Smooth and detailed sound

None

These headphones are incredibly neutral and true to the source material. Of the headphones I have used this is the most "speaker-like." While I don't find any 'phone to image well, the SR225 produces none of the "hole in the head" effect that lesser quality units often suffer from. My phones are driven from The Grado RA-1 amplifier and the match is excellent. Poor quality amplification really stands out with this 'phone. Comfort and cord lenght seem quite good and the 'phones are not too heavy. Overall a superb product.

Similar Products Used:

Stax Gamma and SR34, Sennheiser and Koss (various)

detail, highs, mids, smooth, dynamic, bargain

low bass, comfort, sound just a little thin

Let me first say, I broke these cans in for only 70 hours or so (many say it takes 3 weeks to 2 months of heavy listening for these to truly blossom). Well, I wanted a little more and was impatient.

I returned these and got the Grado SR325's. I really liked the 225's except they sounded just a bit thin and the deep
bass was lacking. The imaging, high's and mid's are beautiful. The break-in improved the imaging and smoothed the sound out a bit but the bass never improved to the level I liked. I listened to some Senn HD 590's and found them to be less detailed and a bit muddy sounding. The Senn HD600's were pretty nice but a little laid back sounding. They didn't have quite the impact the Grado's have. However, the Senn's are a bit more comfortable than the Grado's. The SR-125's sounded somewhat harsher than the 225's (although this might lessen during break-in).

When I first auditioned all the headphones the store was sold out of the SR-325's. I read quite a few reviews since then on the SR-325's that said the bass was much better and the sound was fuller. This is exactly what I was after. So today I went down and listened to some 325's. And wow, even with no break-in these can's sound fuller and the bass really comes alive. The 325's are like adding a high quality subwoofer to the 225's. They actually sound very very similar to the Grado RS-2's. Keep in mind I'm comparing 325's with *no* break-in to 225's broken in for 70 hours.

The 325's also have a very nice polished aluminum earpieces and a real leather band with a small amount of padding.

The Grado SR-225 is a great headphone at a bargain price (for the performance). In it's price range, it has no equal in sound. If you really need full sounding bass, the SR-325 is worth every penny of the $100 price difference.

Similar Products Used:

Grado SR325, RS-2, SR225, SR125, Senn HD600, Senn HD590