[eric343]

Throughout the year or so that I've been a HeadFizer, I've seen mention of the Grado HP-1s and other Grado headphones that aren't sold online nor are they even listed on gradolabs.com! Are they old headphones that have been discontinued? Am I blind?

 

[gorgon_123]

yes indeedly they have been discontinued. I'm sure KR... will provide you with a complete history and Joelongwood will have a thing or two to say too... stay tuned!!!

isn't head-fi.org great?

-gorg

 

[KR...]

Ok,

These were the original Grado headphones.
They are the Joseph Grado Signature Series Professional Recording Monitor Headphones, aka the HP-1000.

There were 3 of them :

HP-1
HP-2
HP-3

There are already tons of posts and infomation about these headphones already on these very boards, so please use the search button at the top of every page of this web site.

 

[eric343]

No, I'm not interested in information about the headphones' performance, but the history- why were they discontinued? Are they common? And I know that there's at least one more 'rare' Grado-I've heard mention of a buttonless one, MPA something, I think.

 

[KR...]

Quote:

why were they discontinued?

They were replaced by the current John Grado headphones : Prestige Series & Reference Series.
As well as the Music Series which were made for Alessandro for use in the music industry.

Quote:

Are they common?

The old HP-1000's are very rare these days and are much sought after by audiophiles and collectors alike.

Quote:

And I know that there's at least one more 'rare' Grado-I've heard mention of a buttonless one, MPA something, I think.

Those are the MSP which stands for Music Series Pro, they are not rare, they are still being made and can be had here :

http://www.alessandro-products.com/headphones.html

 

[Vertigo-1]

To add to the "why", the cost of maintaining the high quality metal body of the HP-1s also got to a point where it wasn't very affordable I believe...hence the current wooden RS series, which is cheaper to produce. If you look around, there isn't a single headphone today that uses as much pure solid metal as the Grado HP-1 headphones used back then...the closest thing would be the Stax Omega IIs, and I'm pretty sure its body has nowhere near the amount of heavy metal the HP-1s have. The HP-1s are VERY FAR from common...which is why the prices on them have been extremely hot lately. They've been going for as much as they costed 5-6 years ago, if not more! And even then, many believe they got a bargain, just to be able to hold one of these solid beauties in their hot little hands.

 

[eric343]

Hmm.. It seems strange that it would be hard to maintain the metal, unless it was, say, sodium

What are the HPs made out of?

 

[joelongwood]

Quote:

What are the HPs made out of?

Aluminum..........allaluminum......no plastic to be found anywhere.

 

[eric343]

Aluminum isn't THAT hard to maintain!

 

[Eagle_Driver]

But that aluminum is of the thick, heavy-gauge, die-cast variety, not the thin, crappy, flex-prone kind...

 

[thomas]

Quote:

Aluminum isn't THAT hard to maintain!

Actually, that's not what vertigo-1 said... he said
Quote:

the cost of maintaining the high quality metal body of the HP-1s also got to a point where it wasn't very affordable I believe...hence the current wooden RS series, which is cheaper to produce

which means that its too expensive to produce those phones, so Grado switched to wood/less alluminum to cut costs.

 

[eric343]

Ohhhh.... That makes a *lot* more sense.

 

[leonchai]

But it seams to me that Alumnium would be a LOT less cheaper than wood...

eg. a block of aluminium would cost a few cents maybe dollars wholesale...a block of good wood ? hundreds maybe...

 

[eric343]

Keep in mind this was before they invented a cheap way to make aluminum.

Hey, maybe they should start making them again!

 

[KR...]

Do not forget that the MS-2 and the SR-325 use the same style air chamber as the HP-1000. But, the built quailty on the HP-1000's are still much better over all.