Quote:
Originally Posted by rodbac
I don't mean at all to sht on the thread, but just to inject an alternative point-of-view, Grados were my first "nice" headphones and I listened to them for quite a while. Once I finally heard the Senn 600s, it was like the music was finally there for me to listen to rather than be injected onto my eardrums.
Just to say: Grado's forward, bright presentation isn't preferred by all.
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OK. Which Grados did you have? I have the SR325i, which is considered by many to be one of the brightest Grados around along with the SR125. Quite frankly, I don't find them too bright at all. Onced burned in and amplified using compatible gear, it is definitely one of the sweetest sounding headphones I've ever tried. The nicely controlled bass and sweet sounding midrange are one of the strong points of the SR325i. Crystal clear highs and excellent performer/musician/instrument spacial separation only adds to its long list of qualities. They are, admittedly, a little on the heavy side and the padding on the headband is also inadequate.
I, for one, don't enjoy the Sennheiser HD650 quite as much because of its lack of clarity with dark recordings. That said, neither do I enjoy the Grado SR325i with bright Jap pop recordings! I perfectly understand when some people say Grados are harsh, but only if they say they are
relatively harsh compared to X headphone.
I have yet to try Grados amped with a nice tube amp and apparently, all the harshness is removed. I am currently looking at the Singlepower range of amps. At around the $1k mark, the PPX and MPX sound pretty reasonable.
And FYI, different pads give a very different presentation and sound signature. I personally prefer bowls as TTVJ flats put too much emphasis on the lower midrange and bass. HD414 pads just made my SR325i sound worse, so they didn't stay for long. Instead, I put them on my now-gone PX100.
my .02