Grado GS1000i Headphone

By Che

My stomach got jumpy with excitement when my newest review assignment arrived on my desk: the Grado GS1000i headphones. I removed the Grado’s from the box to see their very “Grado-esque” design. You know the one – the design that absolutely polarizes listeners. Anyway, I happen to love the design and for those of you who do not, well they have a great personality. Quit being superficial and slip them over your ears.

The Grado GS1000i headphones are a sound sensation. The sound is smooth, rich, and delicious – you can feel it in your bones. The soundstage is fascinating, and provides an auditory experience that will make you feel like you’re sitting in a room full of live music. The best part about the sound is its accuracy. Every tune, every breath, every strum is discernable. You will feel like you are hearing for the first time. The unusual cup design pulls the music back from your ears as well, creating the illusion of space, which I welcome with open ear drums.

I have to say, as much as I love these headphones, they are not sheer perfection (perfection, yes, but not sheer perfection). I can hear the whispers now: “Oh my Gaaawwwww…he did not just insult the thousand dollar Grado headphones!?!” No, you’re right, I didn’t. However, I believe anyone in their right mind paying upwards of $1000 for headphones should know what they’re getting. Whether what you want is worth the money depends on, well, what you want. If you want incredible sound, they are certainly worth the money. If you want a quiet pair of versatile headphones with which to play your portable music, you’re wasting your time. These are for pure, unadulterated listening enjoyment for audiophiles, and any other setting will simply not do them justice.



Thought of by serious headphone users as one of the best headphone currently produced in the world. The GS1000i has received high accolades for its performance from around the world. Sound: the GS1000is bring headphone listening to a new level. Considered to be the most comfortable headphone in the world, the GS1000i creates a room for your ears to sit, thus creating a larger sound stage and greater spatial experience for the listener. The GS1000i retains a sound that is pure Grado, rich full-bodied vocals, excellent dynamics and an ultra smooth top end. The presentation is very detailed, the bass is deep and the music is very tight and non-fatiguing. All with a soundstage that is huge allowing for unbelievable separation and layering of the music which is simply stunning. A must for serious music lovers.

Courtesy of "What HI-FI" UK

Default GS1000 partial(?) review

I've been listening to these headphones for ~150 hours or more now with a range of musical genre that includes classical, jazz, instrumentals, acoustic, Rock, Pop, and other types that essentially fall into these categories. At this point I feel that not only have they settled in, but that I've listened enough and to enough musical variance to make a fairly balanced judgment of their sound.

For a clearer understanding of my comparative references, please look at my signature for my current equipment setup and history.

Ok, let's get reviewing...

I find that most reviews start by focussing on Bass/Mids/Highs-trebles. My take on that is simple - they are all well presented and relatively well balanced to one another. The bass can sometimes overwhelm , but when you consider the sonic nature of bass relative to the other frequencies in the audio spectrum, well, all I can say is that's the nature of bass. It's obvious to me that the GS1000's bass was artificially increased for consumer listening, but I think that the over-bass response forms as a result of the immense coverage and detail the GS1000's offer wrt bass frequencies coupled with the nature of bass response in general (i.e. bass frequencies tend to overwhelm when easily audible, and, you get all the bass - the 'zoomed-in' bass detail as well as the coverage of essentially all the bass level overtones). I had similar feelings wrt bass presentation when I used to listen to my 650's (sniff,sniff - I miss them). Truth be told, I find so much of the listening experience is found in the nuances of music that lie outside these three measures of sound. Read on and you'll see what I mean...

Firstly, if one would consider the HD-650's and RS-1's the sense-of-distance-from-the-music-source polar opposites, I think I can say with confidence that the GS1000 definitely plays a close second to the RS-1 in the 'plop me in the middle of it all' side of the spectrum. For the most part, I'd have to say that I disagree with Jude's meet impression - "the soundstage is huge!". It is huge if you feel that sitting in first row, nay, sitting at the foot of the stage is a huge soundstage. When comparing the 'closeness' of the sound-distance presentation of the GS1000 and my modded 125's, I can immediately tell the difference b/w the two stages, but the difference is nowhere near night-and-day. I will point out here that the slightly recessed nature of the GS1000's when compared with the rest of the Grado lineup allows it (IMO) to sound a little more neutral than any of its cousins. I like that a lot. I'll explain below.

The resolution/level of separation the GS1000 offers is quite exquisite. It's not absolutely heavenly, but maybe if I used a different gear setup it would change. Each instrument plays completely independently from all the others while simultaneously melding seamlessly into the whole musical picture. I often find myself following a particular section within the 'gestalt' (e.g. a really nice bass line, the acoustic guitars strumming away in the background or a brass section following their own progression). With many other headphones, those sections easily become lost when passages become complex or many sections blend together in a chorus, etc. Not with the GS1000's. Each instrument/section is given its own place on the soundstage and its own blackness to sufficiently separate itself from the rest of it musical compatriots. Additionally, the GS100's musical imaging is excellent. Songs that have sounds passing from the far left of the soundstage to the far right of the soundstage pass smoothly and accurately across the soundstage and 'through' my head on the way from one side to the other. Unfortunately, my other reference cans didn't offer that kind of transitional capability. Additionally, when I close my eyes I can 'see' the music in 3-D. There is more than the L-R channels in these cans. Being an engineer and a geek overall I often amuse myself by trying to guess the angles from the line passing through my ears at which the music is oriented. It is also very easy to notice 'relative distances' b/w different music segments on the GS1000's.

Attack and decay: the decay of notes on these cans is quite remarkable. Notes often seem to melt away into the air and float away as smoothly as one could run a finger across whipped cream topping (real cream, of course). The attack notes offer are spritely, brisk and plucky when called for. When the music calls for a reverse decay type of attack, the notes smoothly accelerate to a wonderful peak before continuing on their regular course (think of a nice crescendo building up, or just reverse your finger through that previous cream). Brass could have a tad more punch and drums could use a little more snap, but given my sources/amp, I feel inclined to blame that on my source/amp. Once I get to test these cans on a better system, I'll report back.

One final note before finishing off: The cans sound a little warmer and smoother than speedy, fast and super-detailed. If that is the cans' weakness, well I'd definitely say that I'd want a faster and more detailed amp to compensate as I like fast and speedy music (about the only quality of the SA5000's that I liked). Thinking about it again and going back to that last paragraph about note attacks, I'm inclined to think that maybe it is the GS1000's that exhibit this warmth. If that's the case it is the only complete weakness I would say the headphones have. Then again, the K701's were very detailed and fast, which made them sound dry and as if they lacked "musicality". Hmmm, maybe I need another can that can find a better middle ground b/w warmth and coolness.

Overall, I ask myself if I paid too much for these cans. Truth is that I did. however, given that I could not find the same musical experience the GS1000's offer in anything that costs less than these headphones, well then I guess I didn't. Everything's relative, I guess. The build quality is as good as Grado ever offers ('nuff said ), and the cans are light and comfortable of course. I can say with great certainty that these are excellent reference level cans and add the bonus of being fun to listen to (I won't make any K701references here...)

Overall, I give these cans a two thumbs up - one for tonal balance (on par with the HD-650's IMO) and another for experimental and aurotic pleasure in listening experience.

By Oriel Mendelovitz
Head-Fi: omdendelovitz
Ontario, Canada