Grado Headphones

Grado headphones are hand-built in Brooklyn, New York, in the same building the family has owned since 1918. Every one is open-back, and that is the trade worth understanding before you buy: the back of each cup is open to the room, so these leak sound in both directions and belong somewhere you can listen without disturbing anyone. What you get for it is the spacious, outside-the-head presentation Grado is known for.

The range splits three ways. The Classic Series runs one X2 driver platform across seven models, from the SR60 at $125 to the GS3000 at $1,995, with the housing moving from molded plastic to machined aluminum to wood and the driver growing from 44mm to 52mm. The Signature Line adds a detachable cable and forks by housing material, machined aluminum on the HP100 SE against Brazilian Walnut on the S950, which is Grado's own way of framing analysis against warmth. The GW100x is the wireless model, and it is open-back too.

Across all of them the cushion is a tuning element rather than a comfort part. Its geometry sets how far the driver sits from your ear, so moving up the line changes the cushion before it changes anything else, and Grado sells the S, F, L, B and G sets separately for exactly that reason. Grado builds its phono cartridges in the same building.