I recently bought a Grado White Edition and had a chance to compare it to my Grado 325. I have the large salad bowl cushions on my 325 and the White, so I'm eliminating the effect of any cushion difference from the comparison. The White is louder so it's hard to make a direct comparison with a simple splitter. But I have two Zen Can headphone amps so I split the source signal into each Zen Can, adjusted the volumes to match and got a good a/b comparison. I listened to Beatles music in the comparison.
To me, the White is a flat, neutral sound with little to no boost in the bass or the treble. It sounds exactly like a CD does when I play it through my speakers with no eq. The 325 sounds like an eq'd version of the music. It has a boost in the bass and the treble, but not at the expense of that wonderful Grado forward midrange that makes vocals stand out so well in a mix. Since I'm partial to a bass/treble boost sound profile, the 325 -- with no eq applied -- sounds exactly like I like to listen to music, while the White sounds a little dull and needs some bass and treble boost to fit what I like.
However, that doesn't mean the 325 is better. A test song I often use is Hey Jude. The tamborine that starts in the second verse is almost too piercing with the 325. The tamborine with the White is more subdued, but with a little treble boost can be made to sound closer to what I like to hear, but without the piercing level of the 325.
For most music, particularly if the source has mediocre eq capabilities, I would probably choose the 325 for listening pleasure. Where the source player has decent eq, I would probably pick the White and eq it to taste. My hobby is home recording, so I'm always on the lookout for headphones with a flat/neutral presentation and I mix the music to that profile, knowing that when it is played back on something like the 325 it will sound more lively but hopefully not piercing. If I was to mix the music on something like a 325, the listener would find the result dull unless their headphones/speakers had an eq profile similar to the 325. So I see value in keeping both -- with the White being more of a utility headphone for mixing where neutral presentation is desired and the 325 for fun when listening.
Hope that helps anyone considering these.
