Impressions of different tone-woods will be split into 5 categories; lows, mids, highs, percussiveness, and imaging, as these are the characteristics
I find most important, and listen for most. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these woods, although I did prefer some to others. Each rating will be on a
0-10/10 scale, with 0 being the worst and 10 the absolute best.
Gear used:
Digital-
iPhone 3GS playing either ALAC or 320Kbps MP3s (Using basic Music app, no EQ) > FiiO L9 LOD cable > FiiO E7 amp (no bass boost used) > Grado SR80i with
2 holes per driver and L-Cush.
Vinyl-
Kenwood KD-66f Turntable > Kenwood KR-v5570 Reciever (Bass/Treble knobs set to neutral(12 o'clock)) > Phone out to Grados.
Walnut-
Overall these were my favorite. They just did EVERYTHING so well. I started with my FOTM song, 'The Fountain of Lamneth' by Rush off of their album Caress of Steel. I can honestly say I had one of those jaw dropping experiences. Geddy Lee's voice came through with SOOO much emotion, the acoustic from Alex was very crisp and clear, I could almost FEEL the strums. The elcetric solos from Alex were intensly powerful and Neil's drumming in the background was so precise, you wouldn't believe it. When he had big hits come up inbetween movements, or transitions it was if he was right in front of you. Just THAT good. These cups felt good to listen to, always casting a smile. One thing that bothered me sometimes was that the cymbal crashes and some 's' sylables came through a bit too sibilant, too crisp.
Things got better when I put 'The Dark Side of The Moon' in 180g on my turntable and dropped the needle. WOW. Roger Waters' voice always came through crystal clear and more out of body experiences were to be had. The guitar solos in 'Time' were something to make a mouth drool, I'll miss these cups. Drum's throughout the album were intensely accurate and detailed. Very good texturing throughout, bass drum kicks were all in the right place; right up against your ear. This is how headphones SHOULD sound. Micro-detail retrieval was all spot on and I had a cliche moment (a few actually), of hearing things I'd never heard before. Open sound, nice and smooth, while retaining that fantastic aggresiveness that Grado 'phones are famous for.
The thing that I loved most about these cups is the way they present a detailed track to you. Most headphones will have either a wide, medium or small soundstage, have either great, or awful imaging, and these did complex tracks so much justice. They have a magic way (yes, more Grado magic), of pulling whatever should be the attention, whether it be vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, or drums, right out of the mix and presenting it on it's own level. Imagine with the Sennheiser HD800, famous for it's super detailed, and MASSIVE sound. It sounds like a great concert hall, wider than any other headphone I'd heard. What it does is presents everything on this HUGE stage, all seperate, and in their right places. With these walnut cups, the Grado brings the focussed instrument out from the mix and puts it seperate. They were very clearly defined and shaped fantasticly. THAT is an experience I've yet to have with any other headphone.
Notes from paper (word for word):
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Lows: 7.5/10 Bass guitar sometimes became muddied in the back, although it generally fed nicely into the sound. Bass drums were very percussive and clean.
Mids: 8.5/10 MMM dem vocals. Geddy and Rogers' voices have never sounded this good. right up present 95% of the time, sometimes it slipped back into the sound.
Highs: 9.5/10 NEARLY perfect. Everything was crystal clear and razor sharp. Although someitmes cymbals came out a bit too piercing. Could hear drum stick on cymbal.
Percussiveness: 9/10 Incredibly detailed and sharp, all drum hits were spot on and nailed perfectly. No complaints with this.
Imaging: 11/10 Okay, I didn't think I'd ever be this impressed, but there's something magic about the way these cups present the music. So layered, all the flavors in the right spot.
Overall rating: 9/10 These cups blew me out of the water. So much in fact I'm working to get a pair for myself, more on that later
Cherry-
After hearing the Walnut I didn't think anything would be able to top it, and seeing as how my current pair of cups are a low-profile Black Cherry set from 7Keys, I thought I'd already have a handle on the sound the Cherry would produce. Yep, pretty much. These cups are very relaxing and nicely toned. Everything is presented quite simple. Really nothing is too special with these cups, but I'll go into a bit more detail. Sometimes the lower end of the spectrum has a tendency to slip beneath the overall sound signature, leaving some tracks feeling more hollow than usual. Tracks like "Dogs of War" by Pink Floyd are one example. I was longing for the bass guitar on many other tracks. Bass drum hits did retain their kick though, just not the sound and tone that you might expect.
Huh. Interesting.
One thing I loved about these cups other than their near neutral tone (for the most part), is their percussiveness. Definitely have the most kick of all four types. If you're into Taiko or other percussion based genres with heavy hitting, or you just like 'feeling' the snare, bass, and tom hits throughout the piece, the cherry is the one for you. Be wary because the bass drums tone and bass guitar have a tendency to fall beneath the sound and become very hard to pick out.
Overall notes about this wood would lead to a neutral tone with all the flavors getting a near-equal presentation in the presentation. All the instruments SEEM to be in the right spots, although I don't always feel to sure as to the location as I did with the walnut. Bass is one thing that these cups didn't do well at.
Notes from paper (word for word):
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Lows: 5/10 Dang. That wasn't very impressive. Very underwhelming bass parts, tending to hide underneath the sound signature. Did stay relatively tight throughout so that's a plus.. I guess.
Mids: 9.5/10 Only out performing the Walnut because they were always present, and very clean. Never got caught up in other tones, giving their own unique presentation. Very smmmooottthhh mids.
Highs: 8/10 Highs did get sibilant more often than the walnut, but they were nearly as detailed and clear as the walnut were. Splash and ride cymbals were the prime culprit when it came to TSSSSibilance.
Percussiveness: 10/10 Right on. Yeah! Great hits, everything felt right in order, no over slam, great presentation. No complaints here.
Imaging: 7.5/10 Overall imaging and presentation felt accurate maybe 70% of the time. The rest of the time I was second guessing and not quite able to pin-point instruments locations. Most likely due to the poor bass response.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10 Good relaxing tone, non-fatiguing, unless you've got ride cymbals going throughout. Weird treble spike are the only issues with fatiguing. They scored poorly mostly because of the bass that just left me wanting. As I said in my notes, i was left missing the bass guitar in many pieces.
Maple-
After the first two, I wanted something a BIT different. I was in NO way prepared for these... phew. I'm going to start off by saying I honestly took these cups off within 20 seconds to check if I'd broken my Grados or something like that. Very different tone than the previous two cups. I was suprised that such a lightly colored wood would sound SO dark. Kinda funny considering how bright the Walnut was... Initial impressions were not favorable. Things sounded quite muffled to be honest. I don't want to rag on any of these cups, because they're all so beautiful, but I honestly didn't enjoy listening to these. Highs were way off, vocals came through very laid back and not very nicely textured. These just DIDN'T work. UNTIL I closed the Pink Floyd and put on Miles Davis. WOWEE. That was a quite nice experience. I actually really enjoyed 'Kind of Blue' with these, I didn't expect that. Some how the recessed mids led to a very pleasing experience when it came to jazz. Beign recessed really smoothed out any sort of painful spikes in upper saxophone/trumpet which I really appreciated.
One thing I did LOVE about these other than their jazz presentation was the bass. phew these have some nice TANGIBLE bass. I've only got two holes punched in my SR80i's and I was very surpeised at the bass these cups were pushing out. Bass drum hits were very... well, bassy. Not in a boomy or overdone way, they just felt and sounded like a nice concert hall with room to resonate. If you're familiar with the Messa De Requiem by Guisseppe Verdi, you'll know of the great massive bass drum hits during the Dies Irae. Even if you're not familiar with the Verdi Requiem, you've PROBABLY heard the Dies Irae. So, point being, I've only had two headphones that I felt truly DELIVERED the slam and feeling that I expected out of this very intense peice, the Audeze LCD-2.2 and the Sennheiser Orpheus. I know, two mind boggling expensive headphones, completely different braccket than the $100 SR80i's. Well, with the Maple cups on, I felt that these cans gave very nice shot at that piece and I was shocked at just how aggressive they became when you fed the Verdi. Low brass was GLORRRRRIOUUUUSSSSSS. As a bass trombone player, I long to hear fellow trombones in full orchestral recordings, with these cups bass trombone sounded great. Sweet goodness the low brass.
So yes, These cups are definitely tuned towards the low register.
Notes from paper (word for word):
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Lows: 9.5/10 These can definitely dish out some punchy-ass bass. wowee. Orchestral bass drums and low brass was glorious.
Mids: 4/10 EW EW EW. Vocals really stink with these. No fun at all. Would not recommend these cups for anyone looking to hear vocals.
Highs: 6/10 Still pretty recessed. Cymbals don't come as clear as I'd have liked. Missed out on some details in prog like Yes and Rush I'd heard with the Walnut cups.
Percussiveness: 7/10 Very good in the low end. Not so crisp in the upper regions however. Bass drums felt very nice and powerful.
Imaging: 6/10 While I felt they did well for small scale jazz arrangements, and oddly, very large grand orchestras, they just bit the dust when I put anything rock on. Hard to place instruments throughout the score..
Overall Rating: 6/10 These cups really just blew. I love me some prog, and these didn't do any rock I threw at them justice. If you're into Jazz/orchestrals, these did great for that. Prog, NO.
Birch-
Let's just say I was even less pleased with these than I was with the maple. Yep. Pretty much everything the maple did wrong; recessed mids, poor instrument seperation, these did as well as other wrongdoings.
They just felt and sounded so hollow and empty, I don't know why you would want to use these in a Grado. I was not pleased. They took away any attack, the bass flabbed up and vocals were almost worse than the maple.
I didn't even bother writing notes I didn't enjoy them so much. Maybe another user down the line will love them, but these did not cut it for me.
Bass: 4/10 flabby, but with big presence.
Mids: 2/10 Are you kidding me? Where's my vocals???
Highs: 7.5/10 Okay, they highs were pretty darn clear and had absolutely no sibilance issues. Very smooth sounding highs.
Percussiveness: 4/10 Bass sucked, toms were ALRIGHT, and cymbals were smooth and clear. Not sharp enough.
Imaging: ?/10 I didn't get it with this wood. I couldn't place things and it seemed to be changing with each track. Can't figure out what to put here.
Overall Rating: 4.5/10 These cups REALLY blew. Maybe if you were super drunk and couldn't stand anything with piercing treble these might be it because of how smooth EVERYTHING was. Almost too smooth in many regard.
FINAL NOTES(?):
Overal, having these cups in my possesions for as long as I did was a real treat and quite an experience. I'd like to thank 7Keys AGAIN, because this was something I'll remember for a while.
I found it strange that the darker colored woods tended to have a much brighter sound signature whereas the lighter colored woods had a darker more muffled tone to them.
I'll try to find time to type up my hand-written notes soon, but I would like to get this posted TONIGHT.
If y'all have any questions for me feel free to ask, and I'd like to extend an invitiation for you to join us in this quest and world tour. Happy listening to all of you who find these cups on your doorstep!
Here's some snaps I did of the cups (would've liked to have gotten more):
