Question Grado range / what are the differences in sound?

[AJM1981]

How do the Grado headphone products compare to each other? I own the Grado sr80x (use them with the ring shaped pads) which I have bought after reading that it was kind of its benchmark headphone. Ive read it has just a minor treble signature difference compared to the sr60x. The same went for the previous e series.

Given there are different models up the range, how much do they really differ from the sr80x?. One thing I can imagine is comfort but how are they soundwise? Is it like only a comfort upgrade and maintaining the same signature or does it work differently?

 

[nopiano]

My limited experience of the range at shows is that they’re all similar up to about £500. The costlier ones have posher headbands and swankier ear cups, but just a bit more refined. Some seemed even brighter, and I’m happy with my 80e.

I ‘upgraded’ to Oppo PM3 but they’re discontinued. A nice planar design.

I‘m very aware that ‘phones are very personal, but I like the Grado ethos, and classic designs.

 

[WayneKerr]

One thing I can imagine is comfort but how are they soundwise? Is it like only a comfort upgrade and maintaining the same signature or does it work differently?

Comfort and Grado should never appear in the same sentence I had the 80's and own the 225's they both have the same sound signature but 225's offer slightly more clarity.

 

[AJM1981]

Comfort and Grado should never appear in the same sentence I had the 80's and own the 225's they both have the same sound signature but 225's offer slightly more clarity.

Haha true, altough I find them quite comfortable in some sense. I had a pair of sennheisses which were good for winter, but a crime on hot summer days. What I like is that the grados seem to be close to some 70s model Sennheiser headphones in sound and adding the open ear design of a pair of Sennheisers I had in the early 2000s . But those were padded like a car interior and had exegerrated bass. Not really reference stuff.

Yes, it makes the Grados noisy for the environment, but the sound can 'breathe' as my ears kind of can given air can flow kind of through.

 

[nopiano]

Haha true, altough I find them quite comfortable in some sense. I had a pair of sennheisses which were good for winter, but a crime on hot summer days. What I like is that the grados seem to be close to some 70s model Sennheiser headphones in sound and adding the open ear design of a pair of Sennheisers I had in the early 2000s . But those were padded like a car interior and had exegerrated bass. Not really reference stuff.

Yes, it makes the Grados noisy for the environment, but the sound can 'breathe' as my ears kind of can given air can flow kind of through.

I had the first Sennheiser HD414 when they arrived in the early 1970s, complete with two-pin DIN plugs to connect into loudspeaker outputs! There was an adapter for the 1/4” jack plug !

I still think they were the most fun I ever had with headphones, and being open-backed were so much nicer the the head-crushing Koss that were popular.

 

[AJM1981]

I had the first Sennheiser HD414 when they arrived the early 1970s, complete with two-pin DIN plugs to connect into loudspeaker outputs! There was an adapter for the 1/4” jack plug !

I still think they were the most fun I ever had with headphones, and being open-backed were so much nicer the the head-crushing Koss that were popular.

Good stuff. I used the 424 model from my dad for a while in the 90s. I remember it as perhaps a bit comparible to the grado, apart from the signature grado has in its treble (they are not that flat).

Pumped up bass was clearly not a thing in the 70s. With the later Sennheiser model I used, that early 2000 model (should look it up somewhere), it was more a case of 'It feels like wearing a premium product', as in stepping into a premium car experience. But it was never really my favorite. I also realise that they have to produce something that the masses go for and not the small group of people who like things flat to near flat.

 

[Gray]

I still think they were the most fun I ever had with headphones, and being open-backed were so much nicer the the head-crushing Koss that were popular.

🙂 I had a pair of those headcrusher Koss.
(Pro 4AA I think they were).
OK for helicopter pilots - indeed they had a threaded nut one one earcup for their mic.
Their vice-like clamp force certainly isolated outside sounds.

Headphone comfort has come a long way since then....though Grado still has some catching up to do on that front.