Edit: after the fact I realized that I had received SR60i's, not the SR60's. They came in a box that just said SR60 and I bought them before the SR60i's were even announced by Grado. But as you can tell from the pictures, they are definitely the SR60i's, with the larger cup.
First off, this is long winded. If you just want to see my takes on the two headphones in comparison, you can skip about halfway down, you'll see the marker. Pictures will be added at the end shortly.
I became interested in writing something like this, basically because I wanted to take down my thoughts on this process, and because I repeatedly see others going through the same process as I did, looking at the same headphones (the famous $70-$100 is my budget, but I want a big increase in sound quality post). Some of this details my journey through this process, some of it describes the headphones mentioned above, the Grado SR 60, and the Denon AHD1001, from which you'll be able to tell, I harbor a lot of love for both.
I’ll start by giving a brief description of what I was looking for going into these purchases, a little background stuff, etc, so anybody who finds themselves in a similar situation has a good frame of referrence.
I’ve done professional sound on and off for 5-6 years. This has varied from running sound for a rock club, to doing the sound for university stage productions that involved mic’d songs, to recording albums, to mastering and remastering albums. I never paid a ton of attention to the headphones I was working with, unless something was wrong with them. I always considered headphones a sort of necessary evil for certain situations. However, lately I had found myself listening through headphones more and more with my iPod (80 GB 6th generation). Being able to carry my music with me anywhere I went started to be a huge draw. Sure, it wasn’t in CD quality format, but I wanted to have my 12,000 song library be portable, that’s just not an option with .wav, flac or other lossless formats. Generally I’d rip my favorites to 256kbps VBR or higher and let most the other stuff languish in 128kbps (which is fine for parties or casual listening, to me) a few of my favorites that I consider to be mastered perfectly in the studio got apple lossless. What increasingly wasn’t fine were the apple earbuds I was using out of convenience’s sake. So I first tried some sony earbuds (MDR-ED12LP), which were a step up, but I still knew I was missing a lot. I also bought a pair of Sennheiser PX100s, and thought they were really good, but unfortunately for my wallet (I may have stopeed with them if this hadn’t happened) the right driver developed a buzz on the third day of owning them, so I took them back for a refund. At this point I found this forum.
I lurked around for a few days and soaked up the general info. I knew I had to have a closed pair, because I frequently make long plane trips. At first I was just going to buy one pair of closed headphones. But the more I looked into it, the more it seemed that I’d be either paying a lot, or sacrificing substantial sound quality in order to have the headphones I wanted. At that point I decided I’d go with an open ‘phone for the bulk of my listening and a mediocre closed set for my occasional needs for a closed set. (as an aside, I hate IEMs and I’ve tried a lot of them, they just make me feel uncomfortable and I end up taking them off frequently)
The first pair of headphones I received were the Sennheiser HD 201’s. I was impressed right off the bat by them. They were substantially clearer than the other headphones I had tried with my iPod. The bass was acceptable. But the clarity was what I was really digging. Music finally sounded like something that resembled what came out of my speakers.
A few days later, my Grado SR60’s arrived. Let me say, although I wasn’t making the jump from earbuds to the SR60’s, I still had that “jaw hitting the floor” experience. I had heard headphones this clear before, but they were top of the line ‘phones running through thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment. And these headphones were getting 90% of the way there, out of an iPod, for under $100. Like many getting initiated into the world of quality headphones, I just spent the rest of the day hanging out with my music collection. One particular record sealed the deal with these for me. The Allman Brothers Band Live At the Fillmore East.
I heard details in this album that I had just never heard before. There were rhythm parts that Duane Allman was playing, subtly in the background, that I had just never noticed at all before. I thought he was just laying out completely. I could completely separate what Jaimoe and Butch Trucks were playing on the drums. Gregg Allman’s B3 organ sounded both completely full, but also detailed. His Bluesboy piano sparkled and plunked appropriately. Headphones had morphed from a necessary evil to something that was surpassing a lot of the speakers I had heard, including quite a few studio monitoring systems. I didn’t really know how to describe what I was hearing. It sounded like I was closer to the music than I had ever been. This was the trademarked Grado forwardness. Another thing I noticed is that stocatto parts, kick drum hits, etc were all sharper. Notes didn’t linger just a shade too long like they did on a lot of headphones and systems I had heard before. This is what quick drivers will do for you. The bass was maybe a tiny, tiny touch lacking, but other than that, I had no complaints whatsoever.
As to comfort, I listened to them for maybe 9 hours straight that day, and only at the very end were the tips of my ears a tad bit sore. While the bowls take a while to get used to/break in, the SR60s flat pads are super comfortable in my opinion. More comfortable than the HD201’s, which I thought were comfortable, except my ears were just a touch too big for them.
However, going back to the HD201’s, at this point, just wasn’t an option. Although I still think they’re an okay ‘phone, and worth the $25 they will set you back, they were just too distant for me after the Grados. And they didn’t pack enough bass punch to make up for it. There just wasn’t a single area, outside of sound isolation, that they beat the Grados in.
So I was going to buy another set of headphones. I set out to spend no more than $100. Then I went slightly over that (SR60s, HD201’s and a FiiO E5, which at this point hadn’t arrived). Then I doubled that by buying another set of closed ‘phones. And I wasn’t even in mid-fi territory, with no LOD, No DAC, no “real” amp. Sorry about my wallet indeed.
The candidates were the Denon AHD1001, the ATH A700 and the ATHES7. I considered others, but I ultimately was deciding between these. I then eliminated the ATH A700 because it was gigantic. I kept going back and forth between the ES7 and the AHD1001. Ultimately the deciding factor was I was able to get amazon prime on the Denons, but not the ES7, which meant free two day shipping.
So the Denons arrived and I put them on. Not the jaw dropping experience I had with the Grados, but I was very happy with them right out of the box. The first thing you notice with them is the comfort. You immediately wonder why all closed cans aren’t this comfortable? They’re feather light, and they’re just a joy to wear. Like all closed cans, your ears can get hot after really long sessions of wearing them, but I don’t see how any phone manufacturer can get around that with closed cans. As far as form factor goes, my only mild annoyance was that the jack was modified to fit the original iPhone, meaning that when plugged into regular devices it leaves a highly annoying 1/8” inch gap. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t effect sound quality, but its visually annoying on what is otherwise a very sleek looking headphone. Again, just a very mild quibble.
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Now on to the meat and potatoes of this review, comparing and contrasting the two ‘phones. First off, I’d classify both as rock ‘phones, with the Grados leaning towards classic and traditional rock and the Denons leaning towards pop/rock. However, both just generally excel at rock as a generality. The Grados are famous for excelling with a good classic rock track. I already mentioned how amazing they sound with ABB live at the fillmore. The trick was reproduced with Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti and any other number of classic rock albums. A lot of those records sound a touch muddy on most headphones, but the Grados cleared all that muck up and really made the classic rock shine. Also, with classic rock, you don’t really need a wide soundstage, and soundstage is probably the Grados one weakness. The Denons are better for pop music, because of the greater fullness and bass they offer, and with pop music (and rap) you don’t need the detail the Grados have to offer nearly as much.
The AHD1001’s aren’t as clear as the SR60’s. They’re very clear, though, just not as clear as Grados. What they lack in clarity they make up for in bass response. These ‘phones pack a tight little bass punch to them. The music sounds a bit fuller out of them. Working with sound, I can tell you this is a classic balancing act. Clarity v. fullness. You can have both, but its extremely difficult. Just about anything you do to increase clarity is going to cut away the fullness of the sound. And you’re not going to find a ‘phone anywhere in this ballpark that offers the clarity and forwardness of the SR60’s with the bass punch and fullness of the AHD1001’s.
People go into a lot of discussion here on all kinds of terms to describe sound. But in this ballpark in price range, fullness and clarity are really the only two SQ factors most people are going to care about. And both of these ‘phones get it right. They just are on slightly different points on the sliding scale.
The Denons are clearly more comfortable, unless its hot, where the open design of the Grados will allow your ears to stay cooler for those marathon listening sessions. The denons isolate better as well, they are closed after all.
The Grados seem to be slightly better built. The cable looks nigh indestructible. It’s thicker than just about any cable you’d ever see on a pair of headphones. The y-splitter (where the single cable splits in two to go to each of the drivers) is very stout looking. That’s not to say that I think the Denon’s are cheaply made, they’re more of a regular build, if that makes sense. Nothing that makes me think they’re flimsy, but nothing to make me think “wow, that looks like it could take a beating” either.
Neither offers much as far as soundstage goes. If you’re into rock, rap, alt-country, indie, etc this won’t particularly matter. It will probably push you away from classical and big band jazz though, as you won’t really be able to easily parse out more than 5 or 6 different instruments spatially with either of these headphones. With the Grados all instruments are well separated sonically, you can clearly tell the difference between each guitar, even on tracks where there are layers and layers of guitar. A good example is Blitzen Trapper’s Furr. Previously I had never noticed that the main vocal was actually two different vocal takes, each with their own slight differences in character, that were combined to make the vocal sound bigger. With the Denons, things tend to blend together a touch more. Again, this tends to make the music sound slightly fuller though.
On the soundstage v. musicality sliding scale I’d say these both tend towards being more musical, at the expense of soundstage.
On the clarity v. fullness sliding sclae I’d say the Grados tend to be more clear, the Denons more full sounding. However, they both manage to bring a lot in both regards. For referrence they both destroy my Sennheiser HD201’s in both regards. They both beat the PX100’s in both regards (although the PX100s are close in fullness to the Grados).
Both are very easily driven with any normal source, from an iPod’s headphone jack to a portable amp, to the headphone out of a studio rig.
The E5-Grado combo is pretty amazing for under $100 total. The bass boost function on the E5 really helps you out on the few tracks where the Grados little bit of extra bass. The E5 clears up the the AHD1001’s a touch, but I never find myself reaching for the bass boost, outside of the occasional desire to really hear some thump on, say, Nelly’s E.I.
All in all, I’d say I managed to nail a great combo of ‘phones that are different enough to fulfill totally different purposes, while still managing to fulfill all my core needs (no bulky amp rig required, be good with rock). If I had to chose between one or the other, I’d probably choose the Grados. Simply because the forwardness is truly addicting. But it’s close. If I had to go without the Denons for an extended period, I’d really miss their fullness and bass. Both are truly excellent for those who, like me, are just starting to get into the world of high quality headphones. Also, should you decide to go down this path later on, both offer excellent opportunities for custom modifications and upgrades. Because they both have excellent drivers that are somewhat held back by the other parts. In the Denons’ case they seem to greatly benefit from a quality recabling job. While the Grados can be modified to be more like their upstage brothers int eh Grado line, because they all share the same drivers. But both are brilliant headphones as are and will quickly find you listening to your music more than you ever have before.
First off, this is long winded. If you just want to see my takes on the two headphones in comparison, you can skip about halfway down, you'll see the marker. Pictures will be added at the end shortly.
I became interested in writing something like this, basically because I wanted to take down my thoughts on this process, and because I repeatedly see others going through the same process as I did, looking at the same headphones (the famous $70-$100 is my budget, but I want a big increase in sound quality post). Some of this details my journey through this process, some of it describes the headphones mentioned above, the Grado SR 60, and the Denon AHD1001, from which you'll be able to tell, I harbor a lot of love for both.
I’ll start by giving a brief description of what I was looking for going into these purchases, a little background stuff, etc, so anybody who finds themselves in a similar situation has a good frame of referrence.
I’ve done professional sound on and off for 5-6 years. This has varied from running sound for a rock club, to doing the sound for university stage productions that involved mic’d songs, to recording albums, to mastering and remastering albums. I never paid a ton of attention to the headphones I was working with, unless something was wrong with them. I always considered headphones a sort of necessary evil for certain situations. However, lately I had found myself listening through headphones more and more with my iPod (80 GB 6th generation). Being able to carry my music with me anywhere I went started to be a huge draw. Sure, it wasn’t in CD quality format, but I wanted to have my 12,000 song library be portable, that’s just not an option with .wav, flac or other lossless formats. Generally I’d rip my favorites to 256kbps VBR or higher and let most the other stuff languish in 128kbps (which is fine for parties or casual listening, to me) a few of my favorites that I consider to be mastered perfectly in the studio got apple lossless. What increasingly wasn’t fine were the apple earbuds I was using out of convenience’s sake. So I first tried some sony earbuds (MDR-ED12LP), which were a step up, but I still knew I was missing a lot. I also bought a pair of Sennheiser PX100s, and thought they were really good, but unfortunately for my wallet (I may have stopeed with them if this hadn’t happened) the right driver developed a buzz on the third day of owning them, so I took them back for a refund. At this point I found this forum.
I lurked around for a few days and soaked up the general info. I knew I had to have a closed pair, because I frequently make long plane trips. At first I was just going to buy one pair of closed headphones. But the more I looked into it, the more it seemed that I’d be either paying a lot, or sacrificing substantial sound quality in order to have the headphones I wanted. At that point I decided I’d go with an open ‘phone for the bulk of my listening and a mediocre closed set for my occasional needs for a closed set. (as an aside, I hate IEMs and I’ve tried a lot of them, they just make me feel uncomfortable and I end up taking them off frequently)
The first pair of headphones I received were the Sennheiser HD 201’s. I was impressed right off the bat by them. They were substantially clearer than the other headphones I had tried with my iPod. The bass was acceptable. But the clarity was what I was really digging. Music finally sounded like something that resembled what came out of my speakers.
A few days later, my Grado SR60’s arrived. Let me say, although I wasn’t making the jump from earbuds to the SR60’s, I still had that “jaw hitting the floor” experience. I had heard headphones this clear before, but they were top of the line ‘phones running through thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment. And these headphones were getting 90% of the way there, out of an iPod, for under $100. Like many getting initiated into the world of quality headphones, I just spent the rest of the day hanging out with my music collection. One particular record sealed the deal with these for me. The Allman Brothers Band Live At the Fillmore East.
I heard details in this album that I had just never heard before. There were rhythm parts that Duane Allman was playing, subtly in the background, that I had just never noticed at all before. I thought he was just laying out completely. I could completely separate what Jaimoe and Butch Trucks were playing on the drums. Gregg Allman’s B3 organ sounded both completely full, but also detailed. His Bluesboy piano sparkled and plunked appropriately. Headphones had morphed from a necessary evil to something that was surpassing a lot of the speakers I had heard, including quite a few studio monitoring systems. I didn’t really know how to describe what I was hearing. It sounded like I was closer to the music than I had ever been. This was the trademarked Grado forwardness. Another thing I noticed is that stocatto parts, kick drum hits, etc were all sharper. Notes didn’t linger just a shade too long like they did on a lot of headphones and systems I had heard before. This is what quick drivers will do for you. The bass was maybe a tiny, tiny touch lacking, but other than that, I had no complaints whatsoever.
As to comfort, I listened to them for maybe 9 hours straight that day, and only at the very end were the tips of my ears a tad bit sore. While the bowls take a while to get used to/break in, the SR60s flat pads are super comfortable in my opinion. More comfortable than the HD201’s, which I thought were comfortable, except my ears were just a touch too big for them.
However, going back to the HD201’s, at this point, just wasn’t an option. Although I still think they’re an okay ‘phone, and worth the $25 they will set you back, they were just too distant for me after the Grados. And they didn’t pack enough bass punch to make up for it. There just wasn’t a single area, outside of sound isolation, that they beat the Grados in.
So I was going to buy another set of headphones. I set out to spend no more than $100. Then I went slightly over that (SR60s, HD201’s and a FiiO E5, which at this point hadn’t arrived). Then I doubled that by buying another set of closed ‘phones. And I wasn’t even in mid-fi territory, with no LOD, No DAC, no “real” amp. Sorry about my wallet indeed.
The candidates were the Denon AHD1001, the ATH A700 and the ATHES7. I considered others, but I ultimately was deciding between these. I then eliminated the ATH A700 because it was gigantic. I kept going back and forth between the ES7 and the AHD1001. Ultimately the deciding factor was I was able to get amazon prime on the Denons, but not the ES7, which meant free two day shipping.
So the Denons arrived and I put them on. Not the jaw dropping experience I had with the Grados, but I was very happy with them right out of the box. The first thing you notice with them is the comfort. You immediately wonder why all closed cans aren’t this comfortable? They’re feather light, and they’re just a joy to wear. Like all closed cans, your ears can get hot after really long sessions of wearing them, but I don’t see how any phone manufacturer can get around that with closed cans. As far as form factor goes, my only mild annoyance was that the jack was modified to fit the original iPhone, meaning that when plugged into regular devices it leaves a highly annoying 1/8” inch gap. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t effect sound quality, but its visually annoying on what is otherwise a very sleek looking headphone. Again, just a very mild quibble.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now on to the meat and potatoes of this review, comparing and contrasting the two ‘phones. First off, I’d classify both as rock ‘phones, with the Grados leaning towards classic and traditional rock and the Denons leaning towards pop/rock. However, both just generally excel at rock as a generality. The Grados are famous for excelling with a good classic rock track. I already mentioned how amazing they sound with ABB live at the fillmore. The trick was reproduced with Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti and any other number of classic rock albums. A lot of those records sound a touch muddy on most headphones, but the Grados cleared all that muck up and really made the classic rock shine. Also, with classic rock, you don’t really need a wide soundstage, and soundstage is probably the Grados one weakness. The Denons are better for pop music, because of the greater fullness and bass they offer, and with pop music (and rap) you don’t need the detail the Grados have to offer nearly as much.
The AHD1001’s aren’t as clear as the SR60’s. They’re very clear, though, just not as clear as Grados. What they lack in clarity they make up for in bass response. These ‘phones pack a tight little bass punch to them. The music sounds a bit fuller out of them. Working with sound, I can tell you this is a classic balancing act. Clarity v. fullness. You can have both, but its extremely difficult. Just about anything you do to increase clarity is going to cut away the fullness of the sound. And you’re not going to find a ‘phone anywhere in this ballpark that offers the clarity and forwardness of the SR60’s with the bass punch and fullness of the AHD1001’s.
People go into a lot of discussion here on all kinds of terms to describe sound. But in this ballpark in price range, fullness and clarity are really the only two SQ factors most people are going to care about. And both of these ‘phones get it right. They just are on slightly different points on the sliding scale.
The Denons are clearly more comfortable, unless its hot, where the open design of the Grados will allow your ears to stay cooler for those marathon listening sessions. The denons isolate better as well, they are closed after all.
The Grados seem to be slightly better built. The cable looks nigh indestructible. It’s thicker than just about any cable you’d ever see on a pair of headphones. The y-splitter (where the single cable splits in two to go to each of the drivers) is very stout looking. That’s not to say that I think the Denon’s are cheaply made, they’re more of a regular build, if that makes sense. Nothing that makes me think they’re flimsy, but nothing to make me think “wow, that looks like it could take a beating” either.
Neither offers much as far as soundstage goes. If you’re into rock, rap, alt-country, indie, etc this won’t particularly matter. It will probably push you away from classical and big band jazz though, as you won’t really be able to easily parse out more than 5 or 6 different instruments spatially with either of these headphones. With the Grados all instruments are well separated sonically, you can clearly tell the difference between each guitar, even on tracks where there are layers and layers of guitar. A good example is Blitzen Trapper’s Furr. Previously I had never noticed that the main vocal was actually two different vocal takes, each with their own slight differences in character, that were combined to make the vocal sound bigger. With the Denons, things tend to blend together a touch more. Again, this tends to make the music sound slightly fuller though.
On the soundstage v. musicality sliding scale I’d say these both tend towards being more musical, at the expense of soundstage.
On the clarity v. fullness sliding sclae I’d say the Grados tend to be more clear, the Denons more full sounding. However, they both manage to bring a lot in both regards. For referrence they both destroy my Sennheiser HD201’s in both regards. They both beat the PX100’s in both regards (although the PX100s are close in fullness to the Grados).
Both are very easily driven with any normal source, from an iPod’s headphone jack to a portable amp, to the headphone out of a studio rig.
The E5-Grado combo is pretty amazing for under $100 total. The bass boost function on the E5 really helps you out on the few tracks where the Grados little bit of extra bass. The E5 clears up the the AHD1001’s a touch, but I never find myself reaching for the bass boost, outside of the occasional desire to really hear some thump on, say, Nelly’s E.I.
All in all, I’d say I managed to nail a great combo of ‘phones that are different enough to fulfill totally different purposes, while still managing to fulfill all my core needs (no bulky amp rig required, be good with rock). If I had to chose between one or the other, I’d probably choose the Grados. Simply because the forwardness is truly addicting. But it’s close. If I had to go without the Denons for an extended period, I’d really miss their fullness and bass. Both are truly excellent for those who, like me, are just starting to get into the world of high quality headphones. Also, should you decide to go down this path later on, both offer excellent opportunities for custom modifications and upgrades. Because they both have excellent drivers that are somewhat held back by the other parts. In the Denons’ case they seem to greatly benefit from a quality recabling job. While the Grados can be modified to be more like their upstage brothers int eh Grado line, because they all share the same drivers. But both are brilliant headphones as are and will quickly find you listening to your music more than you ever have before.
