great sound

not as polished as higher-end models from other companies

These headphones have great sound and work well out of my PC soundcard. I've read a lot of reviews on these headphones and they all agree that the headphones are excellent, especially with an amp. I plan on building my own amp soon. Check out www.headwize.com for instructions!

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cheap portable cd headphones

Having purchased the Grado 80's based on reviews on this website and www.headwize.com, I thought it was time to make my review and make a comparison with my Sony 7506. I have had them for just under a week and have broken them in for about 3-4 days with continuous music playing 24/7 at relatively high (for headphones) volumes before doing any serious comparisons with my other headphones, the Sony 7506 professional monitors. Now I compared on them using my CD-rom headphone output on my computer at work and also at home using either a CAL Lab's DX-1 feeding a NAD 314 Integrated amp with headphone out (bedroom) or a Pioneer -525 DVD player feeding an MSB LINK DAC with the output from the LINK DAC feeding a Harman Kardon AVR-30 Receiver, where I used the headphone output. Now the HK AVR-30 was the former top of the line HK Pro Logic receiver many years ago and have yet to replace it, as it is currently being used as a preamp-processor to a Citation 7.1 power amp (4 channels) feeding B&W P4's (a small floorstander) for the stereo part of my HT setup.

The Grados are a very good set of headphones which I purchased 3-4 years ago after comparison with a number of other headphones used in the Pro market, including Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro's, AKG's, Sennheisers (don't remember the model number, all I remember is that they had green earpads). I went with the Sony's because they had very good bass extension and the sound out of a Rane headphone amplifier was simply liquid and smooth. Liquid is the best adjective I can think of but the sound was just heavenly. I could have bought the Beyer's for the same price which were on closeout for, $99 (list was well over $200) but decided that I liked the Sony sound better. After buying the Sony's, I noticed that they have become ubiquitous, as they are good sounding, durable, comfortable and relatively inexpensive. If you watch Frazier, it looks like those are the phones he uses. Also NFL coaches wear them to get plays from the booth. But enough about the Sony's, what about the Grado's?

Now the Grado's I bought without trying them, which I regret only from the standpoint of knowing I would wonder how they stack up against the Sennheiser 535's and the 580's or the Grado 125's. I chose Grado due to their flexibility, as they are relatively easy to drive and can be used with portable Cd players, etc without using a dedicated headphone amp. Plus, I read a lot of reviews noting problems with the Sennheiser's cords, where the connection become intermittent. The large number of refurbished units available for Sennheiser (including through their website and ubid) also turned me off as there could be questions of product reliability. I absolutely hate having to bother with warranty work even if the shipping were free. The Grado's build quality is disappointing in comparison with the Sony's. First, the earpads are distinctly not as comfortable and soft as the Sony's, e.g. the material on the pads feels like the difference between silk and polyester. Second, the headband does take time to break in, I bent the band open and let the pads rest on the sides on either side my speakers to stretch out the band. When wearing the Grado's, I suggest letting the top of the headband contact the top of your head, it greatly reduces the potential movement of the pads and that is big help, I've discovered. The Sony's simply exude a more substantial feeling of being able to take the punishment (they should as they are made for the professional market where a lot of abuse is possible), I don't hesitate letting my 1 year old baby play with them, they can take the punishment. I don't have similar confidence with the Grado's.

Now comparing the sound, I find that the Grado's do sound very good but there is a distinct difference between the presentations between the two. I believe part of the difference in sound is due to the open air design of the Grado's versus the closed design of the Sony's. The Grado's due to sound more natural in terms of soundstaging. I get less of that imaging in your head that is characteristic of headphone listening. The sony's win on bass extension and impact. They sound like they are full range, i.e they can reach about 20 Hz. The Grados are more like small floorstanders with limited extension. For example, listening to Spanish Harlem (Rebecca Pidgeon), all the notes of the acoustic bass are of equal volume and weight on the Sony's. On the Grados, the notes of the bass progression are progressively louder at the higher notes, the extension is there in terms of being able to hear each note, but they do not have the same weight and impact. In terms of treble, the Sony's are noticeable more subdued on cymbals, whereas the Grados are much more pronounced. It is my belief that the Sony's sound more neutral with the cymbals. At first, I thought that the cymbals sound more natural withe Sony's but the more I listen to the Grados, the more I appreciate the extra treble adding excitement to rock/pop music. How about classical music? I listened to Robert Silverman playing Liszt (Stereophile's recording) and noticed a completely different sound to the piano when using the Grados. The Sony's made the Steinway piano sound mellow with a warm tonality. The Grados had a more pronounced treble and had more upper midrange emphasis to the piano. The two pianos did not sound the same at all. I used to play piano growing up and I can tell you that the two headphones made them sound like two different pianos. I believe that the Sony's were probably the more accurate sounding. I can understand now why some people consider the Grados better suited for rock and roll than classical rather than say Sennheiser's because any colorations with acoustic instruments are going to be distracting if you value absolute neutrality. Now are the Grados musical? Yes, without a question. I love listening to the Grados. There is a wonderful clarity and coherence to the sound that is just appealing to me. It's addictive, I tell you. Even though I listed a bunch of differences in the two headphones above, I have spent the majority of my time listening to music the last week using the Grados. While I realize that they may be colored in some ways, it doesn't bother me at all because the sound is engaging and the majority of the time I can get immersed in the music without disturbing my wife, who by the way, was always asking me to turn down the volume when listening to speakers. How's a music lover supposed to handle that? These Grados were a great investment for me. They sound better or as good as my amp-speaker setup which is not all that inexpensive. The citation is a $2800 power amp, sometimes I used my Classe CAP-150 ($2000 integrated amp) as the preamp, and listen in stereo with the B&W P4 ($1200 speakers). So for just stereo listening, I still think the Grados sound as good or better with the same source as ($5800 of amp-speakers not including the surround speakers). Of course, if you used the Classe as an integrated amp with the same speakers (which sounds almost as good as the Classe-Citation combination), it's still a $3200 combination. So for so few $$$, you can get great sound with the Grados if you're source is up to it and still get good sound with something inexpensive like my computer's CD-rom drive's headphone output.

I think I forgot how pure, clear and coherent headphone listening can be because even though I've had the Sony's for years, I've been using them only at work and you are only as good as your source. It makes a lot of sense how a good dynamic headphone can accurately reproduce the music. After all, a dynamic headphone is a transducer that uses a vibrating diaphragm to reproduce sound and a microphone is a transducer that uses a vibrating diaphragm to record the sound. If you use the same type of device as your input and use it to reproduce the output, your odds of canceling out the colorations are improved over say using cone speakers. Most people don't know this, but you can use plug your headphones into a microphone jack and use them as a microphone. I've never tried and you probably don't want to do this unless the impedances match, but it is possible. My next step in headphone listening is to build a dedicated headphone amp (the one designed by chu moy at http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy2_prj.htm that can be built for as little as $30). After that I may try his acoustic simulator design. While I can definitely afford to buy a headphone amp (the Music Fidelity X-cans II sounds appealing), the DIYer in me wants to give it a try building my own. I am an engineer and also a music lover. I've also played acoustic and electric guitar for 5 years in my church band, as well as piano and oboe growing up. Currently, I'm retired from playing in the band and am running the mixing board. We use the Sony's for headphone monitoring and they sure sound great through our new $25,000 Allen and Heath Mixing board. After all, the Allen and Heath better have a top class headphone amp as it meant for top notch live and recording situations. I'll bring in my Grados and give them a comparison and add any follow ups later. Please forgive the excessive length of this review, I haven't been this excited about a product for a long time (I've never written this lengthy a review). When a product is this inexpensive and so satisfying sonically (at least to me), I just wanted to share my findings with you all. The caveats I mentioned above are that the Grados do depart from absolute neutrality but that doesn't bother me in the least for just listening to the music. So in conclusion, the Sony's sound more neutral and have better build and comfort and durability but I just can't put my Grados down, at least right now. We shall see if my feelings change.
Grados build 3 stars.
Grados comfort 3 stars.
Grados sound 5 stars.
Grados value 5 stars (if the British are willing to spend 95 pounds (about $150 US) on these and still consider them at the top of their class, you know they are a great value in the U.S.
Sony's build 5 stars
Sony's comfort 5 stars.
Sony's sound 5 stars.
Sony's value 5 stars.
The regret factor *None* for either headphone. I use each in different applications.
WAF factor 5 stars for either headphone.

Classic look, good reputation on this Board

Painful, It hurts to wear them, Boomy bass

These hurt my head to wear. The bass was a bit boomy and the sound a bit undefined. I sent these back and ordered the $65 Sennheiser 495's direct from Sennheiser. The Sennheiser headphones are very comfortable, have a bigger soundstage and present much more detail in the music.

Maybe the Grado's would have gotten better after they were broken in. But they hurt my head so much I could not bear to wear them long enough to find out.

Avoid these and try the Sennheiser 495's. Night and Day difference.

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Sennheiser 495

Excellent, well-balanced sound. Sturdy construction.

Not very comfortable for long periods of listening.

The best thing about these headphones is the sound quality. The Sennheiser models I tried (sorry, can't remember model #'s) all sounded tinny to me-- their bass performance was unconvincing, to put it politely. (They were more comfortable, though.) All the Grado models had well rounded performance. They also have nice leather-covered metal headbands that you can shape to fit your head-- nice if you're a pinhead. (Like me.)
The Grado SR-60's were almost as good-- I bought these mostly because the ear pads were more comfortable IMO. Even so, they start to bother my ears after about an hour, and I need to take a break. I'm basically very happy with them, though. At about $100, they're not cheap, but you get the same listening quality you would have to pay hundreds more for in comparable speakers.

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Grado SR-60, Grado SR-125, Sennheiser assorted models compared before buying.

Crystal clear sound, Great base, Excellent value

Unconfortable after an hour or two of non-stop listening

I must admit that for the price I paid my Grado SR-80, I'm very amazed. They sound incredible. Mid, High and base, everything is perfect. The Sennheisers I tried sounds like crap in comparison with the Grado SR-80. It's an incredible value for the price.

From classic music to Marilyn Manson, they sounds great!!!

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Tested before the purchase: Sennheiser RS 4-9, Sennheiser HD-470

The headphone has god potential in delivering soundpressure. The sound is quite natural and and does not get colored when the wolume is tuned up.

Can sound a bit fad in the pressence. The bass can sound a bit bulky with a slight warm sound.

Not the best headphone to use as a phone for "walkman" products. Noise from public is slippering in.
But if you are in a quiet place they are great!

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KOSS Porta-Pro, Beyerdynamic DT991 Pro

I just got a pair of those. I have made a very quick decision between these Grado and the Seenheiser HD490. Thumbs up to the Grado 80, which offers a undisputable level of resolution and clarity over the entire frequency band.Love them.

great sound

size, looks, open air design leaks sound

If you don't mind the bulky size and the fact that they leak too much sound to be played loud at the office, these are great headphones. IMHO they sound noticably better than the SR60's, bass in particular but also a fuller soundstage. The SR125's sound better still, with even greater fine detail, but the cost difference is twice the cost of moving from the 60's to the 80's and the improvement in sonics isn't as great. If you're looking for headphones I'd reccommend auditioning at least all the Grados and the Senn 580 (particularly if you listen to mostly classical).

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other grados, sony mdr-cd6

Linear response,quick response in dynamics,clean sound at high levels,you get what you paid for.

Not the most comfortable to wear headphones,does not deliver 20 to 20khz as clamed "in opinion"

These headphones are very accurate sounding.very good imaging.I have some testing equipment i used to test the response of these headphones and the results that i got was that the over all response was more like 35 to 17.5khz bandwith and in that range is VERY FLAT! Because of this in my opinion that most music played through these headphones sound DAM accurate.But then when listening to dvds you can hear the limtations of the lowest most octave that its not there. the treble is just linear enough that you don't get the impression that there's some thing missing.the whole picture is that i haven't heard speakers that can sound as quick and sound as linear which seems to give this enginered design very good imaging.so from listening to these cans and listening what ever type transducer out there i am satisfied and got my moneys worth!

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sony mdr-v600 denon ah-d750

Excellent Sound. Thick cable.

Not comfortable the first week. They don't lool 'cool'.

The Grado SR80 are my first set of 'quality headphones', I wasn't much of an audio enthusiast before, so I used to use the cheap headphones that come packed in with the electronics I buy. So when I finally decided that I need much better sound, I did A LOT of research on the internet for the best headphones to buy for under $100 (which was the budget I put), and it became clear to me that nothing beats the Grado SR80 for the price. So I ordered a pair from AudioAdvisor, they were only online site I found them at! Anyway, the first day I was slightly disappointed, they didn't sound too good, I figured they need to break in, so I let them play nonstop for like 30 hours or so, and they sounded great afterwards. The foam earcups irritated me so much at first, I couldn't wear them for too long. But after a week of wearing they softened and now I can wear them for hours without them bothering me at all (I'm wearing them as I write this).

I can't compare them to other similar models from other companies since I haven't used any. But I can say that I am VERY pleased with my purchase, my friends were wowed by them too. Coupled with a Dolby Headphone decoder they are pure magic! I suggest EVERY headphone user MUST try Dolby Headphone, it makes a whole world of difference. Go to www.musicmatch.com and download their Jukebox player and the Lake PLS Dolby Headphone plug-in and experience the magic, I bet you'll never listen to music or movies without DH again.