[bmichels]

Ricci used Grados as his reference for some years, as you can see in the headband, the rod/gimbal assembly, the shape....and began to develop his own designs. The dynamic drivers, though, have departed substantially over the years. The tiger end models have some very cool tech - motor-driven magnet arrays, for example, in the Pulsar and Valkyria models.

I'll have a Valkyria here in a few days to try out and attach some adjectives to. I'm a long-time Grado lover with several of the Brooklyn babies, plus nice collection of very non-Grado planar cans - but what Grado does best, nothing comes close to - presence, "you are there", that tactile, personal, physical impact of the music. If you're someone who experiences them that way....

But I can't wait. Just a few days now.

We are looking forwad reading your feedback on the Valkyria V/S Grado.

BTW do you have the GS3000x that i son my purchase list ? Have you experimented 3rd party pads for Grado like the "Beautiful Audio " pads ?

 

[mortcola]

We are looking forwad reading your feedback on the Valkyria V/S Grado.

BTW do you have the GS3000x that i son my purchase list ? Have you experimented 3rd party pads for Grado like the "Beautiful Audio " pads ?

I'm enjoying hearing them! I've enjoyed even the waiting (not long - very good service by HeadAmp!). The packaging would have been appropriate for an original Picasso, or the Mona Lisa, the 8 Philips Head screws, and multiple taped layers - the precisely calibrated Russian doll of boxes.

But....DAMN!!!! is this a pair of cans! I need more listening time. I use Ralph Towner Blue Sun, Dexter Gordon, Go; Latest remaster, 192/24 of Steely Dan Aja; Joni Mitchell Overture/Cotton Avenue, Genesis Seconds Out - The Cinema Show, Richard Thompson, Amnesia; a HiDefTape Transfer of Heifetz playing the Sibelius concerto on Mercury; Some Schubert strings (Jasper/Kernis Project, the Fitzwilliam on Linn; and some Linn and 2L orchestral recordings. More on that later.

I can't say whether they're neutral - there's a golden hue to the music, if anyone can vibe with the synesthesia. But there is so damned much going on here! They're appallingly detailed. The Valkyria are both pleasant and bracing to listen to - as most music ought to be. Texture, weight, and Susvara-level resolution, at least. They are a distinct yang to the Suva's cool yin. If you are a little synesthetic, you might notice the sound billowing, with more saturated hues, iridescent and visually a bit deeper, coming out and meeting your skull, where the Susvara has all in proportion and meets you halfway, all glimmers and hues laid bare but with the right degree of illumination - a very subtle kind of flattery. The Valkyria loves to sing for you. This is pure impressionism, but I know my impression-language.

For a heavy dynamic driver headphone, they eclipse the Utopia in either version in every aspects of details retrieval; they remove the upper bass bloat and weight, and have no particular brashness in the highs, which nare both realistic, assertive, and vanishingly deli9cate, as needed. a full, tactile, textured, and yet high articulate, dynamically fine-grained bass; first-class impact; the best holography I've heard, utterly without etching, with both small and vast distances, layout, differences between the ambience of one musician and another separated in the recording - although the Final D8000 Pro, the Abyss 1266 TC Phi, and the Susvara aren't deficient in this department, to say the least. So far, this feels like a greatest hits of each headphone. With he heart of an engineer who used to have it bad for Grado.

So, first impressions, apart from the barest timbral euphony, which might be me, feeling privileged to be wearing these things, these are both as fine grained and gifted with micro and macrodynamic variety as I've heard (I live with the aforementioned, plus a nice collection of beloved Grados). my ears and body and mind are pleased. Music feels good, and there's SO MUCH OF IT! There's a lot more to listen to. And there's getting used to the status of the item - no biases allowed.

BTW - I haven't played with new pads or cushions not he GS3000. I never felt the urge. I did, however, place a bunch of Dekoni nuggets, or what are they called, on the underside (obviously) of a PS2000X headband. Yes, more comfortable, and stays put a bit better. And, yes, I wrote PS2000X....X-driver tech installed in the PS20000e uniform. Still love my Grados. They have always done good things in a way unique to them. Maybe someone would like me to call the Valyria a cost-no-object fever-dream fulfillment of the Grado aesthetic or musical universe, or whatever. I won't say that. But I will ponder whether it ends up being true, or helpful to say. I mean, there's a kernel of good old Grado chutzpah here.... but let me not mislead.

Source: Files of CD - resolution no object, PCM and DSD, fed by an M1 iMac, '21, via Intona Professional (lotta words) USB cable, to Holo May KTE DAC in NOS mode, IC's the AQ Fire and Moon Silver Dragon, both balanced XLR.Kitsune, HeadAmp, Moon, and Headphones.Com have all been very helpful in assembling this menagerie.

 

[bmichels]

I'm enjoying hearing them! I've enjoyed even the waiting (not long - very good service by HeadAmp!). The packaging would have been appropriate for an original Picasso, or the Mona Lisa, the 8 Philips Head screws, and multiple taped layers - the precisely calibrated Russian doll of boxes.

But....DAMN!!!! is this a pair of cans! I need more listening time. I use Ralph Towner Blue Sun, Dexter Gordon, Go; Latest remaster, 192/24 of Steely Dan Aja; Joni Mitchell Overture/Cotton Avenue, Genesis Seconds Out - The Cinema Show, Richard Thompson, Amnesia; a HiDefTape Transfer of Heifetz playing the Sibelius concerto on Mercury; Some Schubert strings (Jasper/Kernis Project, the Fitzwilliam on Linn; and some Linn and 2L orchestral recordings. More on that later.

I can't say whether they're neutral - there's a golden hue to the music, if anyone can vibe with the synesthesia. But there is so damned much going on here! They're appallingly detailed. The Valkyria are both pleasant and bracing to listen to - as most music ought to be. Texture, weight, and Susvara-level resolution, at least. They are a distinct yang to the Suva's cool yin. If you are a little synesthetic, you might notice the sound billowing, with more saturated hues, iridescent and visually a bit deeper, coming out and meeting your skull, where the Susvara has all in proportion and meets you halfway, all glimmers and hues laid bare but with the right degree of illumination - a very subtle kind of flattery. The Valkyria loves to sing for you. This is pure impressionism, but I know my impression-language.

For a heavy dynamic driver headphone, they eclipse the Utopia in either version in every aspects of details retrieval; they remove the upper bass bloat and weight, and have no particular brashness in the highs, which nare both realistic, assertive, and vanishingly deli9cate, as needed. a full, tactile, textured, and yet high articulate, dynamically fine-grained bass; first-class impact; the best holography I've heard, utterly without etching, with both small and vast distances, layout, differences between the ambience of one musician and another separated in the recording - although the Final D8000 Pro, the Abyss 1266 TC Phi, and the Susvara aren't deficient in this department, to say the least. So far, this feels like a greatest hits of each headphone. With he heart of an engineer who used to have it bad for Grado.

So, first impressions, apart from the barest timbral euphony, which might be me, feeling privileged to be wearing these things, these are both as fine grained and gifted with micro and macrodynamic variety as I've heard (I live with the aforementioned, plus a nice collection of beloved Grados). my ears and body and mind are pleased. Music feels good, and there's SO MUCH OF IT! There's a lot more to listen to. And there's getting used to the status of the item - no biases allowed.

BTW - I haven't played with new pads or cushions not he GS3000. I never felt the urge. I did, however, place a bunch of Dekoni nuggets, or what are they called, on the underside (obviously) of a PS2000X headband. Yes, more comfortable, and stays put a bit better. And, yes, I wrote PS2000X....X-driver tech installed in the PS20000e uniform. Still love my Grados. They have always done good things in a way unique to them. Maybe someone would like me to call the Valyria a cost-no-object fever-dream fulfillment of the Grado aesthetic or musical universe, or whatever. I won't say that. But I will ponder whether it ends up being true, or helpful to say. I mean, there's a kernel of good old Grado chutzpah here.... but let me not mislead.

Source: Files of CD - resolution no object, PCM and DSD, fed by an M1 iMac, '21, via Intona Professional (lotta words) USB cable, to Holo May KTE DAC in NOS mode, IC's the AQ Fire and Moon Silver Dragon, both balanced XLR.Kitsune, HeadAmp, Moon, and Headphones.Com have all been very helpful in assembling this menagerie.

thank you very much for your very detailed answer. I am happy that you enjoy so much your Valkyria. I am surprise that you find it so good in detail retrival since I understood that this headphone is tuned more for pure listening pleasure than for technicality. May be finaly it offer booth !?

 

[mortcola]

thank you very much for your very detailed answer. I am happy that you enjoy so much your Valkyria. I am surprise that you find it so good in detail retrival since I understood that this headphone is tuned more for pure listening pleasure than for technicality. May be finaly it offer booth !?

I guess those two really aren't mutually exclusive! There is that golden glow I reference above - but right now, I'm listening to one of my all-time favorite albums, Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", which I know in every detail. Or kind of, because I'm having a revelation, production details, subtle voices buried in the mix, all articulated and impactful, and amazingly 3-D. Steve Hackett's famously buried guitar shadings and countermelodies, still distant, but unambiguous. They aren't "technical" or detailed; they're ARTICULATE. Yeah, articulate. Extreme transparency and palpability on a golden-tinged planet. "Neutral" seems like such primitive and almost tragic concept from up here....

 

[simorag]

Mahler 1st symphony underwent several iterations to reach the form we listen to now (1899 version, 7th and final one after 10 years of painful reworking).

Mahler had a very difficult life as a composer, and it was mainly thanks to Bernstein charisma - more than half a century after his death - that he reached its present status as a major figure of XX century music.

This rendition of the 1st is a such a wholehearted tribute to M. multifaceted psychological and musical personality!

The beautiful, the tragic, the grotesque elements are shamefully exposed in what then became the golden standard of uber-Mahlerian interpretation.

The result is an overflow of emotions covering the full range of human feelings about nature, life, social interactions, cultural heritage exposure (which for Mahler meant e.g. jewish rooted dances, militaresque fanfares, remote alpine landscapes evocations, often regurgitated as twisted through a distorted lens).

The 3rd movement alone, with its theatrical representation of death, carnal joy, bitter sarcasm, despaired search for love, meaning, affection, is worth immortality.

The sound of this recording is as live as it gets, very immersive, enveloping, adding to this immensely moving experience.

 

[mortcola]

Mahler 1st symphony underwent several iterations to reach the form we listen to now (1899 version, 7th and final one after 10 years of painful reworking).

Mahler had a very difficult life as a composer, and it was mainly thanks to Bernstein charisma - more than half a century after his death - that he reached its present status as a major figure of XX century music.

This rendition of the 1st is a such a wholehearted tribute to M. multifaceted psychological and musical personality!

The beautiful, the tragic, the grotesque elements are shamefully exposed in what then became the golden standard of uber-Mahlerian interpretation.



The result is an overflow of emotions covering the full range of human feelings about nature, life, social interactions, cultural heritage exposure (which for Mahler meant e.g. jewish rooted dances, militaresque fanfares, remote alpine landscapes evocations, often regurgitated as twisted through a distorted lens).

The 3rd movement alone, with its theatrical representation of death, carnal joy, bitter sarcasm, despaired search for love, meaning, affection, is worth immortality.

The sound of this recording is as live as it gets, very immersive, enveloping, adding to this immensely moving experience.

Thank you for the Mahler recommendation. I've been finding my way through his symphonies this last year, as I suddenly seem to respond to them, while I never did when younger.

I'm going to try to find it now.


The Valkyria are fascinating, still. Next-level detail (Susvara+ with more body and sense of space). Nothing remotely etched, though.... this is a pleasure headphone, in the sonorities and timbres it seems to pay a little extra attention to. And yet, leading edges, boundaries between piano notes, a sense of speed and rhythmic coherence....manage to be a little sweet, yet utterly illuminated and distinguishable to an amazing degree of resolution. If a snare rimshot (Jon Christensen at minute thirteen of Jan Garbarek's "Dansere" - great!), is both fast and sharp, and yet fully fleshed out, every textural, spatial and dimensional cue simply there, steady on a soundstage - but every soundstage now incorporates more live cues - the feel of the venue or studio, whether players are in booths or separated by acoustic screens. That images of angels-dancing-on-heads-of-pins hi-fi silliness - but hey, you can have groove and also evoke the uniqueness of a venue too, right? Have some timbal tickles adding subtle spice to pleasant sonorities while inviting you into vaguely hyper-real 3D space? That's ACCURATE, or at least REVEALING to the extreme. Maybe next level extreme? My response often takes a few minutes to warm to them, but then music sounds correct, inevitable.

But then, it's just been a week - at the very least, they're quite cool. And not reminiscent of anything else. I've heard - which is most of th high end in headphones.

 

[simorag]

The Tchaikovsky 1st piano concerto is one of those pieces that I need to come to after longer stretches of time compared to other compositions, as it is one of the most abused pieces of the classical repertory, and may result cheaply hyper-romantic on some renditions.

However, I always come out almost devastated when I listen to this recording from Argerich, Abbado and the Berlin Philarmonic. What Argerich did with this concerto is beyond description. Her furious, improvisatory take, her seemingly boundless control of the color, dynamics and timing of the keyboard created such an exhilarating experience which makes it impossible to remain unmoved - both figuratively and physically.

The drive, the swift accelerandos and ritardandos, how she pulled the orchestra with her, her consistent risk-taking make the heart accelerate, the hair raise in a full-body reaction to this music.
The most lyrical passages are equally compelling, emotional without being overly indulging, acting almost as necessary recovery transitions before the next virtuosic storm.

The sound capture is remarkable as well, with the piano highly illuminated in the foreground with a bold, majestic, sonorous presentation. The strings have the right amount of warmth and weight, and the brass section is simply spectacular: bright, explosive, with intimidating projection powers when called for. The Valkyria feels at home here, and renders all this with an almost lifelike tone palette and dynamics, and my recommendation is to unleash all the power of your rigs and play this LOUD for maximum enjoyment

 

[Axel]

Argerich’s Tchaikovsky is indeed a wow performance!
2 others I can briefly recommend:

Richter and Karajan is also a reference performance and recording by two great giants.

Also Argerich’s prodigy, previously discussed in this thread - Ivo Pogorelich accompanied with Abbado (as well) is a hard-hitting virtuoso performance.

 

[principd]

Hello everyone.
In these difficult times i wanted to share something from tonight's blessing for me. Wanted to write some wise words,... but I have none. So hope you all can find something for yourself in this.

 

[simorag]

Haydn, the Bringer of New Worlds

Haydn was a fountain of music, but the true miracle of his prolific output is the amount of innovations that redefined entire musical idyoms for the next half-century and beyond his death.

From chamber music, to solo keyboard, to sacred vocal compositions, to symphonic, to concertos, there is almost no genre where he did not produce some advancements whose momentum reached out for generations of future creators.

Let's start from the symphonies (he wrote over 100 of them), paying hommage to his most effective evangelist, Leonard Bernstein. The Paris symphonies are a spectacular display of imaginative composition, a wide variety of orchestral colors and moods that was unheard of at the time, and Bernstein exploited the power of a modern orchestra to highlight the weight, the emotional power, the energy that these scores could convey.

Keyboard (over 50 sonatas). The expressive power and the contrasts of colors, dynamics he brought elevated the keyboard from a typical accompanying role to a self-contained cosmos. Bavouzet has recorded all the sonatas and every single one of them hides a musical treasure.

Quartets (68) are another quintessential part of Haydn creative genius. The eloquence, the call for an almost improvisatory interaction between the players - as the music was created on the spot - the effortless spontaneity of the phrasing are a testament of what this highly sophisticated sub-genre of classical music would have developed to in the next centuries.

Sacred music was unavoidable for a professional like Haydn, and he put his rule bending inventiveness at work also here. I have chosen the 7 Last Words (also included - in quartet form - in the previous disc) for their unconventional character of being, instead of the typical fully programmatic compositions, conceived as abstract music inspired by the spiritual and emotional implications of passages of the Passion, like pictorial evocations.

Finally, one of my lifelong favorites, the Cello concerto. A piece that I keep coming to since 30+ years as it contains all the traits I love about this genre, the bold and energetic drive of the cello backed by a lively virtuosic concentus with the orchestra, its lyrical, uniquely introspective color (here portrayed in the calmer 2nd movement), and the feastful dance-like progression to the finale which always leaves a big smile on my face and a rush of adrenalin on my body.

The Valkyria is the ideal tool to savor this music, as it has to come at you as meaty, charged, impactful (e.g. percussions, double bass sections), physically enveloping, in order to being unconstrained by the etheral nature often associated to strings dominated content, where the visceral side of the enjoyment is sometimes weakened.

 

[simorag]

Listening treat of the weekend.

A selection of less played Scarlatti sonatas, in an extremely skillful interpretation. The recorded sound from Naxos is just magisterial.

I adore Scarlatti on both harpsichord and piano, although I have a sweet spot for the latter, especially when used tastefully as in this case.

The variations of touch, the warmth, the enveloping fabric of overtones seem to add an inviting layer of emotional involvement to the endlessly rich inventive of this genius of the keyboard.

This series from Keshet is worth exploring!

It adds to my go-to Pogorelich (possibly my favorite classical disc of all times), Michelangeli and - for harpsichord - Ross.

As usual with piano, the Valkyria blossoms with all its colors, scents and tactile suggestions invoked in full force.

 

[Axel]

Also beautifully played and recorded is Yevgeny Sudbin on BIS:

 

[simorag]

Inspired by Dante

Dante Divina Commedia is one of the most influential products of human intelligence in all western culture, and music is no exception.

A very recent work that celebrates and elaborates on the Commedia is this ballet suite, part of an ambitious project from the 1971 born Thomas Adès.
Listening to this music, beautifully recorded by Nonesuch, brings you onto an adventurous voyage from fear and insecurity to glorious transcendence, passing through many surprises and strange encounters. While 90 minute long, it is not an overly ponderous or cerebral piece, rather it remains accessible throughout thanks to the sheer variety of registers as the various episodes go by.

Liszt had a deep affection for the Divina Commedia (his Dante-Symphonie was one of the major sources of inspiration for Adès), and this rendition of the Dante Sonata from Arcadi Volodos is especially interesting as it delves more into the oniric, outerwordly suggestion of the work, rather than on its visceral, pyrotechnical side. All the recital, by the way, is a wonderful listen.

Paolo and Francesca is of course one of the most emotional episodes of the Inferno, and Tchaikovsky did not spare on his Francesca da Rimini symphonic fantasy. All the facets of the affair are treated explicitly, from the passion (even erotism) to the nostalgic, tragic side (after all Francesca tells Dante of her unfortunate love for Paolo from hell ...), to the obsessive explosion of the tension in the final crescendo.

 

[Hiker816]

I became obsessed with the Valkyria after hearing it at the SoCal CanJam. Annnnnd, hypothetically speaking, of course, I may have just done something financially irresponsible. Hope you have room for one more in this thread!

I'm going to have to offload some other gear. Which has only a hypothetical connection to a large purchase I may have hypothetically made. (Anyone interested in a CFA3, RAAL-requisite HSA-1b, or Sennheiser HD800S?).

 

[kawhia]

I became obsessed with the Valkyria after hearing it at the SoCal CanJam. Annnnnd, hypothetically speaking, of course, I may have just done something financially irresponsible. Hope you have room for one more in this thread!

I'm going to have to offload some other gear. Which has only a hypothetical connection to a large purchase I may have hypothetically made. (Anyone interested in a CFA3, RAAL-requisite HSA-1b, or Sennheiser HD800S?).

I am just a passenger in this threat but I wish you all the best. Do it .