Much to my surprise, my girlfriend decided to go crazy and combine my birthday and xmas gift together and she got me a pair of the
Grado PS500 headphones. She knows I was trying to win them in a few contests and showed interest in them, but had never listened to them. However, I had let that ship sail and wasn't considering buying them for myself because they're rather expensive and I don't have anywhere local to listen to them.
So I have them now, and I'm not really sure what to think. Looks like Grado has sold over 600 of them because mine was marked as #601. The small amount of available reviews I've found have been very positive so far. Presently I have only one audio device that uses the 1/4" headphone jack which is my Marantz AV7005. I've been using my receiver to test them out with all the CDs I've ripped to FLAC. I never researched the abilities of the AV7005 as a headphone amp because it was never something I expected to use, so I don't even know if it's a good source. I turned on the pure direct mode to disable any audio processing in order to get the cleanest signal I could. The nice thing about the PS500s is that they are fairly easy to drive being a 32ohms. With the rare exception of one or two songs, I've not heard any hiss in them. I also do not need to crank the volume on the receiver. I could use these with my iPhone or any other basic audio device if I wanted to while traveling.
So, here's the thing. I don't know what to expect from these headphones. I have very little frame of reference as I mentioned in earlier posts so I feel like I'm lost in the land of high-end headphone land. I could very well be listening to an unbelievable pair of headphones, or maybe they're garbage when compared to others in their price range. What my ears tell me are they they sound extremely detailed at any volume level. I'm know they sound better than my cheesy iPhone IEMs, and also my Grado SR60s. Since I'm still learning about what is good/bad, I can only base what I hear on what I've already heard. I feel like the bass is different from anything I'm use to. I don't know if headphones require a significant amount of time to break in or if that's just a myth. The included instructions said to give them time to break in and to not let them just play unattended. They are really clear and detailed and the bass can sound slightly stronger than I'm use to, but I guess it's possible that it's the recording that's causing the bass to be more amplified (or my receiver). It may just be that it's different from what I'm familiar with and now I'm hearing it correctly?
I'm considering ordering the FIIO E9/E7 combo to drive these. I have until the end of January to decide due to Amazon's liberal return policy. I'm also considering ordering the Sennheiser HD650 which are near half the cost of the PS500s and compare the two headphones for the next few weeks. Maybe I'll even try the AKG 701s which are slightly less than the Sennheisers. I'll make use of the return policy from Amazon and do my demoing that way. If I can't notice and/or appreciate the differences I'll return the PS500s. I know that there is the diminishing returns on audio devices, so if I can't appreciate it, they should go back. I guess I could try the same HiFiMAN HE-500 that you got since they're in the same price range (a little more expensive) as the PS500s, but I don't know if I can appreciate them like you're able to.
