March 12th, 2006
Good Cans – Grado SR80
Looking for a good pair of cans? Aren’t we all? The cans on display here are the type you put on your ears… for listening… to music. HEADPHONES! Get my mind out of the gutter. You have got to love the double entendre of goodcans. Traditionally people use a pair of headphones for the convenience. Usually portability is the main reason people use headphones. Others like myself use headphones at work so we can listen to music without disturbing others too much.
Audiophile quality, high-fidelity for $85-100. Enter the Grado SR80 from Grado Labs. There is a lower level model, the SR60 and the higher end with the SR125 on up to the RS1 which run over $500 easy. The SR80 sits at near the bottom of one of the best lines of headphones ever. Like an entry level Honda Accord, you get 90% of an Acura for 1/3 the cost. Similar sound quality can be had from in ear headphones such as the Etymotic Research ER-4P or the Shure E3c albeit with noticably less bass. Or you can score a pair of the Sennheiser HD 600 for about $280. However these headphones are hands down the best value in the world of audio reproduction. Period.
Technically speaking the Grado SR80 are open, supra-aural headphones. Supra-aural headphones have pads that sit on top of the ears as opposed to being large enough to fit over the ear. The connector is of the 1/8 inch variety found on most portable devices these days, though they include an adapter for the larger 1/4 inch jacks. The detail that seems to baffle people most is the fact that they are “open”. In other words there is no sealed backing covering the ouside of the earpieces. Many cheap headphones are closed to create a vauge boomy sound ultimately a greatly negative effect on quality. Naturally most high end headphones are of the open variety as this makes accurate sound reproduction better and easier at the same time.
The Good: Incredible value, stunning sound quality, suprisingly light, well built.
The Bad: Open design does not shut out the world so some sound will leak out.
Bottomline: If you own more than a few dozen CD’s, a pair of SR80 should be aquired to re-experience your collection. Even people in China and video gamers are hip to these cans!
March 13th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
I was not a believer until I hear Tool on a proper DAC CD player on my new SR-80 cans. It was amazing, I was absolutely floored by the audio that was coming out of seemingly bland looking headphones. I know for a fact now that headphones are the fastest and most rewarding entry point into the hi-fi sector of audio equipment.