Grado SR-60 Headphones Review
- Product:
- Grado Labs SR-60 Headphones (company site)
- What's Good:
- Easily portable, great quality for a reasonable price.
- What's Bad:
- Pads are warm after extended listening.
After my twin brother purchased a pair of Sennheiser 580 headphones I felt compelled to upgrade from my tinny earbuds. The Grado SR-60s were strongly recommended on a number of audiophile sites and fell in my price range as I wasn't prepared to fork out $250 like my brother. Although $69 US might still seem like a lot of money for a pair of headphones, I figured I'd be listening to them every day while working on my computer so it'd be worth it. I haven't been disapointed.
There are no Grado dealers in my area, so I was basically purchasing on the advice of others and on the photos on peoples' websites. Although I've seen a number of reviews that criticized the utilitarian styling of these headphones, I thought their appearance was one of their best selling points. These days, it's surprisingly difficult to find any audio equipment that isn't covered in chrome and huge lettering. These headphones are simple, to-the-point, and sturdy.
I'm certainly not a hard-core audiophile, but I've been quite pleased with the perfomance my Grados. The mid-range is especially good and the bass is strong. For the price, these are the best headphones I've heard. I know it's a little unfair to compare these to headphones four times the price, but the definition is noticibly fuzzier than my brother's higher end cans.
The portability of these headphones was another unexpected bonus. The earpieces turn 360 degrees, so you can fold them flat and pack them on the top of a suitcase quite easily. This is a really nice feature as I can take them with me on business trips without worrying about damaging them. Also, their overall sturdy construction means I don't have to be overly careful with them. They've been dropped a few times and still look and sound like new.
My one gripe with my headphones is that my ears get quite hot when I wear them for extended periods. The earpieces sit directly against your ears and the foam padding creates quite a warm environment, especially in the summer.
Comments
Steven Garrity - April 23, 2004 5:56 pm
As someone who works within earshot of Daniel's desk (unfortunately have line-of-sight too him too), I can point out a negative aspect of these headphones: they bleed a lot of sound.
Sure, Daniel may listen to his music a bit louder than most, but you can easily hear the music leaking from the outside of the headphones from across the room - much more so than other headphones I've observed.
riffraff - May 5, 2005 2:12 pm
Yes, they bleed sound. On the other hand, they have an extraordinarily airy sound. They will allow you to hear things you've never heard before in your favorite twenty-year-old recordings.
Besides, sound bleed isn't really the user's problem, is it? ;-)
elmo - May 30, 2005 12:33 pm
they are called open headphones. most people have closed headphones, so they don't bother others..open most of the time provide the best soudn.
Railton - October 11, 2006 5:48 pm
Does anyone know if the isolation is good. Im traveling by a train a lot to school and other places and there is a terrible racket when the windws are open on a hot day and that really kills the sound on my creatives hq1700. And i dont really care if they leak sound, as long as I get enough of it =^_^=.