Grado PS1000
Grado’s metal-housed flagship: the house sound scaled up, with huge energy and treble to match. Bright done on purpose.
Our take
The PS1000 takes Grado’s forward, bright signature and pushes it further: aggressive presence, big treble energy, and a lively midbass. Thrilling on the right material, fatiguing on the wrong one, treble EQ is your friend if the top gets hot. Easy to drive despite the flagship price.
Measured on a Head Acoustics HMS II.3 artificial head — raw response, left/right averaged, normalized to 0 dB at 1 kHz. From the Sonic Temple Archive(2008–2014, one unit per model). Honest limits: seating variance runs ±0.4 dB in the mids to ±3.9 dB above 12 kHz, and open headphones read bass-light on this fixture — don’t read fine treble detail as settled. How we measure →
Common questions
Straight answers — the same ones our measurements support.
Does the Grado PS1000 need an amp?
Not really: 32 Ω and sensitive, it plays loud off modest sources. Source quality matters more than power.
Is the PS1000 bright?
Very. It is the loudest expression of the Grado top end. Some love it; a few dB of treble EQ tames it.
If you like the PS1000
Close on the graph, or a deliberate step in one direction.