Absolutely Fabulous
I love these headphones. They come with the 1/4" plug, so you will need to get an adaptor to play on an Ipod. It is harder to find an adapter for 1/4" to 1/8" at any of the mass-market electronic stores. If you intend to get the Grado 325i and want to use them with an mp3 player, order Grado's adapter when you order the headphones. While they will really sound better with a headphone amplifier with an mp3 player, they actually sound very good even without. The amplifier fills out the bass and depth. It really makes a difference with almost any quality headphone, but it is not necessary with Grado all the way up to the GS1000 which sounds even better directly from the Ipod.
The sound is very forward. There is no sense of distance like being in a concert hall. You feel like you are sitting right on the stage with the musicians. They are not as comfortable as the Audio-Technica or the AKG, but if you purchase the comfort rings which fit on the outside of the earcup and fits between the earcup and your ear, they really are comfortable enough. It adds just a bit to some separation which givs you a little bit of a sense of distance.
I also really like the retro look of Grado and that they fit on the ear rather than totally surround the ear. They do not make my head or face sweat. They are also open backed headphones which gives a very nice open acoustic which I generally prefer to the closed backed headphones with the exception of the Denon headphones which are just plain wonderful.
To get to brass tacks, I cannot speak as any kind of expert, but I doubt that the Grado's are really that nuetral which is something the audio reviewers always mention. I do not think that the Grado's sound as colored as the top level Sony--the Sony 5000, but I think that John Grado has been working to achieve his personal ideal of what a very good headphone should sound like. He is imposing a certain sense of his own esthetics onto his customers. I love the way they sound. He may just be smarter than the rest of us and has the courage to say that good taste trumps "science" in setting the sound of his headphones. I do not listen to Grado headphones every day. I tend to listen to the Audio-Technica ATH-AD900 the most. To me, Grado's are like a wonderful desert. I save them for special ocassions. When I listen to the 325i or RS-2, it is always a great joy. The GS1000 is just plain over the top. I really love it. The GS1000 does not need the comfort rings. They are plenty comfortable on their own. You can also get the "comfort rings" from any Grado dealer. That is what I did. With rare exception, I have purchased all of my headphones from Amazon or Amazon Marketplace. It has been a good experience uniformly.
