Do you need an amp for grado 325i?

[popoli20]

Do i need an amp for grado 325i or not? If yes what would you recommend?
Thanks in advance Oli

 

[richie60]

No, they won't really need to be amped as they're easy to drive, but it all depends on your source. A dedicated headphone amp may 'improve' the sound quality. Other headphones, most notably AKG are more difficult to drive so benefit from amping.

Try a decent valve amp with these as it may smooth out the overly bright presentation these give.

 

[lonely boy]

Grados will benefit from proper amping, they are low impedance and sensitive so can go loud easily but don't mistake this as being properly driven.

At 32ohms nominal impedance they need more current than the Sennheiser HD600s at 300ohms, otherwise the frequency response will be affected, e.g. rolled off bass.

As I've never heard the 325s I won't directly recommend an amp but the general opinion is to avoid OTL valve amps as these are really suitable for high impedance phones, if you're interested in tube amps look at hybrids or transformer coupled models.

 

[popoli20]

Bump

 

[eggontoast]

Are they headphones which you currently own or a prospective purchase ?

Also what do you / are you planning on running them from without a dedicated headphone amplifier.

 

[popoli20]

They are a prospective buy & i will be using my iphone

 

[eggontoast]

In my experience Grado's are much less fussy about amping and yield good performance from most sources.

Lonely_boy is correct to a certain degree in that they are 32 Ohms and require more current to drive them. But an iPhone doesn't have a problem with current delivery it has a problem with voltage swing which is required for 300Ohm impedance headphones.

So to get to the point the Grado's will sound pretty good from the iphone as is but would yeild a small performance boost from adding something like a Fiio E7 and an LOD but don't expect a massive improvement.

 

[jcoops16]

I just tried using my RS2i's straight from my iphone using apple lossless files. Dont do it. For one thing jack plug is big and heavy, I used the step down from AKG k701's and apart from it sticking out neally 3 inches, a wiggle would break up the audio.

I AB with my iGrados and the first thing that hit me was that the igrado's had so much better bass and more of it. You felt alot close to the music and for a given volume the igrados were louder.

I think the difference is more than just the igrado drivers being closer to your ears than the bigger RS2i(which im using the standard cups). The big Grados need to be amped to get the best out of them.

So save yourself more than 250 quid and get the iGrados.

 

[eggontoast]

I think the difference is more than just the igrado drivers being closer to your ears than the bigger RS2i(which im using the standard cups). The big Grados need to be amped to get the best out of them.

I personally found the RS2i's lacking in bass extension no matter what they were driven from.

As the frequency chart shows there is a massive 10dB drop off at 20Hz, Grado have boosted the mid bass at 100Hz to compensate but it can't fill in for the missing bass extension. Look at those horrible peaks at 2kHz and 4kHz....yuck, these peaks can be tamed slightly by wrapping electrical tape around the outside of the bowls. This gives the impression of a bass boost but it's not, the reduction of mid range frequencies just balances them out slightly.

 

[jcoops16]

Just listened to my iGrados through my Beresford Caiman and the igrados had more bass almost getting to the point of over powering, they just seemed to be tuned to sound like their turned up to 11 and I loved it. I could get a similar effect by pushing the RS2is closer to my ears, so actually It is to do with the drivers being closer to the ear.

But in the end with the RS2i's I turned the volume up and this fixed them good and proper, walked all over the iGrados.

For using with an ipod though, forget amps, just try the iGrados they really are excellent. I can thank WhatHiFi for mine as they were free with my subscription.

 

[jcoops16]

I think the difference is more than just the igrado drivers being closer to your ears than the bigger RS2i(which im using the standard cups). The big Grados need to be amped to get the best out of them.

I personally found the RS2i's lacking in bass extension no matter what they were driven from.

As the frequency chart shows there is a massive 10dB drop off at 20Hz, Grado have boosted the mid bass at 100Hz to compensate but it can't fill in for the missing bass extension. Look at those horrible peaks at 2kHz and 4kHz....yuck, these peaks can be tamed slightly by wrapping electrical tape around the outside of the bowls. This gives the impression of a bass boost but it's not, the reduction of mid range frequencies just balances them out slightly.

Its funny the difference between headphone and speaker discussions. I've never seen a speaker thread get down to derogatory comments about other peoples choice of speaker but seen it quite often when it comes to headphones.

 

[eggontoast]

Its funny the difference between headphone and speaker discussions. I've never seen a speaker thread get down to derogatory comments about other peoples choice of speaker but seen it quite often when it comes to headphones.

There is nothing derogatory about my reply these are simply my experiences with these headphone, obviously other opinions may vary........