The SR60 and the SR80 used to be the same headphone, except the 80 had larger cushions (bowls instead of comfies). Since bowls cost $20 more than comfies, it made sense to pay the extra $20. While comfies give you better bass, bowls give you a cleaner treble.
Now, both headphones sport the same comfies, which is why I've been telling people to buy the 60s and take that extra $20 and buy bowls. Now, it just depends on whether you're going to mod or not. If you're modding, the 60s are the better choice because you can make your own improvements for less. If you're not into modding, the 80 is the better choice - and here's why:
Reading through Grado's ad copy, I noticed that Grado uses four-connector cable, which is Grado's way of saying it splits the groundwire. Great minds think alike! I've been doing that on all my headphones and yes, Virginia, it sounds better. Splitting the groundwire won't give you a true "balanced" cable, since the groundwire ends up together at the connector. It will, however, reduce the point of interference to an inch or so (within the plug) - rather than over 10 feet of cable.
I like it. So, maybe you should buy the SR80i and spend an extra $20 on bowls. That's $120. On the other hand, for another $30, you could swing up to the SR125 and get UHPLC wire (Grado's better* wire in the voice coil and connecting cable) as well as "eight connector cable." With eight-connector wire, you get the same four-wire setup (splitting the groundwire) but double of it. Instead of buying thicker wire, Grado doubles the thinner wire. The result is a substantial kick in the bass.
Of course, if that doesn't do it, you could always vent the driver, which will give you even more bass. Just some thoughts.
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* There's an endless debate on wire. Grado is the only headphone cable to call its fancy wire "UHPLC" (ultra-high purity long crystal copper) raising the question of what UHPLC really is. To give Grado the benefit of the doubt, there are other manufacturers using the term, "ultra high purity single crystal copper," which would be UHPSC. In truth, it's all "ultra high purity" copper. Standard copper wire, as used in electronics and hi-fi, is 99.9% pure, with .02 to .04% oxygen added to increase conductivity. In extreme temperatures, such as welding, that little bit of oxygen can be hazardous, so wire manufacturers have created wire with greater degrees of purity - though claims of higher conductivity are dubious. Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) has 99.95% purity while OFE (oxygen-free electronic) and OFHC (oxygen-free high-conductivity) have 99.99% purity.
The holy grail of fancy wire is Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) or Ultra Pure by Ohno Continuous Cast (OP-OCC). Long-crystal/single-crystal casting allows copper wire to imitate silver in its reduction of grains the signal has to cross from point A to point B. In standard "high purity" wire, the signal crosses 1,500 grains/ft. OFHC gets it down to 400 grains/ft. In LC-OFC (linear-crystal/mono-crystal oxygen-free copper), the number of grains is reduced to 70/ft. In UP-OCC, a single crystal can be cast as long as 700 feet, leaving no grain gaps to skip over. This is where we get into the battle of the nines. If ordinary wire is 99.9% pure, OFHC is 99.99% pure and OCC is 99.9999% pure. How much purer is 99.9999% than 99.99% or 99.9%? The high-ground of this battle is the "grain barrier." UP-OCC proponents argue that each grain border causes distortion, making it better to reduce such grains from 1,500/ft to 400/ft to 70/ft and ultimately to 0/ft. On the flip side is the argument that you don't hear grain borders and that oxygen-free wire was produced for purposes wholly unrelated to sound.
Since Grado doesn't call its UHPLC wire OCC (an obvious marketing opportunity), I'm guessing that UHPLC is probably LC-OFC. Personally, the great equalizer to all of these claims is gauge. The more wire, the less it matters which kind you use. 18 awg, for example, has twice the diameter of 24 awg and half the impedance. In the end, that's all that matters to me, which is why the eight-conductor cable may be worth a second look.
