Well.....the Grado Hemp 420s arrived and I have had a few days to listen to them. I used to own several sets of Grados in the past, the 325i's are the ones I remember most, and the Hemps are a better version of these IMO....I have gone thru many types of headphones, amps, dacs, and cables since owning them so having these Hemps here really is a treat...Thanks to Todd for this loaner tour and being able to try thses cans out.
For starters there is no denying that these headphones are "Grados" the house signature or sound is still very much up front and present. To me the big difference is the treble seems a bit less harsh and more easily listenable than my 325is were. Grado indicates the drivers are tuned for these new HEMP wooden composite driver cups. I had a few friends over and we all listened to them and compared them to several other headphones. They included HD 600's, Focal Clears, and Koss Porta Pros....HEDD's.
I have a bunch of amps here and we used the Jim Hagerman "TUBA", Schiit Lyr 3, Schiit Jotenheim and a few DIY amps I have built over the years....at 38 ohms and being very efficient it was easy to drive these headphones to ear shattering levels even on a few Samsung S9 phones etc. We found that the TUBA which Jim Hagerman designed to be used with Grados and Senns (low and high output jacks) seemed to "sound" the nicest to our ears. But all the other amps worked very well, its just the TUBA added some musical magic to them. I did prefer the TUBA as said, but the Schiit Jotenheim on low gain was a very nice match....MORE than enough power....the volume control on the Jot only had to be cranked up to 8 to 9 o'clock to be really loud with the Jot.
With these Grados, they sound V shaped, although the bass is there, the mids seemed to be emphasized somewhat....with certain musical instruments and human voice this really becomes very apparent. Acoustic guitar from the likes of John Butler was EXCELLENT to listen to:
As was Ben Harpers "Burn ONe Down" the intro bongo drums etc were sublime....(how could you not use a tune like this in a HEMP review!!!
)
Piano was articulate and tonally accurate, the term "ivory keys" come to mind and Kieko Matsui, Billy Barber are awesome to listen to....
Listening to Ben Vaughn, Designs In Music, Smoketree Sernade....was a wonderul light airy experience with the reverb of the studio being felt and heard accurately...slow melodic instrumental, great seperation....very realistic....suprisingly nice....then Bill Whithers Live at Carnegie Hall....him speaking to the audience and the audience responding to the introduction of "Let Me Into Your Life"...the audience moving, caughing, handclaps and Bills wonderful voice front and center....very nice live presentation.
I tried some EDM and suprisingly this genre really works well.....made my EDM "son" really smile! All the stattaco synthetic stuff really was done well...sharp, distinct...crisp.
Overall I would categorize these as "thin" sounding when listening to "whole" musical pieces, a orchestral pieces or symphony....the abiltiy to articulate is good, but the overall tonality and presentation just falls behind a set of Focal Clears. But to be fair we are comparing a $420 headphone to $ 1499 headphone....you could ask is the $1499 headphone that much better that the $420 Hemp? Only you can answer that. On some recordings they can come across as a little congested and this is more noticebale with some recordings...like Brandi Carlile's "Until I Die" from her The Story CD.
When playing the Beatles re-mastered "The End" from the Abbey Road CD..the drum sequence is really quite good....but really low end notes like below 30hz organ stuff... are there but not like other headphones I use.....The headphones really work well with rock...the old favorites re-mastered are great with these cans....Rolling Stones, Hot Licks, the re-mastered Beatles portfolio, you can hear into the recording studio of George Martin and what it was like to be there with the "boys" way back then...nice reverb.
A very positive thing that stands out is the comfort and fit/weight...compared to my 718 gm HEDD headphones....these are like feather light and even with the flat pads they are pretty comforatble compared to the more "scratchy" pads of my old 325i's....and they are very, very easy to remove and changeout....simple....no adhesive or super stretching etc...if you get these you will need to get a set of replacement pads when they get "dirty" from the oils from your ears etc... :>) I did find there is a sweet spot when listening....like I found with other over the ear headphones like the Beyer DT1350's to get the most bass out of them...It took a little fiddeling to find that spot. When there Jamie Cullums's "I Only Have Eyes For You" from the Catching Tales album the bass is right there...tight and full. Fleetwood Macs "I'm So Afraid" Live from their "Very Best" CD has wonderful full bass drums etc..
The sleeping giant in the room that I have not mentioned is the HEMP driver cups. Well they simply are very, very elegant. Wonderful looking and well made. These will become an iconic classic set of Grado headphones for sure.
The cable is substantial, not removable. The ususal 1/4 with a removable adapter to plug these into a smaller phone jacks.
Packaging is typical Grado, small non-descript cardboard box..foam insert thats it. No xtra cable, or carrying pouch...like I mentioned not a detachable cable.
So in conclusion, these cans are typical Grado with some slight improvements on the high end and comfort with the flat pads. No mistaking these are Grados in sound, build and simplicity....VERY different from Focal Clears or HEDDs for sure....the soundstage is not really super wide and is mostly centered. Imaging is good but not as good as with higher end headphones.
If your a Grado sound person, these are indeed worthy of auditioning and seeing if you like the softer upper end....great rock and roll cans still...with a really great flare towards instrumental solos, acoustic guitar and vocals...they do not sound closed in even with the lesser soundstage....due to their trait of still being very clear and clean sounding...
I have had several TOTL headphones here and yes I compare to these headphones often costing twice as much or more that these Hemp 420s. And yes I prefer more often than not these upper tier headphones, but this in no way makes these Grados a mediocre headphone. With many genres these Hemps will deliver many hours of music listening pleasure....A person told me to try listening to some "Queen" not my cup of tea, but I did and it was really good! Rock and Roll lives on.
All in all a very nice Grado offering, distinct, and special!
Thanks to Todd for the loaner and a chance to audition!
All the best
Alex
