[burnliff]

Is the difference between the 80 and 60 just the cable now that the 80 comes with comfies?

 

[Uri Cohen]

So pretty much the 80i uses the same heavy cable but use a 1/8 connector pretty much right? 

 

[Bilavideo]

 

Is the difference between the 80 and 60 just the cable now that the 80 comes with comfies?

Grado Labs says it's a twofold difference: four-conductor cable (splitting the groundwire) and "a special destressing process" to "enhance inner detail" and make the headphones less prone to "transient distortions."
 
Whatever that means.
 
The cable, itself, should improve the sound, at least some part of the time.  Of course, if you buy an SR60, you can take the difference in price and invest it in your own copper cabling.  I don't think there's anything wrong with the original cable but I like four-wire braids, which split the common wire into two separate wires.

 

[estreeter]

I own, or have owned, the following:
 
SR60i
SR80i
MS-1
SR325is
 
My belief is that you either get the SR60i or the Ms-Pro/RS1. I know this will seem extreme, but there you have it. Its 'bang for buck' or 'go hard or go home' time. For the current asking price of the Ms-Pro in Oz, I can get:
 
- a set of reasonably good bookshelf speakers (certainly nothing exceptional)
- or a decent Marantz integrated amp with a few dollars left over for CDs
- or the Lisa III and a deposit on the PSU
 
Its never easy, so my suggestion is the SR60i.

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

Quote:

The MS1 IMO is good to use as a door stop or something similar. Grado is where it's at. You like the Grado sound, get a Grado.

Really? Do you even know what Alessandro is?

 
Quote:

Unfortunately I wasted money on a pair...so yeah...I am fully aware of them. Thanks for asking though.

I think Shotguns pont was an Allesandro is a Grado, and that you likening a very good product to a door stop was pure hyperbole. A lot of people think the 325 is to shrill, yet you think it's headphone nirvana. Different strokes and all that. If a Grado product like the MS1 was such a pure piece of garbage as you seem to be strongly inferring, what prompted you to spend 3x as much on another product from the manufacturer of something that you think you wasted your money on in the first place?

 

[ArmAndHammer]

Thats the funny thing. I bought the MS1's blind and they almost made me deaf. Two years later I was hesitant to demo the Grados after being scarred by the Alessandros but I gave them a try at my local audio shop and I enjoyed the lineup from the bottom SR60 up to the GS1000, the only two I did not try was the SR125 and RS2 because they did not have them in stock. I found the SR80 to be nice even though it is the Grado superior to the MS1. I bought the SR325 because other than the RS1, it was far better to me than the rest of the lineup. I stick to my opinion. I owned the MS1 and if I had not sold it soon after purchasing it would surly have been turned in to a door stop, toilet paper holder, grill tongs, flour sifter, I don't know, something more appropriate because they were useless to me as headphones.

 

[baka1969]

I have owned just about all of the Grados up to the HF2 and just heard the HF2 and RS1 side-by-side this past weekend. I've also heard the MS1. If you want to keep Grado sound I'd go with the SR-80 as Grados scale well up the line.. I have tons of respect for Bilavideo and he's a Grado mod virtuoso.Unfortunately I have two left hands and all thumbs. I have no doubt that for the money you can get the 60i and mod it so it will be equal to or surpass the 80i. If you don't possess the time or skill to do it, the 80i isn't that much more than the 60i and it's a better headphone overall.

 

[Kevin Brown]

I suspect that A&H got a "bad" pair of MS1i's.  But I have also owned them all up to the HF2.  I may have also got a "bad" MS1i in that the pair that I had didn't have a lot of bass.  The bass of the SR80i, 125, 225, 325, MS2i, and HF2 are all comparable IMO, with obvious added refinement, detail, punch, and impact as you go up in price, which isn't to be unexpected.  However, the SR60i and the MS1i that I heard were both "oddball" in that there simply wasn't enough low end. Defective?  Poor quality control?  Poor manufacturing tolerance?  I don't know.
 
But then just recently I got to hear another MS1i example, and it sounded fine, and more like all the others as far as bass goes.  Go figure.
 
So personally I'd vote for the SR80i's.

Also, I am pretty darn sure (since I owned them

) that the SR80i cable is the same as the SR60i cable, and is the thinner one, the easier to manager for portable use one.  The SR125 and above at least up to the RS2i all use the same thicker cable (although it might be wired differently).

 

[ArmAndHammer]

Quote:

I suspect that A&H got a "bad" pair of MS1i's.  
 

That seems to be the general thinking from other people who have weighed in on my absolute dislike for the MS1. The only thing that keeps me from agreeing 100% is that the person that bought them from me never contacted me about there being a possible issue. Now that is not to say they didn't buy them and run, buy them and re-sell at profit because I gave a pretty good deal on them, perhaps the fellow actually liked them, I don't know. I just know they were awful and I haven't had a chance to try another pair since. I won't go out of my way to do so either...that was enough to keep me from ever buying another pair of Alessandros. If I come across a pair to demo in the future I would just to see though.

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

Thats the funny thing. I bought the MS1's blind and they almost made me deaf. Two years later I was hesitant to demo the Grados after being scarred by the Alessandros but I gave them a try at my local audio shop and I enjoyed the lineup from the bottom SR60 up to the GS1000, the only two I did not try was the SR125 and RS2 because they did not have them in stock. I found the SR80 to be nice even though it is the Grado superior to the MS1. I bought the SR325 because other than the RS1, it was far better to me than the rest of the lineup. I stick to my opinion. I owned the MS1 and if I had not sold it soon after purchasing it would surly have been turned in to a door stop, toilet paper holder, grill tongs, flour sifter, I don't know, something more appropriate because they were useless to me as headphones.

I'm not sure what the deal was or why you didnt like them. I just found your perception odd given the fondness I've seen you heap on your 325's. Whatever, you didnt like them. I've never heard them but from everything I've read they are very similar to the 60 or 80. The 225's I had sounded very similar to my 60's. a little airier more detail and projected more energy, I liked them. I had an MS2 also. Same thing, airier, more detail, more vibrant, more energy. My point is all 3 Grado / Allesandro's sounded similar. That's why I found your strong rebuke of the MS1's so odd

 

[Kevin Brown]

Quote:

 My point is all 3 Grado / Allesandro's sounded similar. That's why I found your strong rebuke of the MS1's so odd

Bingo: he might have gotten a bad pair.  And why did the one pair of MS1i's that I bought brand new from Alessandro, sound so different from every other Grado I've ever heard, and from another MS1i that I heard later?  Bam, another "bad" pair?
 
Take this in the obvious lighthearted spirit that I'm posting it:  what if Grado grades according to quality (and I've heard that this might actually happen), but the "rejects" get the Alessandro nameplate?
 

 
But even I don't believe that, because I have a pair of MS2i's that are simply just killer.  But what if Grado really does apply more quality control as you go up in price?

 

[KneelJung]

Quote:

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Take this in the obvious lighthearted spirit that I'm posting it:  what if Grado grades according to quality (and I've heard that this might actually happen), but the "rejects" get the Alessandro nameplate?
 

I suppose it's possible, but why would a company risk it's reputation by allowing inferior products to be released into the market place?

 

[Kevin Brown]

Quote:

I suppose it's possible, but why would a company risk it's reputation by allowing inferior products to be released into the market place?

 No idea, but I do know this: I've heard multiple examples each of the MS1i, MS2i, and HF2, and they all sound different, with the two MS1i's I've heard being the most "different".  And then A&H's MS1i.  A buddy of mine has an MS2i and an HF2.  I like my MS2i over his, but I like his HF2 over mine.  Different.  I also owned 2 different SR80i's at different times, and they sounded more or less the same.  W/o A/B'ing, I don't know if they sounded exactly alike or not though.
 
And, while I just got a brand new pair of RS2i's, I'm hedging my bets and I also just bought a used pair to compare to pick the "best" one.