Grado Labs PS500 announced

[dalethorn]

I have a feeling dale is not going to like the grados. Hopefully they changed the sound and made it less aggressive since its supposedly a monitoring model.

I had the 325 about 10 years ago and it wasn't bad, but I remember I didn't miss them when I got something a little warmer.  But this time I'm not gonna be stupid (not totally anyway) - I'll try other pads and whatever it takes to tweak them.  They can't be any worse than the Shure 940.  And since they cost twice as much as the 940, it would be Grado suicide to not improve on that.

[donunus]

I doubt they will be technically better than the shures because even an rs1 is not as technically equipped as the 940s IMO. It will be a sound signature preference thing that will determine whether you'll like them or not because Grados aren't refined either hehehe.

[donunus]

Grado haven't made flats since forever though.

TTVJ makes the flats these days. $35 last time i checked

[dalethorn]

So anyway, since I placed my order for the 500's, I'm getting more nervous about the sound, even though I can return them if not satisfied.  I assumed they would voice these things similar to how they did the PS-1000.  I've read pages and pages and pages on the PS-1000, including all the uninformative drivel at you-know-where.  You would think with a $1700 USD headphone that somebody would want to know how it really sounds, not just "how warm it is with Mantovani's lush sweeping strings" or whatever the perps are listening to now.  HeadRoom has a freq. response curve on the PS-1000, but it shows a 10 db boost in the bass and a 10 db boost in the treble, yet the opinion in the reviews is "the PS-1000 is flatter than the previous editions", and "there is no harshness in the treble", and "the bass is warm but not overly so or anything bad...." etc.  So far I haven't seen a freq. response curve anywhere on the Web for the PS-500, which isn't a good sign.  I got stung pretty good on the Beyer DT-1350 - I hope this Grado will be a lot better, or at least be amenable to one of the iPod's simple EQ settings.  I saw that 2 khz peak in most of the lower Grado models, which explains why I unloaded the 325 after awhile.  Supposedly they eliminated the 2 khz peak with the PS-1000, but then there's a bigger peak it seems at 7 khz.

[marcusd]

Dale if it bums out you should go for wood cups and g cush/softies and make it your bitch muse

[dalethorn]

Dale if it bums out you should go for wood cups and g cush/softies and make it your bitch muse

I wrote to Grado and they actually replied, late at night no less. These are very dedicated people. They said "Don't worry - the sound is good, and all those charts and graphs don't really tell you what they sound like."  Or words to that effect.  So I feel better already.  So when those other guys at you-know-where make their nitpicky reviews, I will have a sensational review that includes how Grado was so helpful on a personal level.  Golly, I feel all warm inside and I'm not even hearing those warm sounds from the PS-500 yet.

[Layan]

Its good to know that Grado are sensitive to the end users. Nice.

thank you for sharing dale. Cant wait to hear your impressions on the ps500.

[marcusd]

I wrote to Grado and they actually replied, late at night no less. These are very dedicated people. They said "Don't worry - the sound is good, and all those charts and graphs don't really tell you what they sound like."  Or words to that effect.  So I feel better already.  So when those other guys at you-know-where make their nitpicky reviews, I will have a sensational review that includes how Grado was so helpful on a personal level.  Golly, I feel all warm inside and I'm not even hearing those warm sounds from the PS-500 yet.

Interesting, I asked something about the Philippines and they told me to talk to their local reseller in one line flat without even so much as a thank you or dear me. Maybe next time I will be 'Vinne from the Bronx' 

[dalethorn]

Interesting, I asked something about the Philippines and they told me to talk to their local reseller in one line flat without even so much as a thank you or dear me. Maybe next time I will be 'Vinne from the Bronx' 

I think a little innocent name-dropping would do wonders.  For example, you could say "I was talking to Val Kolton on the plane the other day, thinking he worked for you guys.  Then he said he was actually a competitor, but he had good things to say about your company and suggested I talk to you directly."  And then sign the note 'Rocky' or something like that, using a new Gmail account.

[dalethorn]

I tried some more dealers and then placed an order with a company in Wisconsin on Saturday.  So today I called to cancel that order and they said "OK - we'll do that".  Then I check my email a couple hours later and they shipped it FedEx.  So Thursday afternoon / Friday morning we will have some first impressions.

[dalethorn]

The Wisconsin guys didn't have it after all.  I wonder what they shipped?  May have been a stray cat or something.  But the folks at headphones dot com did have one, which they described as "most excellent" etc.  So that one arrives Friday 21 Oct.  I remember reading on the Grado website that they match drivers to within 0.05 db, which must mean 0.5 db.  0.05 db is about 20 times better than Beyer does with the audiometric series.  But maybe even if it's 0.5 db, they match only within the left and right driver for each headphone, and not from headphone to headphone.  There's people down the street from where I'm sitting who make baskets and stuff from Sweetgrass, which sell for $300 USD and up for a small basket (labor is a killer), but they're not exactly precision made, being made by hand.  So whatever John Grado does with those hand tools I dunno - maybe he has laser-guided hammers and chisels.  Should be very interesting.

[prawncrackers]

The Wisconsin guys didn't have it after all.  I wonder what they shipped?  May have been a stray cat or something.

-snipped-

what the, this is both funny and suspicious. hahaha! but anyway is there a chance you can compare it with the HF2? or is the issue settled?

[donunus]

That Grado is surely taking its time to get to you.

[dalethorn]

what the, this is both funny and suspicious. hahaha! but anyway is there a chance you can compare it with the HF2? or is the issue settled?

The best I will be able to do is compare to the Senn HD800.  But unless the PS-500 sounds a lot like the 800, that might not be such a useful comparison.  I would like to compare to a couple of Grados or especially a couple of orthos, but I'm at least 1000 miles from anyone with those 'phones, unless you count headfi meets.  If I walked into one of those I would need a mask and a fake ID.

[dalethorn]

That Grado is surely taking its time to get to you.

They shipped 2-day air on Wednesday, but didn't send the notification until Thursday morning.  Then the tracking number doesn't work, even though they shipped a day ago.

But I think UPS has a new method now.  I got a 2-day shipment a month ago that started on a Thursday morning and arrived on Friday about noon.  So 2-day can actually be less than 1-1/2 days, if it starts in early morning.

The guy at Headphones dot com was really gushing about the PS-500 and how great it sounds.  I hope he tried the one he's shipping to me, so I would definitely get a good sample.

On the other hand, that Headphones dot com site is peculiar.  No address or indication of where they are, and it looks like they were bought out by a big conglomerate.