[SHAHZADA123]

What happened to the headband on your vintage B pair?  And your description of the sound difference matches my experiences.

It took a lot of effort and keen listening to finally come to the conclusion.
I was actually quite relieved when I first listened to them and found them to sound the same as my Vintage Bs. It allayed my fear of them being fake.
They're sounding exquisite with the ECBA

 

[SHAHZADA123]

Got a reply from Grado and these are from the first batch!!
Grado has asked me to hold on to these. Not that I was going to let go anyways.. 

 

[parbaked]

Quote:

Got a reply from Grado and these are from the first batch!!
Grado has asked me to hold on to these. Not that I was going to let go anyways.. 

sweet! 

 

[devouringone3]

I also think that they're from the first batch... it's not written anything on them, I can't imagine them selling an "unnamed" product for so long. I think "200" is a pretty random and inflated number. 200 RS-1 when it got released in 1996 might be like 2 years worth of RS-1 sale (because it was among the most expensive headphones of all at the time), and when you consider the stock product photo for the RS-1 back in the days:

 
 
I would consider that you got your hands on some kind of a (maybe) unique prototype, or something very close to such thing. I'm glad you're the one who won it , it's really something to be proud of.
 
Those metal rod tips on round gimbals is truly rare (gimbals became round with the "i" upgrade in 2009, so they came years after rod tips had already became soft plastic caps) --and like Rav said, the plinth to insert the rod is larger to accommodate the square rods later, or something in those lines, but you'd know if you compare with nowadays round rod Grado metal gimbals, if it's also an exclusive feature more for you (*you can compare yours with these shallowly inserted "i" ones, with the later square ones, and with the Vintage, sharper edges, square ones in the picture above)--... just like the special blank cups and "GL" button. Silver lettered on the rodblocks (instead of golden) appeared on some pairs, so it's not exclusive, but it's the rarer one! (in vintage RS-1 the trend was to make them golden, silver was the exception, but now they're all silvery/white). The brown headband is also the normal vintage one and not special. The drivers seems like vintage Grado drivers, nothing out of the ordinary either, and they're great. Your sound description matches what I know about them and my own RS-1.
 
Speaking about which (and maybe Zanth's too, who said he had a very special pair, older than VintageS) is somewhere between yours and the earliest identified vintages in the classification thread:

 
It has all the typical Vintage S features as pictured in the stock product shot, save for the font (I guess they had yet to develop the final wood printing machine typesetting), and the cable, I have an 8 conductor stock (not a mod) (it's the same that came into reality with the "i" upgrade and the PS-1000 in 2009).
 
 
 
*Edit: OH AND, those silver grids, they're also super rare... I have never seen any RS-1 with one, because they are painted black normally..... and so were the grids of all the pre-2009 Grados actually. Only SR-225i/-325is, the PS-500/-1000 and the HP-1000s have unpainted metal grids (other than your special RS-1! lol).

 

[SHAHZADA123]

Quote:

Of course they're from the first batch... it's not even written anything on them, how could they start selling an "unnamed" product like this? "200" is a random and exaggerated number, again in my opinion. I imagine 200 RS-1 in 1996 being like 2 years worth of RS-1 sale, and here's the stock product photo for the RS-1 back in the days:

 
 
In my opinion, you have a unique prototype, or something very close to that. I'm glad you're the one who won it , it's really something to be proud of.
 
Those metal rod tips on round gimbals is truly rare (gimbals became round with the "i" upgrade in 2009, so they came years after rod tips had already became soft plastic caps) --and like Rav said, the plinth to insert the rod is larger to accommodate the square rods later, or something in those lines, but you'd know if you compare with nowadays round rod Grado metal gimbals, if it's also an exclusive feature more for you (*you can compare yours with these shallowly inserted "i" ones, with the later square ones, and with the Vintage, sharper edges, square ones in the picture above)--... just like the special blank cups and "GL" button. Silver lettered on the rodblocks (instead of golden) appeared on some pairs, so it's not exclusive, but it's the rarer one! (in vintage RS-1 the trend was to make them golden, silver was the exception, but now they're all silvery/white). The brown headband is also the normal vintage one and not special. The drivers seems like vintage Grado drivers, nothing out of the ordinary either, and they're great. Your sound description matches what I know about them and my own RS-1.
 
Speaking about which (and maybe Zanth's too, who said he had a very special pair, older than VintageS) is somewhere between yours and the earliest identified vintages in the classification thread:

 
It has all the typical Vintage S features as pictured in the stock product shot, save for the font (I guess they had yet to develop the final wood printing machine typesetting), and the cable, I have an 8 conductor stock (not a mod) (it's the same that came into reality with the "i" upgrade and the PS-1000 in 2009).
 
 
 
*Edit: OH AND, those silver grids, they're also super rare... I have never seen any RS-1 with one, because they are painted black normally..... and so were the grids of all the pre-2009 Grados

Thanks!!