Recently I sold my Grado SR325i and got a RS1 yesterday. I have a Denon A/V Receiver 687. Will this be enough as a good source or a dedicated headphone amp is the ideal one. If so can someone please recommend some good amp for RS1.
I know that RS1 is excellent for Rock, Pop genres. How about Film Scores?
Also which Pads are good for RS1 ( Flat, Comfies, HD414 or Bowl ).
Nobody can tell you which pad is good. You have to try them yourself. I for one opted to chose the HD414 pads over the bowls. What works for me might not necessarily work for you.
As for the amp, your question will best be answered in the amp subforum. Many have commented on how well the RS1 mates with the Mapletree Ear+ HD. I haven't heard a RS1 on my Ear+, but the 325i absolutely sings with this amp. I can only imagine how the RS1 sounds.
Originally Posted by GlorytheWiz825 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nobody can tell you which pad is good. You have to try them yourself. I for one opted to chose the HD414 pads over the bowls. What works for me might not necessarily work for you.
As for the amp, your question will best be answered in the amp subforum. Many have commented on how well the RS1 mates with the Mapletree Ear+ HD. I haven't heard a RS1 on my Ear+, but the 325i absolutely sings with this amp. I can only imagine how the RS1 sounds.
I agree with GlorytheWiz825 as for the pad recommendation. I like the bowls the best, but I haven't tried the HD414 pads out of all you mentioned.
Also for the amp I do have a Ear+ HD2 and HD150. They both have the same circuitry as Dr. Lloyd has told me, and they sound great with the SR325is, RS1s, GS1000s, and HP-2s. The RS1s simply sings with the Mapletree amps. I even heard them with the Ear+ HD and they sounded great as well. Good luck to you
Yup, Mapletree amp of choice. Read about versions, tubes or PM mrarroyo (for example).
Regarding pads, my choice has been to stick to Bowls, worn as Kramer5150 suggests - pad resting on the rear of ear (NOT on Head behind ear) and low.
Originally Posted by Varma /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a Denon A/V Receiver 687. Will this be enough as a good source or a dedicated headphone amp is the ideal one. If so can someone please recommend some good amp for RS1.
For solid state amps, I like the HeadAmp Gilmore Lite or GS-1 amps. I actually would recommend upgrading your source (eg CD player) first since that will have a greater impact on the sound.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Varma /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also which Pads are good for RS1 ( Flat, Comfies, HD414 or Bowl ).
Check out this pad review... http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=255160
I personally prefer the stock bowl pads myself, but opinions vary widely concerning pads. You will have to use your own ears as the judge.
IMO Grado cans need tubes or a warm SS amp. So far my two favorites (under $600 new) have been the Mapletree Ear + Purist HD and secondly the Musical Fidelity X-Can V2 or the V3. Good luck.
Like you, I use a receiver for my Grado 225. It is an older NAD 7140 and I have experimented with the Grado RA1 and mapletree amps to see if there would be a big difference. With the NAD vs the RA1, I could not discern any noticable differences. With the Mapletree, there was a slight difference that was noticable after listening very carefully and performing multiple AB comparisions. For me, it was not worth the added cost.
I am now in the process of upgrading my source as I think that is the weak link in my system. I am a vinyl guy and am looking for a better phono preamp and thereby bypassing the phono section in the NAD.
I feel once I get a better phono preamp, I am thinking the differences in using a separate headphone amp will be more noticeable. Hope this helps.
Originally Posted by Varma /img/forum/go_quote.gif Recently I sold my Grado SR325i and got a RS1 yesterday. I have a Denon A/V Receiver 687. Will this be enough as a good source or a dedicated headphone amp is the ideal one. If so can someone please recommend some good amp for RS1.
I know that RS1 is excellent for Rock, Pop genres. How about Film Scores?
Also which Pads are good for RS1 ( Flat, Comfies, HD414 or Bowl ).
Varma, I find that my new RS-1's work fine with just about any source. I am driving them with a Furman Headphone/Monitor Amplifier Model HA-6AB which in turn is fed by my Pioneer Elite VSX-49TXi home theater receivers's headphone output. It sounds fine. It also sounds fine driven by that Pioneer receiver's headphone output directly. The Furman headphone amp is a Pro rack mount style unit with 6 headphone amps built in. Can accomodate balannced and unbalanced inputs and even has its own monitor speaker outputs. I forgot what I paid for it new (something like $399 from ZZounds.com), but it serves me well and I can have all my various headphones plugged in and adjust each individual volume level to do my A/B'ing listening tests. I also have the Creek OBH-11SE which sounds nice too. I don't think you need to spend mega-bucks for a headphone amp for your RS-1's really. I have some portable CMOY Penguin Tin can amps too that work well with all my phones and those were really cheap. Amps do make a difference in sound, but the source material you feed them makes up more of a difference. I am still curious though how the Grado RA-1 amp sounds with their RS-1 myself but don't feel it will be much more of an improvement over all the amps that I have now to spend like another $350 to $400 for it. I find that the outputs of my receivers and stereo amps and CD/DVD players are usually good enough for me.
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