I think this debate is a little like the question, "Why did you kill your wife?" There's this big assumption that Grado's reputation has taken some huge beating. I don't see it. The same people who've always loved Grados still love them. The same people who always hated them still hate them. There are people who come along and express a curiosity about Grados, but Grado has always been a niche, boutique little headphone company. I don't want to see the day when Grados are sold in Best Buy and Walmart. Grado's basic, minimalist, concept of a driver and a shell is brilliant and wonderful. When it tries to sell big differences between plastic Grados, it may sound a little earnest - like a carnival barker guessing your weight - but that's the audio world in general.
A number of major brands had a civil war over their flagship can. Sennheiser had a rift between HD600 and HD650 fans. beyerdynamics had a rift between DT880 and DT990 fans. Grado had their own tempest in a teapot over the RS1 and the GS1000. In each case, the company solved its own problem by coming up with an "all new headphone" that essentially found a way to please both camps. The HD800 unified the Sennheiser folks. The T1 ended some brawls at beyerdynamics. For a time, the PS1000 pacified the infighting over whether the GS1000 was the rightful successor to the RS1, a fight brought on by Grado's attempt to respond to criticisms about comfort, soundstage and bass. To his credit, John Grado listened and designed a headphone to satisfy those criticisms. The GS1000 was the most comfortable Grado ever; it had the largest soundstage; and it had the thumpiest bass of them all. The RS1 lovers, whose "flagship cans" stood to lose their special place, found fault with the new "refined" Grado. Instead of scrapping the GS1000, Grado pressed forward with the PS1000, which brought back the midrange, reduced the thump to more reasonable levels, and created - in essence - a fusion of the RS1 and the GS1000.
Now, let's look at what happened. Sennheiser came out with the HD800, creating a huge hype cloud. As the HD800 really was and is an awesome headphone, the hype cloud had legitimacy and it lingered for quite some time. Of course, Sennheiser also had problems keeping up with orders as well as with QC issues stemming from the rush to ship so many units so quickly. Grado release the PS1000 a season later. It enjoyed its hype cloud as well, but it created a very different rift. Where the GS1000 was eventually hated for being too un-Grado, the PS1000 would go on to be hated - largely by people who never owned it - for being too expensive. The PS1000 was bought up by all the trust-fund babies, who made a big show of their membership in this PS1000 club, which created lots of anger based on class warfare.
A fair amount of that died down when Grado threw 'em a bone: the HF2. Ironically, the HF2 is so truly a "baby PS1000" that if you swapped the cushions and vented the drivers, you'd have a tough time telling these headphones apart. Anybody with a modicum of brains could have modded the HF2 and gotten a PS1000 - but almost nobody did. Guess why? Because they wanted to hold onto them and resell them as collectors' items. Why bridge the gap between your $500 HF2 and the $1,700 PS1000 when you can leave it in the box, wait a few months, and make a couple of hundred dollars?
There must be a special hall in Hell for flippers.
I think the Grado-hating poseurs are as obnoxious as the Bambis who've never owned any headphone except their SR125. A pox on both their houses.
Grado had its PS1000 moment - partly screwed by setting the price of the headphone too high. Then beyerdynamic came out with the T1 and the hype cloud shifted.
Then the orthodynamics wave hit the beach and drenched everybody else. People are still talking about the LCD2 - and probably will be until next year, when something else gets the tongues wagging. In a place like Headfi, where nerds and materialists come together, it should come as little shock when mean-girl catty talk that would normally be applied to high-school girls like Carrie is aimed at one another's brands and favorite headphones. People who save up all their acid so they can run down somebody else's headphones are probably the same people who, as kids, ran around telling the other kids that Santa wasn't real.
We, of course, know that Santa is real. He lives in Brooklyn. He makes the coolest headphones on the planet. We also know that Rudolph was gay, which is why the reindeers shunned him till he got a lawyer and fixed their wagon.
So I'll leave you guys with this-
