Grado headphone users?

I've recently tried Grados, going from Sr60 to Sr325is, and I was pretty much impressed by the overall sound,
I preferred sr125 and sr325is, and it got me thinking as I might be able to catch one of this for pretty cheap.
From first view, build quality is not to compare to Beyer and others, but sonically I was surprised, even if they would need to be listened in a quiet room, wasn't my case, but I got the overall sound, I tried on several sources and it did pretty well, even if on electronic music or more "closed" music the headphone beeing open might not suite, i found it ok but where there was good recordings and bands or any real instruments, I was inside the room with the musicians, that was a weird feeling, they are so open that on or off is the same...
Just curious if there was some other folks here using Grados.
I would use it mainly for listening at home, but would try mixing with them too, never know...

quite recently I also did a shootout for new headphones and tried most of the Grados. What I found surprising was the cheap Sr60 sounded best of all of them. There's a good reason for it. I'm used to the quite flat frequency response of Sennheiser HD600 and sr60 is somewhat similar. sr125 - sr325 range have bigger treble peaks. I think an intentional loudness curve in fact. In my opinion the treble peak on those is a bit too pronounced and you can hear the resonance like a steep q value of a parametric EQ. I also thought their build quality was a bit on the flimsy side. And the cups are way too exposed for any kind of mobile use.

Some hard evidence on those peaks: http://www.headphone.com/learning-center/build-a-graph.php?graphID[0]=573&graphID[1]=393&graphID[2]=2971&graphID[3]=383&scale=30&graphType=0&buttonSelection=Update+Graph

There's another interesting but very pricy option, bowers & wilkins p7. Very impressive imaging, especially big bass, and great isolation. I'm looking for great mobile headphones so I have my eye on these...

I could hear that mid high bump on the higher versions, and that's where it would have been maybe more obvious if the listening room was quieter, mine was not, I actually found some reviews on these with graphs, and yes the peak is abrupt, but the bowers is also not very "linear" in terms of frequency response. I will anyway have a better listen to the Grados, and will ask for demo in a quiet room, and compare, but I guess this will be a love or hate kind of thing, on first impression it was good on my side, something actually I never experienced on headphones, I tried a DT880 at home, and it was nice, but compared to the Grado it lacked life, of course the bump helps giving some space and air etc...
But how will these sound after some burning in, and with a nice little amp, tube maybe? Might help that bump..
I guess it all depends on the purpose, mobile, home or studio use etc....

http://www.lesnumeriques.com/casque-audio/grado-sr125i-p15526/test.html

http://www.lesnumeriques.com/casque-audio/grado-sr325is-p16167/test.html

http://www.lesnumeriques.com/casque-audio/bowers-wilkins-p7-p17282/test.html

That P7 frequency response looks strange. Knowing quite well how it compares to Sennheiser HD600 and Grado SR60 it should have significantly more bass below 110hz. I mean like 5-10dB more. And a big wide bell at 1-2khz, too. Seeing that massive dip at 3-5khz has me thinking something went wrong with the measurement... I've been waiting for P7 measurement by headphone.com.

There are like three different DT880 by the way and they aren't equivalents. Which one did you try? They all have very distinct loudness curve. I quite like them. Nice oldschool hifi-stereo-loudness-button sound compared to the HD600 for example.

[edit]

wait, I mean DT990 are the ones I like with the "hifi curve". I didn't like DT880 much either (and I tried the two models they have available).

It's difficult navigating all these numbers, abbreviations and updated models with the same names...

Oh BTW, dunno why your link to headphone.com is not working?
And it was DT880 pro 250ohms iirc, tested with the headphone amp of my NAD at home,
Grado's were tested with the Sony mp3 player of a friend, not the best but their low impedance helped.

Try to copy and paste the whole link text manually. the forum screws up parsing the link somehow. But even if it links to some random data, you can change them all and make your own comparison charts.

I got some Grado  225's 5 years or more ago .  The difference I was told is the matching between Left Right is more precise not flatter.  I like them for listening and take them along on a trip to hear ipod music.  I like listening to projects while away to compare changes in a production.  They have mellowed in that penetrating mid range over time.  I like them better today than when I got them. 

As far as mixing I've not been a big fan of them for that purpose.  The open room sound of Grado's just has all sorts of issues if you not in a quiet room when mixing (for me).  I know the Grado 600 series are used by mastering engineers for checking their work. Thats why I bought the Grado's.  I have some now at least 15 year old Sony 7506 phones that just work for me on remote work including critical live mixing.    I don't like the new 7506s I've tried. They're just to bright.  Strange but I just know what should come out of the old Sony phones and I mix to that image when they're on my head. 

I've been thinking of getting some new headphones for mixing.  I currently have Breyer  DT250's.  I've been thinking go the HD600's.  I heard them and they sound nice.  Do you guys recommend anything else?

Also you guys should check out these headphone amps.  Nice value!
http://www.matrix-digi.com/en/products/4/

They can be had reasonably on eBay.

I also use DT-250's at the moment and recently heard some HD600's - highly recommend these (even though I don't own them yet).

They will definitely be my next headphone purchase..

After trying a bunch of cans for "office listening" the best I heard was these $100 "Allesandro by Grado" but they were not suitable as being fully open were quite loud on the outside. But after hearing the Allesandros, it became a quest to find something that sounded similar, but closed back. Compared to the Allesandros, everything that I would have normally associated with being great headphones from my studio days (i.e. the big AKG's I had intended to buy) sounded like mud - all tizz and thump.

In the end the winners were AT ATH-ESW9's at $300 (which I think are great cans as well) and I enjoy them in my office often

However, it was not long until I went back for the Allesandros

http://www.alessandro-products.com/main.php?p=headphones

Amazing sound for $100. Build quality is not that good but it does not worry me.

Cheers,

Tim

I also heard the Allesandro ms1 too, a little less of that mid compared to the Grado equivalent, and yes going from that much open back to any other closed back makes it weird, best is I guess to have both, i have DT770 for years now, just wanted an open one, thanks for the feedback, i'll soon make a decision...

I have had a pair of sr225s for about 6 years.  I really like them and I like that I don't get too fatigued listening to them.  Mixes seem to translate well.  I really like the open design myself.  I can hear details on them that I can't hear on monitors often.

Well, after some long listening to Grados again, and allesandro models as well, and beyer DT880 and 770, not the 990 unfortunately (didn't had that one), I have to say that I liked the Grado 325 much more than the other prestige series, and Alessandro's equivalent wasn't good after checking them again, but while the medium high are pretty upfront on the SR325, they are "ok" on some genre of music, but tottaly uncomfortable to some others where these frequencies are more dominant, and takes the listening experience away.
So finally I didn't bother, I get the Grado sound, and I like it, but I guess you must shoot for some higher priced Grado models to have best of both worlds as for the frequency balance and dunno if the price they ask for these higher models is justified (fabrication quality etc...)
I compared with the DT770 I have, and maybe I'm too used to it, but it was more pleasant, the basses are a little more present (closed back design) on the DT770 of course but medium and highs are more pleasant and won't be strident or whatsoever that Grado was tending to produce, so will see in the future if there is one open back that fits taste, could have been the Grado, but it would have made bad things to my ears after some time and not sure about burning them in would have changed that, i think my perception of them would have changed with time more than its sound, we get used to a lot so...

Personally I find the DT 770 "to scooped". Shure SRH940 are in the same closed back range,
but I think they have better mids. Too bad they easily break in the plastic frame.
Some singers love the highs in the DT770 when tracking so I keep a few.

Best
M

Nothing is perfect, you hear a deep in the mid that tends to push the highs a little and mellow the bass while still delivering a fair amount of bass, it has a sonic signature for sure, but it behaves well on all round music listening as well as tracking as you mentionned, I'd like to try Shure SRH1840 as well as HD650, but I have an idea of how these will sound, somewhere around the DT880, with some better or worst results I guess...
The latest Shure seem to be pretty decent in terms of quality etc.... But they seem to be much compared to lower priced HD650 so...and something tells me that the best bang for buck is still the DT880/990 (should try the 990 one too), which are cheaper then the shure or the Sennheiser so, tough call...

A word of warning about HD-650. They are not an upgrade to HD-600, but in fact a sonically very different. They are not as flat and quite dark with a big dip at high mids. While 600 are quite good as mixing and monitoring reference, 650 are clearly meant for casual listening. See the headphone.com chart for hard evidence.

Hello,
I have the SR60, SR225 and RS2.

I love the SR60 and SR225, not so much the RS2.

Used the SR80 for a long time and they are lovelly also.

These are the most natural sounding headphones you will find to listen already mixed and mastered music.
My favorites to listen to music.

I find them horrible to mix. And I also never found anyone that was fond in mixing with them.