PS1000e VS HD800 VS RS1i
(note: In the bottom of the “impression/review” i note that the Ps1000e has only had 20 hours of burn in time, which might be the cause of my disappointment. This is only initial impressions based on roughly 30-40 min auditioning, and this has been written down rather fast, so expect to see gramatical errors and misspelled words)
Got the chance today to listen to the new PS1000e’s in an audiostore and was very disappointed. I had brought my old RS1i’s and my HD 800’s for comparison. Setup: headphone amlpfier and dac, chosen by the dealer streaming 192.000 hz through a macbook with lossless music. Audition time was about 30-40 mins. I can’t remember the names of the amp and dac.
For a long time i’ve been feeling that the HD800’s bored me with the light bass emphasis and it’s “non-sparkling” treble, so i wanted to look more into the new Grado PS1000e’s for a more exciting solution. Being a fan of the Grado house sound i was convinced that i was going to fall in love with these cans at first listen! Not the case. First impression that struck me was: Wow, these cans have zero low end. Literally, nothing down there?? Comparing these to the HD800 which i presumed was bass light cans, the HD800’s sounds like a bass quantity monster. Even the dealer was quite surprised by the low end perfomance of the PS1000e’s, when i made him A-B some of my reference tracks. No presence at all. I had read that the bass quantity of the new ps1000e’s should be a little lower than the older ps1000’s but i had not expected nothing at all. Much Much less bass than the HD800’s. And yes i am aware of the fact that Grado’s in genereal don’t do well at “sub-bass” perfomance, because they aren’t meant for that, but this was just regular “kick-drum” bass that they were completely missing out on. Comparing the bass performance with the RS1i’s the RS1i’s were the cans with the most bass of all of them. The RS1i’s also had the most punching bass of all of them. Concerning bass-quality i won’t really be able to say much about the PS1000e’s as i simply couldn’t hear it.
Moving on to treble, these can’s were fairly sparkling, but not unbearable in any way. They had more treble than the HD800 though. Concerning the treble quality i was disappointed as well. It sounded kinda grainy with very low detail compared to both the RS1i and HD800’s. I usually put on some G-cush with my RS1i’s and eq to compensate for the acoustical changes. That combo has some insanely detailed, sparkly and airy treble. Even more detailed and airy sounding than the HD800’s even though the soundstage is a tad bid smaller. The treble felt most controlled with the HD800. (The auditioning with the RS1i’s were done without G-cush, but the standard bowls.)
Midrange: Standard sounding on the PS1000e’s, very controlled sounding in the HD800’s and most exiting, “real” and warm sounding in the RS1i’s.
Soundstage: Pretty good on PS1000’s. Wider and better sounding in the HD800’s though.
Comfort: Bad on the PS1000e’s. I’m usually using the G-cush on the RS1i’s and think that the comfort is amazing, but with the PS1000e’s the earcups are so heavy that the cushions have so much pressure on the upper part of the cups, which creates an opening in the bottom. Overall the comfort wasn’t too big of an issue for me. These are still more comfortable than the RS1i’s with Bowls, and i think i will be able to use them for hours without too much of an issue. The HD800’s are the most comfortable though.
After listening with disappointment i had to ask the dealer about burn in time. After having owned the RS1i’s, i know that burn in is essential for Grado cans. I just couldn’t believe that this was true. I thought the PS1000e’s would be exactly what i was looking for, and wanted them too be like the RS1i’s with g-cush (Amazing and exciting sound), but to my disappointment they sounded 10 times as boring as the HD800’s. He told me that they had had about 20 hours. I hope that this has something to do with my impressions, and i have made an appointment with him again in a month. I will listen too them again the 31th of March and hope to see improvement. He will try to burn them more in for me next time
If anyone is interested i will write again when i’ll get my second listen to see for improvement.
