A review of the Grado SR225 Headphones

Hi there!

Would like to just do a quick little review of my recent aquisition of the Grado SR225 headphones, the aim is to contribute opinions to anyone else thinking of buying a pair of these headphones.

First see my previous thread to get an idea of what I was looking for in headphones (Along with this review, this will help you decide if these headphones are right for you).

When I received the package I tried them out for about 20 minutes, I was very pleased but felt like they needed lossening up a litte. I left them running pink noise just above normal listening level for 9 hours along with 30 minute breaks every two hours (BurnInWave default) as some may recomend. To my ears this DID make a difference but I can't imagine much difference between this and playing music through them for a week.

It did take me a while to adjust to the change in listening volume however, I usually listen quite loud to bring out the qualities of rock music. Listening to higher volumes on these headphones does the reverse effect, they sound more "correct" at lower volumes and a it's a bit harder to follow the music at higher volumes (but I suspect the amp and source I am using have some impact on this).

The next day the real test started

Overall impression: Some people will say headphones don't have much of a soundstage compared to speakers, probably due to the lack of natural ambience that effects vibrations after they have left the speakers and possibly also due to the feeling of the sound being in the middle of your head. Having said that, I was suprised by the openess of the sound, I am not going to exagerate and say these headphones sound like a live concert but I did find a very good positioning and seperation of instruments and very clear detail across the whole frequency spectrum and didn't require any sort of crossfeed for my ears.

High's: Before I aquired these cans I was weary/prepared of some grainy treble mentioned in other reviews but I did not experience this effect at all. Regardless of figures and graghs, I thought the treble was spot on where it should be, the treble is very responsive and true to the recording and like you probably guessed, you can hear the fingers moving on the guitar strings easier than you normally would. BEWARE THE "S" PROBLEM: You may require decent amplification to control the higher frequencies as frequently (when listening for it mostly) you will hear the letter "S" as a "szz". I would be interested in other peoples experiences here. I was using a Cambridge Audio 340A amplifer for this test. After carefull listening, these headphones don't seem to add gain to the high frequencies, they are just very good at bringing out whats available and the advantage here is they really clean up some of the softness in older music too.

Mid's: Main thing to say here really is the bass drum is in no way harsh, just right, equal qualities as the treble here and provides a great lead-in for the treble - great in acoustic music. No distortion in male or female voices, very accurate and controlled is the best way to describe this. Drum rolls are really clear here!

Low's: Another area I was uncertain about with mixed reviews saying the opposite either way. I will admit the bass at first will disapoint you if you are used to headphones with bass boost buttons but the weight of the whole sound in these headphones will grow on you until you find yourself prefering this far more. I wasn't too shocked here as my speakers have a similar sound too them. The bass is really deep and precise, the best way to describe it is that you can hear when the bass guitar shifts pitch without intentionally listening to the bass at all. These headphones don't lack bass in my opinion however, if you listen to metal, it will still blow you away and it feels almost like there is a subwoofer (Quiet one of corse) present from the tone that the bass area has. This area has alot of personal preference but if you like alot of acoustic or generally music with well recorded real instruments then it will at least sound "fine" to you. If you listen to pop, r&b, trace, house and so on, then the bass doesn't sound very good at all, probably due to the boosted/synthasied and unnatural feel the low frequencies in this music has, of course, this is just my opinion and could be due to my sources and configuration.

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• Unfortunately in this review I could not provide an extensive comparison with another set of headphones. Other headphones I own are Sennheiser PC160's and some Panasonic wireless headphones but I have listened to a great variety which I don't own.
  
• The last thing you want to do with these very dynamic headphones is EQ them as they will sound soft and flat from doing so through my testing.
  
• You can drive these headphones at very loud volumes straight from an iPod!
  
• Thats the end of my simple review, if you have any questions regarding the headphones or my review I will be more than happy to respond on this thead.

Grado Prestige Series SR225 Headphones