Grado SR125 Headphone Review

Not Just for Audiophiles?

by Josh Walrath

            The box that the Grados come in are very non-descript, and the average user would quickly overlook them.  When I had walked into the stereo store, I had in fact missed them, and I was even on the lookout for them!  I was so mesmerized by all the flashy Sony products on the wall that I didn’t notice the Grados in their beige and grey box in the lower left corner of the wall.  Once the salesperson came up to me and I asked about it, he was able to quickly point them out.

A much closer look reveals the open ear design and some of the components behind the plastic mesh.  While visually unappealing, these look like they could survive a nuclear blast.

            The SR-125’s are actually fairly heavy for headphones, and they do have a very solid feel about them.  The Sony’s that I tried on were featherweight as compared to these.  Something that I was not prepared for was the strange, and somewhat uncomfortable, feel of the headphones.  The ear pads were very stiff, and there was no padding whatsoever on the headband.  The headband itself is actually covered in stiff vinyl, and reinforced with a metal bar inside the vinyl.

            The cord connecting the cans to the source is very thick, and somewhat stiff (but still pliable).  The end is comprised of a large gold plated 1/4 inch plug.  Grado does offer a 1/4 inch plug to 1/8 inch minijack, but those were not available to me for this review.  The overall construction of these cans is very impressive.  These things are built really tough, and they don’t feel loose in the least bit.

The cloth mesh allows the user to peer a bit more closely at the inner workings of the Grado headphones.

            Grado uses an open air design, so external sounds can be heard (but only if they are pretty loud).  This in many ways is a lot better than a closed ear design for the home user, as they can quickly determine that their wife is yelling at them from the other room.  Here is what Grado says about the design: 

            All Grado headphones have a vented diaphragm design that incorporates a large air chamber. This design concept lowers the frequency resonance (distortion) of the diaphragm and extends bass response. The diaphragm is made of a low mass polymer, carefully formed to broaden resonant modes to reduce their amplitude. The diaphragm mass is determined with the compliance of the suspension in mind so that the desired low frequency resonance is achieved. The diaphragm's total mass is calculated to provide a full 20 KHZ bandwidth, while avoiding break-up at lower frequencies.

            The different models all integrate several different components based on nearly the same design.  For the SR-125’s Grado utilizes the full vented design, non-resonant air chamber, UHPLC (ultra high purity, long crystal) copper voice coil wire, and a standard copper connecting wire.  The drivers are matched to within .1 db.  The next level up, the SR-225’s feature all of the same design aspects, except the drivers are matched to within an amazing .05 db.  The level above that is the SR-325’s which feature an all metal alloy air chamber, a UHPLC copper connecting wire, and the .05 db matched drivers.

            When considering the price differences between these models, the SR-125’s start to sound very good! 

Testing

            The first thing I would like to get out of the way is how these headphones feel.  The ear pads are stiff, the headband is hard and uncomfortable, and overall these headphones can be a pain to wear.  When the user first puts these on, they feel that they have paid way too much money for how they feel.  This is of course before the user actually plays anything on them.  Once a good piece of hardware and source material is used, users tend not to notice how the Grados feel anymore.  To give Grado credit, once the cans are broken in and the earpads mold to your head, they start to feel very comfortable once put on.  The first two weeks though were pretty rough on my head though.  After about an hour of use, the outsides of my ears felt raw, and the top of my head was really sweaty from the band.

            Once the earpads broke in, I also learned that the stiffness of the cans allows me to wear the headband about a 1/8 above the top of my head, so no part of the band touches it.  The comfort level of the SR-125’s are now very high, and I can wear them for many hours without much discomfort (which is about the same for any headphone I have used).

            All tests were done on an Athlon 64 3400 machine with an Audigy 2 ZS.  The latest Creative drivers are used, and source material was carefully chosen for sound quality.

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