Buy them from some place you can return easily for a full refund if needed. The newest Grado headphones actually sound real nice to my ears, and I'm someone who hasn't like a lot of the Grado designs over the past decade or more. But I will freely admit that Grados aren't as comfortable as many other headphones, and the sound is sort of polarizing.
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V-fi. Thanks for the advice. Haven’t done anything yet. Will probably go direct to Grado run store on-line to buy. Thinking about GS3000x or GS1000x. Their new HP model is a little out of my price range. Othe two are a stretch! And I’m also dealing tinnitus and wonder if it’s really worth the $$$$. But that’s another issue |
My first "decent" headphones were Grado R2e (modded with Beautiful Audio cups and headband), after listening through the entire series of Grado headphones at the time (around 6 years ago). I went for Grado because of a whole lot of news stories about them. Then got some Dan Clark Ether2 (around 2K), and OMG the difference! The Grados are ear-piercingly shrill even on a tube headphone amp (Woo WA2SE with upgraded tubes) in comparison. I would strongly recommend to listen to something outside the Grado universe before buying anything. I also have some tinnitus, and obviously I noticed loads of differences. |
These Hifiman Arya Organic open-backed, planar ‘phones are excellent, easy to drive, are at half your budget, and can be returned risk and hassle free through Amazon and I’d highly encourage you to give them a try. I’ve got the prior Arya Stealth version and they are sublime — neutral, natural, and very open with a large soundstage that expands well outside the headspace, and these are considered to be a considerable step up in performance over mine. Here’s a good and informative review just fyi… https://soundnews.net/reviews/headphones/hifiman-arya-organic-review-comparison/ Best of luck. |