[K_19]

Ones like the RS1 are actually some of the more comfortable ones that I've tried.  Incredibly light weight, and very little clamping if you bend the headband correctly.  The only drawbacks are the pads but with the right amount of clamping and work-in, they can still be comfortable for hours.

 

[varsitypride3]

the bowls were uncomfortable for me. I have the sr60 pads now (with a quarter-size hole cut) and they're fantastically comfortable.
I feel no weight on my head when I wear them.

 

[swmtnbiker]

Everyone has their own opinion about what's comfortable and what's not. I've been using Grados for over a decade and have never found them to be particularly uncomfortable. There are certainly other headphones out there that beat the pants off of them in this department (Denons and Beyers for example), but I've never experienced the sandpaper effect or the pain that some people describe. Bowls, comfies, and flats have always felt perfectly acceptable to me comfort-wise, and as far as I'm concerned ANY headphone starts to become annoying once it's been on your noggin for a couple of hours.

 

[Kevin Brown]

Can you wash the bowl pads too?
 
Just soap and water, let them air dry?  Squeeze them out at all to help get the water out?

 

[swmtnbiker]

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

[amp2xpand]

Cushies are much more comfortable to me than bowls. But i'm still sticking to the bowls for the sound. Cushies arent as revealing as the bowls. after 2 hours with the bowls, my ears feels as if they've been sand papered. 

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

Can you wash the bowl pads too?
 
Just soap and water, let them air dry?  Squeeze them out at all to help get the water out?

Washing machine detergent and fabric softener, air dry, done.

 

[Kevin Brown]

Can you wash the bowl pads too?
 
Just soap and water, let them air dry?  Squeeze them out at all to help get the water out?

 

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

Washing machine detergent and fabric softener, air dry, done.

Excellent.  I will try that then.  Thanks !! 

 

[Aizura]

Grados are only uncomfortable if you leave the headband untouched, you just need to bend it to the shape of your head and all pads will be comfy because theres no clamping force.

 

[Derp]

My SR255i's only give me discomfort after straight listening for about 3 or 4 hours. Which most headphones would do. I just take them off for a few minutes and everything is fine. The bowls aren't that rough in my opinion. Then again I can't recall sweating with my Grados on so I don't know how that affects the feeling.

 

[Bilavideo]

The discomfort is not in the material of the cushions, which is admittedly not as soft as pleather or velour but soft enough, given the fact that you're going to wear them in a stationary position.  It's in the supra-aural design of most Grados.  This puts pressure directly on the ears.  This is how most people used to wear headphones.  For most of the forty years I've been wearing headphones, it has been a basic reality that you need to take a break between long sessions; otherwise, the pinnae get sore from all that pressure on them.
 
Circumaural headphones avoid this issue, but at a cost.  There's something to be said for direct contact between the cushions and the pinnae.  It's an effective way to transmit bass.  It uses the whole ear, not just the ear canal.  Since a fair amount of bass is transmitted via bone conduction, there's something to be said for the supra-aural approach, even if it creates some aches and pains over long listening sessions.
 
The jumbo pads provide a circumaural approach, which is more comfortable.  Unfortunately, they also make your ears sweat like a great dane locked up in a car in Phoenix.  Because the center of gravity is further from the skull, with a headband architecture that hasn't changed, these babies roll off the head with the greatest of ease.  You can rock but you cannot rock your head and rock.
 
One virtue of those large rings I made to surround the bowls was that you can use them to create a circumaural chamber custom fit to your needs.  You can adjust the ear/driver distance - and with it the level of the mids.  
 

 

[Bostonears]

 

The discomfort is not in the material of the cushions, which is admittedly not as soft as pleather or velour but soft enough, given the fact that you're going to wear them in a stationary position.  It's in the supra-aural design of most Grados.  This puts pressure directly on the ears.  This is how most people used to wear headphones.  For most of the forty years I've been wearing headphones, it has been a basic reality that you need to take a break between long sessions; otherwise, the pinnae get sore from all that pressure on them.

Maybe my skin is overly sensitive, but in my experience, the supra-aural design is not the problem with Grado comfort. It IS the cushion material.
 
I have owned the GS1000, the RS1, and the HP1000. After a couple of hours, the GS1000, which is a circum-aural design with jumbo pads, still induced the sandpaper feeling where it touched my skin. I washed the GS1000 and RS1000 pads numerous times in all the recommended solutions (dishwashing liquid, fabric softener, etc.), but could never get rid of that scratch feel. The supra-aural flat pads on the HP1000 were clearly made from a softer foam material than the other Grado pads, and I did not experience the sandpaper effect from them. And I have never experienced the sandpaper feel with any other headphone earpads, including the the supra-aural hybrid leather pads on my Audio-Technica ESW9 and the supra-aural fabric-covered pads on my old Yamaha YHD-1 orthodynamics, no matter how long a session I've worn them.

 

[ecclesand]

For me it was the supra-aural design.  I dearly loved the sound of the RS2, but couldn't wear it for more than an hour or two before the tops of my ears were aching.  I even tried them with the large bowls which made them completely comfortable but diminished the bass and changed the overall sound signature to something I didn't care for.  I always wanted to try the C pads with them, but ultimately sold them.  I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Grados, but not on my ears.

 

[plonter]

sometimes one's need to suffer a little to get some great sound...that's part of the whole grado experience.    I really can't imagine listening to grado without that itchy feeling in the outer ears.
anyway..as soon as the music starts you kind of forget all about it.

 

[poikkeus]

Some of the cheaper Grados have comfort issues, at least for me.  The iGrado sounds quite good, but I found the pressure induced pain after under an hour. The new 60i and 80i are said to address the problem with scratchy pads, and I've never had a problem with more expensive Grados. Of course, they were never the first word in comfort, but that's another matter.