A grade-o above the rest (Grado SR 60)

Member Name: LadyAudley

Product:	Grado SR 60
Date:	28/10/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb sound

Disadvantages: Leaky, not suitable for use at work

I was recently shopping for headphones for my boyfriend. We live in a semi-detached house, and so we can't turn up our hifi too loud without annoying the neighbours. However, we both like listening to a wide variety of music - and we like it loud! Therefore, it seemed like a good idea to buy him a decent pair of headphones for his birthday.

Being an audiophile nerd of disturbing proportions, I auditioned loads of cans costing from around one hundred to five hundred quid, trying to find him the perfect pair. I know that probably seems like a lot of money, but bear in mind that these are in many ways designed for use as a replacement for speakers for a system, not for jogging along on the road with an ipod. This isn't just a distinction about looks or convenience. Different pairs of headphones have different impedance levels: there are low impedance cans, and high impedance cans. MP3 players have a built-in amp, but it's not very large or powerful in such small devices. You therefore need a low impedance set of 'phones to use while in the gym. If, however, you are seeking to plug a pair of headphones into a powerful amp, though, a pair of high impedance cans will give you much better sound.

The Grado SR60 headphones are a bit of a legend, so I was looking forward to hearing them. The design has now been updated, resulting in the SR60i ('i' for 'improved'!), reputed to be even more crystal-clear in its rendition of a track.

I was very impressed with the appearance of the Grado SR 60 'phones. Get them out of a rather lacklustre box, and you have a very nicely designed, carefully weighted pair of cans. They feel good to wear - light, but sturdy - and very comfortable. Their slightly retro feel and high build quality were really appealing. They look considerably more expensive than their ninety quid price tag, and it's only when you look closely that you notice differences to the more expensive SR325 cans in the form of a plastic headband (the higher-end headphones use leather). However, this has no impact on the comfort of the design: I could happily wear these for hours.

Plug them in, however, and the results are even more impressive. They were head and shoulders above other sub-hundred quid headphones that I auditioned. Even highly complex classical tracks were crisply articulated at the top end, while drum and bass sounded suitably meaty and well punctuated at the bottom. Fast passages were smoothly and deftly rendered. There was none of the wooliness of mid-range sound that plagued other cans in this price bracket. In fact, they compared very favourably to loudspeakers in the two-hundred quid pricebracket, proving that you don't have to spend an absolute king's ransom to get decent quality sound. No wonder they have been awarded a What HiFi gong for best headphones.

The Grado SR60s are fairly high impedence, but they are just about alright with an ipod, though the bass does suffer a bit. They do sound much, much better through an amp. However, if you do want to use them on the move, you can: the jack attached to the phones is one of the small 3.5mm ones, suitable for use with most MP3 players and amps.

Unfortunately these are not great headphones to use at work, because (like several other members of the Grado SR series) they are open-backed and therefore leak a considerable amount of sound. This is necessary to achieve the astonishing range and transparency that they achieve at this price, but it does mean that your ability to annoy colleagues with a tinny, leaked version of your music is greatly enhanced!

Despite spending several hours listening to these, we did not eventually purchase them. The only reason, however, was that the sound quality was not quite up to the astonishing levels of fidelity produced by the more expensive Grado SR325i (review forthcoming). However, at the price point, nothing else came close. Five stars.

Summary: The best sub-hundred quid pair of headphones I've tried

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