Grado GR8's are here!

[fzman]

Well, actually, they're in my ears right now - but we can get you a pair as well, but you can't have THIS pair, they're mine!

Grado has an exceptional reputation to maintain, and people have been clamoring for portables that would give them the famous Grado sound. Would the GR8 continue in that tradition?

After a long conversation with Grado's John Chen, I bit the bullet and had to hear a set for myself. After a brief audition, I have to say that everything he said about them is true!

I'll talk more about these later, since I'm having trouble paying attention to my typing, because these things are just too good!

Drop me an email and I can answer any questions you might have, though I will certainly write more later, to fill in the details and describe their sound...

In the meantime, back to the Jaco Pastorius Big band!

[fzman]

Been enjoying them more and more, as I get to spend more time with them. I hooked them up to my home rig for some extended burn-in, and listened to them periodically as they were "cooking". They sound great with the home amp, and the burn-in has made them even better than they were out of the box.

They are quite small, have a tangle-free, non-microphonic cord, and have real presence, coherence, and palpability. They are sensitive to tip selection and fit, but less so than some other iems I've tried. Most importantly, they make me think about the music that's playing, and give it a realism and authenticity that I crave, and they make it hard to analyze things in the artificial language of hi-fi. They do that stuff well also, being resolved and tonally accurate, but they have that "wow factor", not because they toy with the sound, but because they present it honestly and very naturally.

You owe it to yourselves to try a pair of these and compare them with your current favorites, if timbral accuracy and natural, un-editorialized sound is your thing-- you'll love 'em!

[jc@gradolabs]

Thanks for the confirmation of all our work here at Grado. The GR8 is the culmination of close to two years worth of design, engineering and listening tests. Since we had some very good references, namely our own headphones like the PS1000's the team at Grado knew we had to work very diligently to produce a product that could wear the name Grado on it.Music is very important at Grado and we feel it very important to the people that ultimately invest in a Grado product looking for music to take them away to that special place.Cheers!

[fzman]

I am enjoying mine more and more every day. I've used them with my Gigabeat f40 via the headphone output, as well as line out thru a Ray Samuels SR71A, with various mini-mini cables.

Folks, you don't have to wait for the reviews -- we've got them in stock.

Listen to them for yourselves -- if you don't like them, we'll take them back!

Gonna break in the iGi's over the weekend. I'll report back on Monday