NA Blur
Headphoneus Supremus
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I was hoping for larger improvements especially in the treble and bass region.
PS1000 Impressions Thread
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Justin_Time
500+ Head-Fier
Once again, I agree with just about everything. The MAD Ear+ HD did not do the job with the GS10000 for me either.
I have not tried too many amps with the GS1000 but I did one thing that improved matters quite a bit: I replaced the stock ear pads with the ones used on the venerable HP-2--Todd has them. This brought the drivers a tad closer to my ears and did improve the presence in the midrange by moving the image a little forward with not perceptible damage to the soundstage.
For amps, I found that the EAR HP-4 did a very good job of bringing the center image of the GS1000 forward. So did the SS Bakoon HA-21 but surprisingly from the Voltage Output rather than the usually more accurate Current Output. The GS1000 sounded a little warmer with both amps than with the GS-X Mk2. Unfortunately, the upper bass with the Bakoon/GS1000 was almost too much for me except when I listen to rock. LOL, the bass kick felt like a body slam!!!
Your are so lucky to have the GS-X Mk2 in your system. It took me about a dozen amps before I found it. That is by far the most flexible amp I know. For IEM, you should listen to the JH Roxanne on the GS-X Mk2. The silky details will blow your mind!
I would love to hear the JH Roxanne's, but my ears and IEMs don't get along so well anymore.
rgs9200m
Headphoneus Supremus
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My Rudistor amp works nicely with the GS1000i.
chirawatf
100+ Head-Fier
In my experience Graham Slee Solo ULDE works extremely good with PS1000.
Another amps that didn't work for me were Burson HA160D, Soloist, Centrance DACmini CX, Bryston BHA-1.
PS1000 is also the only headphone (among dynamic, orthodynamic in my sig) that has clarity at Abyss level.
Another amps that didn't work for me were Burson HA160D, Soloist, Centrance DACmini CX, Bryston BHA-1.
PS1000 is also the only headphone (among dynamic, orthodynamic in my sig) that has clarity at Abyss level.
LCfiner
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As someone who just got a MAD Ear+, hearing that someone thinks it makes an excellent pairing with the PS1000 is making me reach for my wallet…
I’ve had the PS1000 twice before. I have a weird relationship with this headphone. I loved it the first time, but then wanted to downsize and sold it. I got it again a year later - impulse buy at a great price - and actively disliked it. Second time was with the aggressive Burson Soloist so I think that may have had a bit to do with it - the highs were too much for me.
But I liked my first time with this headphone so much that I’m thinking of going big again and picking up an e series (I’d want that slightly improved bass and soundstage capability if I’m spending well over a grand) later this year.
I know firsthand how the Ear+ can make the RS1i a little smoother but still have lots of depth and detail. So hearing that it could do the same to the PS1000 is very tempting...
side note: it’s interesting to go back to the first posts in the thread from 2010. A lot of the popular kilobuck headphones head-fiers use now weren’t around so points of comparison are limited. and, even in those early days, there were sill lots of talk about the treble and how it had to be tamed for some people (some liked it as-is, of course).
I think if we were to talk about why this headphone isn’t more popular around here, it comes down to a few things, imo.
1) The price is very high - way more than an LCD-2 or HE-500 - and it scares people off even before they do a lot of research.
2) For those who do research and read impressions, they find a lot of people have issues with the treble or are disappointed with bass extension, and it scares them off
3) Grado quirks that are cute or charming on 200 or even 300 dollar headphones (the messy glue, the packaging, the basic rodblock and gimbal assembly) become sticking points on 1700 headphones.
4) And, yes, finally, they are the worst measuring and least accurate of all the main 1000+ headphones according to measurements and (most) listening impressions. They do not have real sub bass. They do have a hard to tame treble. They are more fun than accurate and, for this price, that’s a niche within a niche audience. Fun can be had for cheap, after all.
Personally, I’m at a point where I know that I want that fun again, but with more details and clarity and bigger soundstaging than the other Grados. so that’s why I’m thinking of jumping back in.
I’ve had the PS1000 twice before. I have a weird relationship with this headphone. I loved it the first time, but then wanted to downsize and sold it. I got it again a year later - impulse buy at a great price - and actively disliked it. Second time was with the aggressive Burson Soloist so I think that may have had a bit to do with it - the highs were too much for me.
But I liked my first time with this headphone so much that I’m thinking of going big again and picking up an e series (I’d want that slightly improved bass and soundstage capability if I’m spending well over a grand) later this year.
I know firsthand how the Ear+ can make the RS1i a little smoother but still have lots of depth and detail. So hearing that it could do the same to the PS1000 is very tempting...
side note: it’s interesting to go back to the first posts in the thread from 2010. A lot of the popular kilobuck headphones head-fiers use now weren’t around so points of comparison are limited. and, even in those early days, there were sill lots of talk about the treble and how it had to be tamed for some people (some liked it as-is, of course).
I think if we were to talk about why this headphone isn’t more popular around here, it comes down to a few things, imo.
1) The price is very high - way more than an LCD-2 or HE-500 - and it scares people off even before they do a lot of research.
2) For those who do research and read impressions, they find a lot of people have issues with the treble or are disappointed with bass extension, and it scares them off
3) Grado quirks that are cute or charming on 200 or even 300 dollar headphones (the messy glue, the packaging, the basic rodblock and gimbal assembly) become sticking points on 1700 headphones.
4) And, yes, finally, they are the worst measuring and least accurate of all the main 1000+ headphones according to measurements and (most) listening impressions. They do not have real sub bass. They do have a hard to tame treble. They are more fun than accurate and, for this price, that’s a niche within a niche audience. Fun can be had for cheap, after all.
Personally, I’m at a point where I know that I want that fun again, but with more details and clarity and bigger soundstaging than the other Grados. so that’s why I’m thinking of jumping back in.
BlackstoneJD
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The PS1000 is NOT a bright headphone and it has no sibilance. It is an audiophile headphone of the highest caliber and it is ruthlessly TRANSPARENT. If your DAC and amp send it an unrefined signal and are not up to the task, or your source material just plain sucks and was recorded poorly, the PS1000 will be sure to let you know and claw your ears out. Upgrade your front end and the PS1000 will reward you.
I agree that they can be terribly bright sounding, but really you are just hearing deficiencies in your front end components and source.
I use the NEW Ayre QB-9 DSD dac and Bryston BHA-1 in single ended configuration with Transparent Audio cabling and a bank of PS Audio Noise harvesters and these headphones give $12,000+ speakers a good run for their money.
They also just plain sound good with every source. They kill the Sennheiser in my opinion. These new e series phones are probably crazy good.
Yes the build quality and comfort sucks. The rod blocks are a joke, the headband is insufficient and needs aftermarket replacement. The German made Sennheiser is a better designed product. I'm sure they have certain deficiencies, but understand that these phones can properly service $3500+ dacs and front end gear. These phones can do incredible detail retrieval AND not sound harsh, at all, if your dac and amp is up to the challenge. Most simply are not.
I agree that they can be terribly bright sounding, but really you are just hearing deficiencies in your front end components and source.
I use the NEW Ayre QB-9 DSD dac and Bryston BHA-1 in single ended configuration with Transparent Audio cabling and a bank of PS Audio Noise harvesters and these headphones give $12,000+ speakers a good run for their money.
They also just plain sound good with every source. They kill the Sennheiser in my opinion. These new e series phones are probably crazy good.
Yes the build quality and comfort sucks. The rod blocks are a joke, the headband is insufficient and needs aftermarket replacement. The German made Sennheiser is a better designed product. I'm sure they have certain deficiencies, but understand that these phones can properly service $3500+ dacs and front end gear. These phones can do incredible detail retrieval AND not sound harsh, at all, if your dac and amp is up to the challenge. Most simply are not.
LCfiner
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My first reaction is to get the graphs out but I suspect that won’t convince you. Nevertheless, I respectfully disagree that the PS1000 is 'ruthlessly transparent" and of the "highest caliber" when there is no bass to speak of under 40 Hz and a treble spike at 7 kHz around 7-8 dB above the midrange. those are headphone - not source - issues.
My second reaction is that there are people out there with incredible DACs and amps who have heard the PS1000 and disagree with you. You can’t blame the vast majority of sources and amps out there as being poor when so many have been used with the PS1000 and so many people have heard the same issues with the headphone. It’s not like everyone else is pairing a 1700 headphone with a Fiio E7 and 128 kbps MP3s...
Perhaps, we should be able to agree that everyone’s ears are different and that some people are way more sensitive or bothered by peaks in certain frequencies. If someone is super picky about frequencies around 7k, the PS100 is gong to be a poor choice. But, someone else might not be bothered by those frequencies but might have sensitivity around 2 or 3 kHz. making the RS1 too aggressive but the PS1000 a delight. And some people are so allergic to HF that they get Audeze headphones
And note that I’m not trying to say that one person is a better or worse listener with these things. It’s just the way our ears and brain can be slightly different.
My second reaction is that there are people out there with incredible DACs and amps who have heard the PS1000 and disagree with you. You can’t blame the vast majority of sources and amps out there as being poor when so many have been used with the PS1000 and so many people have heard the same issues with the headphone. It’s not like everyone else is pairing a 1700 headphone with a Fiio E7 and 128 kbps MP3s...
Perhaps, we should be able to agree that everyone’s ears are different and that some people are way more sensitive or bothered by peaks in certain frequencies. If someone is super picky about frequencies around 7k, the PS100 is gong to be a poor choice. But, someone else might not be bothered by those frequencies but might have sensitivity around 2 or 3 kHz. making the RS1 too aggressive but the PS1000 a delight. And some people are so allergic to HF that they get Audeze headphones
And note that I’m not trying to say that one person is a better or worse listener with these things. It’s just the way our ears and brain can be slightly different.
BlackstoneJD
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I don't understand why the graphs are relevant at all. In a full range speaker, perhaps. A headphone is inherently a compromised product with limited range. If you are listening to headphones it is probably because your wife, dog, neighbors or budget won't let you listen to full range speakers. System building is not science. I've heard my recordings on B&W and Wilson speakers with dCS gear and some of the finest equipment on earth. I know what the recording is supposed to sound like. I know what good imaging sounds like.
Every recording I play on the Grado sounds like that recording, not like Grado's interpretation of it. I found the opposite was true with the Sennheiser. Everything had a sameness, a Sennheiser sound.
I'm not saying it is the best headphone on the market, but I think most likely it is one of the best. If you heard the Grado state your dac and amp as well, otherwise there is no telling what you heard.
Every recording I play on the Grado sounds like that recording, not like Grado's interpretation of it. I found the opposite was true with the Sennheiser. Everything had a sameness, a Sennheiser sound.
I'm not saying it is the best headphone on the market, but I think most likely it is one of the best. If you heard the Grado state your dac and amp as well, otherwise there is no telling what you heard.
LCfiner
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The graphs are (imo) relevant because you made this statement:
"The PS1000 is NOT a bright headphone and it has no sibilance. It is an audiophile headphone of the highest caliber and it is ruthlessly TRANSPARENT."
That’s a statement that I interpreted to be about the objective performance of the headphone and those statements can be compared to measurements.
The measurements do not back that statement up. They happen to back up the majority opinion that it is a bright headphone. that doesn’t mean that it’s thin in the mids and has zero bass. it means that there is a peak or two in the high treble region that can make some music (mostly poorly mastered stuff but not 100%) sound too hot.
And, to be fair to your statement, the PS100 has fantastic detail retrieval and clarity and that could be defined as an aspect of transparency. So, in that sense, it is ruthlessly transparent. But if using the word to mean that the headphone doesn’t impart some of it’s own signature on the sound, then I can’t say that the PS1000 is not the most transparent out there.
I also have some good speakers. Salk songtowers in the living room and Quad 12L active bookshelves in the office. They’re both quite good and I do most of my listening on them and that forms a basis of comparison for my headphone use, too. I’m not just comparing my headphones to each other but also to the sound from these speakers.
Anyway, I do agree with you about quality of source and amping. But maybe not to the same extent? Like I said, first time I had the PS1000, I loved it. it was running on a meagre HA-160D and HRT music streamer 2+. I still found it a little bright but not painfully so. There was a drive, power and realness to it that I found incredible.
Second time was on a Burson soloist and (I think) a W4S DAC1 and it was just soooo aggressive. The soloist did not work for me with the PS1000 (and HD800) because I felt it exaggerated the treble of both headphones. But I liked it with the darker LCD-3 (this was a period of a few months where I was experimenting left and right with high end headphones)
So I agree with you that upstream gear can make a difference. I just don’t think it can fundamentally change the voicing of a headphone. I’d like to listen to the PS1000e on this Ear+ and see if it recaptures what I originally liked about my first PS1000 experience (hopefully even better)
"The PS1000 is NOT a bright headphone and it has no sibilance. It is an audiophile headphone of the highest caliber and it is ruthlessly TRANSPARENT."
That’s a statement that I interpreted to be about the objective performance of the headphone and those statements can be compared to measurements.
The measurements do not back that statement up. They happen to back up the majority opinion that it is a bright headphone. that doesn’t mean that it’s thin in the mids and has zero bass. it means that there is a peak or two in the high treble region that can make some music (mostly poorly mastered stuff but not 100%) sound too hot.
And, to be fair to your statement, the PS100 has fantastic detail retrieval and clarity and that could be defined as an aspect of transparency. So, in that sense, it is ruthlessly transparent. But if using the word to mean that the headphone doesn’t impart some of it’s own signature on the sound, then I can’t say that the PS1000 is not the most transparent out there.
I also have some good speakers. Salk songtowers in the living room and Quad 12L active bookshelves in the office. They’re both quite good and I do most of my listening on them and that forms a basis of comparison for my headphone use, too. I’m not just comparing my headphones to each other but also to the sound from these speakers.
Anyway, I do agree with you about quality of source and amping. But maybe not to the same extent? Like I said, first time I had the PS1000, I loved it. it was running on a meagre HA-160D and HRT music streamer 2+. I still found it a little bright but not painfully so. There was a drive, power and realness to it that I found incredible.
Second time was on a Burson soloist and (I think) a W4S DAC1 and it was just soooo aggressive. The soloist did not work for me with the PS1000 (and HD800) because I felt it exaggerated the treble of both headphones. But I liked it with the darker LCD-3 (this was a period of a few months where I was experimenting left and right with high end headphones)
So I agree with you that upstream gear can make a difference. I just don’t think it can fundamentally change the voicing of a headphone. I’d like to listen to the PS1000e on this Ear+ and see if it recaptures what I originally liked about my first PS1000 experience (hopefully even better)
BlackstoneJD
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By the way when I say your wife, dog or neighbors won't let you use speakers, I'm talking about me. Except in my case it is my wife, my neighbors and their dog that don't like my speakers or my music.
Look, if you are using graphs to make purchasing decisions you are going about this in the wrong way in my opinion. My dealer lets me borrow the phones for two weeks before making a decision. There is no need for graphs when I can use my ears to compare.
I understand what people say about the Grado treble, ect, because I've heard it myself. But in my opinion, that harshness or sibilance is nothing but noise in your system that the Grado is just relaying. It could be anything, issues with your power lines, deficiencies in the way your dac or amp is designed. One issue Ayre addressed with the DSD upgrade to their QB-9 DAC was the power supply to the USB interface, for example, which supposedly makes performance more consistent regardless of what computer, motherboard, or usb port you are using. When I made that upgrade, some recordings that used to be a bit harsh now tickle your ears with the PS1000. When you make improvements to upstream components like that and the headphones sound TOTALLY different, that is transparency. When the headphones put their ugly sound signature on everything you listen to, that is a problem. I don't hear a Grado sound at all. They TOTALLY disappear. I think they have a really bad rap on these forums.
Look, if you are using graphs to make purchasing decisions you are going about this in the wrong way in my opinion. My dealer lets me borrow the phones for two weeks before making a decision. There is no need for graphs when I can use my ears to compare.
I understand what people say about the Grado treble, ect, because I've heard it myself. But in my opinion, that harshness or sibilance is nothing but noise in your system that the Grado is just relaying. It could be anything, issues with your power lines, deficiencies in the way your dac or amp is designed. One issue Ayre addressed with the DSD upgrade to their QB-9 DAC was the power supply to the USB interface, for example, which supposedly makes performance more consistent regardless of what computer, motherboard, or usb port you are using. When I made that upgrade, some recordings that used to be a bit harsh now tickle your ears with the PS1000. When you make improvements to upstream components like that and the headphones sound TOTALLY different, that is transparency. When the headphones put their ugly sound signature on everything you listen to, that is a problem. I don't hear a Grado sound at all. They TOTALLY disappear. I think they have a really bad rap on these forums.
BlackstoneJD
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Oh and I should mention that the recent dac upgrade totally blew me away when REALLY mediocre 44.1 material that I would have expected to tear my ears out based on my now debunked understanding of the voicing of these headphones now sounds significantly less fatiguing and even good. I respectfully disagree that upstream components cannot change the voicing of these phones. If the voicing was really that prominent I would and could not be hearing what I am hearing.
LCfiner
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Not sure what you're getting at but whatever. I'm out of this thread till I succumb to my impulses and get another ps1000.
Cheers
Cheers
Oteil
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