Grand Rider 1
Shout out to @Sonofholhorse for sending me his Grand Rider 1 to try out. After reading a lot about it this one has been on my short list of earphones to try so I am super thankful that he allowed me this experience. Below is my review and how it compares to the Serratus (for my ears).
Music
Vocals
I’ll straight up say it, vocals are the best of all the Rikubuds for me, male vocals especially. Male vocals rival the Serratus for me and sound so natural. The vocal quality mixed with the nature of buds gives a sense of the singer being right there in the room with you compared to a more speaker like replay. Nothing is over emphasized or missing with the vocals on this set. The only negative I have is that there can be a bit of graininess and spiciness with female vocals at higher listening volumes, especially if they sing in the upper registers. Turning the volume down mitigates this issue for me but also affects the rest of the replay unfortunately. Honestly though this is a nitpick and you would have to squint to notice it. The level of details and dynamics convey so much emotion that listening becomes intoxicating.
Percussions
Bass presence is audible but pretty lean and drops off in the sub bass pretty steeply to the point where you don’t really feel it. Mid bass has good texture and is tighter and dynamic although for me it feels flat without any rumble. Drums have a bit of impact but sound a bit on the brighter side due to the lack of low end and forget about getting much out of 808s as the sub bass is pretty non existent. This set isn’t going to cut it for rap/hip hop (not that it was meant to).
Strings
Strings sound great, full stop. They have all the same positive and negative properties of vocals on this set. When they are on (they are mostly on) you can feel all the emotion the artist put into their playing come through. The level of details that are conveyed is just right, any more and I think it would start to get distracting. I feel like there are more/better words I can use to describe the string quality besides “it’s fucking good” but I honestly can’t. There is just something about them that just sounds like it’s resolving in 4K but isn’t jarring like high frame rate (soap opera effect). The dynamics on this set are really off the chain.
Overall
My biased “unbiased” score: 8.5/10
Personal score: 8.5/10
Honestly this set rocks. It’s less of a one-trick than the Assassin and GB2 but still carries a magical feeling for me like those two sets. To my ear ithe GR1 has a neutral tuning but leaning bright without sharp points that cause fatigue. Texture and dynamics are definitely above all the other RK sets I heard and if there was a bass boost in the sub and lower mid bass this would easily compete on equal footing with the Serratus for my library. If bass is not a concern for you I would rec this over all other Rikubuds however if you listen to a lot of hip hop go with the GB2.
Just for comparison I would rate the Serratus and IE600 at: My biased “unbiased” score: 8.5/10
Personal score: 9/10
Quick comparison notes between the Serratus and GR1:
- Serratus has better bass rumble and feel. Superior sub bass
- GR1 has better mid bass presence and texture
- GR1 has better dynamics
- Soundstage and space feel comparable
- Serratus is cleaner
- Serratus has slightly more detail retrieval, you gotta squint to find it though (probably due to the fact that its cleaner)