Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsStunning for budget high-end cans!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2018
I love these Grado's. The sound stage, the build quality are simply unmatched at this price point. Yeah, there are better sounding cans out there, you'll have to pay more to get them (i.e. higher end Grados).
What really makes these shine are the open-back headphones. The pros for this type of headphone is a larger sound stage, more life-like detailed sound. These can's imaging make almost all music sound so natural, so detailed, that you'll feel like you are in the studio with the band. Its so hard to put into words how these make you feel you are in a studio. Vocals are up front, guitars, bass etc are set back just a little "behind" the vocals, and the drums, depending on the production, can sound HUGE!!!
Then the sound itself. You can hear the intricacies of sound. Classical music sounds detailed, soft and very realistic, as you can also hear the individual instruments clearly. Nothing gets muddled out... Jazz, classic rock, sound great, very detailed, vocals just pop, guitars are sharp, and the whole sound is just, again, realistic. Cymbals and snare drums are also very detailed, you can hear the whole drum set!! Even movies and TV sound great too.
But the bonus is watching movies on my smartphone, these headphones can almost sound like a theater. The bass is crisp and sharp, the voices come out clearly, and the sound effects like explosions sound lifelike as well. Voices are soft, clear and the whole soundtrack sounds like I am in my home theater -- albeit the surround is not as good as the theater, but they have such good imaging that it almost gives them a surround feel to them.
Cons re: open-aired headphones -- they are too private. Someone sitting next to you will hear what you are listening too. And you can hear the outside as well, so these headphones are the exact OPPOSITE of sound deadening headphones. However, I don't use these in public, so they work for me.
These are not the best looking, and I can live with that. It makes them less likely to be stolen. The sound and comfort blows the competition out of the water, by a long shot. Now, I just hope they get that wireless version released soon!
Note, if you are a bass lover, whom is not too interested in the whole sound from the source, you may not like these. The bass is loud and sharp, not booming. Rap music still sounds great, but the Grado's do not emphasize bass over the other tones. Its a rather flat sound, so all the frequencies will have about even loudness. That is why I particularly like these cans!!!
If you have bass heavy headphones, like Beats, you loose the details of other tones. Some others like Sony, JBL, etc are like that, they market to the urban hip-hop/rap crowd, so I feel those headphones are not even close to as good as these Grados. I feel that many headphones emphasize too much on bass, which is a shame as music is more than just bass... Even for rap... You have mid-tones (voices) and high tones (high hats, cymbols, higher octaves of voices, etc), and when a manufacture focuses on just bass, they loose out on the whole music experience.
