Grado SR80 Headphones :: MarkTAW.com

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Grado SR80 Headphones
A review of my new headphones. In a word, un-freaking-believeable.

I own a Pandora's Box, a small box that lets you plug a radio in, a bass in, and headphones in. It mixes them all together, even simulates amps, and you can play along to your favorite albums. It's called a "Headphone Amp." I've had it for close to a year now and use it from time to time. The headphones I had - AKG K-300's are too bassy and everything sounds muddy in them. I didn't sound good and after a short time of playing I had to stop, everything just became noise.

I set out to find a new pair of headphones. Anthony asked me to accompany him to Guitar Center in Queens and I went. I asked the salesguy for a headphone recommendation and he showed me a $260 pair of Sony's. He listened to me tell him I wanted "something flat, comfortable, and with a good bass response." I don't think it mattered what I told him he would've shown me the same pair of headphones. "I've got those and I love 'em." I told him I'd do some research and come back to him.

The research I did told me to get the Grado SR80's. They're flat, with an excellent frequency response, though uncomfortable. For $95, they sound like MUCH more expensive headphones. After reading literally dozens of reviews (only one bad, but this guy preferred the AKG K-300's so he couldn't have know what he was talking about). Some of the reviews were links from Grado's website, some from professional magazine websites, others from independant places like Epinions and Audioreview.com.

I found the one place in NYC that seemed to carry them - Harvey's profesional electronic store at 2 West 45th St. The store (which sold super high end TV's and stereo systems) had them on the Sennheiser rack, plugged into the same looped CD player with all the other Sennheiser headphones.

It took a minute for my ears to adjust, but once they did I A/B'd the Sennheisers with these and was amazed at how limited and distorted the Sennheiser's sounded. "These have no highs" "These artificially emphasize the bass" "These have no mids."

I tried them at work and wasn't blown away by them, but then I couldn't try them at a good volume and the fletcher munsen curve was working against me. Also the CD player was working against me. We switched CD players and the sound immediately approved (the CD player was software, i was plugged straight into the front of the CD player on the computer).

Anthony has a pair of Sony headphones, cheap headphones but 'good enough.' They, as do most headphones, grossly distorted the bass because (a) people want that, and (b) it compensates for poor sound quality.

When I got them home though, I was able to crank them. AHHH. I listened to Robert Johnson first, then some recent recordings I knew would be well produced, and finally some of my own stuff (from my old band). It felt like I was back in the studio. I think it was the only time I heard our music the way I remember it sounding during mix down.

Once I got over the fact that they don't artificially boost the bass, I was able to hear the music the way it sounded in the studio, or at least as close to that as my CD player (a Yamaha CDRW and Winamp) can come to that. It's scary, I hear everything. I heard sounds in classic albums I've been listening to for years that I didn't know were there. It's as close to being there as I've ever experienced.

For professional musicians who depend on hearing accurately, and anyone interested in hearing what the artist intended for you to hear, I reccomend these headphones. I haven't tried any of the really expensive ones, but they're far far better than any I've ever heard before.

Update March 6, 2003: Find other reviews or write your own here: www.ProSoundReview.com