Long winded story of how I came across the perfect headphones for me. If you don't want to read it all, the moral of the story: I love Grado's.
I'm new here to head-fi and have only recently (past couple of months) been exploring the world of headphones so I'm still green to this robust world of audiophilia.
My first introduction to headphones were during freshman year of college when my girlfriend bought me a pair of Sony MDR-V700s for my birthday. Having only experienced earbuds at that point, I was completely blown away. What impressed me most was the bass, and the sheer SIZE of the sound compared to my earbuds. I've always loved music, but this is the first time that I realized that the quality of my headphones had such a dramatic effect on my enjoyment of the actual music. Most of my music listening is done while out and about, so I decided to look into some IEMs. This search took me to Sony EX71's, JVC FX77's and Shure E4C's. As convenient as any of those options were, they never quite had the wow factor that the Sony MDR-V700's have so those remained my go-to headphone for listening at home.
Years later, the hinge on the headband broke on the V700's, so it was time for a replacement. Since I loved the Sony's, I decided to check other things in the Sony line. That search led me to the MDR-V6, which was well within my budget. I chose these over the SR60i and SR80i, mainly because I needed a closed-back headphone. While those did not have quite as much bass as the V700's, I was completely impressed by the detail that these cans brought out in the music. All of my time was being taken by happily re-discovering my music collection with my new headphones. I let several of my friends demo them at a camping trip last summer and four of them went out and bought themselves a pair that week. That was by far the best 70 dollars I had ever spent up until that point.
But as I'm sure most of you have experienced, after the honeymoon phase with them began to wear off, the itch to upgrade crept in. That's when I discovered this website, and after weeks of obsessive poring over posts, impressions, reviews and comparisons, my next upgrade would be the Ultrasone HFI-580. The S-Logic technology intrigued me. The reputation for bass seemed to recall my fond memories for the V700's. And, most people that to tried both the HFI-580s and the mega-popular ATH-M50's seemed to prefer the Ultrasones. So, I became $150 poorer while gaining a shiny new set of headphones. When they came in, I was impressed with them, but disappointed that I did not get that same "wow" factor that I had with either of my Sony's. I loved the bass on them. They weren't very impactful, but they were very detailed. I started noticing bass notes and textures that I had never noticed before. Soundstage was much wider than I was used to, and in turn instruments were separated and defined. My problem was that the mids seemed veiled in comparison to the V6's. I listen to tons of rock music, and the singer's voice always seem buried and overshadowed by the rest of the spectrum. As good as they were for electronic and hip-hop, I actually preferred my V6's for rock. So, curiosity began to take hold...
I had always ruled out Grado's from my headphone searches because they of their open design. I simply can't have it as my primary headphone when I mainly listen to music while commuting on the train. But to have a compliment to my closed-back main headphone, Grado (and their reputation as the quintessential rock headphone) could now be added to the occasion. After doing lots of research, I could not afford the woodies, and the 325i didn't seem worth the $100 premium over the much-praised 225i. So, $200 dollars poorer (yeah, sorry about my wallet) and another set of shiny new headphones.
My immediate impressions were that for $200 headphones, they felt cheap. The plastic felt like a toy. My right earpad seems to have an error in the molding so they don't match my left ones.The headband material reminded me of purses sold by street vendors in Chinatown. Honestly, the disappointment began to set in as I'm beginning to feel like I've made another costly mistake.
And then I put them on...
WOW. Holy smokes, I can see where the 200 dollars went. I put on Surfer Blood's Astrocoast album -- one of my favorite rock albums from 2010 that never sounded right on the Ultrasones. Now, it sounds like that album was made for these Grados. It's so fun and engaging. The details pop and sparkle and bombard your brain with stimulus. All the pieces and elements of the music just fit so perfectly with each other -- these cans create awesome SYNERGY between all the elements of a song to make it a cohesive piece of music. After listening to that entire album, I put on Deerhoof's Offend Maggie, an album full of crunchy guitar riffs and busy drumming rife with accents. On the fourth song, "Snoopy Waves" when the sweeping riffs come on around 40 seconds in, my jaw dropped at all the TEXTURE in the guitars. I've probably heard this song over a hundred times and have never heard the guitars sound so detailed and ALIVE. The guitar riff lets out this really deep, low frequency that I have never noticed. I stopped my iPod, put on the Ultrasones and listened to the same riff. When my brain knew to look for that deep guitar texture, I could detect it but just barely. On the Grados, that element pops out at you.
I told my girlfriend, "you HAVE to try these." She never understood my fascination with headphones (this is a different girlfriend than the one early on that bought me the V700's). I let her test out my MDR-V6's, HFI-580, a pair of Skullcandy Double Agent that I use for snowboarding, and Audio Technical FC700 I had around. She said she can't tell the difference between any of them. When I got the Ultrasones, she merely shrugged, "I guess these have more bass." When she listened to Deerhoof on the Grado's, her eyes lit up. I could tell that was the precise moment that she "got it". She asked to keep listening, as she went through and listened to lots of her favorite bands: Belle and Sebastian, Menomena, The National, Radiohead. She had that a permanent grin of aural pleasure, as she rediscovered some of her favorite music and experiencing them in a new light. After literally 4 hours, she took them off and apologetically said, "oh I'm so sorry I should have let you play with your new headphones, but I couldn't help myself." I think we have a convert.
I'm still a fairly new audiophile. I only have a handful of cans, most of them mid-fi at best and below 300 dollars. I've demo'd some popular headphones at the local Guitar Center (Sennheisers, Shures, Denons), but I've finally found the sound signature for me. After three weeks with these 225i's, I'm still completely floored by them. The Grado line is something I definitely will be exploring more of. I've been reading lots of Billavideo's thread on modding Grado's so my summer project is to build my girlfriend a modded SR80i. The RS1 is now at the top of my wish-list, as I'm racking my brain to figure out what I can sell to afford them.
