Grado GS-1000

It took 300 years for science to catch up with and understand the craftsmanship found in a Stradivarius violin. We think science has done a pretty good job of catching up and delivering neutral and articulate audio reproduction, but we also believe that science can only shoot for a technical ideal. As soon as you ask science to give you an emotional or subjective result like “bloom” or "warmth", pure technologists will just stare at you with a blank expression. The family-run operation at Brooklyn's Grado Labs have spent years traveling the lonely road of craftsmanship searching for a highly personal and subjective goal. Largely turning a blind eye to science, they've tweaked & twiddled tirelessly on the Grado line of headphones to produce audio reproduction that suits their particular listening tastes and desires. And the GS-1000 is currently Grado's finest effort to achieve this rarified ideal.

A quick look at the scientifically-measured frequency response graphs of the GS-1000 and you’ll note that they have something resembling a “U” shaped response with significant peaks in both bass and treble. When we listen to these cans at solid listening levels (~90dB) we find these artifacts slightly disturbing and non-neutral. But as sophisticated headphone listeners know, listening for long periods of time at high volumes is a risky thing to do for your hearing. All of us here at HeadRoom are quite careful to listen at fairly low levels when we’re having extended listening sessions. But we’ve also found low-level listening often lacks the intense involvement we always like to have with our music. The reason is simple: an understanding of the Fletcher-Munson Equal Loudness Contour Curve reveals that you need to considerably tip up the bass and the treble response to get the audio to sound 'flat' at lower volumes. And guess what, the Grado GS-1000 has a frequency response curve that looks just about right for low-level listening.

In extended listening sessions, we found these headphones deliver low-volume listening satisfaction like no other. Creamy and lush, these cans bring a lot of fun back to the type of listening we do every single day. They may not be the last word in reference cans for the recording engineer, but for the sheer fun of quiet listening, they just can’t be beat. We heartily recommend them for excellent low-level, long-term listening applications. The GS1000 is even a whole lot of fun to listen to out an iPod or Mp3 player without requiring the use of dedicated headphone amp. We can only imagine the impressed looks you'll get bumpin' this woody pony on a busy city street or at your next groovy headphone party… Rock On!

The Grado GS-1000 is somewhat similar to previous Grado wood-earpiece cans like the RS-1 and RS-2, but falls more into the behemoth category in its overall sizing & styling... everything's really BIG on the GS-1000! They sport large mahogany wood ear pieces, large foam-padded earcups, and the traditional -- albeit slightly larger & wider -- Grado retro-stylish, leather-covered headband with individually adjustable bail slides for fit adjustments. The oversize circumaural foam earpads are the hole-in-the-middle 'donut' style and they are quite a bit bigger than any of the other Grado earpads, which makes the GS-1000 more comfortable to wear for extended periods than the Grados of yore. The headphone cable uses a fairly beefy 9-foot Grado two-sided “Y” cord terminated in a full-sized 1/4" inch stereo plug. The Grado GS-1000 package handily includes both the Grado 15-foot headphone cable extension and the Grado 1/4" to 1/8" cable adapter.

And don't forget to take a gander at our own newly-revised HeadRoom HeadCase headphone travel / storage bag that's now big enough even for the mega-sized GS-1000! It's a handy way to tote these pricey cans around as you blow people's minds with your high-end headphones!

To Customers outside of the USA:
This dealer has restricted international shipments. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to ship this product anywhere outside of the United States. We apologize for the inconvenience; please visit the dealer's website to find a distributor in your area.