Grado Signature S550 Open-Back Headphones

The Grado Signature S550 is the way into the Signature Line, and it is the wood one. Its 50mm S2 driver is tuned specifically to a housing made entirely from Brazilian Walnut, rather than a generic voicing dropped into whatever shell was available. At 335 grams it is the lightest headphone in the line, and its Signature Silver cable detaches at each cup through a four-pin mini XLR.

Key Features of the Grado Signature S550

• 50mm S2 Driver: Tuned specifically for the all-wood enclosure it sits in, rather than carried over unchanged from a metal-bodied model.
• All Brazilian Walnut Housing: Crafted entirely from walnut, individually made, so the grain differs on every pair.
• 335 Grams: The lightest headphone in the Signature Line, on the narrower leather headband strap shared with the S750.
• Signature Silver Detachable Cable: Terminated in a 3.5mm mini plug with a 6.3mm adapter supplied, connecting to each cup through a four-pin balanced mini XLR.
• 112 dB at 1mW: Against a 38 ohm nominal load, which a phone or a laptop headphone jack drives to full volume.
• 6Hz to 44kHz Quoted Response: With distortion held below 0.2 percent at 100 dB.
• 0.05 dB Driver Matching: The two channels track within 0.05 dB of each other.
• B Cushions, and the Rest of the Range Fits: Ships on the B cushion and remains compatible with Grado's S, F, L and G cushions.
• Assembled in Brooklyn, New York: Built at Grado's own headquarters like every other model in the line.

A Driver Tuned to Its Own Housing

The S550 runs Grado's 50mm S2 dynamic driver, and the interesting decision is what Grado did not do with it. Rather than chase a new driver architecture for a new price point, it took the S2 and optimized the interaction between that driver and the acoustic properties of an all-wood enclosure. The housing is part of the tuning, not a container for it.

Grado's description of the result is warmer and more forgiving, while still fast, detailed and spatially open. That is a specific claim about where this model sits: the Signature Line's other entry, the S750, uses the same S2 driver in aluminum, and the two sound different because the housings do.

Why Brazilian Walnut

The S550's housings are crafted entirely from Brazilian Walnut, continuing a use of wood as an acoustic material that runs back decades at Grado. Walnut is valued for two separate things: its tonal character, and its structural stability. Its density is what Grado credits for the fuller, more balanced presentation.

Stability matters more than it sounds. Wood that expands and contracts with temperature and humidity changes its acoustic behaviour with the weather; walnut moves very little, which is what holds the performance consistent over time. Each housing is individually made, and the natural grain variation means no two pairs are exactly alike.

The Detachable Cable and What Comes in the Box

The S550 ships with Grado's Signature Silver detachable cable, designed to be lighter, softer and more flexible than Grado's older fixed cables. At the source end it is a 3.5mm mini plug, and a 6.3mm adapter is supplied, so it works with a phone and with a full-size headphone amplifier out of the same box.

Each housing terminates in a four-pin balanced mini XLR, the connector shared across the Signature Line. Alternative lengths and balanced terminations are built by Grado against that same socket, which means going balanced later is a cable purchase rather than a different headphone.

B Cushions, and Every Other Grado Cushion

The S550 comes standard on Grado's B cushion: a flat surface that distributes pressure evenly across the ear, a smaller interior opening that adjusts the acoustic balance, and eight engineered slits that let air move through. Grado's stated aim for it is a wider stage without losing detail, on a pad that stays comfortable for hours.

It is also not the only option. The S550 is compatible with Grado's S, F, L and G cushions, each of which changes the driver-to-ear distance and with it the tonal balance and the spatial character. On a Grado the cushion is an adjustment you make, not a part that eventually wears out and gets replaced with the same thing.

Fit and the Signature Headband

The S550 uses the Signature headband assembly, in the narrower leather strap the S750 also carries. Inside the leather is a flexible metal support, and the fit is adjusted by gently bending it: clamping pressure is set by hand to your own head rather than by a mechanism, which is how every Grado has worked for decades.

The hardware around it is built for the long term. Engraved metal gimbals, stainless steel height rods and reinforced junction blocks give the assembly its stability, and housing rotation is deliberately limited to reduce wear at the moving joints.

Where the Grado Signature S550 fits in the Grado Signature Line

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Grado Signature S550 Specifications