[pj-]

After using SR-225's for a few months I am looking for some new phones that will correct the strident, intense treble of the grados. I am looking at RS2's or HD-600's as headphones that play all kinds of music well, but don't have hard edged leading and trailing treble like the lower grados. From what I read the RS-2's are smoother than the RS1's.

 

[markl]

HD600 has less intense treble. To me all Grados have same basic sound. If you don't like them, I'd suggest spending on something different rather than another Grado.

However, it's also possible that the Grados are alerting you to trouble in your upstream components.

Of course if you go with HD600 better get an amp for them, so you'll have to factor that in as well.

markl

 

[MirandaX]

I agree 100% with Markl. I'm a Grado enthusiast (they used to be my favorite cans, before the Etys came along), but you have to realize that the up-front "Grado sound" comes partially from the emphasized treble. All the Grados are like this, more or less. If they were to give this up, the cans would lose the Grado trademark immediacy and directness. The Senn HD600 is far more restrained and refined in the treble (definitely not strident at all), with deeper and more substantial bass, but the trade off is that they're somewhat laid back. (The Etys are somewhere in between the Grado and Senn sound; they have the same refined treble as the Senns, but without major loss of immediacy. There is nothing even close to the Grado "slam" though.)

 

[Hirsch]

I've got a set of SR-200's..different sound but high end is not strident (less laid back than Seen but not strident). The cans I had a stridency issue with was the HD-600, but the problem was not the can...switching to the Homegrown Silver Lace interconnect corrected the issue (just a weird source/amp/interconnect/can interaction...the cable was the fix for that one).

If the stridency issue is not the headphone, the HD-600 may not be the cure.