Grado SR-60 Headphones

Rating:
Summary: Great Headphones
Review: I have been using Grado Headphones for about 8 years now. They are an excellent buy at a reasonable price. I have owned the SR60 and the SR80 and both are really great. If I have had any complaints about Grado brand headphones it is that they could be more portable. They are a little on the large size, heavy, don't fold up and I have had two sets get wiring problems after using them on the go a lot. Perhaps Grado should consider making a more portable/durable version. Otherwise they are perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I have had these headphones for one day now, and i hate them. They are so good, that i can hear the static in mp3 recordings, something i have never heard, not over a 500 dollar klipsch system, or a 1000 dollar car system. Actually, i love the headphones, but they are almost too good. For 65 dollars, you should not get sound this good. They are exceedingly comfortable, nad while they are not the lightest headphones out there, they are comfortable for extended listening. Their sound is very smooth, and never harsh. The bass is the best i've ever heard from headphones, and the high ends are clear, not dull of anything, and while these are my first pair of botique headphones, i think they are excellent. They may look a bit cheep or dated, (Someone said they looked like the headphones worn by soviet submariners) but what they lack in looks, they make up for in sound. I chose this pair because out of the Grado line up, they are the only ones which can be driven by the iPod, without an amp. If you have money or an amp, or are not using them with an iPod, i would recomend the higher end models, but for the price, these cans are unbeatable.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Under $200 for under $100
Review: I have in fact listened to nearly every headphone under $250. I have heard high end AKG, Bose, Sennheiser, Sony. These headphones sound better than any of them. The only competition for these Grados are other Grados. The previous reviewer mentioned that he did not have good quality equipment to utilize these headphones. Yes, poor quality equipment gives poor quality sound. These headphones would be a bargain at $150.

Rating:
Summary: A heavenly experience......
Review: I have just received my Grado SR-60s and am currently burning them in. I havent even had 40 minutes in them and I am already very impressed. I HEAR EVERYTHING. Every little detail. I can hear the fingers of the guitar player move from fret to fret between chords, heretofore unheard stuff in the mix like background vocals and effects.

Unfortunately, MP3 compression errors are also made more evident. For example, some complex tonal passages sound distorted especially those that are at the high end of the dynamic range (LOUD), but if you lower the volume, you will hear that distortion continues. The distortion is in the track, not due to the hardware. This appears to be the fault of iTunes ripping software (I had error correction ON). This happens quite often. I have re-ripped all my stuff with Windows Media Player using MP3 with a sample rate of 320 kbps. This made all the difference. The apple software basically sucks at ripping stuff

I started my tests with a little Jet, Modest Mouse, Linkin Park, Thievery Corporation, Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi by the London Symphony Orchestra for good measure and finished off with Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. I am almost teary eyed with joy.

The bass is sufficient by my standards. It is whole and robust. You can almost caress it with your hands. It is not booming by any measure. It is accurate. As background, I prefer to listen to flat sound. No added bass, treble, X-bass, loudness, BBE or any of that other junk that can be added to the music. I would rather increase the SPL to hear the detail than mess with the sound. It is here where the SR-60s shine. You dont need a lot of volume to hear the detail. I can't say it enough, "everything is there" or "more than you use to know".

The only downside I have seen so far is that the power handling seems lacking. They are sufficiently loud but they seem to be having a hard time when I crank it up to rock concert levels. That is the one caveat. If you are the type with a couple of 12 inch subs in your car, or cant get any satisfaction with a pair of decent stand up speakers (B&Ws?), these may not be for you.

I cant wait to move up the Grado line as I am extremely happy with these entry level phones. However, if you intend to use it on an iPod, I think this is the only Grado headphone that can be driven to satisfaction by a portable.

NOTE: Out of the box, they'll suck. Break them in properly with a nice selection of booming hip-hop and high pitch guitar riffs at reasonably high levels. You dont have to be wearing them to do this. Then you'll start hearing the bass start taking form after 30 or so minutes.

Rating:
Summary: Great-o's
Review: If you're looking to buy good headphones for under $75 bucks, this should be at the top of your list. These are great headphones for the price. The biggest downside is that they do not cover the ear, rather, they sit on top of the ears. Alot of sound bleeds out, and others around you will hear what you are listening to. That being said, they are the most comfortable cans I've ever used, and the sound is premium. I read a lot of reviews before buying the SR-60's, and bought them based only on the recommendations I read on the internet. They did not disappoint. I read somewhere that if you cut a quarter sized hole in the center of the foam padding that the sound is even better...I have not done this, but I suspect that it may be true, as the pads are thick and comfortable. Read the review at headphone.com of the SR-60's, and you'll get a good idea of what you're in for. Very pleased with the purchase...easily beats the $50 Koss (re-branded Radio Shack) headphones I've used in the past...better sound, and a heck of a lot sturdier build. They bring out the best in my laptop and ipod. Quality.

Rating:
Summary: Entry-level Grados Too Good for Entry-level Listeners
Review: It's a bit challenging to approach these headphones unbiased after having encountered so much unwavering and unreserved praise for them. I knew not what to expect from them, and thought at first that I would experience some hitherto-unknown musical bliss. But armed with a pair of $70 headphones and a massive collection of 128kbps mp3s and oggs, how could I but feel a little foolish, a little disappointed? Grado's praise is well-deserved, no doubt--their headphones reproduce sound impressively, but my experience with them was not without its shortcomings: for one, admittedly a fault of my own, I allowed the reviews in its favor to convince me that my music could sound better than it actually could; for another, its foam earpads let considerable sound leak in and out of what should be, in my opinion, a purely solitary experience.

Surely, they produce sound better than the Sony MDR-CD60s I bought for $10 nearly seven years ago. But in truth, there are several factors that impose limits on just how much more orgasmic one's listening experience can be. In much the same way that a computer system is curbed by its slowest component, so the quality of a sound system sinks to the degree of _its_ worst component. For casual, frugal listeners who want to indulge themselves in something really sweet, it's a frustrating realization that your headphones aren't going to blow you away when your sound card cost half as much. I write not as an audiophile, but as a college student--one who listens to music recreationally, most often while doing other things, without the faculty (much less the time) to scrutinize my music. In short, I (and, in my opinion, a great many people who refuse to admit and may not even realize it) surmised that face-melting auditory beauty was actually within practicality, only a pair of headphones away. Of course, this realization is no fault of Grado Labs, and applies equally to all headphones exceeding forty dollars--and thus has not detracted from my rating.

More importantly, there are elements in the mere design of the headphones that affect the total listening experience--they are comfortable, no doubt, but their failure to aurally isolate the listener is, in my opinion, a fairly significant shortcoming. It should seem no surprise that listening to music on headphones should be a solitary, unadulterated activity--otherwise, the music would be playing over speakers, so that many people can hear them. Living in close proximity to so many other people, being able to selectively shut myself out from them and shut them out from me is fairly important--whether for studying or ignoring our diametrically opposed tastes in music. Therefore, it should follow that headphones should do a decent job of constricting their output to the ears of the listener and filtering out, to a certain degree, outside noise. But Grado's foam earpads sit on the ears instead of cupping over them like the leather bits on expensive Sony or Sennheiser headphones do, and so at low volumes, I found myself catching the not-so-faint whisper of my suitemate's iPod-earbuds in the background of my ambient music as we sat in the living room about ten feet away.

The hype and reputation surrounding these headphones is by no means deceptive. I'm sure the soundtrack of a DVD or music in lossless formats on formidable sound systems would come through breathtakingly. But they're not for everyone, and I used to think that the "not everyone" majority was considerably smaller than it actually is. The Grado SR-60s are well worth $70--but only for those who, for one, really have matching audio equipment (a Creative mp3 player, not an iPod); and for another, can actually tell the difference beyond that point.