[ruhenheiM]

007 is less expensive than the PS2Ke, and a few hundred more than the PS1Ke. The 007 has +/- the same presence of air as the PS2Ke.
At this point with the PS2Ke, I will say that I could live with it as my only Grado headphone happily ever after.

really? lol i used to joke 007 looks so affordable compare to all those ultra mega dollars headphones releases but there are not many options,well... "cheap" electrostatic amplifiers out there

i see, that's interesting, in balance mode right? how about your balance ps1000? are you still firm in your view that ps1000 still hold better value compare to ps2000e? do you still missing anything listening to ps2000e?

 

[up late]

007 is less expensive than the PS2Ke, and a few hundred more than the PS1Ke. The 007 has +/- the same presence of air as the PS2Ke.
At this point with the PS2Ke, I will say that I could live with it as my only Grado headphone happily ever after.

i haven't compared them directly but the sr-007 had a darker sound signature to my ears than the grado professional series cans, including the ps2ke

 

[joseph69]

really? lol i used to joke 007 looks so affordable compare to all those ultra mega dollars headphones releases but there are not many options,well... "cheap" electrostatic amplifiers out there

i see, that's interesting, in balance mode right? how about your balance ps1000? are you still firm in your view that ps1000 still hold better value compare to ps2000e? do you still missing anything listening to ps2000e?

Yes, in balanced mode. No, I no longer believe I prefer one over the other, they're 2 different sounding headphones in which I enjoy both for their differences. If I were to sell my PS1K I know I would miss them and regret it. Same goes for the PS2Ke which are definitely keepers.

 

[ruhenheiM]

Yes, in balanced mode. No, I no longer believe I prefer one over the other, they're 2 different sounding headphones in which I enjoy both for their differences. If I were to sell my PS1K I know I would miss them and regret it. Same goes for the PS2Ke which are definitely keepers.

care to explain more? to what degree of both headphone have different kind of sound? is it like typical grado sound to grado sr325 gold/gs1000 or gh series? or like gh1 to gh2.ps1000 to ps1000e? stuff like that. like 007mk2 to 009 if that make sense...

 

[joseph69]

i haven't compared them directly but the sr-007 had a darker sound signature to my ears than the grado professional series cans, including the ps2ke

Yes, they do have a darker sound. I feel they're closer sounding to the PS1K, not the PS2Ke. The louder the clearer the 007 become, and they're quite the performers. This is why I listen to them occasionally.

 

[Art Garfunkel]

Do you own the Grado PS2000e? I was wondering if you could tell me if the clarity is more precise than that of a GS1000, or for a GS2000e?

 

[mortcola]

Do you own the Grado PS2000e? I was wondering if you could tell me if the clarity is more precise than that of a GS1000, or for a GS2000e?

Hi Art Garfunkel - I can give you my impressions, which I think are pretty valid - I have owned all four of the top Grade line, and a pair of RS2. The GS2000e are very refined and alive - very "present" and revealing, with a life-like, 3d midrange like most Grados, but with a bit of a further-back in the auditorium, elegant feel, if the language gives you a sense of what the experience is like. They were a nice step up from the much-loved GS1000. However, the PS2000e is, to my ears, the best of several worlds. You hear extremely low level detail, with tonality and spatial information, like I'm not accustomed to hearing, but not as part of an overly "analytical" presentation. They manage to be both rich, deep present, and very clear and precise. The PS1000e, which I was blown away by at first, came to be less satisfying, because they were, to my ears, super-clear and rhythmic and revealing at the expense of richness in the lower mids to the lowest bass. Voices, saxophones, etc, were pure Grado, full and satisfying, but even lowest bass, while audible, had no bloom. The PS2000e, however, does everything the PS1000e did well, but does the rest of it better, INCLUDING the clarity you ask about. They are real-as-life, great clarity, but in an unforced way, kind of like live music. With real, low bass frequencies, in tune, time, and space, AND the spread and envelopment that makes one feel it. They also, for example, reveal the differences between vacuum tubes more unambiguously than any speaker I've heard - useful for comparing tubes, but also an indication of how revealing and "clear" the headphones are. They are what we holistically call "musical" (this should not have to be a qualified term), while satisfying every criterion the audiophile perfectionist is likely to care about.

 

[Art Garfunkel]

Thank you very much for your comments ind impressions, makes my hi-fi mouth water.....especially the "musical" reference. My limited time with a GS1000 remains in memory.....I'm much curious now about the PS2000e.

 

[up late]

with regard to the ps2ke's bass presentation, i felt that it was lacking in weight and extension when i auditioned it, and direct comparisons with the utopia confirmed it to my ears. grado bass drops off sharply in amplitude at around 100hz, so there isn't any low bass to speak of. the professional series models that i've heard all have a pronounced mid-bass hump, which increases bass presence but it can sound somewhat bloated. i didn't notice this with the ps2ke, however.

 

[mortcola]

Thank you very much for your comments ind impressions, makes my hi-fi mouth water.....especially the "musical" reference. My limited time with a GS1000 remains in memory.....I'm much curious now about the PS2000e.

My pleasure, AG. Having about 250 hours on the PS2Ke now, with well-matched source and electronics, I can promise you the openness, spatiality and clarity are special, and the bass is unusually deep and "visceral" for a headphone, without any interference with other frequency ranges. Listening, for example, to the lowwww organ tones on Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, with the saturation of many frequencies at once gives a satisfying feel and pitch to the bottom end, while leaving the more delicate orchestral tones and their spatial and attack-decay components,untouched, the driver handling so many parts of the spectrum well, maintaining that delicate balance of depth, intensity, and fine-grained resolution. There is a sense of technical competence accompanied by what I can only describe as the care of a designer who wanted to convey the way music feels to him. Engineering a transducer of clean frequencies is all in a days work for a student of electrical/acoustical engineering. Conveying aesthetic values atop a flagship technical achievement is special. The nice thing with these is that no one stuck on the ancient obsession with "highs", "lows", "good" or "enough" bass would be disappointed unless they were used to living at a series of raves. You've got all the audiophile terminology covered, with bass that feels as if it is shaking one's ribs sometimes, crystalline and dimensional highs, full and sweet harmonics, a balance of space and presence, human-sounding voices and acoustic instruments, and, like the Linn/Naim folks, said, makes you want to tap your foot - engages not only the ears but the body and the will. That is a a truly musical set of criteria which are only possible if the designer and the factory get the technology right. I hope this helps you focus your search and your decision.

 

[up late]

grado's aren't known for their bass extension and i doubt that the ps2ke is an exception based on my audition. by contrast, the th900 is a headphone with prodigious bass that extends into the 20hz range. the z1r also excels at reproducing deep bass.

 

[mortcola]

Going back 34 years in audio salons, never swayed by price, I've always known Grado for having quality of bass nearly unparalleled in the range where musical instruments actually produce meaningful tones. I know the top of the line reach subsonic levels, but with roll-off. However, with Senn HD8000, Audeze LCD2, and all the top Grados except the GS1000 on my desk, using my tolerant friends and wife's assistant reviewers, the consensus matches my impressions, which have strengthened after daily, concerted use on a very wide range of material: the PS2Ke give a visceral-palpable feel, with clear tonality, in what most people refer top as bass. As a past lover of small, expensive monitors, like the ProAc Response 2 and 3, which offer useful bass down to 40 or 50 hz, these continually reach the bottom end of such instruments as bass fiddles, pipe organs, contrabassoons, fretless bass guitars with an extra bass string, Bass saxophones, et all, with full impact and no loss of tonal clarity or richness. Our differences may have something to do with peripherals, quality of recordings, break-in time, (god-forbid) inconsistency in manufacture - or the most likely fact that none of these instruments except the organ actually offer any useful music down to 20hz. But the bass also doesn't have something I've become accustomed to in my years with small, high-end speakers - pronounced mid-upper-bass hump, IF there is any tilt up, it is not exaggerated, and it maintains tonality and harmonic structure, not to mention enough transparency to give equal voice to the other instruments, something all the Grado's do, but these are clearly better at it. Now, my RS2s, which I gave to a non-audiop[hile buddy in hope of infecting him (he will get my Bifrost Uber and Lyr2 as a gift when my Mjolnir2 shows up. The RS2, while addictive lively and revealing DEFINITELY has an intentional mid-upper bass emphasis, as so many people enjoy. What I'm listening to, if it has one at all, MUST be subtle, both according to ears that have gotten me work supervising the mixing and mastering of the recordings of professional engineers. Meaning, I'm a little uppity about my ears as measuring devices. I can sing in perfect harmony too. I'm humble - my math and my ability to sit still are highly compromised, and nobody's perfect. But our disagreement comes down to a couple of issues: one is the primacy of the experience of music through the devices over any - really any-measuring device other than the ear-brain (because we buy things for pleasure, AND, at the same time, really like to know that the manufacturer of our devices at least pass SOME objective test. How room and physical bodies conduct sound, so that we experience it a certain way MUST be the greatest criterion, by far - whatever idiosyncrasies Grado has, it is not due to ineptitude, but rather an emphasis of they devices as music machines, The other is, how "accurate" are they taking the unreliable human equation out of it, But I've been bored silly by components that measure wonerfuly-and blatantly euphonic devices feel false after a little while even if they give you goosebumps at first. So, by going through the checklist of criteria that make me have confidence in a pair of speakers, holistically, these seem to be the most accurate devices I"ve ever heard, with the fewest compromises, as long as my gut pleasure is a valid measurement criteria, Btu given how they handle the lowest possible notes on a wide-range of natural and electronic instruments, I'm inlined to believe that you're attributing more and higher frequency roll-off th at is actually happening -at least in my pair, driven by synergistic Schiit Gungnir and Lyr2 electronics, the latter with Siemens CCa, Amperex Bugle Boy, Tesla, Orange Globe vintage tubes as well as current production Eh-Gold 6922 and stock 6BZ7 tubes. This is both about objective specs, and the eternal debate about what criteria actually matter in the listening experience. I'm confident that Grado are modest and low-key and listener-attuned enough so that their decisions in designing and pricing their stuff are to be trusted. God topic for discussion - as long as you don't get all positivist on us like before. Music first, always. .

 

[figaro69]

Recently purchased the Grado PS2000e headphones. I have used them for about 25 hours for the past week. I've never been much of a believer regarding the effects of burn-in other than one's ears getting used to the sound peculiarities of new headphones. The gear used to drive the PS2000es are as follows: Mcintosh MCT SACD/CD Transport, Mcintosh D1100 DAC/Preamp (connected to transport with supplied umbilical cord to maintain SACD capacities), Mcintosh MHP100 headphone amplifier (using the low impedance high gain setting; no bass boost was used with this amp), Black Sand Cable Black Max Series Violet Z1 MKII power cables all around, and Moon Audio Black Dragon balanced interconnect cables. Paid full price for them at Sound Components, a local dealer here in the Miami area.

There are bad and good things about the Grado PS2000e headphones:

THE BAD:

1. Ergonomics: except for the headphone drivers and maple wood used for these headphones, the design is exactly the same as that of the PS1000s and the rest of the Grado products. I have never liked the Grado design. The "coat hanger" wires that hold the drivers are not practical at all, specially for heavy headphones like these ones. The phones tend to slide down (one side was much less secure than the other one...while one stayed in place, the other one slid down. Quality control issues at play here!). I ended up bending the two coat hanger wires to one side to create resistance so they would not slide anymore. While I was able to solve the problem, it should not have been a problem in the first place.

2. Weight: these things are quite heavy. They are heavier that the PS1000s (at least they feel that way...I also own the PS1000s). The wider head band does next to nothing to ameliorate the comfort issues (actually, the PS1000s are more comfortable given their lighter weight).

3. Foam Pads: make the headphones feel uncomfortable. The ears end up touching the surface of the drivers, thus creating friction and lack of comfort.

4. Cable: the headphone is just too short. While Grado has supplied a high quality headphone extension cable, I am afraid that slight sound degradation due to the added connection of the extension cable could potentially be at play. By the way, I got these headphones single-ended (there is the option of balanced termination).


THE GOOD:

There is really no reason to be wordy regarding the good things inherent to this pain or headphones:

1. Treble: extended, no grain, smooth, no sibilance. This is possibly the best treble production I have heard in a pair of headphones. I also own the Focal Utopias, which have great treble, but the Grados are, to my ears, slightly ahead in quality of production.

2. Mids: not too prominent, not too recessed. The mids sound just right. No V-Shaped curve here. Amazing mids that do not bleed into the magnificent treble presentation. As good (at least to my ears) as any Audeze, but without the thickness. Euphonic mids, but never goes over the top. In the same league as the Utopias (maybe a bit more euphonic), as far as I am concerned.

3. Bass: best bass Grado has ever produced in a headphone. Definitely not a headphone for bassheads (that's what the Fostex TH-900s and Audezes are for), but excellent bass nonetheless. Layered, excellently-controlled bass that never bleeds into the other frequencies. I listen almost exclusively to classical music and the bass is just perfect for my "predilections". Compared to the PS1000s, it's no contest. Better bass than the Utopias (note that with loud timpani and bass drum strikes in orchestral works, the Utopias splatter a little).

4. Soundstage: the best soundstage Grado has ever produced in a headphone. Not huge (a la Sennheiser HD800s), but not smaller-than-average either (a la Focal Utopia). The soundstage sounds extremely natural (not exaggerated or slightly artificial, like the HD800s). Just perfect for classical music, as far as I am concerned. Voices sound just perfect (not too distant, not too close) in opera recordings. Male voices excel, but female voices not too shabby either.


MISCELANEA:

1. These headphones are classical music kings. Better, in my humble opinion, than the HD800s (i.e., previous kings of classical music).

2. Sound-wise, there is nothing I can criticize about these Grados.

3. I had never been a Grado fan in the past...this changes everything.

4. The most balanced (top to bottom) headphones I have ever heard/owned (take a look at my profile)

5. Fast transient response. Airy. Highly detailed, yet at the same time euphonic. I don't own (or have heard) the Stax headphones, but I can't imagine them sounding better than these.

6. These are one of the few headphones that sound great at low volumes (Grados are kind of known for this); for instance, the Utopias have to be played at high volume levels to get the best they have to offer.

7. Mr. Grado strikes me as a stubborn man. The ergonomics of this pair of headphones are really holding them back, in my opinion. If these drivers had been assembled in a design similar to the HD800s or Focal Utopias, then we would have THE HEADPHONES.

8. Expensive, but for the sound alone these are worth every penny.

 

[ESL-1]

My pleasure, AG. Having about 250 hours on the PS2Ke now, with well-matched source and electronics, I can promise you the openness, spatiality and clarity are special, and the bass is unusually deep and "visceral" for a headphone, without any interference with other frequency ranges. Listening, for example, to the lowwww organ tones on Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, with the saturation of many frequencies at once gives a satisfying feel and pitch to the bottom end, while leaving the more delicate orchestral tones and their spatial and attack-decay components,untouched, the driver handling so many parts of the spectrum well, maintaining that delicate balance of depth, intensity, and fine-grained resolution. There is a sense of technical competence accompanied by what I can only describe as the care of a designer who wanted to convey the way music feels to him. Engineering a transducer of clean frequencies is all in a days work for a student of electrical/acoustical engineering. Conveying aesthetic values atop a flagship technical achievement is special. The nice thing with these is that no one stuck on the ancient obsession with "highs", "lows", "good" or "enough" bass would be disappointed unless they were used to living at a series of raves. You've got all the audiophile terminology covered, with bass that feels as if it is shaking one's ribs sometimes, crystalline and dimensional highs, full and sweet harmonics, a balance of space and presence, human-sounding voices and acoustic instruments, and, like the Linn/Naim folks, said, makes you want to tap your foot - engages not only the ears but the body and the will. That is a a truly musical set of criteria which are only possible if the designer and the factory get the technology right. I hope this helps you focus your search and your decision.

Very well stated, both. Besides needing a good amount of break in, at least 200 hours they seem to me to continue to improve. I continue to listen to the PS2000e over 80% of my available head time. There was no new toy syndrome for me, I liked them very much from first time out of the box. I just got back from a weeks vacation, very looked forward to hearing them again.

I have also experimented with head placement which I think let's you tune it in a bit to your fancy.

 

[up late]

Recently purchased the Grado PS2000e headphones. I have used them for about 25 hours for the past week. I've never been much of a believer regarding the effects of burn-in other than one's ears getting used to the sound peculiarities of new headphones. The gear used to drive the PS2000es are as follows: Mcintosh MCT SACD/CD Transport, Mcintosh D1100 DAC/Preamp (connected to transport with supplied umbilical cord to maintain SACD capacities), Mcintosh MHP100 headphone amplifier (using the low impedance high gain setting; no bass boost was used with this amp), Black Sand Cable Black Max Series Violet Z1 MKII power cables all around, and Moon Audio Black Dragon balanced interconnect cables. Paid full price for them at Sound Components, a local dealer here in the Miami area.

There are bad and good things about the Grado PS2000e headphones:

THE BAD:

1. Ergonomics: except for the headphone drivers and maple wood used for these headphones, the design is exactly the same as that of the PS1000s and the rest of the Grado products. I have never liked the Grado design. The "coat hanger" wires that hold the drivers are not practical at all, specially for heavy headphones like these ones. The phones tend to slide down (one side was much less secure than the other one...while one stayed in place, the other one slid down. Quality control issues at play here!). I ended up bending the two coat hanger wires to one side to create resistance so they would not slide anymore. While I was able to solve the problem, it should not have been a problem in the first place.

2. Weight: these things are quite heavy. They are heavier that the PS1000s (at least they feel that way...I also own the PS1000s). The wider head band does next to nothing to ameliorate the comfort issues (actually, the PS1000s are more comfortable given their lighter weight).

3. Foam Pads: make the headphones feel uncomfortable. The ears end up touching the surface of the drivers, thus creating friction and lack of comfort.

4. Cable: the headphone is just too short. While Grado has supplied a high quality headphone extension cable, I am afraid that slight sound degradation due to the added connection of the extension cable could potentially be at play. By the way, I got these headphones single-ended (there is the option of balanced termination).


THE GOOD:

There is really no reason to be wordy regarding the good things inherent to this pain or headphones:

1. Treble: extended, no grain, smooth, no sibilance. This is possibly the best treble production I have heard in a pair of headphones. I also own the Focal Utopias, which have great treble, but the Grados are, to my ears, slightly ahead in quality of production.

2. Mids: not too prominent, not too recessed. The mids sound just right. No V-Shaped curve here. Amazing mids that do not bleed into the magnificent treble presentation. As good (at least to my ears) as any Audeze, but without the thickness. Euphonic mids, but never goes over the top. In the same league as the Utopias (maybe a bit more euphonic), as far as I am concerned.

3. Bass: best bass Grado has ever produced in a headphone. Definitely not a headphone for bassheads (that's what the Fostex TH-900s and Audezes are for), but excellent bass nonetheless. Layered, excellently-controlled bass that never bleeds into the other frequencies. I listen almost exclusively to classical music and the bass is just perfect for my "predilections". Compared to the PS1000s, it's no contest. Better bass than the Utopias (note that with loud timpani and bass drum strikes in orchestral works, the Utopias splatter a little).

4. Soundstage: the best soundstage Grado has ever produced in a headphone. Not huge (a la Sennheiser HD800s), but not smaller-than-average either (a la Focal Utopia). The soundstage sounds extremely natural (not exaggerated or slightly artificial, like the HD800s). Just perfect for classical music, as far as I am concerned. Voices sound just perfect (not too distant, not too close) in opera recordings. Male voices excel, but female voices not too shabby either.


MISCELANEA:

1. These headphones are classical music kings. Better, in my humble opinion, than the HD800s (i.e., previous kings of classical music).

2. Sound-wise, there is nothing I can criticize about these Grados.

3. I had never been a Grado fan in the past...this changes everything.

4. The most balanced (top to bottom) headphones I have ever heard/owned (take a look at my profile)

5. Fast transient response. Airy. Highly detailed, yet at the same time euphonic. I don't own (or have heard) the Stax headphones, but I can't imagine them sounding better than these.

6. These are one of the few headphones that sound great at low volumes (Grados are kind of known for this); for instance, the Utopias have to be played at high volume levels to get the best they have to offer.

7. Mr. Grado strikes me as a stubborn man. The ergonomics of this pair of headphones are really holding them back, in my opinion. If these drivers had been assembled in a design similar to the HD800s or Focal Utopias, then we would have THE HEADPHONES.

8. Expensive, but for the sound alone these are worth every penny.

the design of the ps2ke isn't exactly the same as the earlier iterations. the headband is thicker and wider. i doubt that the ps2ke is heavier than the previous versions. it certainly didn't feel any heavier to me than the ps1ke when i compared them. i happen to like the shorter cable for desktop listening and the option to extend it.

dismissing the th900 and the entire audeze line of headphones as being for "bass heads" is like saying that grado's are for "treble heads". i don't subscribe to either of those views.

i can't relate to your comparison of the ps2ke and utopia tbh, particularly with regard to the bass presentation and the need to play the utopia at high volume in order to extract the best performance from it, but these are subjective impressions.

while i do think that the ps2ke has the most coherent presentation of the professional series headphones that i've heard, its treble tilt precludes it from being the most balanced headphone that i've heard. i hasten to add that i'm yet to hear a grado that i haven't liked.