Grado Headphones.

The first in a series of articles about my love for my personal gear, specific brands and my reasons why.
Starting off with the family run business that is Grado and wondering what’s next?

Pictured here, the SR125 with the Periodic Audio Nickle and iPod Touch.

My first experience with Grado was a pair of iGrado, which I still have somewhere in storage.
I enjoyed the sound and liked the build quality enough that I quickly upgraded to a pair of SR60’s.
This was back when high end headphones were a new thing to me. I’d only recently joined Head-Fi and the bug set in fast.
Aside from other headphones & IEM’s I soon took a step up the ladder and purchased a pair of SR80’s which became my go to open back headphones for a number of years with a pair of Sennheiser HD25.1.II’s doing all of the closed back work. Budget wouldn’t allow any further upgrades, and besides, I loved the build quality and sound that they created.

I’ve found Schiit Audio’s amps pair very nicely with Grado headphones. If you haven’t already, try it out and let us know what you think…

Skip forward to a few years ago and I was now well into writing reviews and trying out a larger number of headphones anywhere from £50 all the way up to an £8000 electrostatic system.
I began searching for a new pair of Grado’s as my need for something slightly higher end had kicked in, and it wasn’t long before I bought a pair of SR125’s.
They have been a beloved addition to my collection and next time I upgrade, these will be staying with me!
They have a beautifully rich sound with warmth and sparkle in equal measure.
I find they’re a very forgiving headphone that will happily play any genre I throw at them, on any system, whether it be portable, desktop or my main system. Again, Tube or Solid State, they’re happy paired with either.
They’re very easy to drive, like the SR80’s, SR60’s, iGrado’s & GW100’s that I’ve either owned or still have.

Earlier this year I got to review both the GW100’s and the GT220’s.
I enjoyed both so much that I asked Rich if Grado could hook me up with a pair of each and it wasn’t long before I owned both.

The GW100 was Grados first dip into wireless waters and instead of a dip they made a splash!
I compared them a lot with my 125’s and I like to think of them as the SR125’s wireless counterpart, although the GW100 can be used as a wired pair, which they excell at!

The GT220 on the other hand was Grados first attempt at a True Wireless IEM.
I haven’t yet had the opportunity to have a listen to a set of wired IEMs from Grado, however at the time I wrote the review for the GT220, I had already listened to my fair share of True Wireless IEMs, from both pairs of Apples Airpods, Sonys WF-1000XML3, Both of HIFIMANs attempts too samples from Bang & Olufson, RHA, Soundcore and others.
To date, the GT220 have trounced all. They’re that *@&^$*(@(&£ Good!
No ANC? Not an issue when the sound quality is exquisite. Just take one side out and you’re good to go.
These are all about producing the best sound possible in a small IEM housing that also crams in bluetooth technology.
If Grado ever bring out a pair with ANC, I can only imagine how good they’ll be.

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What’s next in my journey with Grado? I’m not sure yet.
I still need to try out some of their cartridges with my turntable system so that’s something I want to work on soon.
As for headphones, I really don’t know. I love what I already have, but I’m feeling that itch again.
I may need to give Rich a shout and see what he thinks.

I’d big Grado up further here, talking about their world class customer service or their friendly and helpful attitude.
But I do that all the time in my reviews of their products, so I’ll just say that you can always rely on them to help you pick the right product for you, and to look after you in the event that something goes wrong.

As a reviewer they’ve been very supportive and helpful from the start, which I appreciate from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks for reading.
I hope you’re all being safe and well out there.
Until next time….

Paul.