Grado RS1e Reference Series Open Backed Headphones

Product Information

The RS1x is the first headphone to be built with the larger 50mm X Drivers. Specifically tuned for the tri-wood RS1x, this new speaker design features a more powerful magnetic circuit, a voice coil with decreased effective mass, and a reconfigured diaphragm. Reengineering these components for our 50mm drivers improve efficiency, reduces distortion, and preserves the harmonic integrity of your music. The Grado RS1 is a suburb headphone, fully in line with it's premium price. With the closing of Stax phones, this headphone may well be the heir apparent.

Now some of you must be asking, how about the RS1 with the GS1000's giant pads? As you would expect, the sound stage is increased significantly and the treble is not as strong, but it still stronger than the GS1000. I think the stronger treble might be killing the soundstage a little because the vocal still sound pretty close to your ear with the RS1. I can also say that with giant pads, RS2 sounds more like GS1000 than RS1.Schiit Audio Valhalla Wadia 121 decoding computer Peachtree Audio musicBox AudioQuest DragonFly USB DAC Despite my preference for the flats, the bowls made the RS1 sound more balanced, and repeated listening on all the amps made it pretty obvious that they're probably tuned with the bowls - they gave the most consistent musical sound.

These headphones get tone right, and do so with remarkable consistency. Whether you happen to favor Mark Knopfler over Eric Clapton, or Wes Montgomery over Grant Green, the Grados put sufficient distance between the artists and make each of them stand out. Note: There are reports that the RS1e improves after a certain burn-in period which pays no heed to review deadlines. If possible, this reviewer will return and update these impressions if necessary.With regards to presentation, it harkens to the forward and aggressive sound of the Prestige Series but is so refined and crystal clear that identifying instruments in a particular performance is a cinch. Now I really know why they’re so light: that’s because when you eventually involuntarily bob your head to the music, they don’t easily fall off. Rivals Higher frequency response. Even though the drivers are furthur away from the ears, all the details in the sounds are easier to hear. Whether or not the details make the song better, that's really depends on the song. I think this also makes the bass a bit better as well. As long as you keep the volume at a sane level, the RS1i phones have remarkably taut and well-defined bass that has me listening to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and Deadmau5’s 4×4=12 all night long. Electronic and dance music usually causes me to run from the room screaming (unless it starts and ends with Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream), but these headphones succeed at hypnotizing me to the point that I venture onto eMusic to expand my collection. Beyond that, without knowing what you want or not, what brands (or custom manufacturers) you like, etc - the closest parallel I can think of is when I tried different woods on the same model ZMF headphone. It changes the sound noticibly, but not so much that I would confuse say an Auteur for a Verite Closed or Eikon or other factors such as the chain itself or the pads you use will get drowned out. There is also some degree of interaction - different woods of the same ZMF model may sound better with different pads / chains / whatever. And of course, personal preference.

And finally, TUBES! Many here say the RS1 works best with tubes. Well that may be, but my tube amp didn't sound nearly as good with it as the Square Wave. I set the Cayin to Triode mode at the 6-32 Ohm setting, and while the pairing offered good rounded mids, there was no real obvious sonic advantage with tubes in place. I guess it takes a different kind of tube amp to make the RS1 shine. It was thanks to this fine headphone that we could tell how good the Stravinsky recording really is. The different string sections were clearly separated, some dark, others positively luminous. Tympani was solid and clear. The bass growled convincingly. "Stravinsky would have liked this," commented Reine. We could even hear certain extraneous sounds, such as the movement of the musicians, which gave an eerily realistic feel to the disc. Exceptional! The Grado RS1 phone is light, comfy, and a joy to hear. Even you-know-who's electrostatic headphone didn't seem as natural to me any of the times I've heard it. I wish it didn't cost so much, but frankly, that's about the end of my wish list. For the RS1xto pull this off requires a number of virtues to be tied together to create the whole effect. Tonally, the Grado is wonderfully natural. It handles voices and instruments in a manner that is gloriously unshowy but unfailingly believable. The tonal balance is pretty perfectly judged; I’d say that the Grado falls by the tiniest margin on the bright side of neutral but such is the quality of source equipment these days, even at very affordable points, this is not something that really manifests itself as an issue in listening.

I won't bother writing long comparison between the RS1 and SR80... because it's the same story, the SR80 still sound like poo (again, like poo in comparison to RS1)... However, I'd say that the SR80 has a sound signature that matches the RS1 more than the RS2. There are many headphones that claim to be of reference quality and expounding on that, there are many interpretations of what “reference” truly means. Here is the RS1e impedance curve. The resonance frequency Fs has been moved higher to 138Hz compared to RS2e which was around 85Hz. The headband design is as simple as possible; pins and gimbals allow for size adjustment and that’s all. They say the best designs are the simplest, so this is not meant as a criticism! The quality of the headband and stitching is definitely something which needs to be remarked upon, even just from a retro-appreciation standpoint. But lest that take anything away from the RS1's status, and to answer the question of what makes it great, I found the RS1's take on things to be very interesting, and ultimately, very preferential. But with the right preference, and with the right amps, the RS1 opens up to offer a world unlike any other. What makes it great, you ask?