[Hexidecimal]

Great, great story. Thank you for sharing. Really awesome stuff. I love my Grado SR225s, also my gateway to open back headphones.

 

[Armaegis]

A grado was my first headphone, though I wasn't nearly as enamoured... but that's probably because I paid almost double since they're so bloody expensive outside the US.

 

[Astrozombie]

I'm gonna go give mine a big hug now! I think i read a similar story on this headphone site i came across and how the guy fell in love with Grado.

 

[Eric_C]

My first headphone was an Alessandro Grado--the old MS1. It happened during an internship too, though the person who introduced them to me wasn't my boss, it was Jaben's very own Uncle Wilson. 
 
I was working at a magazine, and given the liberty to research a headphone article. Having been introduced to the Jaben store by a friend, I'd already become a customer, but was still only getting my feet wet with their budget offerings (which were excellent price/performance offerings) such as the CrossRoads Bijou 3. One day Uncle Wilson let me try out a MS1.
"What's this?" I wondered; I'd never seen a headphone like it, and I loved the aesthetic. I loved the sound too, straight out of my humble iPod Nano, and when he told me the price I was similarly floored.
(To be clear, it wasn't as cheap as a SR60, but at the time I didn't even know about the SR60.)
 
Took some time to save up for it, but by the end of that 3-month magazine internship I'd bought my very first "real" headphone, the MS1. 
 
It's been a downward (upward?) spiral since.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

wow thats such an awesome story!! omg its so touching,really made my day just to hear such a great story. i can really connect to it now, thanks, you just reminded me about the most important part about headphones, its just me and the music! nothing else. thanks for sharing!

 

[Nagasaki_Kid]

I just happened to be listening to an sr60 out of a d777 discman with a denon d950 nearby while reading this.

 

[Mr Headphones]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story. Enjoyed reading it

 

[Raguvian]

That's the funny thing about Grados for me. I always seem to be coming back to them.
 
A pair of SR80's were my first real headphones and I loved the way they sounded. Not quite as great of an experience as you had (great story btw!) but the build quality was off putting and I sold them. Now I'm on my 3rd pair of SR80's and I want more.

 

[eucariote]

 
Quote:

1997 was when I got my SR60.  And then the HD600 later that year.  
It was time to move on from the Sony MDR V6 I had been using during college.

 
My same headphone journey of joy and discovery (with a few between SR60 & HD600).  After discovering SR60, I gave away the MDR V6 to a friend and actually felt bad about giving him such mediocre headphones.

 

[Gwarmi]

I can still recall my inability to keep a straight face upon selling my almost brand new Senn HD515
to a colleague at work for $60AUD ($180AUD new) who wanted it for watching TV.
 
"So it's a good headphone?" he enquired
 
"Erm..<sweat>...yeeess I guess you could say that" I replied
 
This was 2 days after discovering my first SR80i.

 

[DavidMahler]

I'm so glad many of you responded to this thread
 
It was fun writing this!

 

[Sonic Defender]

Late joining in, but it really is a nice thread. My first real experience with headphones would have come back in the 1980s with some mid-tier Sony closed back design my older brother had purchased. We had a decent Pioneer SX 580 receiver and a PL 200 turntable back then. I loved listening to music through speakers, but at one point I started listening to music for hours late at night through those Sony headphones. I remember they sounded good, good enough that I wanted to keep them on my ears for hours at a time. We had a big faux leather rocking recliner which I would of course rock in while listening to music pretty darn loud, albums like Hemispheres and A Farwell To Kings by Rush, Black Sabbath the Mob Rules, Van Halen - Women and Children First, Saga - Intransit and so many others. It would be many years later that I re-discovered my love of headphones. One day I just decided I really wanted to listen to headphones again so I started researching headphones and I came across a site in the UK where they were big on the Grado sound. I liked the idea of supporting a US company, and a smaller one at that, plus I was really intrigued by the idea of an open-backed headphone.
 
I searched around here in Ottawa for a retailer and I found a store selling a few lines including Grado, which they were no longer keeping because the Canadian distributor would not improve their margins. The store was replacing the Grado line with Ultrasones and I spent a few hours comparing the two companies. I walked out of there with their last pair of SR125s, which I just loved. I sold those to a friend of mine a few years later so that I could purchase some SR225s. Anyway, like you David, and many others the Grado sound really drew me into this hobby. I have since moved past the Grado sound (not for good mind you, I still would like to try another Grado can, I also had an HF2 for about a year). If I had a wish it would be for a Grado can that learned a little from the HD 650 in terms of being a little more smooth in their vocing, while retaining much of the Grado forward sound yet getting the highs and upper mids under a tighter, but present sound. I would also like to hear a bit more bass quantity. I always liked how articulate the bass was on my HF2, but still felt the need for more of that bass.