[GuineaMcPig]

I'm new to this forum, but I do have a little bit of experience with headphones. My first decent pair were Koss PortaPros, followed by an upgrade to Grado SR-80's and then a pair of Ety ER-6's (I just sold the ER-6's yesterday). Previously all my listening has been done on a PJB-100 MP3 player, which has surprisingly balanced sound and a decent headphone output. Now I'm looking to upgrade...not just my headphones but my source as well.

My first question is one that I've had ever since I first read about the differences between Grado phones. I've never quite understood why the SR-60's and SR-80's are said to be easily powered by most portable sources, while cans higher up in the Grado line are said to require an amp. Aren't the impedance of all of the Grado 'phones 32 ohms? And since they're all the same, shouldn't the RS-1's be able to be driven from a portable just as well as the SR-60's? Someone needs to straighten me out here.

As for the upgrades I'm considering, I'm looking at the Jolida JD-100 as my new source and another pair of Grado's...every phone from the SR-225's up to the RS-1's interest me. I won't be able to buy an amp right away, but my hope is that the headphone amp in the JD-100 will make an outboard amp unnecessary. Does anyone have any experience listening to the JD-100 with headphones?

I would also appreciate any recommendations of which Grado headphone to purchase. My musical tastes range from electronica to jazz to classic rock (favorite artists: Radiohead, Bjork, Beck, Sigur Ros, Flaming Lips, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bill Evans, etc.).

Thanks!

 

[OriginalReaper]

I had 225s for a year without an amp. I had a SlimX and a D25S. I just got a Meta42, the difference is immediately noticeable. I wouldn't recommend SR225s (the Grados I had) without an amp.

I don't know what a JD-100 is, though.

 

[DLP]

I find the SR125 to sound surprisingly good out of my Minidisc player, but I agree with OriginalReaper that the difference an amp makes is huge. I like the sound I currently have, but definitely feel that the music is held back a little bit by the lack of an amp.

 

[blessingx]

I previously owned the sr-80's and recently tried the sr-225's, sr-325's, and rs-1's. Tested out of a Denon CD deck and Meta Mint. Thought it went- 1>225>325>80. Actually if talking overall smoothness, I thought the 325's were a better version of the 80's, while the 225's were a step down from the rs-1's. The high problems of the 80's still seem present in the 325's, but not in the 225's. Ended up with those (couldn't afford the rs-1). I would say the step from 80's to 225's is significant. More so than the 225's to rs-1's (in at least that setup).

I have tried the 225's straight out of the iPod. While the iPod's out is pretty strong, so I'm not making any generalizations about portables, it's probably less than many receivers, some decent soundcards, etc. The 225's still sounded really nice even without an amp.

Also welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about... well, not sure.

 

[mojoman]

I have owned the Jolida JD-100 for about a year now. It does have a pretty decent headphone out. It's MOSFET based and, I believe, the tube output is in the headphone loop. I've used it to drive HD-580 and Aless. MS-1. It does a pretty good job with the MS-1s but requires a volumn at about 3/4 full to drive the Senns to any kind volumn

One thing about the Jolida is that some people have reported quality problems. Don't know any details but do your research. For my part, my player has been flawless and it sounds real good. One thing that I like is it has two sets of rca output so you can drive a headphone amp and have it hooked into your preamp at the same time.

 

[LTUCCI1924]

HI: I had the RS1 and still have the SR 225. In my portable rig the RS1 don't sound better than the SR 225 actually they both sounded about the same. In my home rig the RS1 sound somewhat better than the SR 225 but not 3 times the price better. I fell the SR 225 are that good and the best bang for the buck over the RS1. Maybe if a member has a better source than my source then the RS1 would sound a lot better than the SR 225 but I really don't know about that?