Audio Blog: Grado sr60 Headphones
thetawave2
Posts: 268
Here's a quick review on the Grado sr60's. These headphones offer great value, though I do have some criticisms about their sound when used with my MacBook's internal sound card. However, I'm reserving final judgment until I try them with an external sound card. Full review coming soon!
http://paugustinos.blogspot.com/2012/02/xv-grado-sr60.html
After our suite?s Super Bowl party, Mike suggested we do a bit of listening. We hopped around from CD to CD on my stereo, listening to some of our favorites like Death Cab for Cutie?s album Transatlanticism and Regina Spektor?s Begin to Hope. Soon, we turned our attention to Mike?s Grado sr60 headphones. He had great things to say about them, and I was excited to give them a listen. We ran them off of my MacBook?s internal soundcard, playing music from my iTunes library with no EQ adjustments. First, we took turns listening to ?My Feelings For You? by Avicii and Sebastien Drums. My first impression was that they sounded transparent and open, which made sense given their open-air construction. Bass sounded full, but seemed to lack a little definition at the very bottom. I found myself completely wrapped up in sound, which started up close to my ear and extended outward from my head. The level of detail allowed me to dive through the multiple synth lines with ease, picking out individual voices and textures.
Sacha Sacket?s Viscera Project, released online at sachasacket.bandcamp.com, contains a lot of great songs. Unfortunately, I?ve been missing out on this music with the loss of my Sennheisers and using my stereo without a headphone to RCA cable. I was excited to explore some of these songs once more. ?Gradiva? is a warm, tender song with a fairly dark tone. The ends of lines trail off, drawing in the listener?s attention more and more. This song didn?t seem to agree with the sr60?s, which were a bit too warm and lacked sparkle in the treble. The delicate detail at the ends of words were lost. ?Snake in the Road,? while not as overly warm as ?Gradiva,? still didn?t sound quite right. The gentle bells came across a bit reserved, to the point of seeming muted.
Then we compared a couple songs by Skrillex. ?First of the Year? continued the warm trend, with its synths sounding a bit too full. Again, some detail suffered from apparently rolled-off highs. The remix of ?Weekends!!!? by Zedd sounded a little better, largely because of Zedd?s characteristically brighter sound, which made for a presentation that was a bit more lively and light-footed.
Our final selection, ?Iron? by Woodkid, was not in my library. We went to Youtube, opting for a high-definition version. I was pleasantly surprised hearing this song, particularly given my earlier criticisms. Brass sounded appropriately brassy, and percussion was snappy and crisp. Drums were full-bodied but not overweight. The vocals were presented quite well, though there were a couple moments I thought they were a touch on the warm side.
Despite the roll-off in the treble and the lack of coherence in the very deep bass, the Grado sr60 headphones offer a serious sound that performs above their price point. I look forward to a fuller review using an external soundcard or even headphone amp.
http://paugustinos.blogspot.com/2012/02/xv-grado-sr60.html
After our suite?s Super Bowl party, Mike suggested we do a bit of listening. We hopped around from CD to CD on my stereo, listening to some of our favorites like Death Cab for Cutie?s album Transatlanticism and Regina Spektor?s Begin to Hope. Soon, we turned our attention to Mike?s Grado sr60 headphones. He had great things to say about them, and I was excited to give them a listen. We ran them off of my MacBook?s internal soundcard, playing music from my iTunes library with no EQ adjustments. First, we took turns listening to ?My Feelings For You? by Avicii and Sebastien Drums. My first impression was that they sounded transparent and open, which made sense given their open-air construction. Bass sounded full, but seemed to lack a little definition at the very bottom. I found myself completely wrapped up in sound, which started up close to my ear and extended outward from my head. The level of detail allowed me to dive through the multiple synth lines with ease, picking out individual voices and textures.
Sacha Sacket?s Viscera Project, released online at sachasacket.bandcamp.com, contains a lot of great songs. Unfortunately, I?ve been missing out on this music with the loss of my Sennheisers and using my stereo without a headphone to RCA cable. I was excited to explore some of these songs once more. ?Gradiva? is a warm, tender song with a fairly dark tone. The ends of lines trail off, drawing in the listener?s attention more and more. This song didn?t seem to agree with the sr60?s, which were a bit too warm and lacked sparkle in the treble. The delicate detail at the ends of words were lost. ?Snake in the Road,? while not as overly warm as ?Gradiva,? still didn?t sound quite right. The gentle bells came across a bit reserved, to the point of seeming muted.
Then we compared a couple songs by Skrillex. ?First of the Year? continued the warm trend, with its synths sounding a bit too full. Again, some detail suffered from apparently rolled-off highs. The remix of ?Weekends!!!? by Zedd sounded a little better, largely because of Zedd?s characteristically brighter sound, which made for a presentation that was a bit more lively and light-footed.
Our final selection, ?Iron? by Woodkid, was not in my library. We went to Youtube, opting for a high-definition version. I was pleasantly surprised hearing this song, particularly given my earlier criticisms. Brass sounded appropriately brassy, and percussion was snappy and crisp. Drums were full-bodied but not overweight. The vocals were presented quite well, though there were a couple moments I thought they were a touch on the warm side.
Despite the roll-off in the treble and the lack of coherence in the very deep bass, the Grado sr60 headphones offer a serious sound that performs above their price point. I look forward to a fuller review using an external soundcard or even headphone amp.
My Stereo: Tannoy D100s, Yaqin MC-100B, VPI Traveler, Dynavector 10x5 MC Phono Cartridge, heavily modified Yaqin MS-22B phono preamp, TEAC EQA-20 equalizer, Belkin PureAV PF30 Power Conditioner, Canare 4s11 speaker cables, Custom dust cover from DigitalDeckCovers
Post edited by thetawave2 on
Comments
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The SR-60 is a great bang for the buck set of cans. There is a nice improvement in sound with the SR-80 and the 225. An external amp may make a big difference. My SR-225i sound rather anemic when connected to the computer sound card but very full and detailed with my Denon receiver as the source. Also, how much burn-in time do you have on the Grados?Stan
Main 2ch:
Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.
HT:
Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60
Other stuff:
Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601 -
I must say from fit and finish to sound, they are a great value. I would imagine that a more serious source would help quite a bit.
I hadn't really considered burn-in time, but my friend has had them for a few months now at least, and he uses them frequently. I don't think that's really an issue, but I'll ask just to make sure.
Thanks very much for checking out my blog!My Stereo: Tannoy D100s, Yaqin MC-100B, VPI Traveler, Dynavector 10x5 MC Phono Cartridge, heavily modified Yaqin MS-22B phono preamp, TEAC EQA-20 equalizer, Belkin PureAV PF30 Power Conditioner, Canare 4s11 speaker cables, Custom dust cover from DigitalDeckCovers -
The Grado SR60s are an excellent value. Enjoy them! I highly recommend listening to a pair of Alessandro MS1i (by Grado) headphones. For $110 you can't go wrong. To my ears they are on par with the Grado SR125s...Don't forget to enjoy the music...
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Got a pair os SR80i's and they sound great.
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I am thinking about eventually getting a good pair of headphones and perhaps buying or building a headphone amp, so thanks for the input guys!My Stereo: Tannoy D100s, Yaqin MC-100B, VPI Traveler, Dynavector 10x5 MC Phono Cartridge, heavily modified Yaqin MS-22B phono preamp, TEAC EQA-20 equalizer, Belkin PureAV PF30 Power Conditioner, Canare 4s11 speaker cables, Custom dust cover from DigitalDeckCovers
