GRADO - SR80x - Prestige Series - Open Wired Stereo Headphones

Product Information

You could measure the White Headphone’s soundstage in miles and you’d still come up short. There’s space and depth aplenty here, with real definition to the sound that will put you in the midst of your favorite recordings. Every insturment and vocalist has their own finite point of origin, with minimal overlap or confusion. All in all, this is a sound as clean as it is articulate. Just drop the high frequencies a little and you’ll be fine. I don’t feel the need for that, but if you do, it probably feels good to know the Hemp will let you tailor it somewhat to your needs. The headphone responds marvelously to DSP usage, so play with it and enjoy the hell out of it. Engaging Factor

Every pair of SR125e headphones are still made in Brooklyn, New York, where the John Grado family have been making award-winning audio gear for over 60 years. Like all Grado headphones, the SR125e uses an “open-air” ventilated headphone design with large, non-resonant air chambers for a powerful and extended low-frequency response and a more open, spacious sound to your ear tips. The diaphragm of each speaker has been subjected to a special “de-stressing” process which allows it to provide more musical detail for an even greater soundstage during your listening sessions. A sturdy eight-conductor patch cable and ultra-high-purity copper voice coils give these phones a refined high-end, ultra-smooth and dynamic, yet tightly controlled bass.

The mahogany tone is hand-matched for maximum aesthetic appeal. Warm harmonic colors are also present in your Grado GS1000e headphones. You have the perfect headset when you combine bodied vocals, superb dynamics, and a seamless top end. It includes 50mm dynamic transducers and a new 1-conductor wire for professional sound quality in your ears. Furthermore, the hand-crafted wood on the earpieces and headband, as well as the ergonomic cable design and driver, ensure tight control and stability on higher and lower frequencies. Grado Headphones Buying Guide

So, we have a pair of not-that-practical headphones that look pretty weird – much like the Grado SR60i headphones that this pair succeeds. But what’s new?

Dolce & Gabbana

Even as long-term Grado users, it takes us a while to get used to them due to their thinness and overall shape, but it’s worth persisting. A few days of acclimatisation makes us more kindly disposed towards them, particularly as the new earpads cause a subtle shift to the balance of the SR325x’s sound, making them a less demanding listen. These headphones leak sound in both directions like almost no other on-ear pair. If a car passes you’ll hear it more than your music, and you’ll become a public menace by wearing them on the bus – anyone nearby will be able to hear what you’re listening to. Especially as you’d need to crank up the volume to deal with the ambient noise. The Grado SR60e’s construction is pretty basic too. Using a static headband and no folding mechanism, there’s very little to go wrong, but they don’t feel like they could take too much rough treatment. What keeps them together are two rods of steel that look a bit like the stuff used to make coat hangers. The metal that makes up the skeleton of the headband is extremely skinny too, only taking up a tiny part of the padding that rests on your head. It is Grado. So, don’t expect massive staging elements and properties. However, do expect very enjoyable imaging overall. The overall height and width factor is average at best. However, the depth of field is heavily improved from some of the other older Grado models. With a driver that small, I would never expect anything huge and neither should consumers.

Same song and source, the same EQ set to +dB of bass via realbassexciter (a Foobar2000 DSP), and attempting to parallel the volume levels of each headphone, results in the Hemp retaining control much better than the PS500. Bass Fidelity and Tonality That is not to say it requires a lot of power to sound great, it doesn’t. The Plenue M, or really any solid portable music player, sounds very good with this player. Usually, I find that low end or treble is improved with a lot more power than what a portable source can offer. I didn’t find that to be the case here with the Hemp. The Hemp + Seth McFarlane’s Jazz albums sound so damned good, that I have sat there for a few hours listening to all three of his last albums in a row…just astounded by the musicality factor and fun that I was having. Do readers know how rare it is for me to say I had fun listening to a headphone? It’s damned rare! Vocals + Amplifier usage These Grados once again prove that evolution is arguably a more reliable way of making things better than a headline-grabbing design revolution. The best just got that bit better.Everything we like about their predecessors – their nimble-footedness, expressive, rolling dynamics, and insight across well-defined frequencies – has been inherited, and the punch and panache that have made the Prestige models such born entertainers are very much also part of the SR80x’s sonic signature. These are far from rich or even warm in tone, but an extra generous sprinkling of refinement this time round has made their forward, clinical presentation all the more palpable. Anyone familiar with Grado knows that their headphones are probably the most comfortable headphones on the market. With their old-school foam pads and forgiving clamping force, the GW1000x sit gently on the ears. They’re also very light. So, if you’re going to listen to music for hours on end, Grado is a great choice. TheGW100X sports the same look and feel as their popular SR60X and SR80X, almost flimsy in there appearance if it wasn’t for the stitched, soft leather headband. Now, that is not to say the treble is reserved. It isn’t. It is still a bit bitey now and then, but I quantify this into the category of very enjoyably engaging. Paul Gilbert’s 2 Become 1 has a lot of cymbal striking and focus on a forward sounding treble response for the guitar. If I were grading the RS 2, I’d give it a “V” for vividness. When I listened to music through these ’phones, I sometimes had the uncanny sense that my brain had been magically hard-wired straight into the mixing console. The glory of this headphone is its pure, ultra-lucid midrange sound, which sweetly melts upward into silky smooth, finely textured highs. Bass is taut, dynamically alive, and offers a good measure of natural warmth, but is somewhat reticent relative to the mids and highs. This is a highly detailed headphone, though never in a showy, “hey-look-at-me” sense; instead, small textural and transient details just happen—without undo effort, drama, or sonic histrionics. Grado seems to be innovating and pushing what their technical abilities can offer. Grado, right now, gets my full respect. Why? Because the GW100 was gorgeous and one of the better Bluetooth headphones on the entire audio market.