[MacedonianHero]

Do the PS2Ke/Utopia sound similar too you?

Oh goodness no...very different headphones IMO.

 

[joseph69]

@MacedonianHero,
I only asked @up late this question because @Mshenay had said:

"So I spent some time with the HE 4 and PS2KE, the PS2KE reminds me a bit of the Utopia. I only heard the uTopia at a meet in a noisy environment, but it had the same energy of my HE 4 but better nuance and resolve with less sub bass... the PS2KE proves it self the same."

Thanks for the reply!

 

[MacedonianHero]

@MacedonianHero,
I only asked @up late this question because @Mshenay had said:

"So I spent some time with the HE 4 and PS2KE, the PS2KE reminds me a bit of the Utopia. I only heard the uTopia at a meet in a noisy environment, but it had the same energy of my HE 4 but better nuance and resolve with less sub bass... the PS2KE proves it self the same."

Thanks for the reply!

The PS2Ke still sounds very much like a Grado quite different to my ears.

 

[joseph69]

The PS2Ke still sounds very much like a Grado quite different to my ears.

I'm finding I prefer the earlier Grado sound more than the current (e) driver sound, but the PS2Ke even though it has an (e) driver, has more in common with the (i) drivers too my ears, but different as you mentioned. I have +/-75hrs on my PS2Ke and I'm enjoying them very much so far as they continue to mature.

 

[up late]

Do the PS2Ke/Utopia sound similar too you?

in a word, no. as i wrote in an earlier post here, i found the ps2ke's sound signature brighter and bass lite in comparison to the utopia. the utopia sounded balanced across the frequency range and matched the grado's legendary clarity.

 

[joseph69]

in a word, no. as i wrote in an earlier post here, i found the ps2ke's sound signature brighter and bass lite in comparison to the utopia. the utopia sounded balanced across the frequency range and matched the grado's legendary clarity.

Don't recall reading that post. I asked because I knew you had recently received the Utopia.

 

[up late]

i posted it earlier in this thread. i didn't spend much time with the ps2ke. it was just a quick comparison of the two headphones in which i switched between them a couple of times.

 

[Makiah S]

@MacedonianHero,
I only asked @up late this question because @Mshenay had said:

"So I spent some time with the HE 4 and PS2KE, the PS2KE reminds me a bit of the Utopia. I only heard the uTopia at a meet in a noisy environment, but it had the same energy of my HE 4 but better nuance and resolve with less sub bass... the PS2KE proves it self the same."

Thanks for the reply!

Yea I'm not familiar enough with the "grado" sound, I've also defined it as... aggressive and intimate with a real beautiful mid range emphasis an American Take on Audio Technica, so I lump the PS2KE into that category of aggressive headphones with a touch of mid range emphasis. I can't say if the Utopia has any emphasis, and I don't feel the HE 4 does but all three are Aggressive very aggressive very energetic, with the Utopia being the most resolving that I remember

And for a while there I thought the HD 800 were also "aggressive" cans but they really aren't Sennhesier has this warmth and naturalness to it, something I appreciated about the HD 600 and the HD 800 [even though it's quite bright] it retains a naturalness to it, something that didn't stand out to me till I compared it to my own HE 4 and the PS2KE

I'm sure if I spent more than an hour with the Utopia I'd define it a little differently or I'd get to know that unique quality that it has among the more aggressive headphones.

Audio Technica is another aggressive brand, but Grado's and ATH headphones differ, I've always appreciated an intimacy about Grado's that pair'd with it's aggression and clarity make for a unique and really exciting experience, Audio Techica on the other hand... has a similar aggression well at least from what I remember of the W1000X my experience with my ES10 as well as the AD 900 and AD 2000X, but there's a more romantic quality to Audio Technica's as well as a deeper image with more of a focus on the upper mid range, guitars really come to life on a Grado but Vocals are really magical on Audio Technica, the two overlap as well but you guys get the general idea of what I'm getting at

@MacedonianHero thank you for your input and clarity, I'm hoping to get more intimately antiquated with Focals sound here in the future!

 

[up late]

i think i get where you're coming from. that said, the utopia is dynamic and resolving but i wouldn't call it aggressive. the ps2ke didn't come off as aggressive to me, just somewhat bright. the at's that i'm familiar with tend to be mid-centric and i wouldn't describe their sound signatures as aggressive either. the presentations of these cans are not laid-back or relaxed to my ears, but i'd be inclined to describe them as forward or perhaps up-front rather than aggressive. i tend to associate "aggressive" with a can that has a sharp or ragged treble tilt that assaults the listener. the utopia, ps2ke and at models that i know don't do that ime.

 

[Makiah S]

i think i get where you're coming from. that said, the utopia is dynamic and resolving but i wouldn't call it aggressive. the ps2ke didn't come off as aggressive to me, just somewhat bright. the at's that i'm familiar with tend to be mid-centric and i wouldn't describe their sound signatures as aggressive either. the presentations of these cans are not laid-back or relaxed to my ears, but i'd be inclined to describe them as forward or perhaps up-front rather than aggressive. i tend to associate "aggressive" with a can that has a sharp or ragged treble tilt that assaults the listener. the utopia, ps2ke and at models that i know don't do that ime.

I'm speaking about aggression in terms of the envlope, and aggressive headphone puts a touch of emphasis more on the attack or leading edge of a note than the decay, sustain or release of said note. Not all bright headphones are aggressive, as the Stock HD 800 is bright but isn't aggressive.

The Utopia and Grado's how ever to my ears do have some emphasis more on the attack than the decay/sustain/release. The Utopia is more balanced from my memory, but still has that hint of emphasis on the leading edge of those notes. An frankly I like some aggression in my cans, though less is more and balance is always key! An that said, never forget Sound Engineer's play with sound the same way a painter plays with colors and visuals. Fidelity isn't always their aim, the artist and engineer may want a more aggressive presentation to their music, and will alter natural sounds to fit their vision! Some people's vision is softer than reality, other's is more aggressive and over defined than reality and for some naturalness IS the aim and intent!

I'll always feel that a variety of headphones will better serve you than one for everything, aggressive headphones have their place in a serious listeners collection the same as more relaxed or truly neutral cans do!

 

[joseph69]

@Mshenay
If I cut your arms off, would you still be able to talk?

 

[up late]

I'm speaking about aggression in terms of the envlope, and aggressive headphone puts a touch of emphasis more on the attack or leading edge of a note than the decay, sustain or release of said note. Not all bright headphones are aggressive, as the Stock HD 800 is bright but isn't aggressive.

The Utopia and Grado's how ever to my ears do have some emphasis more on the attack than the decay/sustain/release. The Utopia is more balanced from my memory, but still has that hint of emphasis on the leading edge of those notes. An frankly I like some aggression in my cans, though less is more and balance is always key! An that said, never forget Sound Engineer's play with sound the same way a painter plays with colors and visuals. Fidelity isn't always their aim, the artist and engineer may want a more aggressive presentation to their music, and will alter natural sounds to fit their vision! Some people's vision is softer than reality, other's is more aggressive and over defined than reality and for some naturalness IS the aim and intent!

I'll always feel that a variety of headphones will better serve you than one for everything, aggressive headphones have their place in a serious listeners collection the same as more relaxed or truly neutral cans do!

i understand what you're saying and yes, it all comes down to our perception and personal preference in the end. that's why i don't regard the utopia's reproduction of the leading edge of notes as aggressive (i don't feel qualified to comment on that aspect of the ps2ke's performance because i didn't spend enough time with it). if they sounded overly-emphasised then i would be inclined to agree with you, but they don't to my ears.

 

[CaptainKush]

My heartfelt thanks to Todd for affording me the opportunity to listen to and share my impressions of the dazzling PS2000e headphones from Grado. Apologies for the tardiness of the review. I was out of town for more than a month and then painfully busy after that. But through it all, one question haunted me relentlessly: How in the world did I bring myself to part with the? And would I—could I—ever recover from the separation?

Now for the relevant self-disclosures: I assume I’ve had a bit of hearing loss in the treble range, as corresponds with my age, but nothing major. But curiously, I went to an audiologist for a routine hearing test and was told that I have very mild hearing loss in a frequency range that will one day limit my ability to hear female voices. While this in no way hampered my review, it may actually prove useful down the road. Though I try very hard to be a good listener, in the future, if a woman tells me that I’m not a good listener, I will truthfully respond: “I want to listen, I’m trying to listen, I just can’t.”

I compared the PS2000e to my Grado GS1000s (purchased from Todd just after they came out, before the i and e series) and the Grado RS-1 (bought simultaneous to my GS1000s). The electrical system in my 1927 East Village, New York City apartment building is sketchy (until about 8 or 10 years ago, the landlord only deigned to offer tenants 6.5 amps for their entire apartments!), so I employ a Furman Elite-15 Power Conditioner. My almost exclusively uncompressed AIFF music played in ITunes and passed through a not quite audiophile gold-tipped USB cord (the weak link in my system-need to upgrade) into my Bel Canto DAC 3 (modified to Level 2 by Underwood Hi-Fi) and, via Cardas Golden Reference RCA jacks, into my luscious Zana Deux tube headphone amp. I think my equipment was likely well matched to these cans, given my overall impressions.

Okay, so I plugged it all in and what did I hear? But wait—I also saw!!

The PS2000e unleashed sounds that appeared in my mind’s eye as colored, jagged jewels that erupted into a black velvet vacuum, unleashing fiery, electrical sparks as they blazed across the soundscape. And no—I wasn’t smoking anything!

On my way home to do this evaluation, I’d happened into a store that was blasting the lyrics: “I’m all about the bass, not treble.” Well, this may apply to most listeners these days, but not to yours truly. I’m a melody purist, love the midrange and treble, am definitely not a basshead and detest most of today’s (mostly mindless and lame) beat-driven music. So I figured, I wouldn’t be paying as much attention to the bass on these cans as other reviewers might.

Was I ever wrong! The PS2000e headphone is magnificent across the entire audio spectrum! It blends, but also distills and separates, the full frequency bandwidth rapturously. The bass added fullness, heft, and punch that was seamlessly intertwined with the midrange and treble, imparting sonorous power—I’d dare call it strength and dignity—to every sound it touched. I’d never experienced this “bassic” nirvana before in any of my headphones, nor anywhere else. Yes, I admit it! These Grados turned me into a damnable bass head!

But I’m still a die-hard midrange/treble guy. I’ll even reveal, with some embarrassment, that at times, I hiked the mids and treble on these straight shooting, seemingly die-cut accurate cans to feed my upper mids and treble addiction!

I co-produce the Exotica Hour with Cudra Clover podcast at exoticahour.com, where we play tiki, lounge, secret agent/spy, sci-fi, bossa nova, world and other esoteric music. So I knew there was one candidate to test the trebles on: the music of Juan Esquivel! Esquivel was the genius Grammy winning composer/conductor/pianist who took stereo to higher realms when it was still in its infancy. To this day, he still may be the master of stereo magic. But before the PS2000s, his music always created a problem for me: the brass/horns sections would burst to the fore with such brute force that I’d leap to turn the volume down, in order to preserve a sliver of functioning tympanic membrane. Talk about sibilance!

Like all phones, the GS1000s power-drilled my eardrums when Esquivel’s brass section exploded. But not the PS2000es! They and they alone didn’t get uncomfortably louder, didn’t get shrill. Instead, as if by magic, the full depth of the horn section opened up to me, like a bouquet of roses blooming against that same velvety, black musical landscape. I could hear them, their character, their shimmer. No jackhammer loudness. No sibilance. At last, I could fearlessly blast the genius that is Esquivel in all his splendor. Big check mark, PS2000es!!!

The mids were pure bliss. Torch songs? In my mind’s eye, I could see the flickering flames surrounding Julie London as she sang her #1 classic Cry Me a River. The orange glow of of my Zana Deux’s tubes matched the molten-lava-like glow of these luscious mids!

What’s the overall sound signature? I’m more than a month away from hearing the cans, but my recall is that the sound melded the best of the old-time Grado signature midrange warmth (think RS1s and RS2s), with unprecedented (and sometimes breathtaking) detail and realism, while remaining faithful to and respectful of the full frequency spectrum, from the most subterranean bass to the most ephemeral treble. Stunning, previously unheard details are revealed around every melodic bend in most every song, making a tour of your record collection a new and exciting adventure, It’s audio alchemy!

Before I get into how the cans did with some of my music, I allowed my DJ friend Faith to play songs from her more rhythmic collection- electronica, dub step, hip hop—the genres I generally avoid, at all cost. Even though some of it was compressed, the sound still sounded fantastic. The PS2000e rocked XXXKenPheion’s I’m Sipping Tea in Yo’ Hood. Faith thought the tune’s grittiness and rawness came through as never before, though for me, the artist’s masterful command of the English language’s most vulgar expletives was the song’s most salient feature.

XXX’s performance begs the obvious question: What more could anyone ask of a flagship headphone?! I mean—Hell! The godd@mn, motherf#@%ing PS2000es even shine with expletives!!

My GS1000 was no match at all for the PS2000e. While the proud GS1000 could somewhat hold its own in the treble, it was smashed to bits in the midrange and bass.

The RS1s, which had been my holy grail many, many moons ago, didn’t match up at all, except in one regard: they’re still the most intimate of the three cans. They dispense far less detail—they’re not in the same ballpark as the PS2000es—but the artist is right there with you. You’re basically on stage, amongst the band! With the newer Grados, you’re seated toward the front of the audience. The PS2000es can’t help but give you separation. It’s in their DNA, with the big bowls enveloping you in a lush, wide 3D soundscape. No complaints here: you happily submerge yourself in that heavenly soundstage. Even so, there arises a lingering, tantalizing question: Could the Grado maestros infuse the stunning detail and breathtaking realism of their newer GS and PS models into an updated RS headphone? True, you’d lose much of the soundstage, but for some Grado fans, it might be more than worth the sacrifice. (Just a concept, in case the Grado family somehow eyes this very humble review.)

The PS2000es were wonderful on every kind of music I threw at them. Peter, Paul and Mary, the Grateful Dead, Dave Brubeck, the Beatles, it didn’t matter.

They even sounded great with (ugh!) compressed files! I listened to Dean Martin’s Everybody Loves Somebody from a 256k AAC ITunes purchased file and it sounded surprisingly incredible!

(Note to Apple: How is it that you can give us multi-terabyte hard drives, but not lossless or AIFF ITunes songs?! Not to mention, high rez files?! Last I looked, Tyrannosaurus Rexes weren’t ambling up and down Broadway! May the ghost of Steve Jobs haunt you relentlessly until you pull this together!!)

I checked out Petula Clark’s Downtown, which I’d heard on AM radio, also back in the day. It was a whole different experience! Well, of course it was—but even more so than I’d expected. You could hear what a fine sound studio the song must have been recorded in. On the radio, you filled in the musical details with your imagination. No need for that with the PS2000es; they exceed even your finest imaginings!

Martin Denny’s version of Misirlou had a haunting sound, with a dazzling array of ultra exotic instruments winking in and out of various pinpoints of the soundstage. The fact that the master tape must be around 65 years old made the vaguely faded stereo recording sound all the more mystical, nay, palpable. Tiki people, FYI, Martin Denny’s and Les Baxter’s exotica masterpieces never sounded so good!

Same for everything else! These cans will impart magic to whatever they touch. Not some artificial, conjured magic, but the heart, the passion, the power, the full extent of the artist’s intent, will shine through, like you’ve likely never heard. Most every song played on these phones will thrill you, as well as surprise you, with heretofore unheard details.

Sometimes, the sonic brilliance will become a thing of its own. You’ll be listening to the headphone’s dazzling showmanship and, for a moment, find yourself distracted from the music, just grooving on what the cans are doing. Is that what they mean by the sound being overly technical? I believe so and if so, hey, it’s no problem! It’s like an added feature! It’s almost like you can listen to the song or pay attention to the magnificence of the headphone, or most of the time, both simultaneously. Bravo, 2000es!

In a nutshell, the PS2000e turned my 30,000 digital song library into a collection of mesmerizing transcendental experiences! True, my system will never rival one that a billionaire’s money can buy. But perhaps that’s the point. The 2000es sounded like a billion dollars, anyway!

Okay. So, the big question: are they worth $2700? Hmm…while we’re on the subject of billionaires’ systems and rival alternatives—let’s run a thought experiment. Assume a revolution has unexpectedly transpired while you were reading this. It’s been announced that wealth has been redistributed fairly and equally, all our basic needs are going to be taken care of, and—here’s the best part—every year, we’ve voted ourselves extra, mad money, to do with as we wish. Some will opt for an extra vacation, others will get jewelry or a motorcycle, still others will grab TVs with screens bigger than their houses. What will you do? Me?—I’m cashing in my voucher for the ultimate transportative device: the magnificent, Grado PS2000es! For me, the PS2000es are a leap, not a mere step or couple of steps over the other cans I’ve discussed here. They deserve to be called Flagships.

But alas! I just checked and much to my chagrin, no revolution happened and zilch mad money has been issued! Ugh! Life! You can’t live with it and you can’t live without it! Anyway, for those who can afford them, a universe of musical adventure awaits you! Have a song for me, while you’re at it! And as for me, I’m holding out for the revolution—and my PS2000es!!

 

[Makiah S]

My heartfelt thanks to Todd for affording me the opportunity to listen to and share my impressions of the dazzling PS2000e headphones from Grado. Apologies for the tardiness of the review. I was out of town for more than a month and then painfully busy after that. But through it all, one question haunted me relentlessly: How in the world did I bring myself to part with the? And would I—could I—ever recover from the separation?

Now for the relevant self-disclosures: I assume I’ve had a bit of hearing loss in the treble range, as corresponds with my age, but nothing major. But curiously, I went to an audiologist for a routine hearing test and was told that I have very mild hearing loss in a frequency range that will one day limit my ability to hear female voices. While this in no way hampered my review, it may actually prove useful down the road. Though I try very hard to be a good listener, in the future, if a woman tells me that I’m not a good listener, I will truthfully respond: “I want to listen, I’m trying to listen, I just can’t.”

I compared the PS2000e to my Grado GS1000s (purchased from Todd just after they came out, before the i and e series) and the Grado RS-1 (bought simultaneous to my GS1000s). The electrical system in my 1927 East Village, New York City apartment building is sketchy (until about 8 or 10 years ago, the landlord only deigned to offer tenants 6.5 amps for their entire apartments!), so I employ a Furman Elite-15 Power Conditioner. My almost exclusively uncompressed AIFF music played in ITunes and passed through a not quite audiophile gold-tipped USB cord (the weak link in my system-need to upgrade) into my Bel Canto DAC 3 (modified to Level 2 by Underwood Hi-Fi) and, via Cardas Golden Reference RCA jacks, into my luscious Zana Deux tube headphone amp. I think my equipment was likely well matched to these cans, given my overall impressions.

Okay, so I plugged it all in and what did I hear? But wait—I also saw!!

The PS2000e unleashed sounds that appeared in my mind’s eye as colored, jagged jewels that erupted into a black velvet vacuum, unleashing fiery, electrical sparks as they blazed across the soundscape. And no—I wasn’t smoking anything!

On my way home to do this evaluation, I’d happened into a store that was blasting the lyrics: “I’m all about the bass, not treble.” Well, this may apply to most listeners these days, but not to yours truly. I’m a melody purist, love the midrange and treble, am definitely not a basshead and detest most of today’s (mostly mindless and lame) beat-driven music. So I figured, I wouldn’t be paying as much attention to the bass on these cans as other reviewers might.

Was I ever wrong! The PS2000e headphone is magnificent across the entire audio spectrum! It blends, but also distills and separates, the full frequency bandwidth rapturously. The bass added fullness, heft, and punch that was seamlessly intertwined with the midrange and treble, imparting sonorous power—I’d dare call it strength and dignity—to every sound it touched. I’d never experienced this “bassic” nirvana before in any of my headphones, nor anywhere else. Yes, I admit it! These Grados turned me into a damnable bass head!

But I’m still a die-hard midrange/treble guy. I’ll even reveal, with some embarrassment, that at times, I hiked the mids and treble on these straight shooting, seemingly die-cut accurate cans to feed my upper mids and treble addiction!

I co-produce the Exotica Hour with Cudra Clover podcast at exoticahour.com, where we play tiki, lounge, secret agent/spy, sci-fi, bossa nova, world and other esoteric music. So I knew there was one candidate to test the trebles on: the music of Juan Esquivel! Esquivel was the genius Grammy winning composer/conductor/pianist who took stereo to higher realms when it was still in its infancy. To this day, he still may be the master of stereo magic. But before the PS2000s, his music always created a problem for me: the brass/horns sections would burst to the fore with such brute force that I’d leap to turn the volume down, in order to preserve a sliver of functioning tympanic membrane. Talk about sibilance!

Like all phones, the GS1000s power-drilled my eardrums when Esquivel’s brass section exploded. But not the PS2000es! They and they alone didn’t get uncomfortably louder, didn’t get shrill. Instead, as if by magic, the full depth of the horn section opened up to me, like a bouquet of roses blooming against that same velvety, black musical landscape. I could hear them, their character, their shimmer. No jackhammer loudness. No sibilance. At last, I could fearlessly blast the genius that is Esquivel in all his splendor. Big check mark, PS2000es!!!

The mids were pure bliss. Torch songs? In my mind’s eye, I could see the flickering flames surrounding Julie London as she sang her #1 classic Cry Me a River. The orange glow of of my Zana Deux’s tubes matched the molten-lava-like glow of these luscious mids!

What’s the overall sound signature? I’m more than a month away from hearing the cans, but my recall is that the sound melded the best of the old-time Grado signature midrange warmth (think RS1s and RS2s), with unprecedented (and sometimes breathtaking) detail and realism, while remaining faithful to and respectful of the full frequency spectrum, from the most subterranean bass to the most ephemeral treble. Stunning, previously unheard details are revealed around every melodic bend in most every song, making a tour of your record collection a new and exciting adventure, It’s audio alchemy!

Before I get into how the cans did with some of my music, I allowed my DJ friend Faith to play songs from her more rhythmic collection- electronica, dub step, hip hop—the genres I generally avoid, at all cost. Even though some of it was compressed, the sound still sounded fantastic. The PS2000e rocked XXXKenPheion’s I’m Sipping Tea in Yo’ Hood. Faith thought the tune’s grittiness and rawness came through as never before, though for me, the artist’s masterful command of the English language’s most vulgar expletives was the song’s most salient feature.

XXX’s performance begs the obvious question: What more could anyone ask of a flagship headphone?! I mean—Hell! The godd@mn, motherf#@%ing PS2000es even shine with expletives!!

My GS1000 was no match at all for the PS2000e. While the proud GS1000 could somewhat hold its own in the treble, it was smashed to bits in the midrange and bass.

The RS1s, which had been my holy grail many, many moons ago, didn’t match up at all, except in one regard: they’re still the most intimate of the three cans. They dispense far less detail—they’re not in the same ballpark as the PS2000es—but the artist is right there with you. You’re basically on stage, amongst the band! With the newer Grados, you’re seated toward the front of the audience. The PS2000es can’t help but give you separation. It’s in their DNA, with the big bowls enveloping you in a lush, wide 3D soundscape. No complaints here: you happily submerge yourself in that heavenly soundstage. Even so, there arises a lingering, tantalizing question: Could the Grado maestros infuse the stunning detail and breathtaking realism of their newer GS and PS models into an updated RS headphone? True, you’d lose much of the soundstage, but for some Grado fans, it might be more than worth the sacrifice. (Just a concept, in case the Grado family somehow eyes this very humble review.)

The PS2000es were wonderful on every kind of music I threw at them. Peter, Paul and Mary, the Grateful Dead, Dave Brubeck, the Beatles, it didn’t matter.

They even sounded great with (ugh!) compressed files! I listened to Dean Martin’s Everybody Loves Somebody from a 256k AAC ITunes purchased file and it sounded surprisingly incredible!

(Note to Apple: How is it that you can give us multi-terabyte hard drives, but not lossless or AIFF ITunes songs?! Not to mention, high rez files?! Last I looked, Tyrannosaurus Rexes weren’t ambling up and down Broadway! May the ghost of Steve Jobs haunt you relentlessly until you pull this together!!)

I checked out Petula Clark’s Downtown, which I’d heard on AM radio, also back in the day. It was a whole different experience! Well, of course it was—but even more so than I’d expected. You could hear what a fine sound studio the song must have been recorded in. On the radio, you filled in the musical details with your imagination. No need for that with the PS2000es; they exceed even your finest imaginings!

Martin Denny’s version of Misirlou had a haunting sound, with a dazzling array of ultra exotic instruments winking in and out of various pinpoints of the soundstage. The fact that the master tape must be around 65 years old made the vaguely faded stereo recording sound all the more mystical, nay, palpable. Tiki people, FYI, Martin Denny’s and Les Baxter’s exotica masterpieces never sounded so good!

Same for everything else! These cans will impart magic to whatever they touch. Not some artificial, conjured magic, but the heart, the passion, the power, the full extent of the artist’s intent, will shine through, like you’ve likely never heard. Most every song played on these phones will thrill you, as well as surprise you, with heretofore unheard details.

Sometimes, the sonic brilliance will become a thing of its own. You’ll be listening to the headphone’s dazzling showmanship and, for a moment, find yourself distracted from the music, just grooving on what the cans are doing. Is that what they mean by the sound being overly technical? I believe so and if so, hey, it’s no problem! It’s like an added feature! It’s almost like you can listen to the song or pay attention to the magnificence of the headphone, or most of the time, both simultaneously. Bravo, 2000es!

In a nutshell, the PS2000e turned my 30,000 digital song library into a collection of mesmerizing transcendental experiences! True, my system will never rival one that a billionaire’s money can buy. But perhaps that’s the point. The 2000es sounded like a billion dollars, anyway!

Okay. So, the big question: are they worth $2700? Hmm…while we’re on the subject of billionaires’ systems and rival alternatives—let’s run a thought experiment. Assume a revolution has unexpectedly transpired while you were reading this. It’s been announced that wealth has been redistributed fairly and equally, all our basic needs are going to be taken care of, and—here’s the best part—every year, we’ve voted ourselves extra, mad money, to do with as we wish. Some will opt for an extra vacation, others will get jewelry or a motorcycle, still others will grab TVs with screens bigger than their houses. What will you do? Me?—I’m cashing in my voucher for the ultimate transportative device: the magnificent, Grado PS2000es! For me, the PS2000es are a leap, not a mere step or couple of steps over the other cans I’ve discussed here. They deserve to be called Flagships.

But alas! I just checked and much to my chagrin, no revolution happened and zilch mad money has been issued! Ugh! Life! You can’t live with it and you can’t live without it! Anyway, for those who can afford them, a universe of musical adventure awaits you! Have a song for me, while you’re at it! And as for me, I’m holding out for the revolution—and my PS2000es!!

Wooow man!!!!! That was a wild ride but pleasent ride!!!! Thank you for sharing, I can imagine the PS2KE would sing exactly as you've framed it fed with Zana Duex!!!

 

[joethemuss]

My heartfelt thanks to Todd for affording me the opportunity to listen to and share my impressions of the dazzling PS2000e headphones from Grado. Apologies for the tardiness of the review. I was out of town for more than a month and then painfully busy after that. But through it all, one question haunted me relentlessly: How in the world did I bring myself to part with the? And would I—could I—ever recover from the separation?

Now for the relevant self-disclosures: I assume I’ve had a bit of hearing loss in the treble range, as corresponds with my age, but nothing major. But curiously, I went to an audiologist for a routine hearing test and was told that I have very mild hearing loss in a frequency range that will one day limit my ability to hear female voices. While this in no way hampered my review, it may actually prove useful down the road. Though I try very hard to be a good listener, in the future, if a woman tells me that I’m not a good listener, I will truthfully respond: “I want to listen, I’m trying to listen, I just can’t.”

I compared the PS2000e to my Grado GS1000s (purchased from Todd just after they came out, before the i and e series) and the Grado RS-1 (bought simultaneous to my GS1000s). The electrical system in my 1927 East Village, New York City apartment building is sketchy (until about 8 or 10 years ago, the landlord only deigned to offer tenants 6.5 amps for their entire apartments!), so I employ a Furman Elite-15 Power Conditioner. My almost exclusively uncompressed AIFF music played in ITunes and passed through a not quite audiophile gold-tipped USB cord (the weak link in my system-need to upgrade) into my Bel Canto DAC 3 (modified to Level 2 by Underwood Hi-Fi) and, via Cardas Golden Reference RCA jacks, into my luscious Zana Deux tube headphone amp. I think my equipment was likely well matched to these cans, given my overall impressions.

Okay, so I plugged it all in and what did I hear? But wait—I also saw!!

The PS2000e unleashed sounds that appeared in my mind’s eye as colored, jagged jewels that erupted into a black velvet vacuum, unleashing fiery, electrical sparks as they blazed across the soundscape. And no—I wasn’t smoking anything!

On my way home to do this evaluation, I’d happened into a store that was blasting the lyrics: “I’m all about the bass, not treble.” Well, this may apply to most listeners these days, but not to yours truly. I’m a melody purist, love the midrange and treble, am definitely not a basshead and detest most of today’s (mostly mindless and lame) beat-driven music. So I figured, I wouldn’t be paying as much attention to the bass on these cans as other reviewers might.

Was I ever wrong! The PS2000e headphone is magnificent across the entire audio spectrum! It blends, but also distills and separates, the full frequency bandwidth rapturously. The bass added fullness, heft, and punch that was seamlessly intertwined with the midrange and treble, imparting sonorous power—I’d dare call it strength and dignity—to every sound it touched. I’d never experienced this “bassic” nirvana before in any of my headphones, nor anywhere else. Yes, I admit it! These Grados turned me into a damnable bass head!

But I’m still a die-hard midrange/treble guy. I’ll even reveal, with some embarrassment, that at times, I hiked the mids and treble on these straight shooting, seemingly die-cut accurate cans to feed my upper mids and treble addiction!

I co-produce the Exotica Hour with Cudra Clover podcast at exoticahour.com, where we play tiki, lounge, secret agent/spy, sci-fi, bossa nova, world and other esoteric music. So I knew there was one candidate to test the trebles on: the music of Juan Esquivel! Esquivel was the genius Grammy winning composer/conductor/pianist who took stereo to higher realms when it was still in its infancy. To this day, he still may be the master of stereo magic. But before the PS2000s, his music always created a problem for me: the brass/horns sections would burst to the fore with such brute force that I’d leap to turn the volume down, in order to preserve a sliver of functioning tympanic membrane. Talk about sibilance!

Like all phones, the GS1000s power-drilled my eardrums when Esquivel’s brass section exploded. But not the PS2000es! They and they alone didn’t get uncomfortably louder, didn’t get shrill. Instead, as if by magic, the full depth of the horn section opened up to me, like a bouquet of roses blooming against that same velvety, black musical landscape. I could hear them, their character, their shimmer. No jackhammer loudness. No sibilance. At last, I could fearlessly blast the genius that is Esquivel in all his splendor. Big check mark, PS2000es!!!

The mids were pure bliss. Torch songs? In my mind’s eye, I could see the flickering flames surrounding Julie London as she sang her #1 classic Cry Me a River. The orange glow of of my Zana Deux’s tubes matched the molten-lava-like glow of these luscious mids!

What’s the overall sound signature? I’m more than a month away from hearing the cans, but my recall is that the sound melded the best of the old-time Grado signature midrange warmth (think RS1s and RS2s), with unprecedented (and sometimes breathtaking) detail and realism, while remaining faithful to and respectful of the full frequency spectrum, from the most subterranean bass to the most ephemeral treble. Stunning, previously unheard details are revealed around every melodic bend in most every song, making a tour of your record collection a new and exciting adventure, It’s audio alchemy!

Before I get into how the cans did with some of my music, I allowed my DJ friend Faith to play songs from her more rhythmic collection- electronica, dub step, hip hop—the genres I generally avoid, at all cost. Even though some of it was compressed, the sound still sounded fantastic. The PS2000e rocked XXXKenPheion’s I’m Sipping Tea in Yo’ Hood. Faith thought the tune’s grittiness and rawness came through as never before, though for me, the artist’s masterful command of the English language’s most vulgar expletives was the song’s most salient feature.

XXX’s performance begs the obvious question: What more could anyone ask of a flagship headphone?! I mean—Hell! The godd@mn, motherf#@%ing PS2000es even shine with expletives!!

My GS1000 was no match at all for the PS2000e. While the proud GS1000 could somewhat hold its own in the treble, it was smashed to bits in the midrange and bass.

The RS1s, which had been my holy grail many, many moons ago, didn’t match up at all, except in one regard: they’re still the most intimate of the three cans. They dispense far less detail—they’re not in the same ballpark as the PS2000es—but the artist is right there with you. You’re basically on stage, amongst the band! With the newer Grados, you’re seated toward the front of the audience. The PS2000es can’t help but give you separation. It’s in their DNA, with the big bowls enveloping you in a lush, wide 3D soundscape. No complaints here: you happily submerge yourself in that heavenly soundstage. Even so, there arises a lingering, tantalizing question: Could the Grado maestros infuse the stunning detail and breathtaking realism of their newer GS and PS models into an updated RS headphone? True, you’d lose much of the soundstage, but for some Grado fans, it might be more than worth the sacrifice. (Just a concept, in case the Grado family somehow eyes this very humble review.)

The PS2000es were wonderful on every kind of music I threw at them. Peter, Paul and Mary, the Grateful Dead, Dave Brubeck, the Beatles, it didn’t matter.

They even sounded great with (ugh!) compressed files! I listened to Dean Martin’s Everybody Loves Somebody from a 256k AAC ITunes purchased file and it sounded surprisingly incredible!

(Note to Apple: How is it that you can give us multi-terabyte hard drives, but not lossless or AIFF ITunes songs?! Not to mention, high rez files?! Last I looked, Tyrannosaurus Rexes weren’t ambling up and down Broadway! May the ghost of Steve Jobs haunt you relentlessly until you pull this together!!)

I checked out Petula Clark’s Downtown, which I’d heard on AM radio, also back in the day. It was a whole different experience! Well, of course it was—but even more so than I’d expected. You could hear what a fine sound studio the song must have been recorded in. On the radio, you filled in the musical details with your imagination. No need for that with the PS2000es; they exceed even your finest imaginings!

Martin Denny’s version of Misirlou had a haunting sound, with a dazzling array of ultra exotic instruments winking in and out of various pinpoints of the soundstage. The fact that the master tape must be around 65 years old made the vaguely faded stereo recording sound all the more mystical, nay, palpable. Tiki people, FYI, Martin Denny’s and Les Baxter’s exotica masterpieces never sounded so good!

Same for everything else! These cans will impart magic to whatever they touch. Not some artificial, conjured magic, but the heart, the passion, the power, the full extent of the artist’s intent, will shine through, like you’ve likely never heard. Most every song played on these phones will thrill you, as well as surprise you, with heretofore unheard details.

Sometimes, the sonic brilliance will become a thing of its own. You’ll be listening to the headphone’s dazzling showmanship and, for a moment, find yourself distracted from the music, just grooving on what the cans are doing. Is that what they mean by the sound being overly technical? I believe so and if so, hey, it’s no problem! It’s like an added feature! It’s almost like you can listen to the song or pay attention to the magnificence of the headphone, or most of the time, both simultaneously. Bravo, 2000es!

In a nutshell, the PS2000e turned my 30,000 digital song library into a collection of mesmerizing transcendental experiences! True, my system will never rival one that a billionaire’s money can buy. But perhaps that’s the point. The 2000es sounded like a billion dollars, anyway!

Okay. So, the big question: are they worth $2700? Hmm…while we’re on the subject of billionaires’ systems and rival alternatives—let’s run a thought experiment. Assume a revolution has unexpectedly transpired while you were reading this. It’s been announced that wealth has been redistributed fairly and equally, all our basic needs are going to be taken care of, and—here’s the best part—every year, we’ve voted ourselves extra, mad money, to do with as we wish. Some will opt for an extra vacation, others will get jewelry or a motorcycle, still others will grab TVs with screens bigger than their houses. What will you do? Me?—I’m cashing in my voucher for the ultimate transportative device: the magnificent, Grado PS2000es! For me, the PS2000es are a leap, not a mere step or couple of steps over the other cans I’ve discussed here. They deserve to be called Flagships.

But alas! I just checked and much to my chagrin, no revolution happened and zilch mad money has been issued! Ugh! Life! You can’t live with it and you can’t live without it! Anyway, for those who can afford them, a universe of musical adventure awaits you! Have a song for me, while you’re at it! And as for me, I’m holding out for the revolution—and my PS2000es!!

Superb, i smiled all the way through reading that!great review mate and superb headphones