I'm now North of 100 hours into burn-in and just did a quick rotation of the Sennheiser 600s, Denon 7000s, Vintage RS1s and GS1000s vs the PS1000s on several CDs. The GS1000s sounded rather drastically skewed to the highs (mid to uppper treble in particlar) and notable softer in the bass with much less body in the midrange compared to the PS1000s. Not a value judgement - just a rather obvious difference in spectral balance listened to within minutes of one another. Voices that sounded more distant and focused on their upper registers with the GS1000s had much more weight on the PS1000s. Given that, as you would expect, the PS1000s are exhibiting a dramatically larger amount of upper bass and lower mid energy vs the GS1000s. It's a bit simplistic, but I'd say the character of the PS1000s now would be along the lines of RS1 highs with mids that are more transparent to the source than the RS1s while being more full bodied than the GS1000s. To my ears, the bass of the PS1000s is superior to both with a weight and artculation that I'm really struck by. It's far more balanced and articulate than the RS1s with flats (that I find can sound a bit wooly in the upper bass) while exhibiting notably greater bass weight than my GS1000s. I really find the RS1s with flats too colored to listen to at all now and while the GS1000s are nimble and transparent, I much prefer the balance of the PS1000s.
Compared to the Sennheisers, the Grados have more bass and have much greater presence and immediacy. The HD600 just sounds pleasant, but a bit flat and boring in comparison - but then I've never really loved the 600s. The Denon 7000s sound less dynamic, less articulate and more polite in nature than the new Grado along with sounding hooded and lower in resolution. The Denon still has more deep bass, but the PS1000 gives a weight and body I'm not used to hearing in open backed phones - but while preserving an articulate bass character the Denon simply lacks. I used to like the 7000s in their own way, but they really sound pretty pathetic compared to the PS1000s. They simply sound too ridiculously closed-in and lacking in resolution to take seriously in comparison.
For a while early on the new Grados sounded a bit soft on top, but the lower treble has gained some presence and there is a liveliness to the presentation now that is leading to very different comparisons. Most of my headphones simply sound like headphones with their own specfic headphone related colorations. The PS1000s driven by the Moth sounds much more like the overall character I get from my main speaker rig - Soundlab M1s driven by Wocott 220s retubed with Mullard XF2s. So much so that it's almost spooky. A lively presence in the lower treble, a midband that is more revealing of differences from disc to disc than most dynamic phones and bass weight and dynamics with articulation other phones with powerful bass don't seem to exhibit. All combined with a transparent open backed character.
Downsides? I hear a bit of siblance now and then and the weight was bothersome at first. Maybe I'm getting used to them, but the weight doesn't bother me at all now.
Make of it all what you will.
Joe
