[EyeAmEye]

Well, after two years of avoiding Grados, for fear of their "bright" label, I bit the bullet and purchased the SR325 from Todd. My package was waiting for me, with flat pads, this evening when I got back from work. Decided to enjoy my new beautiful Grados straight through their burn-in and plugged them straight into my SuperMicro, from the line-out of the superb Aiwa XP-55 PCDP. Slapped in A Perfect Circle "Thirteenth Step" and I was off.
First impressions, swapping bowl and flat pads. Immediately, I thought, where's the brightness? It's brighter with the bowls, but not as bright as I was led to believe, not even as bright as my current phone, Sony CD780. As for the rest, I was impressed by the detail on the CD780, but the SR325 brings out even more. You really get to appreciate the little things with the Grados. The bass in nice and tight. Not as extended as many might like, but it's got bite which I prefer.
As I've read on these forums all along, Grados are the "rock can". The forward musical presentation just screams "ROCK". I'm getting pumped to track 10 "Pet" like the CD780's just couldn't do.
The soundstage is fairly narrow, expanded slightly with the bowl pads, but the CD780 clearly has it beat in that department.
I didn't intend to turn this into SR325 vs. CD780, because it isn't exactly fair to compare a $300 can to one that can be had for under $100 (even if Sony's ridiculous suggested retail price was originally $200), but it's the only can I can reference at the moment, having sold off a few in the past few weeks.
I certainly have a new favorite, and I can't wait to hear it after burn-in, it's already so damn good.
BTW, just to throw my opinion in on the bowl vs. flat pad debate, I prefer the flats for both sound and comfort.

 

[Hunter_Killer]

Im excited for you. They are something that I want but cant have without being ripped off. But there are other ways ...

 

[daycart1]

Yep, those 325s are nice and not as bright as people make out with good recordings. But with a bright recording, they don't pull punches--ouch!

And they are undoubtedly capable of more "extension" than any pcdp can put out.....

Enjoy!

 

[rligeti]

i wish i didn't sell mine...

 

[mikeg]

Now that I got the RS-1, I'll be selling my SR325.

 

[FrostyMMB]

You've only touched the surface. Pair those SR325s with a nice home cdp and a DIY amp or RA-1 and you'll hear them anew.

 

[Hunter_Killer]

Quote:

Originally posted by rligeti i wish i didn't sell mine...

LOL ! Punished !!

 

[EyeAmEye]

Quote:

Originally posted by FrostyMMB You've only touched the surface. Pair those SR325s with a nice home cdp and a DIY amp or RA-1 and you'll hear them anew.

I know you're right about that, problem is "head says yes, wallet says no". I decided I was going to splurge on a low-impedence can that can deliver excellent (albeit not their optimal sound) sound from my PCDP and portable amp and stop, be happy, and hope to all I hold dear it holds me at least for a year. It probably won't, (I do have to remain self-actualized, and I know I am weak), but one can dream.
Thank you all for your well wishes, I'm really enjoying the upfrontness the most. Of course, in life, there never really is a positive without it's negative, and it is at the cost of fatigue. I can't imagine listening for very long (more than perhaps an hour), so I do have to keep the CD780's around for the days when I want to sit back and spend a few hours in a comfy chair with arguably the most comfortable phones on earth.

 

[kartik]

Quote:

Originally posted by FrostyMMB You've only touched the surface. Pair those SR325s with a nice home cdp and a DIY amp or RA-1 and you'll hear them anew.

Did just that. Or not exactly. Best combo thus far: Sharp DX-SX1 DSD player--> Headphile Silver ICS (Analog)/Sharp proprietary DSD Cable (Digital DSD) ---> Sharp SM-SX1 Class D Amp/DAC ---> HEadphile Amp Adaptor Silver Cable ---> Grado SR-325 (Flat pads). Nothing sounds better! Nothing!!!

 

[bifcake]

I think you guys should make a doctor's appointment first thing tomorrow and have your ears checked. I think you suffer from limited deafness due to your inability to resolve high frequencies. The 325's are not just bright, they're screeching bright. Very painful phones. Probably the brightest in the Grado line.

So, the bad news is that you may have limited hearing, but the good news is that it's the ears that go first.

 

[kartik]

Quote:

Originally posted by bifcake I think you guys should make a doctor's appointment first thing tomorrow and have your ears checked. I think you suffer from limited deafness due to your inability to resolve high frequencies. The 325's are not just bright, they're screeching bright. Very painful phones. Probably the brightest in the Grado line. So, the bad news is that you may have limited hearing, but the good news is that it's the ears that go first.

Popular fallacy. The brightness is a reflection of 2 things. The bowl pads and the source-amp-ICs. Fix the both and they ain't that bright.

 

[bifcake]

Aren't you in fact damping the high frequencies by selected use of pads and IC's? If that's the case, then the phones are in fact very bright, but by tweaking associated equipment, you are making them manageable. This may be ok, but it limits the components that you may use with these phones. This doesn't make the phones worth recommending (at least not in my opinion). To me, the phones should sound good (or at least not painful) with any equipment and better equipment should bring out the detail that the phones are capable of.

 

[OakIris]

I hope to someday get a pair of Grados - I'm thinking more in the line of the RS1 or RS2 headphones

- but I am still a bit wary about Grado's reputation for brightness and lack of comfort. Maybe someday I'll at least get to listen to a pair of good Grados

 

[bifcake]

I heard the RS series phones and I wasn't really impressed with them. They're better than the 325, but they're still bright, on the verge of being shrill, whereas the 325's and 125's are shrill. I found the 225's to provide the best balance out of the Grado series. The SR40 and SR60 aren't bad either, but don't have the detail and accuracy of the 225 phones.

 

[FrostyMMB]

Quote:

Originally posted by bifcake Aren't you in fact damping the high frequencies by selected use of pads and IC's? If that's the case, then the phones are in fact very bright, but by tweaking associated equipment, you are making them manageable. This may be ok, but it limits the components that you may use with these phones. This doesn't make the phones worth recommending (at least not in my opinion). To me, the phones should sound good (or at least not painful) with any equipment and better equipment should bring out the detail that the phones are capable of.

I myself don't really like how the sound of Grados change so much with pad changes, headband changes, and earpiece location. However, they aren't the only headphones that display audible changes when the proximity of the driver to the ear is changed—nearly any driver will. I'm sure AKG, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica, and Sony (at one time) understood that the pads they choose for a model of headphone will affect how they sound. Change the pads on pretty much any headphone and you will change its sound. You can push or pull the earpieces of most headphones and hear the differences. The manufacturers ultimately decided the proximity, pad type, and pad shape that gives the sound that they were looking for.