A Sound Bargain

These are the first Grados I ever bought. I'm not sure I qualify as a textbook "audiophile," but I have taken back almost every pair of headphones I have ever bought - and usually within 24 hours of their purchase. Why? Because most headphones just flat out suck.

That's probably how I ended up hearing about Grado from a variety of audiophile magazine sites on the web. With my interest piqued by all the positive press, I chose the SR80s, which represented the best pricepoint from which to make my leap of faith.

I'm very glad I did.

For those who know little about Grado, Grado Labs is the antithesis of outfits like Sony. It's not a huge corporate empire that sells every kind of electronic walnut-cracker under the sun. Sony makes some great headphones but it also sells a lot of really crappy ones. In fact, while its product line contains a lot of cool stuff, it also contains a vast assortment of crap.

Grado Labs is a family business, based in Brooklyn, and dedicated to high-end audio. Its product line is extremely narrow - phono cartridges, headphones and headphone amps. Where a lot of manufacturers are peddling technology - noise cancellation and wireless sound - Grado is about acoustics. Its founder, Joseph Grado, was an engineer who believed that "resonance" was the devil.

The theory behind it is pretty basic - and just as persuasive.

Sound is basically an acoustic pattern. Any recording of it is only as good as its ability to capture and retain that original pattern. Even then, playback is only as true as the equipment used to recreate that pattern again. If your equipment adds "resonance," it's as big a problem as if it left out part of the pattern.

The problem with most headphones is that they rely on a closed-air system. Closed phones have their charms. They exclude outside noise. They contain the sound of the drivers - giving the wearer more privacy. They can also boost bass. Manufacturers like them because they make it easier to use molded plastic to present an image of space-age technology. But closed-air systems magnify resonance. The sound ricochets off of the clam shells and re-enters the mix. The result is acoustical mud.

Grado applied what he'd done with phono cartridges to the area of high-fidelity headphones. His open-air phones used vented diaphrams and open rear grills to let out the compressed sound threatening to add resonance. His HP1000s became a favorite of studio engineers, but like all professional gear, they were prohibitively expensive. The reputation of these phones made it unnecessary to do the kind of advertising Sony and others engage in to maintain interest in their products.

When Grado shifted to selling high-end phones to consumers, the now-discontinued HP1000s (which were too ugly to sell to the public) were replaced by the flagship RS1 - with a leather headband, mahogany air chambers and the use of ultra high purity long crystal copper, for both the voice coils and the connecting cord. At $695, these cans sang like a canary, but who - except a confirmed audiophile - would pay $700 for a pair of headphones?

Grado Labs has since diversified its product line to offer various versions of the RS1 at different price points. These range from the Chinese-made iGrado (at $49) to the Statement Series GS1000 (at $995). In-between these extremes are the SR60 ($69), the SR80 ($95), SR125 ($150), SR225 ($200), SR325 ($295) and RS2 ($495). It doesn't take a genius to realize that Grado Labs is not going to sell a $700 headphone for $49. In this life, you get what you pay for. Still, you might be surprised at what you get for even $49.

Listening to a pair of iGrados (the runt of the Grado family), I was blown away by their clarity. They weren't as good as the SR80s, SR325i's or the RS1s I'd heard, but they compared to all of the cans I'd sent back - including some from Bose and Shure - they were incredible. When I took a pair apart to see what differences lay beneath the surface, I was surprised to find what looked like an intentional set of design flaws. While the iGrado uses the same 40mm neodymium drivers as the SR80s, the exterior grills turned out to be more form than function. Adding to it the pad inside the airchambers - effectively turning an open-air design into a closed-air one - I had to wonder whether these phones weren't intentionally designed to preserve the viability of the more expensive options.

I have since come across cash-strapped audiophiles who have purchased an SR60 or SR80 with the intent of upgrading it beyond its limitations in design. I've come across Grado fans with "mods." Some have replaced the plastic grill with a metal one. Some have replaced the connector wire, to use UHPLC copper. Some have even replaced the plastic air chambers with their own wooden designs. If the war is with resonance, two can play that game. I even Grado-ized a set of the worst headphones I could find - removing the closed-air back, tearing out the resonant-heavy front grill and carving holes in the sock-like headphone cushions. The result were $5 headphones that now sounded like their $50 counterparts.

But even without modification, and even if they're not RS1s, the SR80s have phenomenal sound. Bass response is not as strong as with the SR325i's, the RS1s or the GS1000s, but it's still very dynamic. One of the creative choices of the Grado is that it puts the ear close to the driver, creating a live sound that puts the listener on the stage (not 20 rows back). I have the luxury of listening with SR 325i's and RS1s, but the SR80 was so good, it compelled me to check out the higher ends of the product line. While I am not unhappy with my subsequent choices, the SR80 delivers so well that it provides an incredible bang for the buck. Many people will not be able to tell the difference between Grados like these and the highest end of their product line. In fact, the differences between the SR80 and the RS1 are so sublime, they're less radical than the difference between the RS1 and the Sennheiser HD650. The crisp accuracy of these phones is superior to that of almost all of the headphones out there.

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SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

A thoughtful reader prompted me to add a few extra thoughts about sound and comfort.

As I mentioned before in my review, I'm not an audiophile. I've read headphone reviews that read like wine tastings. I'm not here as an expert, just a consumer with likes, dislikes and internet access.

I purchased these cans, sight onseen, on the basis of the awards and rave reviews for both the RS1 and the SR60. I knew I couldn't afford the RS1s but felt that if the SR60s were getting so much good buzz, I could afford to pay the extra $26 for the next step up. I had to buy them online because no local outlet had them for sale, but they came with a one-year warranty and a limited window in which I could get my money back. Having shelled out $95, I intended to take a skeptical approach. If they didn't measure up, my experience with Grado would end there, the way it ended with Bose and Shure. I may not have the most golden ears in town but when it comes to headphones and my money, there's little room for sentimentality.

I "auditioned" the phones straight, with no additional amplifier. It may be de rigeur to use a headphone amplifier - especially since many high-end cans require the extra power - but Grado, with its emphasis on acoustics, boasted the ability to run fine on their own juice (Presently, I'm writing this review while listening to tunes off my iPod and my RS1s - without any additional amplification).

It's not uncommon, in headphone reviews, to list the tracks that were used. It's also not uncommon to pick three or more representative samples, and to take some measure of pride in the choice of tracks involved. As a novice to all of this (I bought the phones to listen to my music while working out and skateboarding around a lake), I simply listened to the music that appealed to me, all of it from iTunes and CDs imported into iTunes. I can't say I listened to all 2,500 tracks from my current library, but the following represents the range of music I squeezed through my SR80s:

LISTENING MATERIAL

AC/DC Aimee Mann Al Stewart Alan Mencken and Stephen Schwartz (The Pocahontas Soundtrack) Alanis Morisette Alena Kortis Alice in Chains Alicia Keys Alison Krauss American Astronauts Ampire Andrew Gold Annie Lennox Atlanta Rhythm Section The Auld Town Band & Pipes The B-52s
Baby Bash Barbra Streisand Barry Manilow The Beatles Billy Joel Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera blink 182 Bob Dylan Bob Marley Boston Bow Wow Wow Boys Like Girls Bright Eyes Britney Spears Bruce Springsteen Buffalo Springfield Cake The Canadian Scottish Regiment Pipes and Drums & Third Aircraft Marine Band Carole King The Carpenters Carrie Underwood The Cars The Charlie Daniels Band Cheap Trick Cheech and Chong Chris Brown Chris Thomas King The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Colby Caillat Coldplay Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Dale Bozio of Missing Persons Dan Fogelberg Dane Cook Daughtry David Bowie David Kennedy David McCullough Deep Blue Something Deep Purple Def Leppard Depeche Mode Derb Diana Eck The Dickies Dire Straits DJ Cobra Dj Discofer Dj Sakin Dj Wag The Doors Dough Laurent Dr. Demento Dynamite Hack E-Train The Eagles Earth, Wind & Fire Eddie Izzard Electric Light Orchestra Elton John Elvis Presley Ennio Morricone (various soundtracks) Enya Evanescence Fairfield Four Fall Out Boy Fear Feist Fiddlesticks Finger Eleven Foo Fighters Foreigner Fountains of Wayne Frankie Goes to Hollywood Fred Astaire Future Shock Gheorghe Zamfir & James Last and His Orchestra Girl Authority Glasberg & Fawkes Global Cee Godsmack The Goo Goo Dolls Good Charlotte Green Day Group X - Arabian Rap Sensations Guns N' Roses Hank Williams Hank Williams, Jr. Haywire Mac Heart The Hit Crew Interpol Itzhak Perlman Jan Hammer Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Starship Jennifer Lopez Jerry Seinfeld The Jimi Hendrix Experience Joan Osborne Joe Carter Joey Ramone John Denver John Lennon John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra Johnny Cash Jonas Brothers Jordin Sparks Journey Judas Priest Kamui Kan Cold Kansas Kanye West Kate Ellis The Killers Kimi Hayes The Knack Korn L2 Project Led Zeppelin Lidstroem Limp Bizkit Lisa Arrington Los Tres present DJ Macks Lou Gramm Mannheim Steamroller Margaret Boyle Maroon 5 Matchbox Twenty Meat Loaf Megadeth Melanie C Metallica Michael Andrews ML Moby Modest Mouse The Moody Blues The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Motley Crue The Move Music Inc. Nancy Sinatra Natasha Bedingfield Neil Diamond Neil Young New Young Pony Club Nickelback Nightclub Nine Inch Nails Nirvana Oasis Ok Go Omoumi, Hossein & Ron Korb OneRepublic Overdub Ozzy Osbourne Paramore Pat Benatar Patti Smith Paul McCartney Wings Pearl Jam Peppermint Creeps Peter Gabriel Phonekiller Plain White T's Planet Trax Plastic Ono Band The Police The Postal Service Pro Active Pro Tech Pulso Da Vida Queen R.E.M. Rage Against the Machine Rainmaker Ralph Stanley The Ramones Ray Suarez Re-Quest Renegade Master Richard Carpenter Rihanna Robin Williams The Romantics Rough & Smart Roy Wood Royal Scottish National Orchestra Rush Sacre Santana Sarah Polley Schwarze Puppen Screeching Weasel Semisonic The Sex Pistols Shawn Mullins Simple Minds Skankin' Pickle Skysurfer Smash Mouth Smashing Pumpkins The Soggy Bottom Boys Sonar System Soul Asylum Soulfighter Steely Dan Stephen Smith Steve Martin Sting Stone Temple Pilots The Strangeloves Styx Supernova Suzanne Vega Sweet System of a Down Talking Heads Taurus Taylor Swift Tears for Fears Techno Logic Tenacious D Third Eye Blind Thompson Twins Three Kings Timbaland Tocs Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tomoyasu Hotel Toronto Consort The Tubes Tunnel Alliance U2 Van Halen The Vapors Vatos Locos Bros. The Verve Pipe The Vindictives Wag & Misar The Wallflowers Weird Al Yankovic Whitesnake The Who Wild Cherry Wyclef Jean Yakooza Yes ZZ Top The 5.6.7.8's

STRIKING CHARACTERISTICS

I haven't listened to every offering in the Grado product line-up. I've never worn a pair of SR125s, SR225s or the top-of-the-line GS1000s. But comparing these cans to the cheap iGrados, as well as the SR325i's and the famous RS1s, the SR80s have a fuller sound than the iGrados (which sound great but could sound better if they weren't sabotaged by the cheap Chinese housing) and only moderately less detailed than the $300 SR325i's. In fact, it was the amazing detail of these phones that compelled me to buy the 325i's. If you like a lot of detail in your music, you'll know what an addiction it can be to discover that there's more, more, more - in another set of headphones.

It wasn't until I put on my new RS325i's that I fully appreciated the value of these RS80s whose amazing sound awakened a lust for more. While the 325i's got better as they burned in, the RS80s got me about 80% of the way there, which is phenomenal. In fact, until I had fully burned in my 325i's, I couldn't tell any difference between the two phones. Considering the fact that the RS80s are a third of what you'd pay for the 325i's, that was a stunning discovery.

I may be forgetting something in my old age but I don't remember having to "burn in" the RS80s, which practically blew me away the moment I first put them on. Two major defects plague the world of headphones, three if you include soundstage visualization. First, a lot of cheap headphones give you midrange but not bass. Second, even if they give you the bass (and sometimes because of it), the upper midrange and treble are muted in what can only be called "sonic mud." Finally, headphones - themselves - have an inherent problem with soundstage visualization. Unlike speakers, which bounce sound around a room and allow for cross-channel feedback (so you hear a little of the left speaker in your right ear - and vice versa), headphones tend to shoot the sound right into your head. The result is sound that doesn't feel like it's "out there" so much as crazy voices in your head.

The SR80s are among the cheapest versions of the Grado design, which vents its drivers (with a little hole in the back of each transducer) and leaves the back open, so that what you hear is coming straight from the driver, not from a shell in the back of your headphone. (I once mimicked this Grado design - poorly - with some really bottom-of-the-barrel headphones and was surprised at how reliably the principle works, even with pure crap.) The major step forward, in eliminating the most obvious sources of resonance, unties a sonic knot. My SR80s gave me a wondrously clean soundstage. Amazing details began to hit my brain - even from songs I'd heard for more than 30 years. In fact, it was the discovery of so much more sound in these familiar recordings that caused me to overdraft my bank account with unforgivably lavish purchases off of iTunes. What started as a simple desire to hear good music while working out turned into a whole new desire to re-hear all my old music through these Grados.

Listening to AC/DC's "Back in Black," I could hear that little echo/rattle of a snare-drum whack that would otherwise have blended into the sonic picture. On Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do" I could now hear a bass drum boom unexpectedly engaged by a restless pedal foot, as well as Dylan's subtle rhythm changes on harmonica and his third-verse chord-change flub (almost perfectly hidden by a quick rebound). The clarity of the phones separates instruments and details so effectively, it's like hearing whole new recordings.

But it's also a presentation more suitable to some than to others. With these phones fitting right on the ear, the soundstage is narrower than with around-the-ear headphones. You're paying to be onstage, as opposed to ten rows back. If that feels a bit claustrophobic, or you feel that you're getting too much midrange, at the expense of the high end, simple low-tech adjustments can be made by simply changing how the phones ride on your ears. When I pull back, even a little, the soundstage opens up more. There's a cost in doing this, mainly that it affects bass response, but it's a myth that you can get "everything" by simply turning all your equalizer knobs up. Every listener, as well as every musical style, has a certain sonic preference - in terms of what places within the spectrum are to be given greater attention. With some brands, the attempt is made to make these adjustments electronically. Grados respond by making manual adjustments to the fit between the ear and the driver.

In terms of soundstage, one benefit of the Grados is that the clarity of presentation creates a dimensionality I've not heard with other phones, certainly not with Bose or the Shures I took back to BestBuy. I often find myself listening to a track and hearing tracks underneath the main track, life finding a painting underneath a painting. On a number of Beatles and ELO tracks, not to mention some by The Who, I've heard acoustic guitar - presumably the acoustic guitar used to lay down the first version of the song. Often, this guitar work is something ultimately drowned out by the complete recording, but something I hear predominantly in one ear or the other, just beneat the surface of the final recording. Hearing this stuff is like peaking behind a curtain - or hearing voices in your head.

To those used to Sennheisers, the Grado sound may seem a little brash, probably because of the midrange and the up-front soundstage. This is not a laid-back presentation. Nor is it one that creates undeniably over-the-top bass. If the SR80 has an Achilles heel, it may be the bass response, which is less pronounced than with the SR325i or the RS1, but there's more to this situation than meets the ear. Closed-air headphones use their clam-shell shape to pack more wallop into the bass, but at a cost. Just as the dialogue drops out in action films - when the sound effects push the needle into the red zone - you can't push the bass without losing detail and clarity.

While the bass response of the SR80 is not as full as its $700 counterpart on the RS1, it's as full as it needs to be. You will feel the bass on these phones and discover some really cool detail within it (Grado's bass, like its midrange, is clearer). What you may miss is sheer loudness. Just as AM always had better bass than FM (because its bass presentation was solid and uninterrupted), muddy headphones have a louder, boomier, bass. If that's what you're looking for, you can get that with a number of headphones for less than $100. But you won't get a clearer bass than with the Grados.

The other oddity of the bass response on Grado is that it doesn't automatically get louder when you turn the volume up. There's a maximum amount of bass response, one that comes at the sweet spot when the music is as loud as needed to feel sufficiently vivid. The "problem," for bass junkies, is that Grados don't sound "better" when you turn them up past that sweet spot. They're not designed to deafen. The more you turn up any pair of headphones, the more you multiply their inherent resonance. Long before you go deaf from cooking your eardrums, you will sacrifice clarity. The irony of the Grado presentation is that they sound incredible all the way up to the "sweet spot" but fail to provide any gratification beyond that point.

For a while, I wondered if this were a defect in the phones themselves, a genuine lack of bass response. Yet, the Grados had amazingly full bass - at least up to the "sweet spot." After buying the 325i's and the RS1's, I've come to the conclusion that this is a "problem" with the whole line - if it's a problem at all. In fact, it's a problem of expectations. I'm the kind of guy who tends to listen at a higher volume, then turn things down - little by little - as I realize that I'm getting what I want and don't need to drown my ears. So, when I turn the sound down, I'm always amazed at how much bass I'm getting at the lower volume. Shouldn't the bass cut out? That's the Grado bass enigma. The full bass is there. It's when you try to crank the cans up - thinking you're going to up the sonic dose - that it becomes apparent that less is more.

(A trick with the Grados is to change the cushions. Grado sells different sized cushions as a means of increasing or decreasing the distance between the ear and the driver. Distance increases the size of the soundstage but reduces bass while a closer hug emphasizes the bass at the expense of soundstage. Grado's SR60s are considered punchier in the bass department, but precisely because they use the smaller pads, pushing the ear closer to the driver. That being the case, a person who is unhappy with the bass response of the SR80s can buy the pads for the SR60s, which retail for $11.)

GRADO "COMFORT"

Grados are notoriously "uncomfortable." Just ask anybody. It's one of those "truths" that requires little actual investigation, but again it's more a matter of perception than anything else. All Grados, with the exception of its GS1000s, are on-ear headphones. As a matter of course, that means the drivers are in a position to bend the ears backward causing inevitable fatigue. For some users, it's a deal-breaker, regardless of sound, because they just think that headphones shouldn't do that.

In this regard, I'm a little more "old school." I started using headphones back when all of them were "on-ear." I was a teenager when quarter-sized ear-pads came into vogue and in my early 20s when people started using earbuds. Each style of headphone has its "comfort" factor, including earbuds and inner-ear phones. The act of pressing against the ears, or of jamming something into them, is artificial enough to cause some level of fatigue - no matter what you use.

But real issue of "Grado miscomfort" is largely one of weight and placement. Grado got a bad rep, back when it was selling the HP1000, because those phones were heavy cans. As they pressed against the ear, the results could be painful. The newer Grados have come in much lighter, making it less of a problem. At 8 ounces, these are pretty easy on the ears.

When my RS1s came, I got an immediate dose of that "Grado miscomfort" which turned out to be nothing more complicated than the headband, which was obnoxiously tight. Grado ships them tight, to facilitate a tight fit for good bass response. I bent the headband a bit, making the phones fit looser. The moment I did, I found the soundstage wider. Win/win! But I'm also finicky enough that I tend to adjust my phones several times during the wear as I look for the best orientation. Until I got my Grados, I never gave much thought to how I wore my phones. Like a lot of people, I assumed that if I bought the right phones, I'd get the right sound (and all that junk sure looks futuristic while hanging from a hook).

No matter how you position the phones, though, you can't bend your ear back for hours without feeling some fatigue. I felt that with my Sonys. I felt with my Koss's. I'm pretty sure I'd feel it with the Bose on-ear headphones. You can't escape the basic reality that anyting pressing your ear back is eventually going to produce fatigue. The ear pads and ear buds aren't so problematic, but they don't sound as good, either. For as long as I can remember, I've preferred the bigger sound enough to simply take short breaks or reposition the phones. Loosening the headband has worked wonders for me.

GRADO "DURABILITY"

If you're looking for an Achilles heel on these Grados, it's in the durability department. Big, plastic, molded cans have a durability that escapes Grado, which worries more about eliminating sources of resonance. Grado drivers swivel on a metal rod that allows them to be spun all the way around. This is unusual for headphones and actually allows better fit and better adjustment of on-ear placement, but it also opens the door to some fairly foreseeable issues. If you let your drivers dangle, you could conceivably twist the cord up, which could lead to shorts. I haven't had anything like that yet, because I don't let my cords get tangled up. But the Grado cords, which are hand-crimped, lend themselves to mischief.

I did have an issue with my pair of 325i's. The metal rod came out of the plastic ring that hung the driver. This was a very obnoxious, annoying, situation. I couldn't figure out why a $300 pair of headphones would fall apart like that within a few months of their purchase. The problem, of course, was completely foreseeable. Instead of a big, molded, hunk of plastic going from the drivers to the headband, Grado relies on that metal rod acting as both swivel and bridge between the headband and the driver. Why? Because Joseph Grado knew something about resonance. If you make the entire unit one molded-plastic monstrosity, you'll get something more closely approaching a helmet, but you'll also end up using the apparatus as a source of added resonance. Football helmets are great for preventing cranial fractures but how well do they improve sound?

If it were up to me, these Grados would be more delicate than they already are. I'd push what Joe Grado did to the breaking point. The only purpose for a headphone apparatus is to hold the driver up to your ear. Anything more than that is interfering with the natural, acoustic, vibrations of the transducer. Durability adds resonant echoes. It also cancels out bass. If you really want the finest effects from a headphone, you have to let the driver shake the entire structure of the ear in exactly the same pattern created by the target sound. The implications are revolutionary: Headphone drivers should be mounted with very precise shock-absorber-like mounts that vibrate with the sound. They should be neither loose nor tight, nor should they be shock "absorbers" so much as shock "distributors." Real sound doesn't just fall down a rabbit hole. It passes through the entire structure of the ear. That, I suspect, would be the future of headphone technology.

That said, my 325i's fell apart because the metal rod came out of the plastic air chamber holding the driver. I tried to shove it all back in, to no avail. While searching for my receipt, I decided to apply a little Superglue to the situation. Thirty seconds later, I was back in business. I haven't had another problem with those phones, but I'm also a little more careful with them. I don't keep them hibernated in a padded box but I don't toss them into the back seat of my car, either.