Soundinista
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Posts
- 316
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- 16
Dear Mr. Grado,
I'll make it brief. I won't try to claim much of your time. So, I'll spare you the long autobiographical opening paragraph where I'd try to impress upon you that there is important feedback on your work in this post. (The long opening paragraph that I will not write would let you know about my experience as an audiophile, about the years and the substantial cash I've put into the hobby, about the class-A equipment I've sampled and owned, about my perfect auditory health, about the audiophile-approved recordings I've owned, etc.) Instead, I'll just cut to the chase and hope you'll read and think about every word in this short post.
Your GS1000i (that's an "i") is one of four headphone models I call my favorites. The others are the Senn HD800, the JVC DX1000, and the Denon D7000. (I confess that I've also had quite a bit of fun listening to a balanced Senn HD650, and I think the AKG Q701 is nothing to laugh about either.) Your GS1ki is the one that has had most of my listening time for five years now. I treat it to some of the very best head-fi equipment money can buy, and I wouldn't sell it for an obscene amount of cash. That's how much I like it -- its flaws notwithstanding. (I could use deeper bass, the low highs could be a little less forward, and the soundstaging could be a little wider -- all relatively minor complaints in view of what's there: that "airiness", and that to-die-for midrange, and that "resolution", and that 3-dimensionality, and the depth of that soundstaging, and the light weight on the head, and the roomy, comfortable earpads.)
I've been reading what little I can find on your just-released "e" revision of the magnificent GS1ki. And, on the basis of these early reports, I wonder if you have made a tragic mistake. This open letter is about the hypothetical tragic mistake. What mistake? The mistake of paying too much attention to those who say that they love their (lower-model) Grado's for their "intimate" sound. You know how this is passed around by the "intimate" crowd: there are those for whom the adjective "intimate" is high praise when it comes to describing imaging/soundstaging.
Don't get me wrong. I respect the "intimate" crowd. I really do. It's a legitimate preference, of course. In fact, I deeply envy the "intimate" head-fier. S/he is easy to please, isn't she? Headphones are all about "intimacy". 99.99% of the headphone models out there specialize in "intimacy". The sound they put out is so "intimate" that you'd never mistake it for anything that goes on outside your head. It's all in there! You can count on getting a very "intimate", claustrophobic experience from the vast majority of headphone models out there (including some that get high praise from people who call themselves "audiophiles"). There is, as a rule, no air to be found in that kind of sound. You'd never mistake it for what goes on out there, in space, in the concert hall, in the immersive home theater experience, or even in the ordinary, smallish room where a pair of modest speakers makes sound traverse a couple of yards into your ears.
Are you addressing the new "e" versions of the GS1ki and the PS1ki to the "intimate" crowd? I hope you're not. And, if you have made that mistake with the first batches of these new "e" models, I hope you'll reconsider what you're doing. I won't speculate on the business wisdom of surrendering these models to the "intimate" crowd. This open letter is just to express my hope that you won't do so. Some of us crave the out-of-head, 3-dimensional experience that some of the very best models give us, when properly set up. Your GS1ki and PS1ki were two of these sanctuaries where we used to find refuge from "intimate", in-your-face, claustrophobic, artificial headphone sound.
I haven't posted here in years, but I just couldn't resist the urge to come back and make a plea for those of us who prefer 3-dimensional, holographic sound -- before it's too late, before we see manufacturers like you succumb to the "intimate" ideology.
With best wishes,
S