Just wondering if anyone else caught the new design of the RS-2s on HF?

Items of note:

1. No more endgrain - now done "Larry style" with sidegrain. Pretty weak in my opinion.

2. No more button. I'm sure this was a man'f/labor based decision, one less assembly step and one less thing for folks to bitch about/fall off.

3. New font. Not my cup of tea but I'd have to see it in person to know for sure.

I need to see better pictures. I disliked the buttons on the RS series since their fonts were always mismatched between the button and the chamber. And I just like the Alessandro look.

The wood grain might be a one off since no two Grado cups looks the same.

But I agree the font is a bit weak and too close to the outer edge. Nitpicking here but I prefer it written as "RS-2" instead of "RS2" (unless that is a really faint dash in there).

I'm not the biggest Grado connoisseur -- was that horseshoe-shaped thing always there, is that new, did it used to go all the way around, or what?

I think they look piss poor. I had a nice set of RS-2 a while back that looked leagues better than this. This is what $500 buys you at Grado these days?? Anything above $200-250 for this is a questionable value, IMO (even the nicer old ones were way overpriced). I posted my thoughts on head-fi as well

The wood grain might be a one off since no two Grado cups looks the same.

They've always used end-grain in the past, it's a complete departure (and different manufacturing technique probably) from the previous RS-1 and 2 design.

And the horseshoe has always been there Dusty.

That is so ugly. The previous rs2 was much better. They are trying to force more people to buy the rs1. Shame on them.

Also it's real classy how Grado seems to have made no attempt towards notifying potential customers of the change, until after they'd received the new headphones from an online vendor

I'm not a fan...

I think just the fact that they are so obviously cost cutting makes them unattractive. In a vacuum they are decent looking headphones.

Personally I find the GS-1000 to be a very attractive phone, as well it should be for a grand. Also the pair I briefly owned smelled fantastic. I really miss that smell.

New pictures are up. Rehosted on my photobucket since I think that's his personal website

Not so nice

Not so nice

yeah, kind of cheapish looking in those shots.

I could be wrong, but seeing older RS-2s and the sides of the new RS-2 in the additional pics leads me to believe it's just variations in the color of the wood. The closeups show obvious end grain.

That said, I like the look without the buttons, and to be honest, I think the font is already growing on me.

Edit: Having said all of that, I can (and have) turned better cups out of mahogany. I think choice of wood and attention to detail on finishing is definitely lacking.

I hated the Grado button, but this looks like crap too...I like the old font, I guess.

Maybe they're changing the naming scheme to match the GS1000 (no dash)?

The HP series button is cool, but at least they could *try* to match the color between the wood button and the cups for the RS series.

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It looks like it says Crado Reference Series

must be the new chinese knock-off brand

I like this new look. I wonder if there are any changes in sound?

With the better pictures I'm with Ian, it looks like end grain which is nice, I far and away prefer that to larry-style side grain. This would imply that the only changes are the font and the button.

And nice catch Justin, that's a bang up job they did with the lettering.

Grado Quality Control strikes again .

Honesty I hate how people will pass this off as just being an effect of them being "handmade."

Bullshit its crap quality control and cost cutting measures.

looks so cheap.

I hope Grado don't make the choice to make the cheapest Headphones at the highest price.

My middle school shop teacher would've flunked me for finishing wood that badly. They also need to replace their tooling since every single Grado cable gets pinched at the Y on the same side in every single headphone.

Holy shit, it appears that they did the same to the RS-1. Maybe this is just a bad picture but BLECH!

Holy crap, I see the rise in price of old RS-1s already

Sweet.

My middle school shop teacher would've flunked me for finishing wood that badly. They also need to replace their tooling since every single Grado cable gets pinched at the Y on the same side in every single headphone.

rumor has it on their carts are worse in terms of testing gear before they sell them. I heard of some fucked up horror stories regarding their carts.

i think its part of the old school ghetto building and way of building a product they never seemed to change. one a good side if something works and has worked why change it on another side to todays standards the model of quality control is not up to par.

but regardless Grado has one hell of a Customer service way that not many can come remotely clsoe to. something goes wrong just Call them up and give a sob story for a free fix.

Grado has wowed me lots of times with all of my issues on all my grado headphone probelms i had..like its amazing how they just fx them with almost no questions.

if i had the choice of better quality control at first or better service in the end i would take the service..

grado is extremely lucky to have Head-Fi and customers will to pay up the nose for cheaply constructed, poor workmanship, and somewhat uncomfortable headphones--and their customer service in my experience isn't always wonderful either.