I kinda got a little sad when I found out their wood, metals and drivers themselves aren't made in-house by Grado and most likely overseas in Asia. At least the final assembly is done here in America by them and obviously the design is by them.
For what it is worth, Grado has always been pretty open with interviewers during workshop tours about the metal, wood and drivers not being created in the old workshop from the fifties, and the assembly is shown to press people on the spot. No obvious deception going on.
More to the point at hand though, according to a CNET article by Steve Guttenberg as recent as 2014: "Grado drivers are made by a local supplier in New York and other parts are sourced in New Jersey and Connecticut."
Some component parts used to make the drivers being sourced from Asia is still possible, but it should be noted that practically all items manufactured just about anywhere in the world that involve electronics have at least something sourced from somewhere else in them regardless of where they are made.
That's been the reality of most electronics manufacturing for more than the past forty years or so though, long before Globalism was a buzzword. Watching tear down videos of retro electronics made in America confirms this pretty quickly. This hardly means such products were not made in the USA though, we just didn't talk as much about how the sausage was made back then as Made in America was less of a novelty.
And in Grado's case, they evidently even have the parts and drivers worked in USA locations. It may not all be done in Brooklyn, but that's about as much "Made in USA" as any electronics product made in America during the past few generations or so, by any reasonable standard.
So, while I agree with those that say Grado should try new things and perhaps improve overall build quality, I think it's perfectly OK for people to enjoy Grados as Made in the USA products, cause that's what they evidently are. Unless they outright lied to Steve, the drivers etc. are not assembled in China or Japan for their headphones. (Their IEMs are made in Japan, but they never claimed otherwise.)
Before I'm accused of defensive fanboyism, I should note that I don't own any Grados myself, though they are an interesting story in themselves that I occasionally enjoy reading about. For my own American headphones, I went with Audeze, because they have actually good build quality and soft leather pads that don't hurt after ten minutes of use, unlike some foam I could mention.
