[Claypole]

I’ve had my Grado 125i headphones for quite a long time maybe 15 years?) and the cable has been playing up for a while. The other night after spending about 10 minutes fiddling around trying to get them to work, I realised it was probably time to replace them.

I could buy another pair of Grados, but as far as I can tell, the cabling hasn’t been improved. I know I’ve had mine for a fair while, but they don’t get used that often, and I’ve always known the cable would fail at some point. I believe it’s possible to send Grados off and get the cables replaced, and I would consider this if it was a cost effective option.

I do like the way my Grados sound, and was hoping/wondering if there were alternatives that had a reasonably similar sound signature, but were well built and had consumer replaceable cabling. They should be easy to drive by my Fiio M6, as well as by the headphone socket on my ancient Linn Classik. Budget would be about £200-300.

Any recommendation? I’m sure some will be thinking ‘Just get some more Grados!’, but the cable is a deal breaker for me...

 

[silent-circuit]

There's a place in the UK that will mod the Grados to use a detachable cable, and it's not too crazy price wise as I understand. If they are otherwise still in good shape apart from the cable you might consider that. I'll try and remember the name of the company, but hopefully someone else can provide.

Edit: this is the one I was thinking of that I've seen mentioned several times here. I'm sure there are many others as well. No affiliation of course. After looking at the site maybe they only do Beyers? But I bet if you contact them they can can at least get you to someone who will do the Grados.

https://www.customcans.co.uk/


I'm assuming if you've been using them for 15 years you're a fan of the Grado house sound, which can be a bit divisive. Another potentially really cool option (though over budget by £100) would be the Hyland Audio Jupiter One or Saturn Two. Hand made by a dude in a shed in the finest British tradition.

They're easy to drive, extremely comfortable (I have worn them for 4+ hours solid without issue), sound better than they have any right to (guy really knows what he's doing) and you'll likely never see another pair outside of pictures in the Hyland thread here. My pair came with a balanced 2.5mm cable and a standard 3.5mm single ended cable, but I bought them second hand here. Per their site the 3.5 is standard, with other terminations available. The stock cable is serviceable but stiff, not my favorite. Thankfully the terminations are standard (2.5mm mono on each side I believe?) so getting something aftermarket is easy enough if it bothers you.

I own a pair of the Jupiter Ones, and they trade back and forth with the Audio Technica ATH-R70X and Sendy Audio AIVA for favorite open back. Yes, you can totally tell they're home built, but it's fine work and they're very handsome in my opinion. Plus you'd be helping support a local small business, and based on my reading up, a really nice guy. My understanding is the Saturn Two has a more traditionally "Grado" sound while the Jupiter One is a little more laid back and closer to neutral. Check them out.

https://www.hylandheadphones.com/

 

[Claypole]

Thanks very much for that, those Hyland headphones have definitely piqued my interest. They are a bit beyond my budget, but I really like the idea of having a pair of headphones made for me, from scratch.