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In Reply to: Alternative to Grados posted by DSG on March 26, 2013 at 13:04:28:
I recommend you keep the Grado. They are excellent headphones.
I do not own the RS325is but I have the venerable Grado HP-1000 (HP-2), GS1000 and PS1000: they are by a wide margin the hardest headphones for me to work with. There are many things to love about them: large soundstage; generous bass--OK, midbass--and a seductive, liquid mid-range. Grado weaknesseses are unfortunately not subtle: a harsh and piercing treble that makes female voices very un-enjoyable. Shrieking banshees came to mind several times. Overall, the Grados have a U-shape sound that is exaggerated in the upper register and mid bass. You can tame the harshness/sibilance of the Grados with high-quality head amp but that is not enough. You have to pick the right amp.
Amplifier—Most solid-state (SS) headamp I tried with of the Grados failed, and failed miserably they did. The Schiit Mjolnir ($750) and Burson HA-160D ($1000) produce so much treble energy that they were practically unlistenable. Even the clean, smooth sounding and usually dependable Vioelectric V200 ($900; Germany) was unable to tame the Grado treble sufficiently. For SS amps, I had to go upward of $1000 to find amplifiers that are compatible with the Grados. The Bryston BHA-1 ($1400; Canada) was sufficiently clean in the high frequencies to produce a smooth sound free of screeching banshees, though the mid-range was oddly dull probably due to the suck-out in the middle of the Grado U-shape sound. The Gilmore GX-S Mk2 was the only SS amp I found that was a great match for the Grados, producing a beautiful sound across the entire audible range (but at a price, $2,500 when I bought it and now $3,000).
I got very good results from the Grados with many but not all tube/hybrid headamps. Both the RWA Corvina (%1500)/Isabellina ($2500) and the the Cavalli Liquid Fire ($3000) worked well with the Grados but some harshness/edginess still marred the otherwise musical sound.
The two excellent sound I achieved with the PS1000/GS1000/HP1000 was with the Woo WA5-LE for tube amp and the GS-X Mk2 for SS amp, with this latter just edging out the former surprisingly with better articulation extension and smoothness. But unless you have a large stable of expensive headphones, I see little logic in spending $1,500-$3,000 on amps to drive $300 headphones.
The shocker of this search--not really when you think about what many tube amps do—was the unassuming little tube headamp from Mapletree Audio, the Mad Ear + HD ($750): nice punchy bass, highly musical midrange with good center focus and a smooth treble range from which all banshees were banished. The PS1000 lost a bit of its soundstage and articulation but the overall sound was eminently musical.
Comfort--I cannot help you much here. The RS325is use the L cushons, I believe. They are the least comfortable of all Grado cushions. You may want to try the flat S-cushions ($10) that may help the comfort though not the sliding. The very large G-cushions ($45) will help both the comfort and the sliding but I am not sure what they will do to the sound. TTVJ sells the original flat cushions ($30) for the HP1000 that you may try also. They may improve both the comfort and sound a little.
As an alternative, you may consider buying the Grado GS1000. They sound similar to but much better than the RS325 and almost as good as the flagship PS1000 but they are tons lighter and much more comfortable to wear than either with the large G-cushions and substantial headband padding.
In a nutshell, it is possible to extract out highly musical sound from the Grado if you match them with the right headamp, mostly tubes, such as the affordable Mad Ear + HD. By plaing with the cushions, you should be able to find ones to improve the wearing comfort. Or go for the GS1000. I love my Grados and will not part with them.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Alternative to Grados - Justin_Time 07:51:38 05/11/13 (0)
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