado largely lacks the foundational bass which sets the tone for the whole song. It misses the power and the long decay of the piano at 0:55, which sets up the next section.
On Interpol’s “Obstacle 1” the Grado was too harsh on guitars, especially the one on the left. Bass is there, but it’s more important to this song than the Grado allows. Musically for this group, Carlos Dengler’s bass is like a third guitar, just lower in pitch, and should not be lower in volume. The whole interplay of the 16 total strings is diminished. Through the 600, the bass is restored, and the kick drum is back in action. The guitars, during the staccato 1-2, 1-2 repetitions, are still insistent and untreated, but much more tolerable.
Interpol’s sound led me back to Joy Division, a clear musical predecessor. On “Closer”, through the 600’s, I wanted to get up and dance. The 10’ cable allowed me to. Peter Hook’s bass was solid and tuneful. Deep when deep, and full of character when played low (high) on the neck. The Grado was a pale imitation.
On Purity Ring’s “ungirthed”, the Grado was quick. The voice had a little bit of an edge/glare here. I’m not sure if that’s in the recording or not. But the 1ki gave push and pulse to the song, with full bass. The 400i was more aggressive on the female voice, but it and the 600 both gave a fuller account of the whole song than the Grado's did.
In Frank Sinatra performing “The way you look tonight”, the Grado gets the outbursts of the horns nicely. The 1ki bring out the bass from the background better, and make the swing swingier. The 400i gets the brassiness of the horns even better than the Grados. The 1ki put the whole song together better - you don’t have to mentally fill in the power of the band.
On Soundgarden’s “black hole sun”, the Grado gave lots of detail on the decay of guitar chords. But once again the bass was insufficient. The 1Ki were both better on this, with the HD600 coming out best on this track’s bass (through the Valhalla 2), with a more solid and natural tone. The 400i gives more prominent treble detail here than the 600.
Cassandra Wilson, Vietnam Blues: Grado sounds nice, with rich vocal, nice acoustic guitar, acoustic bass solid, mandolin. The 600 gives more bass, with growl to it, and the drums were more solid. Voice through the 600 is relatively more chesty - I think more natural, tho I would need to have Cassandra in my house to be sure. The 400i was similar to the 600, with some more emphasis to the guitar sound.
My notes give more examples and songs, but a sense of mercy tell me to, please, stop now. The Grados were fine when listened to by themselves, i.e., without direct comparison to the 1ki competitors. They were easy to drive from any source (I used Amarra to Bifrost/Valhalla 2 for most comparisons here, and some vinyl (via Sumiko/Pro-Ject/Pro-Ject), and also Amarra to NuForce uDac-2, and direct from iPhone). The Rs1e leave me wondering about one trope I’ve heard around here, that Grado's are good for electric guitars and rock. I found the opposite; loud guitars were less pleasing through these than through the 1ki, and worse then even my little iGrado. The insufficient level of mid to low bass from these cans was surprising and disappointing. They have their strengths in higher pitched vocals, and in general listening, but they didn’t make me dance. I’m a little mystified since I was looking forward to hearing these, and I thought their high positioning in the Grado lineup, and the wood ear cups, and the $700 price would ensure a great headphone. I’m sorry I didn’t get as much pleasure from these as I thought I might. Two users had these on “tour” before me, so they must have been burned-in alright. I also put them on shuffle for a continuous 48 hours to give them more time, but it didn’t help. Bummer.
Looking forward to reading the next impressions, I hope others may find them higher-end than I did.
TL;DNR: Treble strengths not enough to compensate for puzzlingly insufficient bass.