[Luckyleo]

Just received my shipping notification. Will keep you posted.

 

[lil BANE]

Just received my shipping notification. Will keep you posted.

I also received a shipping notification!

 

[mortcola]

Hard pass for me. This is nothing like the HP1000 driver. I didn't have much hope in the first place anyway.

Well, it is a Grado. It is forward and somewhat bright. But taking them on a feature by feature basis, you can miss the point. The Grado "house sound" is popular for good reasons - it captures the feeling and impact of live music. And the HP100SE definitely does have an extended, hugely detailed, and potentially sharp treble in the 2 - 4K range. And it sounds highly realistic. Not burned in yet, but the qualities are there -and Grados have all, always smoothed out up top with burn in.

But this IS an evolutionary, and extremely good headphone out of the box, potentially reaching well beyond its $2495 ticket. THe bass, to me, is extremely high quality and reaches the bottom-most octaves as well as most TOTL offering out there - and with greater attack and pitch qualities, irrespective of frequency - than many more expensive cans. They are beautifully built (I LIKE Grado's design, form following function, and have had fewer constuction-related issues with their lineup than with most. They are really simple but ingeniously tuned and tweaked devies. The RS1X is essentially a tuned maple cylinder with a resonant membrane (driver, and little else except what it takes to turn the signal to vibrations...more air than anythin else). One reason why, quirks aside, they give this uncanny sense of listening and looking through a wormhole into the place of the performance. GS3000 has that you are there quality - sometimes more, the players have come to visit you, whereas, with less engagement, some of the most expensive and impressive flagships present something more akin to a perfeftly clear high-res screen showing a quality audio-visual recording, every detail standing out. Grado brings the music to you in a way which feels more engaging and personal rather than....maybe, "rendered".

For pure, blunt bass capacitym I start with two recordings: Joni MItchell, Cotton Avenue, From Don Juan'sReckless Daughter. During the free-form intro, Jaco hits the low e-string HARD - a note which corresponds to 33hz .Some cans get the visceral texture; some give a nice blend of attack and throb. Only a few get the pitch clearly, while providing the growl and fluctuationin that open string as it slowly decays. The HP100SE hit that bottom tone every bit as deeply and tunefully as did the Utopia OG. Frédéric Alarie's Mega Bass, on 2XHD, begins with"Exchange, a track on which a guest bassist, Eric Chapel plays the 11-foot tall Octobass, which bottoms out at near-subsonic 19 hz. The tone and timbre of the big bass' lowest note is aduble and clear, and only slightly quieter than the contrabasse - the pitch is clear and acccurate, and the mechanical pluck is also conveyed clearly. Alarie plays alongside him. The Grado GS3000X, while possessing a warm, clean, and tuneful bass into the lower mid bass, offers barely a wisp of that low note. Susvara Unveiled doesn't roll off the low bass; while that absurdly rich yet utterly transparent headphone is a more refined product, at more than triple the cost,this is the first Grado which is both completely full-range AND maintains all which is best about the brand.

I'm drummer, and the pitch and envelope of a bass drum and of a ride cymbal are pleasures not always captured by headphone realistically. On Genesis Can-Utility and the Coastliners, and Robbery Assault and Battery, the artful, subtle intricacies of Phil Collins playing in his prime are captured, both powerful and graceful. His ability to coach complex tonalities out of his drums, and handle the bass-drum single pedal with absurd dexterity, triple strokes and syncopations in odd-time...on the BASS drum, as well as combining upbeat unisons on deep toms and crash cymbals to constantly turn the beat around without losing the pulse - plus that fat pocket and perfect time exemplify why he is revered by some of the most renowned drummers out there, like Neil Peart, Mike Portoy, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVIrgilio, John Bonham, Brann Dailor... amounts to a showcase of what makes his playing important.
delineated and realistic as I've heard on any headphone, Mike Rutherford's bass pedals are rendered with full transparency to the texture, as well as a genuine sense of rib-rumbling power. Yes, from a Grado. They foudn the missing bass and sub-bass. As Headphone Guru reported, the bass is impressive for an open bacvked headphone, and also for an open front headphone.Its better bass than you'll find elsewhere at this price. My bass benchmarks, including several more, are met and celebrated without weakness.

The high frequency generosity appears to be, in part, an artifact of an extremely quick and detailed transient response, withride cymbal hits clear and present but never unnatural, the full harmonic spectra of those cymbals just as they sound to a drummer. Check out Dejohnette's cymbals and drums on Sunrise, from Ryupdal/Vitous/DeJohnette; Jack mic'd his cymbals immediately above and below to get their full decay and overtones, and boy is it successful using these.

Mids are a Grado strength. Voices are beautiful; Patricia Barber on Clique, and Modern Cool, is intimate silky, breath and small emphases audible and communicative. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings, especially on A Kings Prayer, and I Am The Sun, has his gruff, sensitive and melodic vocals just as he ought to sound; Peter Gabriel's vocals on So and his Genesis performance from Nursery Cryme to The Lamb are simply communicative and evocative ...and warm. Joni MItchell - commmunicates. Warm, beautiful, with all the little articulations which carry her intelligence, romanticism, and pain, conveyed intimately, personally. Not reproduced....conveyed, communicated.

Yes it is "subjective". I don't listen to muisic, or spend lots of money on it, in order to obey a quasi- puritanical commandment that one must venerate "neutrality" at all costs. We've got far too much oppressive fundamentalism taking over my corner of the world, among others; not only do I NOT welcome, nor agree with, the notion that ANY outside criteria must take precedence over personal response, I also have never heard - ever, not once - a life musical performance that wasn't full of "quirks and flaws". You might argue that the speakers, the gear overall, are "supposed to" simply convey what is on the recording, without "editorializing".

Shove the "supposed to". First, it is a logical absurdity; a slippery slope leading to one ideal, platonically-perfect headphone which nails the Harman Commandment, or whatever. Music, in such a dystopia, would be a thing you use to test your headphones, when you need a break from the frequency sweep house-y feel mix; every headphone, every component would be a source of immense ambivalence and insecurity - god forbid folks should know I prefer W's to U's....and don't mention "flat". I'd be banished to a penal colony of people dangerous for their preference for euphony and sibilance. Freaks. A New Audio Australia - and we see how cool Australia grew up to be. But that's neither here nor there.

I've spent my life listening and playing; The FR may convey the quirks you expect from Grado, but, as with any of the many examples of how conventional mesasurements simply have nothing to say about the way certain components land, in your heart, head, and viscera, it works. Voices, celli, saxophones, acoustic guitars, clarinets - all delicious, never piercing....AND the highs are assertive while the mids are full and engaging. But high quality.

That's it for now. I think Grado did a fine job with these. A worthy flagshiup....just a few hundred bucks more than their last flagship, and absolutelyly worth the money. As long as you're a Grado lover, and/or able to put aside what is familiar and hear how they like to present music. Its not a mistake - the copany has stayed true to a sonic vision, and if you can see/hear things their way, its easy to make a happy peace with the unconventional qualities of this headphone.

Staging, depth, image solidity and realistic dimensonality - all those goodies are first rate.These are capable of good outside-your-head imaging. Bottom line, for me, is that if you geneally don't mind, or even are drawn to, the forwardness and unfettered high frequencies of Grado headphone, you will probably find these to be a fulfillment of what you believe Grado CAN do. They could have added a grand to the price and they'd belong in that range. As much as I love the GS3000, these are more than 500 bucks better, IMO. And, with all respect to the very personal nature of sonic preference, this is definitely not a Grado for people who don't like Grados....unless the full-range frequencies and sheer GRIP of these headphone are likely to be enjoyed and respected by many who are on the fence. That BASS, that clarity....

ADDENDUM: The HP100 SE ships with a complementary pair of F-cushions, the ones from the Hemp, which greatly temper the highs, and, on smaller ensemble music, makes the kids and lows all the more rich, while shining a nie beam of darkness ont nhe botom octave. Yes, there is a textured, timbrally crystal clear handling of the sub-20hz octobass on "Exchange" the first track on Alarie's Mega Bass album. Grado has not only found the bass.....they found really good, deep, dark, well-defined bass. THe f-cuishion go a bit far in the other direction on some miusic, but the result is lovely on acoustic instruments, small ensembles, "intimate" recordings. The driver is still a little close to the ear to be ideal, but - with the big G-cush, this is an excellent reference quality headphone - with clear and present but high-quality highs.... not at all dissimilar to any of a number of real-world musical environments.

No, CanJam impressions are NOT good enough. We should all - especially anyone with ab it of scientific training, draw any conclusions or convey opinions from there without qualification. The majority of recordings I've listened to with the big cushions are are sweet, timbrally pleasing, extremely revealing and communicative - and, the highs are nowhere near as quirky as, say, the big Abyss cans - which I love. Listening to acoustic guitar and piano now, with the G-cush, through Holo May KTE, Bliss KTE, and switching in a Woo WA5-LE. This is a wonderful headphone, and a good indication of where Grado is, and should be heading.

 

[mortcola]

Could you share what you did hear?

Read what I just wrote. You might agree. They are definitely Grados - very well defined, quick, present, especially in the highs, but those are beautifully tuneful, not piercing or shrill. They are revealing headphones, an order of magnitude more transparent than the GS3000X, which I still love, and the bass - i must disagree somewhat with one of our friends here, who thought it was good "for a Grado" - is simply excellent. Generous and accurate, bass and sub-bass, using all my test tracks with significant musical content between 20 - 40hz. The bass is every bit as deep as the OG Utopia (which is likely "better" in some other respect, as it should be for the price), and often tight and better defined (Mike Rutherford's basslines in classic Genesis are things I know as well as I know my family photo albums.....and those bassline, pedals, and even multiple subtle guitar parts from Hackett and Rutherford are clearly defined, and yet well-integrated into the mixes of these albums I know so well. Jazz acoustic bass is as well articulated and blends with the ensemble as well as anything I own.

The rhythmic virtues of Grado cans are on full display here. My first exposure was at a Linn-Naim dealer I worked for in the 80s - those guys sneered at almost EVERYTHING other than a few iconic British brands, but they were big on Grado cartridges and loved the headphones when they came out. Engagement, toe-tapping, the music getting a grip on you. Not just a simulacrum. If you love Grado, or like, or have some strange fascination with them, these cans are an accomplishment. But while the highs are high-QUALITY, and extended, they are therefore also not forgiving. And that's a pretty normal thing for a TOTL headphone.

Besides, if I ever get the motivation to write another book, it might have something to do with there being no reliable common vocabulary among audiophiles. "Bright" means opposite things to many people. "Warm", "emotional", "clinical" and the like.... also mean incompatible things from one hobbyist to another.

 

[mortcola]

Of course he would! Grado have been making super bright headphones for as long as I can remember. Every model from the cheapest SR60X to something like the GS3000X and everything in between is super bright. Even the supposed warm leaning PS500 is bright af.
All Grados come with that mountainous peak around 2k which makes them VERY bright.
That is also the charm of them and why my buddy loves them to death.
Let’s not kid ourselves here; Grado are a niche within a niche and one of the only makes that still continues to produce bright sounding headphones.
I’m actually glad that they’re sticking to their guns, even if I am not a fan of their house sound.

A very popular niche with extremely consistent and positive sales. I've spoken with them enough to know that they are completely uniterested in standardized curves (Harman can bite itself), fashions, fads; they don't seem to listen to the competition much. They play with additions, changes, little tweaks, and when a good idea shows up, they start to plan a change to the lineup. Not often either. And while I can hear why others migh not like them and their peaky treble, the fact that that treble, in everyday use, doesn't lead to fatigue, somehow gives the convincing feeling of being at a live event, in good seats (rather than hearing a perfect, accurate reproduction - its like a different aim entirely, a gripping, convincing musical event).

I like and respet what you wrote about liking how they stick to their guns. It is respect for a company with the integrity to make musical instruments the way they like them, the way enough other people like them so that they know they are serving like-minded people. And I know of no other brand, with relatively expensive as well as very affordable gear, who command such brand loyalty, most of the Grado owners I know having had multiple units from different series. There's an artisan quality to what they do which makes it more, I don't know, fun to use their stuff, compare the qualities of different models.... they're different. I've got a Sus Unveiled here, a Final D8000 Pro, a Utopia OG, and an Abyss 1266 Infinite Cognition Singularity Matrix Omega - Quinoa Edition, or whatever extra syllables they use. All great; most more technically sophisticated in one way or another (although the HP100SE seems to have a little more tech savvy to it, though still essentially a simple design)...and I listen to these every bit as much as the much more expensive cans.

 

[plakat]

To me the whole thing about Grado is that they’re doing their own thing, like few other companies that don’t fill out feature matrices but follow their instincts and find their customers in those who also left the trodden paths.

In my opinion there are too few of those companies left. Audio Technica sometimes is a bit like that.

 

[piglet]

My first exposure was at a Linn-Naim dealer I worked for in the 80s - those guys sneered at almost EVERYTHING other than a few iconic British brands, but they were big on Grado cartridges and loved the headpohones when they came out.

That was how Linn/Naim enthusiasts in the UK were in the 80s. Unbearably smug

 

[piglet]

Every model from the cheapest SR60X to something like the GS3000X and everything in between is super bright.

My three Grados, SR325x, RS1x, GS3000x are not "super bright".

There are peaks in the treble, but this is also true of many other headphones. I think my old AKG K702 cans fulfil the description of "bright" a lot better than any of my Grados.

When curious friends listen to music with any of my Grados to find out what they are like they don't say they are bright, that isn't what stands out for them about them.

I think if you come to Grados from headphones that are dark then they will sound bright.

If someone asks me about Grados I will say there are some peaks in the treble and yes that does affect the character of the sound, but that is a world away from "super bright".

 

[sling5s]

Well, it is a Grado. It is forward and somewhat bright. But taking them on a feature by feature basis, you can miss the point. The Grado "house sound" is popular for good reasons - it captures the feeling and impact of live music. And the HP100SE definitely does have an extended, hugely detailed, and potentially sharp treble in the 2 - 4K range. And it sounds highly realistic. Not burned in yet, but the qualities are there -and Grados have all, always smoothed out up top with burn in.

But this IS an evolutionary, and extremely good headphone out of the box, potentially reaching well beyond its $2495 ticket. THe bass, to me, is extremely high quality and reaches the bottom-most octaves as well as most TOTL offering out there - and with greater attack and pitch qualities, irrespective of frequency - than many more expensive cans. They are beautifully built (I LIKE Grado's design, form following function, and have had fewer constuction-related issues with their lineup than with most. They are really simple but ingeniously tuned and tweaked devies. The RS1X is essentially a tuned maple cylinder with a resonant membrane (driver, and little else except what it takes to turn the signal to vibrations...more air than anythin else). One reason why, quirks aside, they give this uncanny sense of listening and looking through a wormhole into the place of the performance. GS3000 has that you are there quality - sometimes more, the players have come to visit you, whereas, with less engagement, some of the most expensive and impressive flagships present something more akin to a perfeftly clear high-res screen showing a quality audio-visual recording, every detail standing out. Grado brings the music to you in a way which feels more engaging and personal rather than....maybe, "rendered".

For pure, blunt bass capacitym I start with two recordings: Joni MItchell, Cotton Avenue, From Don Juan'sReckless Daughter. During the free-form intro, Jaco hits the low e-string HARD - a note which corresponds to 33hz .Some cans get the visceral texture; some give a nice blend of attack and throb. Only a few get the pitch clearly, while providing the growl and fluctuationin that open string as it slowly decays. The HP100SE hit that bottom tone every bit as deeply and tunefully as did the Utopia OG. Frédéric Alarie's Mega Bass, on 2XHD, begins with"Exchange, a track on which a guest bassist, Eric Chapel plays the 11-foot tall Octobass, which bottoms out at near-subsonic 19 hz. The tone and timbre of the big bass' lowest note is aduble and clear, and only slightly quieter than the contrabasse - the pitch is clear and acccurate, and the mechanical pluck is also conveyed clearly. Alarie plays alongside him. The Grado GS3000X, while possessing a warm, clean, and tuneful bass into the lower mid bass, offers barely a wisp of that low note. Susvara Unveiled doesn't roll off the low bass; while that absurdly rich yet utterly transparent headphone is a more refined product, at more than triple the cost,this is the first Grado which is both completely full-range AND maintains all which is best about the brand.

I'm drummer, and the pitch and envelope of a bass drum and of a ride cymbal are pleasures not always captured by headphone realistically. On Genesis Can-Utility and the Coastliners, and Robbery Assault and Battery, the artful, subtle intricacies of Phil Collins playing in his prime are captured, both powerful and graceful. His ability to coach complex tonalities out of his drums, and handle the bass-drum single pedal with absurd dexterity, triple strokes and syncopations in odd-time...on the BASS drum, as well as combining upbeat unisons on deep toms and crash cymbals to constantly turn the beat around without losing the pulse - plus that fat pocket and perfect time exemplify why he is revered by some of the most renowned drummers out there, like Neil Peart, Mike Portoy, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVIrgilio, John Bonham, Brann Dailor... amounts to a showcase of what makes his playing important.
delineated and realistic as I've heard on any headphone, Mike Rutherford's bass pedals are rendered with full transparency to the texture, as well as a genuine sense of rib-rumbling power. Yes, from a Grado. They foudn the missing bass and sub-bass. As Headphone Guru reported, the bass is impressive for an open bacvked headphone, and also for an open front headphone.Its better bass than you'll find elsewhere at this price. My bass benchmarks, including several more, are met and celebrated without weakness.

The high frequency generosity appears to be, in part, an artifact of an extremely quick and detailed transient response, withride cymbal hits clear and present but never unnatural, the full harmonic spectra of those cymbals just as they sound to a drummer. Check out Dejohnette's cymbals and drums on Sunrise, from Ryupdal/Vitous/DeJohnette; Jack mic'd his cymbals immediately above and below to get their full decay and overtones, and boy is it successful using these.

Mids are a Grado strength. Voices are beautiful; Patricia Barber on Clique, and Modern Cool, is intimate silky, breath and small emphases audible and communicative. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings, especially on A Kings Prayer, and I Am The Sun, has his gruff, sensitive and melodic vocals just as he ought to sound; Peter Gabriel's vocals on So and his Genesis performance from Nursery Cryme to The Lamb are simply communicative and evocative ...and warm. Joni MItchell - commmunicates. Warm, beautiful, with all the little articulations which carry her intelligence, romanticism, and pain, conveyed intimately, personally. Not reproduced....conveyed, communicated.

Yes it is "subjective". I don't listen to muisic, or spend lots of money on it, in order to obey a quasi- puritanical commandment that one must venerate "neutrality" at all costs. We've got far too much oppressive fundamentalism taking over my corner of the world, among others; not only do I NOT welcome, nor agree with, the notion that ANY outside criteria must take precedence over personal response, I also have never heard - ever, not once - a life musical performance that wasn't full of "quirks and flaws". You might argue that the speakers, the gear overall, are "supposed to" simply convey what is on the recording, without "editorializing".

Shove the "supposed to". First, it is a logical absurdity; a slippery slope leading to one ideal, platonically-perfect headphone which nails the Harman Commandment, or whatever. Music, in such a dystopia, would be a thing you use to test your headphones, when you need a break from the frequency sweep house-y feel mix; every headphone, every component would be a source of immense ambivalence and insecurity - god forbid folks should know I prefer W's to U's....and don't mention "flat". I'd be banished to a penal colony of people dangerous for their preference for euphony and sibilance. Freaks. A New Audio Australia - and we see how cool Australia grew up to be. But that's neither here nor there.

I've spent my life listening and playing; The FR may convey the quirks you expect from Grado, but, as with any of the many examples of how conventional mesasurements simply have nothing to say about the way certain components land, in your heart, head, and viscera, it works. Voices, celli, saxophones, acoustic guitars, clarinets - all delicious, never piercing....AND the highs are assertive while the mids are full and engaging. But high quality.

That's it for now. I think Grado did a fine job with these. A worthy flagshiup....just a few hundred bucks more than their last flagship, and absolutelyly worth the money. As long as you're a Grado lover, and/or able to put aside what is familiar and hear how they like to present music. Its not a mistake - the copany has stayed true to a sonic vision, and if you can see/hear things their way, its easy to make a happy peace with the unconventional qualities of this headphone.

Staging, depth, image solidity and realistic dimensonality - all those goodies are first rate.These are capable of good outside-your-head imaging. Bottom line, for me, is that if you geneally don't mind, or even are drawn to, the forwardness and unfettered high frequencies of Grado headphone, you will probably find these to be a fulfillment of what you believe Grado CAN do. They could have added a grand to the price and they'd belong in that range. As much as I love the GS3000, these are more than 500 bucks better, IMO. And, with all respect to the very personal nature of sonic preference, this is definitely not a Grado for people who don't like Grados....unless the full-range frequencies and sheer GRIP of these headphone are likely to be enjoyed and respected by many who are on the fence. That BASS, that clarity....

ADDENDUM: The HP100 SE ships with a complementary pair of F-cushions, the ones from the Hemp, which greatly temper the highs, and, on smaller ensemble music, makes the kids and lows all the more rich, while shining a nie beam of darkness ont nhe botom octave. Yes, there is a textured, timbrally crystal clear handling of the sub-20hz octobass on "Exchange" the first track on Alarie's Mega Bass album. Grado has not only found the bass.....they found really good, deep, dark, well-defined bass. THe f-cuishion go a bit far in the other direction on some miusic, but the result is lovely on acoustic instruments, small ensembles, "intimate" recordings. The driver is still a little close to the ear to be ideal, but - with the big G-cush, this is an excellent reference quality headphone - with clear and present but high-quality highs.... not at all dissimilar to any of a number of real-world musical environments.

No, CanJam impressions are NOT good enough. We should all - especially anyone with ab it of scientific training, draw any conclusions or convey opinions from there without qualification. The majority of recordings I've listened to with the big cushions are are sweet, timbrally pleasing, extremely revealing and communicative - and, the highs are nowhere near as quirky as, say, the big Abyss cans - which I love. Listening to acoustic guitar and piano now, with the G-cush, through Holo May KTE, Bliss KTE, and switching in a Woo WA5-LE. This is a wonderful headphone, and a good indication of where Grado is, and should be heading.

How are the lower mids, mids and upper mids compared to 3000x?
By mids I mean from 500hz -2khz; with 3-4khz being the very upper mids transitioning to lower treble being around 5khz-6khz.
I would say the 3000x is a very slight recessive to neutral mids to my ears. Not quite flat mids because of the slight dip.

thanks for your impressions

 

[sling5s]

.

ADDENDUM: The HP100 SE ships with a complementary pair of F-cushions, the ones from the Hemp, which greatly temper the highs, and, on smaller ensemble music, makes the kids and lows all the more rich, while shining a nie beam of darkness ont nhe botom octave. Yes, there is a textured, timbrally crystal clear handling of the sub-20hz octobass on "Exchange" the first track on Alarie's Mega Bass album. Grado has not only found the bass.....they found really good, deep, dark, well-defined bass. THe f-cuishion go a bit far in the other direction on some miusic, but the result is lovely on acoustic instruments, small ensembles, "intimate" recordings. The driver is still a little close to the ear to be ideal, but - with the big G-cush, this is an excellent reference quality headphone - with clear and present but high-quality highs.... not at all dissimilar to any of a number of real-world musical environments.

Have you tried the L-Cush? Would love impressions.

 

[mortcola]

A very popular niche with extremely consistent and positive sales. I've spoken with them enough to know that they are completely uninterested in standardized curves (Harman can bite itself), fashions, fads; they don't seem to listen to the competition much. They play with additions, changes, little tweaks, and when a good idea shows up, they start to plan a change to the lineup. Not often either. And while I can hear why others migh not like them and their peaky treble, the fact that that treble, in everyday use, doesn't lead to fatigue, somehow gives the convincing feeling of being at a live event, in good seats (rather than hearing a perfect, accurate reproduction - its like a different aim entirely, a gripping, convincing musical event).

I like and respec

Well, it is a Grado. It is forward and somewhat bright. But taking them on a feature by feature basis, you can miss the point. The Grado "house sound" is popular for good reasons - it captures the feeling and impact of live music. And the HP100SE definitely does have an extended, hugely detailed, and potentially sharp treble in the 2 - 4K range. And it sounds highly realistic. Not burned in yet, but the qualities are there -and Grados have all, always smoothed out up top with burn in.

But this IS an evolutionary, and extremely good headphone out of the box, potentially reaching well beyond its $2495 ticket. THe bass, to me, is extremely high quality and reaches the bottom-most octaves as well as most TOTL offering out there - and with greater attack and pitch qualities, irrespective of frequency - than many more expensive cans. They are beautifully built (I LIKE Grado's design, form following function, and have had fewer constuction-related issues with their lineup than with most. They are really simple but ingeniously tuned and tweaked devies. The RS1X is essentially a tuned maple cylinder with a resonant membrane (driver, and little else except what it takes to turn the signal to vibrations...more air than anythin else). One reason why, quirks aside, they give this uncanny sense of listening and looking through a wormhole into the place of the performance. GS3000 has that you are there quality - sometimes more, the players have come to visit you, whereas, with less engagement, some of the most expensive and impressive flagships present something more akin to a perfeftly clear high-res screen showing a quality audio-visual recording, every detail standing out. Grado brings the music to you in a way which feels more engaging and personal rather than....maybe, "rendered".

For pure, blunt bass capacitym I start with two recordings: Joni MItchell, Cotton Avenue, From Don Juan'sReckless Daughter. During the free-form intro, Jaco hits the low e-string HARD - a note which corresponds to 33hz .Some cans get the visceral texture; some give a nice blend of attack and throb. Only a few get the pitch clearly, while providing the growl and fluctuationin that open string as it slowly decays. The HP100SE hit that bottom tone every bit as deeply and tunefully as did the Utopia OG. Frédéric Alarie's Mega Bass, on 2XHD, begins with"Exchange, a track on which a guest bassist, Eric Chapel plays the 11-foot tall Octobass, which bottoms out at near-subsonic 19 hz. The tone and timbre of the big bass' lowest note is aduble and clear, and only slightly quieter than the contrabasse - the pitch is clear and acccurate, and the mechanical pluck is also conveyed clearly. Alarie plays alongside him. The Grado GS3000X, while possessing a warm, clean, and tuneful bass into the lower mid bass, offers barely a wisp of that low note. Susvara Unveiled doesn't roll off the low bass; while that absurdly rich yet utterly transparent headphone is a more refined product, at more than triple the cost,this is the first Grado which is both completely full-range AND maintains all which is best about the brand.

I'm drummer, and the pitch and envelope of a bass drum and of a ride cymbal are pleasures not always captured by headphone realistically. On Genesis Can-Utility and the Coastliners, and Robbery Assault and Battery, the artful, subtle intricacies of Phil Collins playing in his prime are captured, both powerful and graceful. His ability to coach complex tonalities out of his drums, and handle the bass-drum single pedal with absurd dexterity, triple strokes and syncopations in odd-time...on the BASS drum, as well as combining upbeat unisons on deep toms and crash cymbals to constantly turn the beat around without losing the pulse - plus that fat pocket and perfect time exemplify why he is revered by some of the most renowned drummers out there, like Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVirgilio, John Bonham, Brann Dailor... amounts to a showcase of what makes his playing important.
Basslines are beautifully delineated and as realistic as I've heard on any headphone, Mike Rutherford's bass pedals are rendered with full transparency to the texture, as well as a genuine sense of rib-rumbling power. Yes, from a Grado. They foudn the missing bass and sub-bass. As Headphone Guru reported, the bass is impressive for an open bacvked headphone, and also for an open front headphone.Its better bass than you'll find elsewhere at this price. My bass benchmarks, including several more, are met and celebrated without weakness.

The high frequency generosity appears to be, in part, an artifact of an extremely quick and detailed transient response, withride cymbal hits clear and present but never unnatural, the full harmonic spectra of those cymbals just as they sound to a drummer. Check out DeJohnette's cymbals and drums on Sunrise, from Rydal/Vitous/DeJohnette; Jack mic'd his cymbals immediately above and below to get their full decay and overtones, and boy is it successful using these.

Mids are a Grado strength. Voices are beautiful; Patricia Barber on Clique, and Modern Cool, is intimate silky, breath and small emphases audible and communicative. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings, especially on A Kings Prayer, and I Am The Sun, has his gruff, sensitive and melodic vocals just as he ought to sound; Peter Gabriel's vocals on So and his Genesis performance from Nursery Cryme to The Lamb are simply communicative and evocative ...and warm. Joni MItchell - commmunicates. Warm, beautiful, with all the little articulations which carry her intelligence, romanticism, and pain, conveyed intimately, personally. Not reproduced....conveyed, communicated.

Yes it is "subjective". I don't listen to muisic, or spend lots of money on it, in order to obey a quasi- puritanical commandment that one must venerate "neutrality" at all costs. We've got far too much oppressive fundamentalism taking over my corner of the world, among others; not only do I NOT welcome, nor agree with, the notion that ANY outside criteria must take precedence over personal response, I also have never heard - ever, not once - a live musical performance that wasn't full of "quirks and flaws". You might argue that the speakers, the gear overall, are "supposed to" simply convey what is on the recording, without "editorializing".

Shove the "supposed to". First, it is a logical absurdity; a slippery slope leading to one ideal, platonically-perfect headphone which nails the Harman Commandment, or whatever. Music, in such a dystopia, would be a thing you use to test your headphones, when you need a break from the frequency sweep house-y feel mix; every headphone, every component would be a source of immense ambivalence and insecurity - god forbid folks should know I prefer W's to U's....and don't mention "flat". I'd be banished to a penal colony of people dangerous for their preference for euphony and sibilance. Freaks. A New Audio Australia - and we see how cool Australia grew up to be. But that's neither here nor there. Are headphone designers racing to create the least personal, most objectively anonymous

I've spent my life listening and playing; The FR may convey the quirks you expect from Grado, but, as with any of the many examples of how conventional mesasurements simply have nothing to say about the way certain components land, in your heart, head, and viscera, it works. Voices, celli, saxophones, acoustic guitars, clarinets - all delicious, never piercing....AND the highs are assertive while the mids are full and engaging. But high quality.

That's it for now. I think Grado did a fine job with these. A worthy flagshiup....just a few hundred bucks more than their last flagship, and absolutelyly worth the money. As long as you're a Grado lover, and/or able to put aside what is familiar and hear how they like to present music. Its not a mistake - the copany has stayed true to a sonic vision, and if you can see/hear things their way, its easy to make a happy peace with the unconventional qualities of this headphone.

Staging, depth, image solidity and realistic dimensonality - all those goodies are first rate.These are capable of good outside-your-head imaging. Bottom line, for me, is that if you geneally don't mind, or even are drawn to, the forwardness and unfettered high frequencies of Grado headphone, you will probably find these to be a fulfillment of what you believe Grado CAN do. They could have added a grand to the price and they'd belong in that range. As much as I love the GS3000, these are more than 500 bucks better, IMO. And, with all respect to the very personal nature of sonic preference, this is definitely not a Grado for people who don't like Grados....unless the full-range frequencies and sheer GRIP of these headphone are likely to be enjoyed and respected by many who are on the fence. That BASS, that clarity....

ADDENDUM: The HP100 SE ships with a complementary pair of F-cushions, the ones from the Hemp, which greatly temper the highs, and, on smaller ensemble music, makes the kids and lows all the more rich, while shining a nie beam of darkness ont nhe botom octave. Yes, there is a textured, timbrally crystal clear handling of the sub-20hz octobass on "Exchange" the first track on Alarie's Mega Bass album. Grado has not only found the bass.....they found really good, deep, dark, well-defined bass. THe f-cuishion go a bit far in the other direction on some miusic, but the result is lovely on acoustic instruments, small ensembles, "intimate" recordings. The driver is still a little close to the ear to be ideal, but - with the big G-cush, this is an excellent reference quality headphone - with clear and present but high-quality highs.... not at all dissimilar to any of a number of real-world musical environments.

No, CanJam impressions are NOT good enough. We should all - especially anyone with ab it of scientific training, draw any conclusions or convey opinions from there without qualification. The majority of recordings I've listened to with the big cushions are are sweet, timbrally pleasing, extremely revealing and communicative - and, the highs are nowhere near as quirky as, say, the big Abyss cans - which I love. Listening to acoustic guitar and piano now, with the G-cush, through Holo May KTE, Bliss KTE, and switching in a Woo WA5-LE. This is a wonderful headphone, and a good indication of where Grado is, and should be heading.

I enjoyed what you wrote about liking how they stick to their guns. It is respect for a company with the integrity to make musical instruments the way they like them, the way enough other people like them so that they know they are serving like-minded people. And I know of no other brand, with relatively expensive as well as very affordable gear, who command such brand loyalty, most of the Grado owners I know having had multiple units from different series. There's an artisan quality to what they do which makes it more, I don't know, fun to use their stuff, compare the qualities of different models.... they're different. I've got a Sus Unveiled here, a Final D8000 Pro, a Utopia OG, and an Abyss 1266 Infinite Cognition Singularity Matrix Omega - Quinoa Edition, or whatever extra syllables they use. All great; most more technically sophisticated in one way or another (although the HP100SE seems to have a little more tech savvy to it, though still essentially a simple design)...and I listen to these every bit as much as the much more expensive cans.

 

[mortcola]

How are the lower mids, mids and upper mids compared to 3000x?
By mids I mean from 500hz -2khz; with 3-4khz being the very upper mids transitioning to lower treble being around 5khz-6khz.
I would say the 3000x is a very slight recessive to neutral mids to my ears. Not quite flat mids because of the slight dip.

thanks for your impressions

Well, I try to avoid the frequency ranges, because I'm hearing flavors, qualities, timbres....translating those into numbers misses something. But what you'll find is it is a much more potent, full-range, headphone.

Have you tried the L-Cush? Would love impressions.

I have not, and I am curious. The F made it a little too fat, although the tonality was very pleasing. i'm already hearing the headphones start to smooth out, after doing four hours of listening yesterday and then just letting it play through the night. It's still new and exciting to have a completely new and unfamiliar Grado headphone and I'll probably rewrite the review after a few months.

so I'm quite happy thus far with the big G cushion, but something with a little more air between the driver and my eardrum, but less than the G, sounds like it would be perfect, or a good alternative at a very least. And for folks who like slightly fatter, more euphonic, those little flat cushions do make it sound like a very different headphone.

regarding the frequency comments you wrote earlier, I agree with you about this 3000, although it has a little more richness to the overtones, it sounds a little more harmonically alive, compared to the 1000 and 2000, as well as the 3000e. but the new baby, the HP? It's just a more refined, transparent, and full range headphone. Of course it's a little hot in the upper mids through mid treble, corresponding to what you'd expect from the frequency graph. But it is not in the least bit harsh or piercing. I think far too much is made of sibilance; I don't think objectionable sibilance usually comes from the headphones. A mastering engineer friend of mine, one who just happens to use the 325E as his mastering headphone, just made a big dismissive gesture and said that sometimes the sibilance is due to the vocalist biting the microphone, and sometimes because they mix it hot. But a headphone or speaker has to have a lot wrong with it beyond just an overcooked upper range in order to actually be the cause of unpleasant sibilance.

I've done a marathon and a half since those headphones showed up early Monday, and I've had no listening fatigue, my ears feel fine and I look forward to going home and listening some more. your mileage may vary.... but I am really pleased with the new kid. It is most definitely a Grado, but it would never be confused for any of the models I've heard before. More incisive, excellent bass in extension, tonality, and articulation, first rate staging and aging, including location, stability, three dimensionality, breath and texture… more truly flagship quality.

 

[sling5s]

Thank you

 

[ParadoxicalMadness]

Well, it is a Grado. It is forward and somewhat bright. But taking them on a feature by feature basis, you can miss the point. The Grado "house sound" is popular for good reasons - it captures the feeling and impact of live music. And the HP100SE definitely does have an extended, hugely detailed, and potentially sharp treble in the 2 - 4K range. And it sounds highly realistic. Not burned in yet, but the qualities are there -and Grados have all, always smoothed out up top with burn in.

But this IS an evolutionary, and extremely good headphone out of the box, potentially reaching well beyond its $2495 ticket. THe bass, to me, is extremely high quality and reaches the bottom-most octaves as well as most TOTL offering out there - and with greater attack and pitch qualities, irrespective of frequency - than many more expensive cans. They are beautifully built (I LIKE Grado's design, form following function, and have had fewer constuction-related issues with their lineup than with most. They are really simple but ingeniously tuned and tweaked devies. The RS1X is essentially a tuned maple cylinder with a resonant membrane (driver, and little else except what it takes to turn the signal to vibrations...more air than anythin else). One reason why, quirks aside, they give this uncanny sense of listening and looking through a wormhole into the place of the performance. GS3000 has that you are there quality - sometimes more, the players have come to visit you, whereas, with less engagement, some of the most expensive and impressive flagships present something more akin to a perfeftly clear high-res screen showing a quality audio-visual recording, every detail standing out. Grado brings the music to you in a way which feels more engaging and personal rather than....maybe, "rendered".

For pure, blunt bass capacitym I start with two recordings: Joni MItchell, Cotton Avenue, From Don Juan'sReckless Daughter. During the free-form intro, Jaco hits the low e-string HARD - a note which corresponds to 33hz .Some cans get the visceral texture; some give a nice blend of attack and throb. Only a few get the pitch clearly, while providing the growl and fluctuationin that open string as it slowly decays. The HP100SE hit that bottom tone every bit as deeply and tunefully as did the Utopia OG. Frédéric Alarie's Mega Bass, on 2XHD, begins with"Exchange, a track on which a guest bassist, Eric Chapel plays the 11-foot tall Octobass, which bottoms out at near-subsonic 19 hz. The tone and timbre of the big bass' lowest note is aduble and clear, and only slightly quieter than the contrabasse - the pitch is clear and acccurate, and the mechanical pluck is also conveyed clearly. Alarie plays alongside him. The Grado GS3000X, while possessing a warm, clean, and tuneful bass into the lower mid bass, offers barely a wisp of that low note. Susvara Unveiled doesn't roll off the low bass; while that absurdly rich yet utterly transparent headphone is a more refined product, at more than triple the cost,this is the first Grado which is both completely full-range AND maintains all which is best about the brand.

I'm drummer, and the pitch and envelope of a bass drum and of a ride cymbal are pleasures not always captured by headphone realistically. On Genesis Can-Utility and the Coastliners, and Robbery Assault and Battery, the artful, subtle intricacies of Phil Collins playing in his prime are captured, both powerful and graceful. His ability to coach complex tonalities out of his drums, and handle the bass-drum single pedal with absurd dexterity, triple strokes and syncopations in odd-time...on the BASS drum, as well as combining upbeat unisons on deep toms and crash cymbals to constantly turn the beat around without losing the pulse - plus that fat pocket and perfect time exemplify why he is revered by some of the most renowned drummers out there, like Neil Peart, Mike Portoy, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVIrgilio, John Bonham, Brann Dailor... amounts to a showcase of what makes his playing important.
delineated and realistic as I've heard on any headphone, Mike Rutherford's bass pedals are rendered with full transparency to the texture, as well as a genuine sense of rib-rumbling power. Yes, from a Grado. They foudn the missing bass and sub-bass. As Headphone Guru reported, the bass is impressive for an open bacvked headphone, and also for an open front headphone.Its better bass than you'll find elsewhere at this price. My bass benchmarks, including several more, are met and celebrated without weakness.

The high frequency generosity appears to be, in part, an artifact of an extremely quick and detailed transient response, withride cymbal hits clear and present but never unnatural, the full harmonic spectra of those cymbals just as they sound to a drummer. Check out Dejohnette's cymbals and drums on Sunrise, from Ryupdal/Vitous/DeJohnette; Jack mic'd his cymbals immediately above and below to get their full decay and overtones, and boy is it successful using these.

Mids are a Grado strength. Voices are beautiful; Patricia Barber on Clique, and Modern Cool, is intimate silky, breath and small emphases audible and communicative. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings, especially on A Kings Prayer, and I Am The Sun, has his gruff, sensitive and melodic vocals just as he ought to sound; Peter Gabriel's vocals on So and his Genesis performance from Nursery Cryme to The Lamb are simply communicative and evocative ...and warm. Joni MItchell - commmunicates. Warm, beautiful, with all the little articulations which carry her intelligence, romanticism, and pain, conveyed intimately, personally. Not reproduced....conveyed, communicated.

Yes it is "subjective". I don't listen to muisic, or spend lots of money on it, in order to obey a quasi- puritanical commandment that one must venerate "neutrality" at all costs. We've got far too much oppressive fundamentalism taking over my corner of the world, among others; not only do I NOT welcome, nor agree with, the notion that ANY outside criteria must take precedence over personal response, I also have never heard - ever, not once - a life musical performance that wasn't full of "quirks and flaws". You might argue that the speakers, the gear overall, are "supposed to" simply convey what is on the recording, without "editorializing".

Shove the "supposed to". First, it is a logical absurdity; a slippery slope leading to one ideal, platonically-perfect headphone which nails the Harman Commandment, or whatever. Music, in such a dystopia, would be a thing you use to test your headphones, when you need a break from the frequency sweep house-y feel mix; every headphone, every component would be a source of immense ambivalence and insecurity - god forbid folks should know I prefer W's to U's....and don't mention "flat". I'd be banished to a penal colony of people dangerous for their preference for euphony and sibilance. Freaks. A New Audio Australia - and we see how cool Australia grew up to be. But that's neither here nor there.

I've spent my life listening and playing; The FR may convey the quirks you expect from Grado, but, as with any of the many examples of how conventional mesasurements simply have nothing to say about the way certain components land, in your heart, head, and viscera, it works. Voices, celli, saxophones, acoustic guitars, clarinets - all delicious, never piercing....AND the highs are assertive while the mids are full and engaging. But high quality.

That's it for now. I think Grado did a fine job with these. A worthy flagshiup....just a few hundred bucks more than their last flagship, and absolutelyly worth the money. As long as you're a Grado lover, and/or able to put aside what is familiar and hear how they like to present music. Its not a mistake - the copany has stayed true to a sonic vision, and if you can see/hear things their way, its easy to make a happy peace with the unconventional qualities of this headphone.

Staging, depth, image solidity and realistic dimensonality - all those goodies are first rate.These are capable of good outside-your-head imaging. Bottom line, for me, is that if you geneally don't mind, or even are drawn to, the forwardness and unfettered high frequencies of Grado headphone, you will probably find these to be a fulfillment of what you believe Grado CAN do. They could have added a grand to the price and they'd belong in that range. As much as I love the GS3000, these are more than 500 bucks better, IMO. And, with all respect to the very personal nature of sonic preference, this is definitely not a Grado for people who don't like Grados....unless the full-range frequencies and sheer GRIP of these headphone are likely to be enjoyed and respected by many who are on the fence. That BASS, that clarity....

ADDENDUM: The HP100 SE ships with a complementary pair of F-cushions, the ones from the Hemp, which greatly temper the highs, and, on smaller ensemble music, makes the kids and lows all the more rich, while shining a nie beam of darkness ont nhe botom octave. Yes, there is a textured, timbrally crystal clear handling of the sub-20hz octobass on "Exchange" the first track on Alarie's Mega Bass album. Grado has not only found the bass.....they found really good, deep, dark, well-defined bass. THe f-cuishion go a bit far in the other direction on some miusic, but the result is lovely on acoustic instruments, small ensembles, "intimate" recordings. The driver is still a little close to the ear to be ideal, but - with the big G-cush, this is an excellent reference quality headphone - with clear and present but high-quality highs.... not at all dissimilar to any of a number of real-world musical environments.

No, CanJam impressions are NOT good enough. We should all - especially anyone with ab it of scientific training, draw any conclusions or convey opinions from there without qualification. The majority of recordings I've listened to with the big cushions are are sweet, timbrally pleasing, extremely revealing and communicative - and, the highs are nowhere near as quirky as, say, the big Abyss cans - which I love. Listening to acoustic guitar and piano now, with the G-cush, through Holo May KTE, Bliss KTE, and switching in a Woo WA5-LE. This is a wonderful headphone, and a good indication of where Grado is, and should be heading.

OK, this particular review alone, makes me wanna get these first, before I get myself a ES Labs ES-R10, though it will be a while before I can scrounge up enough money to make the purchase.

 

[Redd House]

Just joined the $2,500 headphones club.

I think I'm going to throw up...