When in Dallas to visit my sister I finally got to taking advantage of the city and looked for a specialized audio store.  I happened upon concept audio and found they had a dedicated room for headphones, and other rooms with the most expensive and exotic speakers, amps and other silly audiophile things like power conditioners. Definitely smaller, but higher end than the place I go to in San Antonio.

This was my first experience with the infamous grados, so color me excited.
The place had the usual list of test tracks to hear, so I gave a quick run through using famiar Pink  Floyd and Miles Davis recordings.  Much to my surprise was a beefy looking and sounding tube amp to plug the cans into-- foo something, a recent release I think, as I recall the ads for that amp not so long ago.

Below us my collection of very rudimentary impressions.

Beyer t1: my 1st experience, actually pleasantly warm and textured overall, and a good bass.  Didn't seem hugely bright or strident-- I think that's part to do with the source equipment.  Still a tad bit splashy and a hint of sibilants.  Strongest overall can I heard.  Feels great in your hand, reminds me of hd800, although when on the head feels flimsy.

Grado 325, 125, 80: literally the only thing I can hear is electric guitar in my face. Not really bright, but excessively aggressive and thin.  Not detailed. Feel flimsy and my ears always touch the drivers.  Not a good look.

Grado rs2:  Basically the same experience.  Yuck.

Grado ps500:  this was the only Grado I found halfway tolerable.  More lower end and less thin.  More balanced overall.

Sennheiser hd650:  I've had extensive time with these before for a solid week.  I found them as more aggressive than I thought they would be.  With this particular setup they were more warm and phat than my last experience-- yes still a silver damping one.  Overall not insulting and sounds good.  Not as delicate and Airy as I remember.  I'd rank them as a solid 3-4th place finish.

Hd600: I've heard these before too. With this setup they sounded more like the hd650 did on my setup. I liked them more than hd650 this time around.

Hd700:  I've heard these before, but I'll reiterate... Dear god what am I listening to?
Last place finish-- or maybe tied with the lower end grados.  I have a tendency to bunch crap into a group.

Momentum.  Disappointing, muddy bass in comparison to everything else, but the mids are quite decent. Overall there's nothing about them that makes me puke, but there's nothing strong either.  They are a tad too small for my ears, but more spacey than m50.
Feels really solid.

He-400: ya, I brought my personal cans to the room to see how they faired off their amp after I saw it.  Best bass, pleasingly warm mids, but very strident in the very highest treble.  I much prefer to listen to them on my computer when eq'd with a treble rolloff.  Still it was my second favorite-- or even probably still my favorite if I waged war against the t1 with it for a very long comparison.  Pushed the pot on the amp to the highest position with these out of the bunch.


Psbm4u2: these are great for what they are, wish they felt more sturdy. Balanced sounding.
I respect psb.  I chose them for my speaker rig.


In review, I'll be giving every Grado fan a fuck you in my head when I read their posts. With the Grado monster off my bucket list, this leaves only the akg701 as the only highly talked about can that I've not experienced yet.  I know I can't stand akg550 though.