Grado RS2X Review and Measurements

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Jan 15, 2022.

  1. rfernand

    rfernand Almost "Made"

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    PM me and borrow mine. I find them different enough from the 325x - they deserve to be in a detailed guide :)
     
  2. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Mac Mini M1 (via USB) or PI2AES via Coax out > Bifrost 2 OG Card > Nitsch Magni Piety (PeePee)

    A great friend lended me their Grado RS2x with the F-Pads. At first I was hoping that the loaner came with the default bowl pads. After listening to them within a few minutes, I was like screw the L-Pads (Bowls). First pair of headphones for me was the Grado SR225i back in the late 2000s. Was in Grado only land for many years before I wanted to do new things, which I think was 7-8 years ago me think.

    I’m not going to be talking too much about the build quality. It’s a handmade Grado item that doesn’t look like the $550 retail price. Then again, it looks like a Grado so you know what you might get yourself into if you are looking to try out the RS2x. One thing I do like about the RS2x is the fusing of the Hemp and Maple wood together, looks cool. The gimbals are plastic as always, the headband is slightly better than the lower level Grado headphones, and not hard to take apart the headband if you remove the caps from the headphone leveler. The newer headphone cable is in the “cloth” variety and they get stiff harder than the OG headphone cable, I’ll get use to it. Still want Grados to use detachable headphones, but meh. Headphone itself still creaks and if you move the cable a certain way, you can hear the headphone creakness sound within the headphone coup itself.

    I had the RS2e with the TTVJ flat pads on a loaner in the past. While the RS2e with those pads were super good, the comfort was ultra meh/not good. Since the pads made the RS2e an on ear design, it was hurting my head after a few minutes. The RS2x isn’t that much better, but can be bearable if you adjust the headband to the point it doesn’t make the headphone cups pushing your ears inward towards your head. Two keep using the F-Pads until they lose their sandpaper feeling and get a little more soft. The natural oils from your ears do make any Grado earpad become soft over time. Sennheiser HD600/HD650 comfort FTW. If you hate any little discomfort, avoid Grados.

    Time for my long comments regarding the sound. Best way to describe the RS2x with the F-Pads is to me everything sounds good on it. Even with the following negatives:
    • Grado’s will never give you the extra subbass unless the recording has it.
    • Even with the F-Pads, not everyone will like the twist in the mids before we move the upper mid area.
    • Treble is there, but not up in your face (thank goodness at least for me).
    • LOL soundstage.
    • Details is there, but feel like you will still not get everything out detail wise. Gets worse on very complex music like classical where the RS2x is having a hard time keeping it together at times.
    At the same time with the negatives above, for a Grado the RS2x with the F-Pads is damn neutral. Nothing is really sticking out as being such a major negative that I want to take them off of my head. I was able to listen to them almost all day without being fatigued, regardless of the genre. Maybe it is due to running the OG BF2 card or the PeePee amp, I dunno…

    The RS2x still keeps some of the major strengths of the Grados:
    • Works best with vocals, rock, jazz, golden age rap, and unplugged recordings.
      • Other genres will still sound good but will not be effective on the RS2x: Large Classical Recordings, Electronic, Most Modern Pop, AZN Pop Music with fetish for V-Shape type of sound so most listeners will never get the “V” in their lives, Heavily Processed Music from Bandcamp like Vaporware, etc.
    • Raw type of sound without the condom, the tactical type of sound without no barriers.
    • Upfront nature of the Grado sound using wood effectively as a condiment without being overdone (the amount of mustard is just right).
    • Focus more on the music and not on specs.
    Negatives be damn, I can’t get the RS2x of my head when I wanted to listen to music. There’s some special sauce in the RS2x/F-Pads setup that I must admit it is even more compelling than my HD600s/HD650s that I love so much. It’s like we went back in the 2000s on Head-Fi where people were either on the Sennheiser or the Grado camp. Now it is 2023 and some of us got really smart on figuring out what setups will make either the Sennheiser or the Grado sound good. However, the Grado being only 32 ohm will be the easier headphone to make it sound good. With that being said, Sennheiser will be the better headphone to scale if you are doing them right.

    To me the RS2x works best as part of a headphone setup where you have other headphones to complement each other. I can use my HD6XX for most recordings since it does a great job handling most things that I value (mid range performance with scalability). But the HD6XX is still a few rows away from the stage and sometimes you need something that will get you front row seats with a raw performance. This is why I enjoy playing rap more with the RS2x with the F-Pads than something from Sennheiser.

    With that being said, the comfort is the biggest negative to me as I stated before. I tried different ways to make the headphone feel good in my head, after 20-30 minutes it started to hurt. Perhaps I can make it feel much better on my head if I really stretch out the headband, but it wasn't my RS2x.

    I enjoyed the loaner a lot. Even with the comfort issue I am considering getting the RS2x with the F-Pads in the future. It's very different from the usual Senn stable and it's different enough. Seems like we need to go back to the 2000s after all....
     
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  3. goodvibes

    goodvibes Facebook Friend

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    G pads take care of the comfort thing but obviously, the sound will change a bit.
     
  4. HeyWaj10

    HeyWaj10 Facebook Friend

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    This matches exactly as I experienced the RS2x when I tried them out. Overall the sound was the most neutral I've experienced from a set of Grados, but man - that lack of soundstage really killed my enjoyment factor by several notches. Likewise, because of the lack of soundstage (especially width) you get that condensed sense of detail that has nowhere to go. I feel like the detail response would be better if there was just more room for it to breathe in (which seems antithetical to the Grado specialty of that "live" sound). When going between my LCD-X and the RS2x (honestly, probably not a very fair comparison), I always felt like I was losing so much of what was there in the recording with the RS2x.

    That said, when playing the "right" material on these headphones, it really can be an intoxicating ride. And agree wholeheartedly that these would be better served as a complimentary set of headphones, but not the best go-to if they are your only set.
     
  5. GunnarA

    GunnarA New

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    After all your positive reviews I got myself the Rs2x. I do hear exact the kind of music it works best with. My Fezzaudio tube sound very full, especially in base so the a bit leaner sound is very welcome. Same with my Hiby fc6 I do use in holiday situations when not at home. Some big symphony sound a bit more like chamber music but this way they are easier for me to follow. Given all this I will wait a bit until I do get my next headphones, I’m fine for the moment.
     

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