Go there:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/596028/joe-grado-hp1000-modifications they are talking about RS1, Magnums, and HP2i.
I'm becoming more and more a hardcore fan of the HP1000 drivers.
I'm hanging onto my other best John Grado, my RS1, but I always find myself returning to listen to either my SR100-0 or my HP2.
To everyone out there who can't afford a HP2, grab a SR200-0 or any other headphones with HP1000 drivers in them. They are magical,
by themselves, and they don't depend as much on the the enclosure as many Head-Fier pretend. They are worth it, no matter in which support they come in, and they sound like what they sound.
I listen to my SR100-0 just as much as my HP2. Their difference in sound is
minimal, don't let the appearances fool you, because they fooled me. I will also say that the difference between my RS1 and my SR100-0 is radical. Where people say these two drivers are "different" me I say that the HP1000 drivers are "better". I do not find their neutrality boring at all. Some people still believe they are better at it than a HD800. Me I don't know, yet they are supremely resolving, balanced, full-sounding and lush.
Oh yeah just make sure you use them this way, for a gain in everything, sound quality, stage, openness, balance, extension, everything:
It only works well with the HP1000 headbands (and the effect is for the better with the HP1000 drivers, I have done extensive testing with my Grados).
Also come and ask me if you have problem with comfort. I have found my way around mine and I have done 20 hours marathons in week-ends, comfortably, almost not feeling them on my head. But there's really a trick though.
I don't know too much about the HP2i but Pcf certainly does. Go in that thread about.
They will all always tell you that the upgrade is for the better partly because they have paid 1500 for it, and that is our unconscious' play.
Yet I do believe them, and that it is true, when they say that the increase in sound quality is very real (without expecting it to be dramatic), and also because I believe in Joseph Grado's ear and talent.
I have found a HP2 in immaculate condition and I don't want it to be opened just yet, not until another 20 years, so I'm trying to find a HP1 that has had a life and some use through it, to have it upgraded and switches disconnected... because I do want to hear and have this upgrade, lol.