Grado Labs, Inc.

For a generation or so, Grado phono cartridges have been known for their gorgeous midrange, authoritative bass, and silky highs. Some audio reviewers have registered dissatisfaction with the Grado headphones, wanting more detail. The RA-1 amplifier obviates those dissatisfactions. The RA-1 reminds me of an old ‘40s saying: "Accentuate the positive! Eliminate the negative!" Whoever said that? Don’t mess with "Mister In Between!" It reminds me of that old jive, ‘cuz with Grado ‘phones, that’s what it does. You get the usual hit when you listen to Grados: warm, smooth, sweet string tone; full bodied, luscious, resonant bass; non fatiguing, rich, bel canto midrange. At the same time, Grado cans seem to want more kick ass transient punch than is available from the usual portable CD player. What can you expect from two little AA size, volt and a half, batteries?

Lottsa Zotz is now available from the RA-1, which with its two nine volt batteries, brings out the transients and inner details of complex recordings. The difference between listening straight out of a portable and through the cute little RA-1 is like the difference between being in the middle of your Symphony Hall and sitting front row center. I define Zotz as "startle-ability" at levels, and as "resolving power" at low levels.

To get a sense of where the Grado amp stands in the ultimate scheme of "The Quest," I’ve even listened to the Grado RA-1 through my big rig, in place of my hallowed Levinson JC-2. The li’l darlin’ will surprise you: in many regards it sounds very similar to the JC-2 (even the female RCA jacks look suspiciously alike). I think that’s the highest compliment I can give it. The RA-1 is nearly the sonic equal of my pooged JC-2, right of the box. The differences are subtle and a matter of taste, since I "voiced" the CJ-2 a tad. F’rinstance, the CJ-2 has a wider soundstage, but the RA-1 has somewhat crisper mid-trebs, a trade off I chose. The RA-1 has Dudeworthy bass (deep, strong, detailed) that I attributed to the ‘phones ‘till I played the amp in my big rig. Still, to my surprise, the RA-1 and my CJ-2 have a very similar timbral balance (Lows to Mids to Highs); they have a similar imaging qualities, with realistic presentation of a facsimile of the recording venue, without shrinking it down or enlarging it up; and they have Zotz, they can stun the listener. They are soprano friendly; they make voices sound lifelike without any electro mechanical metallic quality. They both make music beautiful. They make neither tizzy highs nor woolly bass. They stay clean no matter how loudly you play them. They are both "warm" in the cello range yet accurate, without rolling off treble detail. They have an abundance of midrange detail. These are my subjective impressions from my notes.

I like the RA-1. What the Grado Li’l Darlin’ has going for it is, small size hence portability, battery powered supply, and great performance at a reasonable price ($350). It consumes two nine-volt batteries every forty or fifty hours, so it doesn’t need an AC adaptor. Batteries only! Having no onboard power supply renders it dead quiet and hum free. Battery powered also means you can listen to it poolside, or at the beach, or on long trips. You need only have a spare pair of batteries and you’re good for a week of day and night listening. If you do on-location recordings, of virtually anything from church choirs to your children’s school shows, this little amp will do just fine riding the "monitor" section of your tape deck. Its size is appealing, too. It has the same paw print as my Sony Discman, and it’s about as thick as four or five CDs stacked atop each other. So, it packs a lot of performance in a small package. Incidentally, it weighs only three-quarters of a pound, so you can toss it in a ditty bag with all your other ditties and related stuff.

The Grado RA-1 is also a nifty piece of industrial design. The parts are inside a block of milled mahogany that is partitioned into sections, each of which is treated with a proprietary metalized substance for RF shielding. The audio quality wiring harnesses are routed through pathways that are routed into the wood. The proprietary active circuitry and caps are potted in a sealed chamber; so the parts can’t vibrate and they won’t break if you drop the little box. The front "panel" has a red on/off L.E.D. indicator, an input socket for a 1/4 inch plug, and a volume control that looks like an old Marantz knob and feels so much like an Alps pot I’d bet on it (and I’m not much of a gambler). The rear panel has one pair of color coded female RCA jacks for input, and a small toggle switch, for on/off. The bottom has four slide resistant rubber feet mounted on a metal, baked enamel coated, shielded panel. A removable plate comes off the panel to reveal the section holding the batteries. Two finger-tightened bolts hold the plate in place. That’s pretty minimal.

If you want a battery powered single source preamp, a go anywhere, do anything amp, for whatever purpose, the RA-1 will do as well as any I’ve heard.

I can’t say it’s as good as this one or that one because I haven’t yet done an A/B comparison against the entire field. I can say that in conjunction with the Grado RS-1 headphones the RA-1 sounds crystal clear: clean, clean, clean. Through it I can discern the lyrics to some of the most complexly engineered discs I own; like Rickie Lee Jone’s "Jolie Jolie," on her Traffic from Paradise. Ricky routinely slurs her pronunciation as a matter of style, but now I can differentiate her plosive, fricative, dental, labial, guttural, aspirant, and sibilant sounds. The RA-1 has textured yet authoritative "NOW HEAR THIS" bass; its midrange has an upfront presence, yet retains the bel canto quality; its highs are detailed and airy without ant trace of tizz. Compared with the sound from any of my other sources, with the RA-1 in the circuit, the bass tightens up yet has more sock; the transients have more bite at the moment of attack; the highs have more air and clarity. My favorite Diana Krall album of Nat King Cole covers, All for You, is very well engineered. Listening to her "I’m Through With Love," I’d say the Grado RA-1 amp with the RS-1 ‘ phones, gets closer to microphone feed kind of sound (highly detailed, with that sense of live music) than any other combination I’ve tried. There is a vividness to the sound presentation that I’ve heard only through a damn few set speakers.

The Grado setup delivers very near state of the art headphone sound at what seems to be budget prices, compared to the most expensive. Hell, even with the bottom of the line Grado SR60 ($69) headphones, the sound is still pretty damn good. The sound of the RA-1 amplifier is neutral. Together with the RA-1, and any Grado headphones, you’d be in for something of a revelation, but with the RS-1s you hear Grado’s best shot and it is quite impressive: balanced, dynamic, presenting an accurate sonic image. "Blown Away!!" is the most frequent comment.

So, if we are going to grade the RA-1, we’d have to give it points for cool looks, portability, great sound, noise free power supply design, bullet proof industrial design (schemes for shielding, potting the circuitry, routing the wiring), minimal front end design for the most direct signal path, and a most excellent price/performance ratio. This is such a nice job of product engineering, by John Grado, I think it earns a nomination for "Dudely Product Of The Year Award."

If you are a Dude, an audio knight pledged to the pursuit of the highest and purest sound, the closet approximation of the real thing, the Grail; and if you have a pair of Grado headphones, do yourself a favor. Take them down to Ye Olde Grado dealer, with a couple of your fave CDs, and hear for yourself. I’m certain you’ll come away smiling. Most folks for whom I’ve played the RA-1/RS-1s get "the grin that must not be named" on their faces, and say; "This is one bitchin’ li’l amp." Or, "this beats my big system, and I’ve lots of money in that." Jazz musician friends who spend time in recording studios, members of the Baltimore Symphony, bluegrass pickers, bluesman: they’ve all said, "Wow!"

If you’re an insomniac, a frequent flyer, an over the road hauler, a commuter, or a guy like me who leads a sedentary life before a computer, and if you’re just getting into headphone sound, let me say this: you can spend a lot more bucks and not get much better performance than this good Grado setup can deliver. It is soprano-friendly, but the price is user-friendly.