I think I have some... The same pair spent several more days playing radio boradcast and noise (switched), some music, and then several hours of The Roots "Phrenology" CD in order to provide high amplitude low bass of different genres. The last was going in my house on my solid state amp, providing very low output impedance thus high damping factor and strong transducer control. I also verified the maximum volume level each half an hour to check the progress of burning in as the limit of clear sounding bass was increasing quite rapidly. Well, at the end of the bass excercise I realized the there is no compression effect even at high volumes which I knew from the past RS2, RS1 and GS1000 observation while burning in, so I released the PS1000's from tortures and started the comparison with my GS1000's.
At the beginning I'd like to admit that I made a quick comparison in the shop where the GS1000i's came back from the loan in the meanwhile. The comparison was quick and with clear results - the GS1000i's had muffled highs due to the air barrier which sometimes makes you feel fly with the wind but on the other hand prevents the music to be played directly to you with no obstacles in the way from the scene foreground to your ears. So I was curious how it would be like on my rig.
OK, so I put some Haydn violin quartet concertos in my CDP and started to listen. The PS1000's showed closer, bigger instruments and clear ambience. The GS1000's presented wider and more distant soundstage with some blowing air across the stage, a bit of nervousness and the specific high midrange bump which is very slight but obvious. On the other hand, when I switched to some HC kind of Body Count, I liked the playing air better than the PS1000's accuracy and slight treble offensiveness. But I thought to myself - why not to try re-adjusting the whole rig? It's all DIY, with no IC just PCB's connected together, all parts outside, some in sockets. The GS1000's led me to the point that I had a different favorite each day among say 5 types of DAC output stages. The PS1000's showed me obvious supremacy of one of them and gained from this move tremendously.
The massage for you guys is as follows.
When you're moving back and forth rolling high quality op-amps, tubes, cables and other stuff without clear answer which one is optimal, use better headphones! Actually, further comparison to the GS1000's stopped making sense here and will just provide some brief impressions, unordered mostly due to enthusiasm and respect to the guy(s) who designed the PS1000's.
I'm sure Piotr Ryka will provide much better and thorough disassembly of the PS1000's sonic signature as the headphones are going to him today.
So, how do the PS1000's sound when I feel it's the synergy? First - the sound is huge, the height of the soundstage is big enough to have impression there is no limit. The sources sound like from big speakers. These are headphones that
can provide very speaker-like presentation when properly matched with the amp
and the source. With another DAC configuration it was just "headphonish" kind of presentation, without "ritual" playing manner of the GS1000's what was the advantage in that case. Also, when paired well tonally with the rest of the rig, the trebles are no longer dry or aggressively forward. You don't hear the metallic echo in the mid-upper midrange any more, either. The midrange becomes sweet, smooth, shiny, euphonic and complete. These headphones are more of a camaleon than the GS1000's. They behave like a microscope of your rig signature so the completion of the system might take even longer than for the GS1000's. But the prize is worthy because the PS1000's IMHO provide a greater step forward from the GS1000's than expected from the price difference. At this level of quality people expect logarithmic gain compared to necessary funds. Here, many things is obviously improved for less than twice the $$ dough. Let's continue.
Bass - it sounds strong and even with stable bottom end, no higher part bump like in the GS1k's. It's quick and heavy at the same time. Kind of F1 bolid? Maybe. But the most impressive part is its threedimensionality and the feeling of air clouds released by the instrument and vibrating. They have specific sound each time, so it's a lifelike accuracy of the foot drum or double bass. The impact is perfect, hard but not hurting.
Midrange - I already told you but here is lots of other audible aspects. In my opinion the PS1k's have excellent impulse response. The attack is faster than in the GS1k's but the most impressive is decay. There is also no low midrange euphonic decoration like in the GS1000's which helps lesser audio components but at some level is unnecessary.
The sound texture and resolution is perfectly preserved until the note completely disappears. It's so accurate and fluent that you won't predict the release moment. For me personally, these headphones (cannot compare to the K1000's) provide the whole new level of transient fidelity. The instrument separation is top notch and the ambience is completely clear, with dark background. The echo's from the studio room or the concert hall have very obvious shape. Yes, the shape...
Shape of sounds - it deserves another section as it is something completely new to me amongst all headphones I've tried so far and setting new level of live presentation. The
living shape of each sound. It's not static while decay, it behaves like a plasma entity, changing it's boundaries, density, shape and trasparency - you can see through the sound further, or it's just "opaque", or it can change.
Trebles - even, accurate, very well textured. No softness or sibilance. Perfect but I doubt the K1000's would be beaten here. However, I don't care for this.
More - I give up. These headphones impressed me too much. They are very resolving, bring new and sometimes surprising informations about well known records, especially vocals. They have many features of the K1000's surpassing them with the bass extension and authority, impression of being right there with the performers, not only "in front of" performers. These are true contenders for the only headphones and for the ultimate dynamic headphones. For me - the whole new level of dynamic transducer headphones experience. There is no coming back to the GS1000's and accepting their "lies".
And I don't believe there is a cable making the GS1000's come so close that the compromise makes sense. It's about the transducers IMHO. You're milage may vary and I hope it won't.
The CD's used were as previously, plus some Blue Note jazz records, Pearl Jam "Ten", Grieg and Prokofiev compilations.
