After a long wait and several listens, I have at last purchased my own pair of Grado RS1e's, and I LOVE them! They are Serial Number 34619-16, an unusual number due to its hyphenated nature.
I had been watching the RS1e for a long time, from when they first emerged as a member of the newly-released Grado e series, which upgraded all of the nine or so headphones of the Grado i series, in June 2014. Unlike other members of the e series, customer reviews of the RS1e assessed it as poorer than its parent, the RS1i. The RS1e replaced the 44 mm driver of the RS1i with a 50 mm driver, as also used in the new GS1000e and PS1000e.
Further investigation attributed the poorer sound to an extremely-rolled off high treble preceded by a mid-treble peak.
RS1e (original version) frequency response (top left) superposed on RS1 frequency response (bottom left and then copied as dotted black line on top left plot) shows treble rolloff of RS1e (original version) starting at 3.5 KHz.
Curious folk removed the Grado L bowl pad to find that the 50 mm driver protruded extremely above the edge of the wooden cup.
For old, black-band version of RS1e (not mine), black plastic rim of driver protrudes significantly above brown wooden rim of cup.
Additionally, for the larger driver diameter of the RS1e, there was a noticeable ring of plastic showing around the driver opening and inside the inner rim of the L bowl cushion:
RS1e (L) shows rim of driver inside the boundary of the black foam L cushion pad, unlike the older version with the smaller driver (R).
Listeners complained that the driver of the RS1e was so close to the ear, as a result of the stretching of the pad due to the greater diameter of the driver, that the ear touched the driver and was uncomfortable and peculiar-sounding.
I compared this protruding-driver version of the RS1e to the RS1i and confirmed the findings of less-than-great sound as compared to the RS1i.
Then in Fall 2014 came reports of a version of the RS1e whose drivers were more recessed than the original, protruding less from their wooden cylinder holder:
These were said to sound better than the original RS1e.
I faced a dilemma. I wanted the RS1e, but only the less-protruding version. In October, 2014, Grado announced that all of its wooden headphones (RS2e, RS1e, GS1000e) would be fitted with brown headbands rather than the black used to that time. Since this followed the initiation of RS1e's with less-protruding drivers, it seemed that buying an RS1e with brown band would also assure that one was buying an RS1e with less protruding driver.
However, there was still a problem. The two Grado dealers I had frequented both had old RS1es, with black headband and protruding drivers. On-line merchants for the RS1e seemed to either have only the black headband version or not know of the significance of the protruding vs. non-protruding versions.
I had the great opportunity to visit HeadRoom in Bozeman, MT two weeks ago, which is the first place I have seen that depends upon selling headphones and headphone accessories for its business (as opposed to audio stores, which sell speakers, turntables, huge amps and music streamers, and the like in addition to headphones).
There, I was able to actually try a brown-headband RS1e. It sounded great and I bought it. The purchase experience was delightful, and I had a chance to share Grado lore and opinions with a very knowledgeable staff.
Here is the picture of my RS1e:
Rim of plastic visible inside pad inner diameter, and driver protrudes only minimally, on my RS1e.
The headband is brown, and the protrusion is much less than that of the original RS1e shown first, though perhaps a bit more than the non-protruding version shown second.
There was also speculation for a while that the non-protruding version of the RS1e had different L cushion pads than the standard, to reduce the amount of stretch and depression that moved the drivers close to the ears.
Grado pads have denser foam at the edge that sits around the ear than in the middle. I compared the pads of my new RS1e to those of my RS2e to find that 1) the pads seem to achieve their greater density on the edges by being immersed in something (glue?) that dries in a manner that adds stiffness where dipped, and 2) the RS1e pads were dipped more deeply, and hence had their stiff layer extend further, than the RS2e.
Careful looking at the picture shows a boundary where the denser foam of the edge meets the less dense foam of the rest of the pad. Even more careful inspection shows that the thickness of the dense foam is greater on the RS1e pad (left) than on the RS2e pad (right).
RS1e L cush pad (L) has thicker layer of dense foam on edge than RS2e (R).
HOW DO THEY SOUND?
I find the sound of the RS1e to be exciting,detailed, with unusually large soundstage for an over-ear Grado, and entirely deserving of the statement of
Playboy, "The only headphones you'll ever need." (note the BROWN band in their version!).
I had these as my only Grados for about a week as I traveled from Siliverdale, WA to Ann Arbor, MI via Bozeman, MT, where I picked them up, on my honeymoon trip with Ruthie. I was finding nuances on what I thought were familiar recordings and excitement for everything I heard through them.
Having returned home and used them for a total of about 25 hours (no way fully burned in), I compared them to not one, not two, but six of my other Grados, using the 10-feature comparisons, three at a time, detailed
here.
Comparing the RS1e (center) to (from top left) GS1000i, RS2e, RS1i, PS1000e, SR325e, and HP1000 (HP1).
Here are the results of the three 3-way comparisons (one for each row of the picture above):
In comparison on 10 acoustic features, RS1e is outscored by RS2e and GS1000e.
RS1e is outscored by RS1i and PS1000e.
RS1e is outscored by the HP1000 and the SR325e.
Wow! If the RS1e is so good to listen to, are the GS1000i, RS2e, RS1i, PS1000e, and RS325 even better?
No.
But then why does it score less than those headphones?
Because these 10 tests, using 10 acoustic features, merely sample aspects of the total listening experience, but cannot capture it entirely.
At least that is how I am feeling about it now. I very much enjoy listening to my RS1e, and it is far better than my recollection of the old RS1e with protruding drivers and black band. But I am surprised by how it scores in my comparative tests.
Next, I listened to Sara Berielles Brave Live album with both the RS1e and RS2e. I found the RS1e more exciting and engaging, having a greater soundstage and better vocals. Both my RS2e and my GS1000i are my favorite Grados (and favorite headphones), and I put the RS1e right there with them.
The first comparison chart indicates that the RS1e has greater soundstage than the RS2e, while the RS2e has greater transparency. In fact, the RS1e is the only on-ear Grado that can actually resolve two closely-spaced singers... only the over-ear GS1000i, GS1000e, PS1000, and PS1000e can do that for me. The excitement contributed by the larger soundstage of the RS1e seems to outweigh the greater transparency of the RS2e.
Anyway, since I had been awaiting a chance at the RS1e for so long, I thought it worth performing tests and posting some detail of my assessment of them... GREAT!
