[TFox]

Hi guys,

My mom got me a pair of Grado SR225s for Christmas, and my first impression of them is pretty dismal. The headband is bent slightly to favor holding the left earcup to my head more strongly than the right, so that's imbalanced. This is slight, but it's a pretty strange effect when listening to mono tracks. As I'd expect, pushing lightly against the right cup evens out the image. Also, the right side adjuster is super-loose compared to the left. I suppose these are just annoyances, but I'd expect better out of a 200 dollar pair of phones. The worst is the earcups - with the way the headband is, the top of my ear (the 'helix'?) is pressed up against the grille, which is just not tolerable after about 10 minutes. I put the 60's pads on it, but that takes away most of the treble response - which is interesting, because when I put the bowl pads on the 60, it is treble-city. I guess the two are voiced differently?

Anyone have suggestions on how to get these things up to scratch? I hate to say that I don't like them, but as they stand, my 60s trounce them pretty soundly.

 

[The Uam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TFox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi guys, My mom got me a pair of Grado SR225s for Christmas, and my first impression of them is pretty dismal. The headband is bent slightly to favor holding the left earcup to my head more strongly than the right, so that's imbalanced. This is slight, but it's a pretty strange effect when listening to mono tracks. As I'd expect, pushing lightly against the right cup evens out the image. Also, the right side adjuster is super-loose compared to the left. I suppose these are just annoyances, but I'd expect better out of a 200 dollar pair of phones. The worst is the earcups - with the way the headband is, the top of my ear (the 'helix'?) is pressed up against the grille, which is just not tolerable after about 10 minutes. I put the 60's pads on it, but that takes away most of the treble response - which is interesting, because when I put the bowl pads on the 60, it is treble-city. I guess the two are voiced differently? Anyone have suggestions on how to get these things up to scratch? I hate to say that I don't like them, but as they stand, my 60s trounce them pretty soundly.

I have heard that they can be very uncomfortable to some people and make it almost impossible to ware for extended periods of time... You can try to mod them yourself with some extra padding.

 

[sadhanaputra]

The headband (at least the ones on my SR60 and MS1) are adjustable. A little force is all that's needed to change their shape.

About the super-loose adjuster, I have to agree that sounds like a defect.
Try emailing Grado

(I envy you Americans..)

 

[dallan]

My ear also hits the grid inside the cup and it gets uncomfortable after a time but it takes much longer than ten minutes. More like 45min-1hr, then it gets a bit sore. I didn't even know anyone else had this problem but the SQ is good on them, maybe better than any other Grados i auditioned thru the 325s.

 

[QQQ]

Quote:

the top of my ear (the 'helix'?) is pressed up against the grille, which is just not tolerable after about 10 minutes

Liberators help great against this. Completely different headphne when it comes to comfort with liberators.

 

[TFox]

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are liberators?

 

[QQQ]

You can use a search, but this is ear distancers for grado phones which help to create a bigger headstage and make your cans more comfortable.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TFox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are liberators?

Quote:

Originally Posted by QQQ /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can use a search, but this is ear distancers for grado phones which help to create a bigger headstage and make your cans more comfortable.

But please use Google wisely for this; last I checked, the website with that name was an adult shop.

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

My mom got me a pair of Grado SR225s for Christmas, and my first impression of them is pretty dismal. The headband is bent slightly to favor holding the left earcup to my head more strongly than the right, so that's imbalanced. This is slight, but it's a pretty strange effect when listening to mono tracks.

The headband is bendadle, you can bend it your self and this is recommended by Grado too if you browse the papers that came with your headphone. Bend it looser so it wont squeeze your ears too much.

 

[Bojamijams]

You can also try washing your bowls in some warm water and dish detergent to soften them up.

Let airdry though as using a blowdryer will make em even stiffer. While you wait for it to try, you can burn them in with some pink noise.

 

[Shoreman]

I may have missed something here, but why all the "here's how to fix it" advice? Your mother gave you these for Christmas--less than a month ago. Obviously, she bought them somewhere. She almost certainly kept the receipt. Your 225's appear to be defective. Can't they be exchanged?

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoreman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I may have missed something here, but why all the "here's how to fix it" advice? Your mother gave you these for Christmas--less than a month ago. Obviously, she bought them somewhere. She almost certainly kept the receipt. Your 225's appear to be defective. Can't they be exchanged?

Because the misbent headband isnt really a flaw as they are meant to be bent to fit your head. However, loose adjuster is a flaw and Grado should fix it. It is also very common flaw, I have it too. I have ghetto-fixed it with scotch tape cause I'm not exactly willing to ship it to USA... This is something Grado should have fixed long time ago with slight design changes.

 

[TFox]

It's not that the headband is too tight, it's just that it feels sort of uneven. I'm aware you can bend it, but so far I've had little luck with that, because it's curved in a lopsided way.

Now that I think about it, I don't think it's the pads that are uncomfortable either - it's that the driver gets pressed against the top of my right ear, due to the headband.

I think rather than send them back, I'm going to email them and ask if they'd be willing to just send a new headband and put the old one in the same box to send back. I'm sure that would be easier for both Grado and myself. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it would be relatively easy to get the drivers out of those mounts. It won't break them to bend them and slip the drivers out, right?

Barring that, I think she had me order them from JR through amazon or something like that, so I'll exchange them if that falls through.

 

[Quaddy]

grados are a bit 'rustic' in terms of their presentation and appearance compared to a pair of sennheisers or denons

they have that home brew flavour.

but their sound is what you are paying for.

unless there is something broken, sounds like thats just how they are meant to be

they will need much more burn in also, more use for you and them to settle in

again, unless there is something broken they will soon be upto par and surpassing your 60's.

 

[TFox]

I definitely don't think this is the way they're meant to be. I was happy with my 60s out of the box because they didn't have this problem.

I'm very familiar with the rustic appearance of Grados - like I said, I've owned my other ones for 5 years now. This is something different.